Monday, March 30, 2009

Dearly Departed/Fidèles défunts

These past weeks we have lost two of our long time residents and wanted to let our Fauna family know.

We lost one of our pot bellied pigs Simon

And our sweet deer Whitey

Ces dernières semaines nous avons perdu deux de nos résidents de longue date et nous souhaitions rendre public ces informations à la grande famille Fauna.

Simon, l'un de nos cochons vietnamien, et notre cher chevreuil Whitey.





May they rest in peace.....
Puissent ils reposer en paix...

Frogs: The thin green line on PBS/Documentaire sur les grenouilles au réseau PBS

Check out PBS on April 5th
**Argo Films made our PBS documentary, Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History**
Le 5 avril prochain sur PBS
**Argo Films ont fait notre documentaire PBS ''Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History''

R&R Legislative Update

Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories

Legislative Update 3/30/2009


Keeping a strong and steady pace since its introduction in early March, the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) has, of as today, the support of 45 cosponsors. The bill is currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Project R&R thanks all our supporters who contacted their legislators. YOUR outreach has led to this ever-growing bi-partisan list of sponsors so critical to help ensure the bill’s success.

» If your legislator is not signed on, ask them to cosponsor the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326.)
» If they are a 2009 cosponsor, please thank them.
» To order legislator postcards, click here.
» To find your legislator, click here.

Negra retired from Buckshire lab © CSNW

» Finally, email the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Let them know you no longer want your tax dollars going towards research on great apes. Tell them you want NIH:
To retire all government owned/supported chimpanzees currently in U.S. labs to sanctuary; and,
To reallocate funding for alternatives, which are more humane, safer and better science.

Order our new campaign button:call 617-523-6020 or email releasechimps@neavs.org
Social networking sites build our community
Watch us on YouTube

Great short videos found on YouTube/Superbes courts vidéos sur YouTube

Here are some great videos I found on YouTube someone made, spread them around! and check out her site.

Voici quelques vidéos vraiment génial que j'ai trouvé sur la page de YouTube que quelqu'un a fait et qui les fait circuler! Allez consulter sa page web.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4r2LFagUaM&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djH_xpXTNXc&feature=related

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary/Sanctuaire de Primate Mindy's Memory

Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary
P.O. Box 134Newcastle, OK 73065
http://www.mindysmem.org/

To Friends of Mindy's Memory,

The Board of Mindy's Memory would like to let everyone know that Linda Barcklay's birthday is on March 28th. We would like to surprise her by having as many people as possible send her at least $5 to help support the monkeys at the sanctuary. Nothing would make her happier!

Many Thanks,
Shelly Ladd, President
Bob Ingersoll, Vice President
Beth Levine, Vice President


Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary
PO Box 134 Newcastle, OK 73065
www.mindysmem.org

Chers Amis de Mindy's Memory,
Le conseil d'administration de Mindy's Memory aimerait annoncer que l'anniversaire de Linda Barcklay est le 28 mars prochain. Nous souhaitons lui faire une surprise en ayant le plus de gens possible lui envoyant un montant de 5$ ou plus afin d'aider les singes du sanctuaire. Rien ne la rendrait plus heureuse!

Merci beaucoup,

Shelly Ladd, présidente
Bob Ingersoll, vice-présidente
Beth Levine, vice-présidente

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Thanks from PETA

Dear Fauna Foundation,

Thanks so much for your support and your dedication to ending the annual seal massacre in Canada. We have received an overwhelming response from caring people like you who want to see Canada's violent slaughter of seals ended once and for all. With the Vancouver Olympics fast approaching, this is our best chance to end this slaughter forever.

We are also pleading with you to be as active as possible throughout this year-long campaign, and encourage your group to leaflet, demonstrate, organize letter writing campaigns and call-in days, and anything else you can do to show Canada the world is against this barbaric massacre. We can even create leaflets, posters, or banners with your group’s logo and/or our Olympic spoof logo, and translate it into a foreign language. Can you also put our spoof of the Vancouver Olympic logo on your group’s Web site and other appropriate materials? Again, we are happy to send you a version of this logo with your group’s logo on it instead of or in addition to ours. We want to show that this is a huge international effort. Please email me and I will supply you with everything you need.

Please also encourage your supporters to write to the Olympic Organizing Committee to call for an end to the horrific slaughter of baby seals. You may link a copy of our action alert to the Olympic logo you use on your site or use the language of our alert to create your own.

For more ways to get active, please visit PETA.org/ActionCenter. Thanks again for your unwavering commitment to ending this barbaric slaughter once and for all!

Sincerely,

Thomas A. Deans
Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
ThomasD@peta.org

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sue Ellen's Birthday/Anniversaire de Sue Ellen

It is Sue Ellen is 41 today March 17th; why not adopt her as a gift for someone special! Sue Ellen is such a sweet little thing. She loves her cooked meals and squeaks with pleasure the whole time she is eating. She loves pretty colored scarves, purses and necklaces that she drapes around her belly and can carry around for days. And of course one of our best bed makers of the entire chimp house.



Sue Ellen a 41 ans cette année alors pourquoi ne pas l'adopter pour une personne qui vous est chère!
Sue Ellen est si adorable. Elle aime les repas cuisinés et elle émet des petits couinements de joie tout au long de son repas. Elle rafole des écharpes, sacs à main et colliers colorés qu'elle met autour de son cou et qu'elle gardent pendant des journées entières. N'oublions pas qu'elle fait les plus beaux lits de toute la Maison des Chimpanzés.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Donna Rae

Donna Rae passed away on March 14th, 2005 and a great soul was lost.

She was sweet loving and was a great friend to many. Her afternoon tea was a must and she gave the greatest kisses of all. It took everyone a long time to get used to not hearing the impatient banging of a cup at tea time and the playful foot stomp that no matter where you were you knew it was Donna Rae requesting play time.

All our love..1966-2005
Rest, rest for evermore upon a mossy shore; Rest, rest at the heart’s core till time shall cease:Sleep that no pain shall wake: Night that no morn shall breakTill joy shall overtake Her perfect peace.

-Christiana Rossetti-

Donna Rae est décédée le 14 mars 2005 et une âme s'est éteinte. Elle était si affectueuse et une grande amie pour plusieurs. Le thé de l'après-midi était un incontournable et ses bisous était meilleurs. Beaucoup de temps s'écoula avant que tous s'habituent à ne pas entendre le bruit d'une tasse cognant les barrreaux à l'heure du thé ou le bruit taquin d'un pas lourd qui annonçait à tous que Donna Rae était d'humeur à jouer.

Tout notre amour,1966-2005

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Great Ape Protection - Update

Legislative Update 3/11/2009

Great Ape Protection Act Continues to Gain Bipartisan Support
Goliath by Nancy Megna

Three things YOU can do right now to help!
The Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) is currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. As of today, the bill has the support of 28 cosponsors including all the original sponsors. It is vital we continue to work hard to add even more cosponsors to ensure the bill's success.
1. If you have not already done so in 2009, contact your legislator and ask them to sign onto the Great Ape Protection Act (H.R. 1326) as a cosponsor, or, if they already have in 2009, please thank them. Then ask at least three of your friends or family to contact their legislators too! Email us for legislator postcards to help make contacting them fast and easy.

2. Please contact the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and let them know that you no longer want your tax dollars going towards research on great apes. Tell them you want funding allocated to:
Retire chimpanzees currently in U.S. labs to sanctuary.
Alternatives which are not only more humane but are safer and better science.

Photo: M. Nichols

3. Recently there has been important media coverage (ABC's Nightline) on primates in research. As a result, thousands of comments are being posted on social networking sites such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc. Please add your voice to this debate with positive, informative and reasonable comments to help educate the public.

Here are some talking points to counter claims:
Claim: The undercover footage of New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) showed “routine” procedures.
Argument: Such a claim shows profound lack of sensitivity towards the pain and discomfort of animals. One example in the recent Nightline undercover footage was of a young monkey being intubated. Anyone who has gone through this procedure knows how terrifying and uncomfortable it is; how it triggers the “gag” reflex; requires throat numbing analgesics in humans to make it tolerable; and, how it is never done without the support of nurses and physicians monitoring the comfort of the human patient throughout. It is also a procedure that carries the dangers of infection and perforations. To dismiss this procedure as a common and acceptable practice is insensitive and cruel. If all that we see in the NIRC footage is just “routine”, then we ask - how horrible is what is not routine?
Claim: If animal research were to end, there would be serious health implications for humans.
Argument: Claims as to the necessity of animal research are made in sweeping, unsubstantiated generalizations. Some erroneously proclaim that all major medical advancements have been made because of animals. This is far from the truth. Scientific data in papers published by Project R&R and others have shown chimpanzee research to be ineffective, unnecessary and even dangerous. The few studies that are published have limited — if any — impact on human biomedical advances. In particular, their use in AIDS research (the reason so many were bred) was singularly unproductive, including in the search for an HIV/AIDS vaccine. Chimpanzees were long ago abandoned as a model for cancer and other human killer diseases because chimpanzee research does not work. As a model to study humans, they have failed repeatedly and been a waste of precious time and taxpayer dollars. Yet, in spite of the failed science, NIH continues to pour millions of dollars into maintaining chimpanzees in laboratories, versus releasing and supporting them in sanctuary for far fewer tax dollars in far superior facilities. The continued support of chimpanzee research by the U.S. government works against not only animals, but also our human health.
Claim: Researchers who use an authoritative and reasonable voice to justify their use of an animal model must be right.
Argument: Resting on authoritative rhetoric does not make what they are saying either reasonable or right. Their attempt to calm concerns about suffering and abuse with statements about how “routine,” common, or lifesaving the research is, is unacceptable. The persona they create is a glaring example of what labs — that receive millions in public and private funding — do to justify their work and perpetuate the myth that animal research is necessary and humane. An ever growing number of scientists agree that chimpanzee research is an exorbitant waste of precious research dollars that is actually deterring medical advances — advances that would be arrived at through more productive, humane and cost-effective research methods.
Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinion.

The Great Ape Protection Act Prohibits:
Invasive research on great apes
Federal funding of such research both within and outside of the U.S. Transport of great apes for such research
Federal breeding of great apes for such research Requires:
Permanent retirement of all federally-owned great apes

To help spread the word, order our new campaign button now:
call 617-523-6020

Monday, March 9, 2009

Chimps may be forced to retire

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090307/NEWS01/903070331

Allegations of abuse may spur Congress to ban experimentation.
BY ANA RADELAT • ARADELAT@GANNETT.COM • MARCH 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — Allegations that chimps were abused at a New Iberia lab may aid an effort in Congress to ban experimentation on great apes and require retirement of hundreds of chimps at federal research labs

The Great Ape Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., would immediately ban the breeding of chimps for federal research and send hundreds of chimpanzees to sanctuaries.
The bill has 22 co-sponsors, none from Louisiana. Supporters are looking for a sponsor in the Senate.
If the bill is approved, dozens of retired chimps are likely to be sent to Chimp Haven in Keithville, a sanctuary for chimps used in federal research.
The legislation failed to move in the last Congress, but accusations of animal cruelty at the New Iberia lab may give it new life.
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would investigate allegations of abuse and neglect of chimps at the 100-acre New Iberia Research Center, where 325 chimps are kept. The research center also houses 6,000 monkeys.
Besides breeding primates for research purposes, the research center also experiments on the animals.
After a nine-month undercover investigation, the Humane Society reported to the USDA that chimps at the facility lived in isolation and exhibited self-mutilating behavior, psychosis and other emotional and physical problems. It said it had documented 338 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, a 1966 law that regulates animal research, transportation, exhibition and breeding.
The New Iberia Research Center, part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, denies the allegations.
The Humane Society also asked Gov. Bobby Jindal to immediately transfer 26 elderly chimps — the oldest is 51 — from the New Iberia center to a sanctuary, most likely Chimp Haven.
"If there's a way we can help, we're willing to help," Chimp Haven Director Linda Brent said.
Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle wrote Jindal this week that "some of the saddest stories to come out of our investigation were those of the 26, wild-caught elderly chimpanzees" housed at the New Iberia lab.
Jindal's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Chimp Haven is nearly at capacity, housing 132 chimps. But Brent said the facility could easily expand to hold 300 to 350 chimps with the help of federal or private funds.
The United States is the largest remaining user of chimpanzees for biomedical research. Austria, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom have banned or limited their use.
The Humane Society estimates chimpanzee research and maintenance costs taxpayers $20 million to $25 million per year, money the society says could be allocated to more effective research.

NY Times - Something Wild

IT’S common to hear, in the wake of someone’s sudden lethal outburst, exclamations of shock along the lines of: “He seemed so pleasant and mild-mannered.” “She never bothered anyone.” But when those same sentiments are voiced in the aftermath of a chimpanzee attack like the one in Stamford, Conn., last month —click the below link for the continuation

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06siebert.html?_r=2

R&R E-News

Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories

Great Ape Protection Act Reintroduced
PLEASE, call your legislator and ask them to cosponsor

The Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) was reintroduced today in Congress. Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories applauds the bill's lead sponsors: Reps. Adolphus Towns, D-NY, David Reichert, R-WA, Jim Langevin, D-RI, and Roscoe Bartlett, R-MD and a long list of other cosponsors, for their commitment and continued attention to the urgent need for this legislation.
Project R&R is asking all members to contact their representatives immediately and ask them to cosponsor the bill.
Last night, an ABC Nightline segment featured a nine-month undercover investigation of New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana by HSUS that captured footage of the psychological and physical suffering of chimpanzees at NIRC. A 108-page complaint filed with USDA contains 338 alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Read more...
A message from NEAVS' President

Dear Supporter,
The tragic realities of life for chimpanzees and other primates in U.S. laboratories have finally been brought to light. Last evening’s expose on ABC NIGHTLINE educated millions of viewers on their plight. NIH* and the labs must be held accountable. (To write to the acting head of the NIH about this issue, click here; to write to NIRC, click here.)
Today, the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) was reintroduced in the 111th Congress. Project R&R has been working diligently with HSUS, other organizations and individuals to secure a precedent setting number of cosponsors and a groundswell of public support for this bill. GAPA offers the promise of release and restitution to all chimpanzees now languishing in all U.S. laboratories.
Please visit our website today to find your legislator’s name and contact information and ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor of this important legislation.

Our promise to all the chimpanzees we know - that we will help all those who are still waiting in laboratories -will be fulfilled with passage of the Great Ape Protection Act.

I also invite each of you who is not already a GAPA volunteer to consider signing up NOW – you’ve never been needed more.
A sincere thank you for your ongoing support in helping us pass and sign GAPA into law and for your commitment to NEAVS until we arrive at the day when all animals in all labs will be replaced with humane, scientifically superior non-animal research.
Finally, a special thank you to Tom, Pepper, Jeannie, Rachel, Billy and all the others whose presence in our life inspires us and who are truly the ones who will help us help all the rest.
Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D
President NEAVS/Project R&R
The Great Ape Protection Act Prohibits:
Invasive research on great apes
Federal funding of such research both within and outside of the U.S.
Transport of great apes for such research
Federal breeding of great apes for such research
Requires:
Permanent retirement of all federally-owned great apes
To help spread the word, order our new campaign button now:call 617-523-6020 or email releasechimps@neavs.org.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A message from Gloria

Last night we all had an opportunity to be reminded of the horrors of laboratory life, on ABC's Nightline. A nine month investigation of the New Iberia Research Center, shows the reality of lab life, or should I say, lack of life.
As difficult as it was to watch this broadcast for a few minutes- we can only imagine how terrifying it is to life it.
We must always remember what is going on behind closed doors, and in these places, no matter how nice they look on the outside. Things we could never even begin to imagine are going on inside.
As someone who knows chimpanzees rescued from research, I was horrified at the footage and appreciated that ABC aired it. The conditions exposed are not unlike what our Fauna Chimpanzee's endured before they were released 11 years ago, and New Iberia was to be the fate of so many of the LEMSIP Chimp's. Apparently the lessons to be learned from so many labs closing and so many violators being fined have been lost on NIRC and others.
Every day I see the toll that lab confinement and use takes on chimpanzees and other animals. Tom, our eldest resident, wakes up gagging, unable to eat or drink for hours. Damaged from repeated, crude intubations? Nausea from a failing liver from more than 300 punch biopsies? I watched Jeannie, who died at too young an age, try to bring herself back to the world that she had learned to escape from by dissociating in stereotypic whirling and other symptoms of her psychological suffering. I watch Sue Ellen limp carrying her blankets to a sunny spot...a limp sustained in a cruel lab attempt to get her to mate with Billy - who she knew as her brother.
I want to see all chimpanzees -- not only those at New Iberia -- spend their final years in the comfort of sanctuary, with people who have respect for who they are, and empathy for what they have endured.
I know how much support and care the Fauna chimps get from the American public. that public has now met Siafu and others. I am counting on that public to get the Great Ape Protection Act passed. Though I am Canadian, our chimps are from the US - so all of us here at Fauna have a vested interest in helping all those remaining in US labs who are no different from the chimps we know and love.

Gloria Grow
Founder, Fauna Foundation
Project R&R Honorary co-Chair

**photo - Jeannie at Lemsip**

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

BREAKING STORY

Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories

BREAKING STORY
Tune in to ABC-TV Nightline tonight

Dear Supporter: Please tune in to Nightline tonight (Wed. 03/04 11:30pm EST). This evening's broadcast* features an expose of the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC). The 9 month undercover investigation of NIRC brings the sad realities of a chimpanzee's life in a lab to millions of viewers. We ask you to not miss this rare opportunity to see the truth. Please invite your friends and family to watch.

Go to the ABC News website to see a preview and to post a comment.
Please watch your email for a follow up eAlert with timely campaign news. Thank you for your support and attention.
*News segment schedules are subject to change. Visit Nightline for more information and local listings.


In case you can't catch Nightline tonight, visit:

https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2009_apeprotectionact?qp_source=gabhie

Jane Goodall Responds about HSUS's undercover investigation

Jane Goodall Responds
March 4, 2009

"... in no lab I have visited have I seen so many chimpanzees exhibit such intense fear."Renowned chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall issued the following statement on The HSUS's undercover investigation into primate abuse at a Louisisana laboratory:

"The conditions in which the chimpanzees are confined are grim," Goodall said.

For almost 50 years I have been observing the behavior of chimpanzees, our closest living relatives. During these years I and my team have spent thousands of hours recording chimpanzee behavior. We have built up case studies of individual chimpanzees and of families—there are close, supportive and affectionate bonds that persist between family members, often throughout life.
The nonverbal communication patterns of posture and touch are similar to ours: They kiss, embrace, pat one another, swagger, wave their fists, tickle and laugh. They have a sense of humor and a sense of self. Youngsters who lose their mothers may show signs of depression comparable to those of a socially deprived human child. Almost everyone who has worked with chimpanzees living in a friendly environment will agree that they (and many other animals) have emotions similar to those we call happiness, sadness, fear, despair, anger and so on. They can anticipate pleasant or unpleasant events and know mental as well as physical suffering.
In captivity they can be taught 400 or more of the signs of American Sign Language (ASL), and they can also perform complex tasks using touch pads on computers. Some of them love to paint, and those that have learnt ASL may spontaneously label their paintings.
It is clear that chimpanzees in the wild (and in many captive groups) lead rich and complex social lives, have a high degree of intelligence and experience emotions that are sometimes much like ours. It is against this background of knowledge that I viewed a series of video clips of chimpanzees in a medical research laboratory. It is my understanding that this is a large facility in Louisiana.
I received the video clips from the Humane Society of the United States on 23 February 2009. I have watched and listened to the material twice. The conditions in which the chimpanzees are confined are grim. There are metal cages with no bedding and no enrichment activities for the chimpanzees visible. Particularly shocking, to me, was a clip showing infant chimpanzees in diapers, clinging to each other, in utterly bleak, sterile conditions. This is likely to lead to behavioral abnormalities. The cages of the adults were small and absolutely bare.
There was, so far as I could see, only one shelf on which a chimpanzee could sit—possibly this was metal also. I could not see. The chimpanzees exhibited a variety of stereotypic stress behaviors, such as rocking, swaying, moving from side to side, and repetitiously banging on the mesh of the cage, the walls or the ceiling. I watched as white-coated staff, with gloves and masks, showed adult chimpanzees syringes and demanded that they approach for an injection. When this did not happen, a capture gun was used. The sight of the gun caused an outburst of loud screaming and frenzied movement around the cage. When the gun was used, and contact made, the screaming reached frenzy point.
Many clips showed chimpanzees being gradually confined in a smaller and smaller space, as a squeeze partition was moved, forcing the subjects to approach the white-coated figure with a syringe. This procedure caused extreme panic. I have visited a number of medical research laboratories since 1986: SEMA (now Bioqual) in Rockford, Illinois, and South West in Texas, USA. And LEMSIP US, Immuno in Austria, and the E.U. lab in the Netherlands (all of which are now closed).
The cages in SEMA, LEMSIP and Immuno were smaller than those I saw in the video clips. But in no lab I have visited have I seen so many chimpanzees exhibit such intense fear. The screaming I heard when chimpanzees were being forced to move toward the dreaded needle in their squeeze cages was, for me, absolutely horrifying. There were many clips of sedated chimpanzees falling from their perches. Some effort was made to break their fall; in one clip a white-coated man reached in with one arm. It is hard to see that this could be very effective, considering the weight of an adult chimp and the fact that the white-coated man only had his arm through an almost-closed door. So far as I could tell, the chimpanzees very definitely fell heavily in most instances. There was no bedding provided to break the fall.
Finally, the attitude of the white-coated men was so very far from caring. I did not see any chimpanzee being given a reward–not even a kind or encouraging word. One man put an orange outside the cage where, of course, it could not be reached by the chimpanzee who, in a depressed rather than angry state, rocked from side to side. The loud voices when a chimpanzee was waking from anesthesia were clearly very distressing to the ape, who screamed each time he heard the voice. No attempt to comfort him was made. Instead, in this instance as in all others I saw in the clips, I noticed a lack of concern for the psychological welfare of the chimpanzees. Indeed, it did not appear, from what I saw on the video clips, that there was any attempt to establish rapport with the chimpanzees, except when one man was moving his fingers against the wire looking in at the chimpanzee silently.
Thus, from a psychological as well as a social perspective, the conditions of the chimpanzees in the video clips were not appropriate. Congress passed a bill that called on those responsible for the care of captive chimpanzees to address their psychological welfare. There was no evidence that I saw that this requirement is addressed in this lab.

The above is my considered, professional opinion.

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE
Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/animals_in_research_news/dr_jane_goodalls_statement.html



Monday, March 2, 2009

Hands…Big hands and little hands

By Kathleen Asselin - Fauna Volunteer

Pepper

Staff and volunteers at Fauna often witness special moments with the primates that can range from endearing to down right hilarious.

Sue Ellen’s eyesight is deteriorating which is a sad thing, but she manages just fine. Like most of the chimps she has her preferences when it comes to food. We serve up what we call nighttime packages on the food trolleys with the evening meals. These packages are paper bags containing monkey chow and a mix of different nuts and dried fruits. When Sue Ellen grabs a nighttime package off the trolley she holds the bag in one hand and digs the contents out with the other hand. Then she puts the hand with the goodies right up to one of her eyes and manipulates her fingers in order to let go and drop all of the things she doesn’t like (actually she lets go of pretty much everything except for the peanuts which she loves). Her dexterity is really impressive!

Binky enjoys looking through magazines. Last week he was particularly impressed when he got a Victoria’s Secret catalogue in his enrichment. He carried the catalogue around with him for a few days and would sit contentedly flipping each page and enjoying the pictures. It’s hard to believe that a chimp with such big strong hands can be so gentle. He was very careful not to tear any of the pages and kept his catalogue clean and in good condition.

Pepper has the most beautiful, elegant hands. Her hand movements are usually delicate and graceful. During the summer she enjoys getting water bottles that have been frozen so that she can suck on the ice. Sometimes on a hot day when she is out on the upstairs gallery she will extend one of her graceful, elegant hands through the caging when we walk by…her way of asking for an ice bottle. She is very patient and will wait with her hand extended while we go get a bottle for her. When we toss it up to her she is a really good catcher. One of our volunteers Kathleen is a really lousy shot (she’s not embarrassed to admit it) and it will often take Kathleen a few tries before she throws the bottle properly so that Pepper can catch it. Pepper is usually amused by this and when she finally manages to catch one of Kathleen’s wild shots she will laugh. It always makes Kathleen’s day to see Pepper laugh like this.

Tom uses his hands to get our attention. Tom is a clapper. You can always tell when Tommy wants something because you hear his big, loud claps echoing through the chimp house. If you have a copy of the Fauna 2009 calendar you can see the size of one of Tom’s hands in the picture for the month of June. So you can probably imagine how loud two hands of that size can clap! If you go over and see him when he’s clapping and ask him if he wants something he’ll look deep into your soul with his beautiful brown eyes and nod his head enthusiastically as if to say “of course I want something – what are you deaf?”

TomSue EllenBinky
Over at the monkey house we have Newton, a very sweet rhesus macaque. One day Newton received one of those little individual servings of honey in his enrichment package. The little piece of foil had been pierced and honey had come out and gotten on one of his hands. Newton realized he had something sticky on one of his hands but didn’t know what it was. He shook his hand wildly to try to get it off, but of course it wouldn’t come off that way. When his sticky hand accidentally brushed the side of his body he ended up with hairs stuck in the honey on his hand. Again he tried to shake his hand so that it would come off, but the honey and the hairs stayed stuck. Getting desperate he tried to rub the sticky stuff off on the floor of his cage which was covered with straw…but of course all that happened was that he got straw stuck to his hand! Getting frantic he tried to rub his hands together to get it off, while caretaker Joanie got a bowl of water for him so that he could wash it off. When she held the bowl of water up to him and said “Newton put your hand in the water” he immediately came and plunged his clean hand in the water and continued to violently shake his sticky hand around in the air. Finally he ended up wiping his sticky hand off on the caging and happily drank the bowl of water that Joanie offered him. When Joanie told us this story we couldn’t help but to laugh – too bad we didn’t have a video camera rolling to catch that one.
Theo the baboon loves to smell everything. He won’t eat anything without smelling it first. If you give him a banana he will smell it as if he suspects that you have stuffed something other than banana into a banana skin and given it to him. Even when he recognizes he has been given one of his favourite foods, he will not take a bite without smelling it first. One day Fabien gave Theo a papaya which is one of his absolute favourite foods. Fabien was surprised to see Theo smell the fruit and then make a face and throw it away. Being one of his favourites he should have started devouring it with relish. A minute later Theo smelled his empty hand and made a face again…he suddenly discovered that he had poop on his hand! So he cleaned his hand and then went and found the piece of fruit that he had thrown away, smelled it again and then started to eat it happily. Just goes to prove that you can never be too careful!
Newton Theo



Sunday Gazette - Not house pets

Not House Pets

Last month in Stamford, Conn., a chimpanzee named Travis was shot and killed after he mauled a friend of his owner. The chimpanzee lived with a widow, eating lobster and ice cream at the table, wearing human clothes and entertaining himself with a computer and television.
But as the tragedy made clear, a chimpanzee can never be totally domesticated.
The human brain is more highly developed than that of any other living creature. So why can't we learn that wild animals simply do not make good "pets"?
I believe it has a great deal to do with the fact that chimpanzees are so frequently used in entertainment and advertising. Only a month ago, Americans watching the Super Bowl might have laughed at an ad in which chimpanzees dressed as mechanics worked on a car. They seemed cute, funny and even lovable. Is it any wonder viewers might think that chimpanzees would make great pets?
Nothing could be further from the truth. Only infant chimpanzees are used in entertainment and advertising, because as they approach maturity, at about 6 to 8 years of age, they become strong and unmanageable. Chimpanzees evolved in the tropical forests of Africa, and that's where they're suited to live, roaming in groups. A house in Connecticut was a completely alien environment for a chimp.
Yet as a "domesticated" chimpanzee, Travis could never have returned to the wild. He had never learned the array of skills necessary to survive there. The entertainment industry and pet owners rarely, if ever, provide for the long-term care of chimpanzees. Zoos don't want them because they have not learned to interact with others. So most of them spend the rest of their lives - as much as 50 years or more - in small cages in circuses, roadside attractions and, yes, even in the homes of individuals who lack the means to provide for them.
Meanwhile, more infant chimpanzees are bred to maintain the supply for the entertainment industry.
The use of chimpanzees in entertainment and advertising not only condemns chimpanzees to lives they were not meant to live, it makes it hard for people to believe that these apes actually are endangered in the wild. But they are.
Chimpanzees are losing habitat, in part because of commercial logging and because of encroachment by ever-growing human populations who live in poverty and cut down the forest to grow crops and graze cattle. This deforestation also contributes significantly to climate change. And sometimes chimpanzees are caught up in ethnic conflicts or killed for their meat, a practice that is believed to have led to the human strains of HIV.
The Connecticut tragedy should remind us not just that chimpanzees do not make good pets but that their fate is intimately tied to ours.
Last month in Stamford, Conn., a chimpanzee named Travis was shot and killed after he mauled a friend of his owner. The chimpanzee lived with a widow, eating lobster and ice cream at the table, wearing human clothes and entertaining himself with a computer and television.
But as the tragedy made clear, a chimpanzee can never be totally domesticated.
The human brain is more highly developed than that of any other living creature. So why can't we learn that wild animals simply do not make good "pets"?
I believe it has a great deal to do with the fact that chimpanzees are so frequently used in entertainment and advertising. Only a month ago, Americans watching the Super Bowl might have laughed at an ad in which chimpanzees dressed as mechanics worked on a car. They seemed cute, funny and even lovable. Is it any wonder viewers might think that chimpanzees would make great pets?
Nothing could be further from the truth. Only infant chimpanzees are used in entertainment and advertising, because as they approach maturity, at about 6 to 8 years of age, they become strong and unmanageable. Chimpanzees evolved in the tropical forests of Africa, and that's where they're suited to live, roaming in groups. A house in Connecticut was a completely alien environment for a chimp.
Yet as a "domesticated" chimpanzee, Travis could never have returned to the wild. He had never learned the array of skills necessary to survive there. The entertainment industry and pet owners rarely, if ever, provide for the long-term care of chimpanzees. Zoos don't want them because they have not learned to interact with others. So most of them spend the rest of their lives - as much as 50 years or more - in small cages in circuses, roadside attractions and, yes, even in the homes of individuals who lack the means to provide for them.
Meanwhile, more infant chimpanzees are bred to maintain the supply for the entertainment industry.
The use of chimpanzees in entertainment and advertising not only condemns chimpanzees to lives they were not meant to live, it makes it hard for people to believe that these apes actually are endangered in the wild. But they are.
Chimpanzees are losing habitat, in part because of commercial logging and because of encroachment by ever-growing human populations who live in poverty and cut down the forest to grow crops and graze cattle. This deforestation also contributes significantly to climate change. And sometimes chimpanzees are caught up in ethnic conflicts or killed for their meat, a practice that is believed to have led to the human strains of HIV.
The Connecticut tragedy should remind us not just that chimpanzees do not make good pets but that their fate is intimately tied to ours.
Jane Goodall is founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/house+pets/1341716/story.html
Jane Goodall is founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace.
http://www.janegoodall.org/

**poor choice of a photo from the Gazette**

Jane Goodall in Ottawa

Reason for Hope by Dr. Jane Goodall!

Renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian Dr. Jane Goodall will be giving a public lecture at Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa on April 15, 2009. Come and listen to her speak about the research into chimpanzee behaviour she pioneered almost 50 years ago, about the critical need to protect Africa's Great Apes and other wildlife species, and about her reasons for hope for the future of our planet. The lecture will begin at 7pm and will be followed by a book signing. Tickets are available on the Centrepointe Theatre website at http://links.mkt1371.com/ctt?kn=8&m=31740732&r=NzgyNDY0MTc5S0&b=0&j=NDYxNTQ0NjkS1&mt=1&rt=0For more information, please visit http://links.mkt1371.com/ctt?kn=15&m=31740732&r=NzgyNDY0MTc5S0&b=0&j=NDYxNTQ0NjkS1&mt=1&rt=0