A CRY FOR HELP: 32 stranded chimpanzees need permanent new homes
Erika Fleury: Why help these chimps? Because they are innocent. They were brought into this world to benefit humans who used them as exotic pets and living test tubes.
LOUIS SAHAGUN: The fates of 32 chimpanzees stranded in the shuttered Wildlife Waystation in the Angeles National Forest depend on raising the funds needed to build permanent new homes at sanctuaries willing to take them, officials said on Tuesday. More than 500 exotic animals, including lions, tigers, alligators, wolves, owls and Vietnamese potbellied pigs, have been relocated since the troubled 44-year-old center surrendered its California Department of Fish and Wildlife permits and shut down for good a year ago.
The challenge now will be raising the estimated $10 million it will take to continue caring for the chimps and installing accommodations for them at the Center for Great Apes in Florida, Primarily Primates Inc. in Texas, Chimp Haven Inc. in Louisiana and Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Washington.
“The problem is that sanctuaries are at capacity because demand has skyrocketed since the use of chimps in research laboratories ended in 2016,” said Erika Fleury, spokeswoman for the nonprofit North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. “For these agile and intelligent animals,” she said, “enclosures have to be large and strong for them to stay busy and happy — and ongoing care for them is a complex and costly matter.” “But they are innocents,” she added. “They were brought into this world to benefit humans who used them as exotic pets and living test tubes”…
The Waystation grew from a small volunteer-run refuge for abused, abandoned and sick animals into an internationally known refuge for exotic animals in little more than two decades. Funded solely by private donations, the “ranch,” as it was called by employees, provided homes for more than 1,000 animals… In 1995, the Waystation accepted its first animals retired from medical research, eight chimpanzees from New York University. Other primates followed, and the Waystation began construction on a massive primate-retirement home in a remote area of the ranch.
The compound was built specifically for “retired” chimps and included a 7,000-square-foot enclosed building as well as several open “play yards.” It was able to accommodate 75 to 100 chimps… the facility, just outside Los Angeles city limits, suffered extensive damage in the 2017 Creek Fire near Tujunga, followed by severe flooding two years later… In 2019, the Waystation’s board of directors voted to close the facility and assist state Fish and Wildlife officials in finding new homes for its animals…
The only animals left in spider web-like networks of wire cages and pens maintained by a cadre of volunteers included the chimps, three baboons, two hybrid wolf dogs and several exotic birds… So, why donate to the chimps? “The answer for me is because humans put these chimps in harm’s way in the first place, robbing them of a healthy, happy fulfilling natural life — and because we’re the only ones who can right the wrong”, said Terry Tamminen, president of the nonprofit 7th Generation Advisors. SOURCE…
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