chimpanzees
Philanthropy Day at Urban Weeds
One of our favorite Seattle businesses is having a philanthropy day! Shop Urban Weeds all day today – Saturday, September 19th and choose to donate 20% of your purchase to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest or three other worthy charities – including the Fremont Abbey Arts Center where Celebrate the Seven is going to be held. The Fremont Abbey is a not just a venue for rent – they have a bunch of great community programs focusing on music, visual dance and literary arts (we’d understand if you have a hard time choosing which organization to give your 20%).
In addition to supporting four terrific causes, Urban Weeds will be offering some great deals on plants and accessories for your urban gardening desires.
Hours are 10am to 6pm and their address is 4302 Fremont Ave N. Find a map here.
Send blankets & toys to Save the Chimps
Tamela just posted this on our the Chimp Sanctuary Supporters social network. Save the Chimps needs blankets and toys for the chimpanzees in New Mexico. We’re fortunate at CSNW to have an abundance of these things right now, so please do send what you have to the deserving chimpanzees who are being cared for by the great folks at Save the Chimps! More info here
Sponsor the auction – get some cool stuff
We’re looking for sponsors for the Oct. 2nd Celebrate the Seven auction so that all expenses are paid and all money raised will go directly to the sanctuary, and we want to give you some pretty great stuff for your sponsorship dollars. We already have some amazing auction items (more on that later), and it is going to be one heck of a gala event! Expenses are starting to accrue, though, and we need more sponsors! We are looking for both business and individual sponsors, each come with thier own set of benefits. I’ve pasted the benefit information below and included a link to download the pdf versions of the benefit documents. You can also download the pdfs from our event page.
Please email if you are personally interested or know of any businesses that may be interested in getting some good karma, some recognition and some unique benefits in exchange for their sponsorship.
Thanks!
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csnw-09-individual-auction-sponsor-benefits
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
2009 Auction Celebrate the Seven
Individual Sponsor Benefits
$5,000 – Pant Hoot Sponsors
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Full page recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in Aug. 09, Sept. 09 and Oct. ’09 enewsletter
• Recognition as “pant hoot sponsor” on all blog posts related to the event (minimum of 10 posts)
• Recognition as “pant hoot sponsor” on Twitter tweets about event (minimum of 20 tweets with 3 Friday Favorites)
• Framed chimpanzee portrait with personal acknowledgment
• Opportunity to hold private tour of the sanctuary for 2 people
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 5 t-shirts, 5 tote bags, 5 packs of note cards
$1,000 – Food Squeak Sponsors
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW Sept. 09 and Oct. ’09 enewsletter
• Recognition on at least 5 blog posts related to the event
• Recognition on at least 7 Twitter tweets about event (including one Friday Favorite)
• Complimentary invitation to the next CSNW event
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 4 t-shirts, 3 tote bags, 2 packs of note cards
$500 – Play Laugh Sponsors
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW Sept. 09 and Oct. ’09 enewsletter
• Recognition on minimum of 3 blog posts related to the event
• Recognition on minimum of 5 Twitter tweets about event
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 2 t-shirts, 2 tote-bags
$250 – Play Face Sponsors
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW Sept. 09 and Oct. ’09 enewsletter
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 1 t-shirt, 1 tote bag
$100 – Head Nod Sponsors
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 1 pack of note cards
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csnw-09-business-underwriter-benefits
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
2009 Auction Celebrate the Seven
Business Underwriter Benefits
Presenting / Major Underwriters
$10,000 –Sanctuary Presenting Sponsor
• Event title recognition with logo (“CSNW Auction presented by XXX”) on all materials including electronic invitations, website, and promotions
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW enewsletter for 12 months
• Logo and link on CSNW website for 12 months
• Logo and link on all blog posts related to the event (minimum of 10 posts)
• Recognition on Twitter tweets about event (minimum of 20 tweets)
• Complimentary double-truck ad in auction catalogue
• Framed chimpanzee portrait with personal acknowledgment
• Opportunity to hold private tour of the sanctuary for 6 people
• Complimentary invitations to future CSNW events
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 10 t-shirts, 10 tote bags, 10 packs of note cards
$5,000 – Chimpanzee Advocate
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW enewsletter for 12 months
• Complimentary full-page ad in auction catalogue
• Logo and link on CSNW website for 12 months
• Logo and link on most blog posts related to the event (minimum of 7 posts)
• Recognition on Twitter tweets about event (minimum of 15 tweets)
• Logo recognition on all promotional materials (ads, flyers, posters)
• Framed chimpanzee portrait with personal acknowledgment
• Opportunity to hold private tour of the sanctuary for 2 people
• Complimentary invitations to future CSNW events
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 5 t-shirts, 5 tote bags, 5 packs of note cards
Event Sponsor Benefits
$1,000 – Chimpanzee Champion
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW enewsletter for 6 months
• Complimentary 1/2 page ad in auction catalogue
• Logo and link on CSNW website for 6 months
• Logo and link on some blog posts related to the event (minimum of 3 posts)
• Recognition on Twitter tweets about event (minimum of 5 tweets)
• Recognition on all promotional materials (ads, flyers, posters)
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 4 t-shirts, 3 tote bags, 2 packs of note cards
$500 – Chimpanzee Fan
• Verbal recognition/thanks at beginning of auction
• Recognition in auction catalogue
• Recognition on CSNW Facebook page
• Recognition on event signage (including screen projection)
• Recognition in CSNW Sept. 09 and Oct. ’09 enewsletter
• Complimentary 1/4 page ad in auction catalogue
• Complimentary CSNW merchandise: 2 t-shirts, 2 tote bags
NY Times op-ed by Charles Siebert
One year ago, before the Cle Elum Seven arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, I posted a blog entry with a link to a radio interview with Charles Siebert on This American Life.
Today, Siebert had an op-ed printed in the New York Times entitled Something Wild. Here is an excerpt:
There is something about chimpanzees — their tantalizing closeness to us in both appearance and genetic detail — that has always driven human beings to behavioral extremes, actions that reflect a deep discomfort with our own animality, and invariably turn out bad for both us and them.
Siebert uses specific examples of chimpanzee individuals to illustrate humans’ uncomfortable relationship with our closest evolutionary relatives, and our stubborn desire to make them fit into our concepts of of who they are, which manifest not from observing and appreciating chimpanzees as a distinct species, but from our attempts to make them our human-like playthings as “pets” and “entertainers” or human surrogates in biomedical research.
Siebert explains what I have observed of captive chimpanzees – they live in a world of lost identity. They did not have the opportunity to grow up within a chimpanzee culture, but they cannot fit into our human culture either, no matter how hard we try to force them to.
Sanctuaries like Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest try to make the best out of the inherently unjust situation of captivity. We allow the chimpanzees to be who they are, which is sometimes a strange mix of learned “human” behaviors and a renewed expression of their instinctual chimpanzee selves. Our deepest hope is that we can provide for those in our care while working to ensure that one day sanctuaries like ours will not be necessary because chimpanzees will no longer be used for human purposes.
more on Travis and pet ownership
Although much of the coverage on the tragedy of Travis, the chimpanzee in Connecticut who mauled Charla Nash and was subsequently shot and killed, has been frustrating to say the least, there have been a couple of good interviews included in media items very recently which I wanted to share.
This video segment includes an interview from an expert at Save the Chimps Sanctuary in Florida.
This article adds more information to the bigger story. Here’s are a few excerpts from the article:
“A chimpanzee who was shot and killed earlier this week for mauling a Connecticut woman was the offspring of a chimpanzee who made headlines eight years ago when a Festus teenager shot and killed her…..
In 2001, Travis’ 28-year-old mother, Suzy, escaped from Connie Braun Casey’s farm along Highway CC near Festus…..
April Truitt, a primate expert who runs the Kentucky-based Primate Rescue Center Inc., said chimps are too wild to be privately owned. She put more blame on the Caseys for the Connecticut incident than on Herold. She said the Caseys should not have been breeding and selling chimps.”
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You can read my reaction to the mauling in this post from Tuesday. One aspect of this story that has not been getting enough coverage is how the demand for chimpanzee “actors” helps to fuel breeding operations like Connie Casey’s. Chimpanzees should not be pets, should not be used in entertainment, and should not be used in biomedical research. There is no legitimate reason for a chimpanzee breeding operation to exist.
Jamie and Burrito were both “raised” by humans for the first years of their lives and used as “entertainers” when they were young. When they became unmanageable like any chimpanzee would, they were put into biomedical research.
Thankfully they now live in a safe, secure, and social environment at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, but others like them are not in sanctuaries, and the tragedy of Travis will occur again if laws are not put into place to make the private ownership of chimpanzees and their use in entertainment illegal.
One immediate action that you can take is to urge your federal representatives to support the Captive Primate Safety Act which would make the interstate and foreign commerce of primates illegal. Learn more from the Humane Society of the United States.
Tragedy of keeping chimpanzees as pets
We prefer to keep things focused on the positive and love sharing the daily lives of the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. But the fact is that it is a shame our sanctuary has to exist at all. The Cle Elum Seven never should have been used in research or entertainment. Chimpanzees simply do not belong in biomedical research, entertainment or in people’s homes as pets. Period. And yesterday there was evidence for some of the reasons why this is true.
On Monday afternoon in Stamford, Connecticut a 15 year old chimpanzee “pet” named Travis attacked a woman he had known for years, leaving her in critical condition. When the police arrived at the scene, they fatally shot Travis. There are now numerous stories with greater detail about this incident all over the news, including NBC.
Travis was bred in captivity to be used by humans. He reportedly appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola. His owners drove him around town. And this was not the first time the authorities of Stamford had to be called in to try to contain him.
For those of us who care for chimpanzees, it is difficult not to be angry about this incident. We know that chimpanzees should not be kept as pets – we’ve seen tragedies like this before. We know that chimpanzees should only be kept in secure enclosures. We know that chimpanzees in entertainment are usually discarded after a few years because they become too difficult to “handle.” And we know that chimpanzees are intelligent, social, amazing, and, yes, sometimes violent beings.
There should be laws in place in every state banning the keeping of chimpanzees as pets. Hollywood by choice or by being forced through legislation should never use a chimpanzee in entertainment again. Our hope is that this tragedy will create action to make these things happen, and we will do our part to help.