Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Foxie’s story

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Foxie might be the silliest being I’ve ever met. She truly can brighten anyone’s day with her bouncy head nods and loud laughter—even Jamie—the most serious being I’ve ever met, is entranced with her charm and playfulness. Foxie steals peoples’ hearts with her love of trolls and Dora dolls, especially when she rubs their belly on her own. She’s sweet, kind, and truly resilient. Read what Diana said about Foxie when they first met at Buckshire.

Foxie was born on August 8, 1976 at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in Texas (which became Texas Biomedical Research Institute and still houses chimpanzees for research). Buckshire purchased Foxie in 1983 and then leased her to Michale E. Keeling Center, another biomedical lab also in Texas. She was there for two years before being shipped back to Buckshire in October 1985. We don’t have any records of her early years, just that she was used in hepatitis A vaccine trials. In November 1985, she was shipped down south again to White Sands Research Center in New Mexico. Foxie was known as “#CA0130” at Buckshire and WSRC. At SFBR her tattoo was “#4-051.”

In two years, Foxie moved from one lab to another, back to Buckshire, and then to yet another lab. At WSRC she was used as a breeder. On December 21, 1987, she gave birth to Angie (who now, thankfully, lives at Save the Chimps in Florida) who was taken from her right away. Foxie also gave birth to Kelsey in 1989 and a set of twins, David and Steve. All were taken away from her within days of their births. She left Coulston on August 13, 1996 and remained at Buckshire for the next 12 years.

Foxie is known at CSNW for her love of troll dolls (and also Dora the Explorer dolls). Though it can seem endearing how she loves and hugs her dolls, it’s also a sad reminder that Foxie was never able to keep a baby of her own. She would get knocked down, and wake up with her babies stolen from her. After being traumatized in the lab, Foxie not surprisingly has likely suffered some psychological distress. She doesn’t really nest with blankets like the other chimpanzees do, and she doesn’t care about a lot of other enrichment unless they are her dolls that she adores.

Foxie is extremely forgiving. For all that humans have done to her—shipped her around, injected her with vaccine tests, and stolen her babies—she’s surprisingly very energetic and interactive with the humans. She can make anyone smile with her playful spins and pirouettes. She probably would have made an excellent mother if she’d been given the chance, but at least in sanctuary she is able to take her dolls with her outside, forage for fruit which she loves, and do somersaults and acrobatics that she never had the space to do in the labs she was caged in.

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When Foxie first came to CSNW she was curious about the outdoors, which she’d never really experienced before.

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Now, Foxie confidently takes her precious dolls with her on adventures around Young’s Hill.

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Give Five today to keep Foxie’s belly full of delicious fruit smoothies! (her favorite).

Negra and moms

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J.B. is working on a post for tomorrow about Jody and her children. We celebrate Jody’s birthday on Mother’s Day because of the many babies she had during her decades before coming to the sanctuary, but she is not the only mom of the group. As far as we know, Jamie never gave birth to any children, but all of the other ladies at the sanctuary – Annie, Missy, Negra, Foxie, and Jody, had multiple children (as far as we know, Burrito was never a father).

Negra’s children bear a remarkable resemblance to her. Luckily her son Noah and daughter Angel are both living at the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in the world – Save the Chimps in Florida. Negra’s daughter Heidi, remains in limbo at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico.

Here are a few photos from yesterday of Queen Negra and below those are photos of Noah and Angel:

Negra sit on platform arms crossed

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Negra’s son Noah, who lives at Save the Chimps

 

Noah from Save the Chimps

 

Negra’s daughter Angel, who also lives at Save the Chimps in Florida

Angel from Save the Chimps

 

Sad news about Annie’s son Damien

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Damien, one of Annie‘s sons who was at the wonderful Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida, recently passed away. Damien’s death was due to kidney failure that developed after an injury.

Please visit the Save the Chimps site to learn more about Damien as well as Ted, another chimpanzee who also recently passed away.

We were all very sad to learn of Damien and Ted’s passing, and our hearts go out to their caregivers. Save the Chimps is the word’s largest sanctuary for rescued chimpanzees, and the staff are faced with the deaths of loved ones too frequently.

Here is a quote from the notice about Damien’s death: “He grew into a magnificent adult, and was one of the few chimpanzees at Save the Chimps who spent more of his life in sanctuary than in a research lab.”

Thank you to all at Save the Chimps who gave Damien a sanctuary life.

damien

Mack

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Burrito’s father, Mack, passed away on Sunday at the estimated age of 46.

After spending decades in research, Mack was rescued by Save the Chimps and brought to live on a sunny island home in Florida. He died peacefully during an afternoon nap. Please take a minute to read about his life.

Our hearts go out to his human and chimpanzee families.

Rest in peace, Mack.

Chimpanzees to be moved for research

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A very disturbing piece of news was published a few days ago about chimpanzees currently living at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. For the original article, click here.

(APF is not to be confused with the sanctuary Save the Chimps, who rescued 266 chimpanzees from research in 2002, and is moving chimpanzees from the facility they own near APF to islands in Florida.)

Alamogordo Primate Facility is being run by Charles River Laboratories under a contract from the National Institutes of Heath (NIH). The laboratory has come under serious scrutiny many times over the years, and even charged with animal cruelty, though the stipulations of their NIH contract prevent the chimpanzees from being used in invasive research.

Now, the NIH has decided to close APF and transfer the chimpanzees to research laboratories where they could be put into invasive biomedical research. It is a tragic and backwards move for those 200 individuals and for the protection of chimpanzees in general.

The group Animal Protection of New Mexico (APNM) is trying to fight this move, and they encourage everyone to contact their representatives about this issue, whether they live in New Mexico or not. These chimpanzees are supported by our tax dollars and we have a say in how that money is to be spent.

APNM would like the chimpanzees to stay in Alamogordo and for a sanctuary to take over the facility to allow the permanent retirement of the chimpanzees.

Please call your federal representatives or write a polite email or letter to them. For talking points, visit the APNM webpage on the issue and read this strong editorial from the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico’s major newspaper, published this morning:

Link to article: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/editorials/162128150871opinioneditorials07-16-10.htm

Friday, July 16, 2010

Feds’ Chimp Transfer A Lose-Lose-Lose Deal

The federal government’s plan to move chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility to a San Antonio lab is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to believe someone with all 23 human chromosome pairs approved it.
• Morally, it’s abhorrent to take more than 200 sentient beings that have spent decades living with the endless boredom, confinement, fear and stress of laboratory life and — after a 10-year hiatus from testing — thrust them back into it because a bureaucrat at the National Institutes of Health thinks “mechanisms for increasing the cost-effectiveness of chimpanzee breeding, maintenance, and research must be developed.”
• Fiscally, it’s irresponsible because there is no cost-effectiveness to chimp research. The lifetime tab for maintaining one chimpanzee in a lab has been estimated at nearly $900,000. Animal Protection of New Mexico says converting APF — where the chimps now live — to a sanctuary would save taxpayers $50 million. It would also keep 42 jobs in Alamogordo.
Sending the 200-plus chimps to Texas will also incur the taxpayer-funded expense of retrofitting the Southwest Foundation National Primate Research Center so it can accommodate animals that weigh up to 170 pounds. The facility was built for macaques, which weigh only about 30 pounds.
• Scientifically, it’s wasteful. While chimpanzees and humans have genetic similarities, they are so different on a cellular level that research into a long list of infectious diseases has proven fruitless. After more than four decades of chimp research into hepatitis C, there is still no human vaccine — in part because chimps don’t transmit the disease like humans. Chimps also develop heart disease and cancer in completely different ways. They don’t develop AIDS and die from HIV, the reason the government’s ill-conceived breeding program has created a surplus of infected, captive animals.
There are solid reasons why no other developed nation in the world still uses chimps for testing; countries from Australia to the United Kingdom have banned the practice. And yet the United States, circa 2010, plans to take animals that have already unknowingly given their health and freedom, and incur additional taxpayer expense for what, exactly?
New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall has requested a meeting with the NIH. The rest of the state’s congressional delegation should join him, and each member must demand answers and alternatives that address this plan’s moral, fiscal and scientific problems.

Send blankets & toys to Save the Chimps

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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

more on Travis and pet ownership

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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.