Quoted in The Dodo

Last year, when news broke that performer Chris Brown had purchased a monkey as a gift for his toddler daughter, it got a lot of attention. On behalf of NAPSA, I wrote a letter to Brown to offer placement for his monkey at a NAPSA member sanctuary (a unique offer, and one that is not always available.) Unfortunately, he ignored our offer and within a few months, his monkey - which was illegal in his Los Angeles home - was confiscated and and placed at an unnamed animal rescue facility.

Flash forward a year, and in late December the story again gained attention because Brown is being charged with two counts of illegally keeping a primate without a permit. If he is indeed charged with the crime in February, he could face up to six months in jail.

The Dodo reached out to me for comments on the story, and what sort of lessons the public might learn from it.

Click here to read the whole article. 

This little monkey was lucky to be removed from Brown's home, and I hope the threats facing Brown may serve to deter other people considering buying such a pet.

Quoted in Journal Sentinel

I recently spoke with a reporter from Wisconsin about a new sanctuary called Primates Incorporated that was developed in order to provide a home for monkeys retired from laboratory research. Although we discussed many facets of primate retirement, I was pleased to be able to describe to her just what makes sanctuary retirement so different from other forms of captive life for nonhuman primates:

She 'got it', of course, and hopefully many other readers did too. There are so many primates leaving laboratory research, and we need all the sanctuary space we can get.

Interviewed on WRIC 8 News

A few months ago, I was contacted by Will Lowery, a Richmond, VA-area lawyer who was investigating claims that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had retired research monkeys to a sanctuary. Will was skeptical because the school could provide no details about this placement, which seemed strange. I verified at the time that I (on behalf of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance) had not spoken with VCU about monkey retirement. Will said he would keep checking around.

Flash foward to the present day, and Will had FOIA'ed a number of documents regarding to monkey retirement by VCU, and found nothing. He contacted me again, and this time I did an in-depth inquiry of US primate sanctuaries. Not only did I find no evidence of VCU retiring monkeys to the nine NAPSA member sanctuaries, but there was no evidence of them retiring monkeys to any accredited primate sanctuaries in the country (and even a few unaccredited facilities.)

I told all this to WRIC Richmond reporter Kerri O'Brien, and the segment aired this week.

The video can be seen here. Unsurprisingly, VCU admitted that they never retired monkeys to sanctuaries. I am grateful to WRIC for revealing the university's shocking lapse in judgement and for helping me spread the message that NAPSA member sanctuaries remain willing to work with laboratories seeking to retire monkeys... with full transparency, of course!

Quoted in The Dodo

This week I was busy working on NAPSA's response to a viral video making the rounds, which originated from a disreputable organization housing exotic wildlife. Many media sources re-posted the video, so I prepared an open letter to those corporations in order to inform them about the harms they were inadvertently supporting via promotion of the video.

When I pitched the story to The Dodo, I was happy to see them jump on the opportunity and the article reported the truth behind the video that was garnering so much attention.

As always, I am grateful that the website serves as a platform to help spread the right messages about misleading online content.

 The best part of this article, in my opinion, is that they printed my comment that "It's never too late for a chimpanzee to be placed in a sanctuary." This is a hot topic of late, in regards to the NIH's retirement of federally-owned and -supported chimpanzees to sanctuary. And of course - it's the truth! There are over 340 chimpanzees at NAPSA member sanctuaries who are proof of this.

Quoted in Conexion Coral

July 14th is the first World Chimpanzee Day, and I am one of four people who have worked to prepare this global event. Argentinian website Conexion Coral contacted me for an interview regarding chimpanzee conservation and why World Chimpanzee Day is so important. I am very pleased with the messages the article helped me get across (translated from Spanish below - which surely affects the quality of the writing a bit, but you can get the idea.)

It's always exciting to experience the reach of projects I work on. Thank you to journalist Tais Gadea Lara for recognizing the important issues behind World Chimpanzee Day!

NAPSA Workshop 2018

A whirlwind of an event has just concluded, and it was something that  took up a lot of my time in the past few months. NAPSA Workshop is a biennial conference hosted by the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. As the alliance's Program Director, that means the Workshop planning falls squarely on my shoulders.

This was the second Workshop I've planned since I was hired by NAPSA, and just like the last one, this one was worth every late night and every panicked list that I compiled, redid, and analyzed.

This time around, we welcomed over 75 people to Gainesville, Florida for two days of presentations, a drinks reception, an awards dinner, and  sanctuary tours of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary and Center for Great Apes.

Our speakers were fascinating, coming to us from virtually every reputable primate sanctuary in North America and just about every animal rights and welfare organization, including PETA, Humane Society of the United States, New England Anti Vivisection Society, American Anti Vivisection Society. Additionally, we had presenters who were researchers and philosophers - including John Gluck, a favorite of mine who I had yet to meet.

The tours of the sanctuaries were a group favorite - and it's where I filmed a segment with WCJB 20 on primate retirement. View it here. 

Our Recognition Dinner was another favorite of mine, as it was lighthearted and celebratory. We have so much to celebrate in the primate sanctuary community, and I like that NAPSA recognizes this.

Something truly memorable for me was presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to April Truitt, co-founder of the Primate Rescue Center and a founding member of NAPSA. April gave me my start over 12 years ago when she offered that I come out to her sanctuary to see what it was like... and my life's course was forever altered!

Celebrating my mentor amongst so many other esteemed colleagues who have rescued thousands of primates and changed the course of primate welfare throughout the world... it's priceless.

Interviewed on WCJB20

NAPSA Workshop 2018 recently took place in Gainesville, Florida (more to come on that soon.) Part of the event was a tour of nearby NAPSA member sanctuary Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary. Our tour was covered for a story on local ABC affiliate WCJB20, who interviewed me about monkey retirement, why sanctuaries are needed, and about the Workshop itself.

Click here to watch the video.

Quoted in National Geographic

This has not been an easy year for the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), in part due to struggles at one of our member sanctuaries. In late fall 2017, I was contacted by a reporter from National Geographic who was writing about that specific sanctuary. I spoke with her then to share some of NAPSA's membership policies, and to explain how we were handling the membership of the sanctuary in question. The journalist then contacted me in early 2018, this time because she had read my article in Animal Studies Journal and wanted to know more about the development of primate sanctuaries in the US throughout history. And so, I spoke with her again.

And then National Geographic article came out. Although I cannot complain about my involvement in it, as the journalist presented facts and did not falsify anything, I was disappointed to see the NAPSA member sanctuary (Chimps Inc.) lumped together with facilities that have never been considered sanctuaries, but exist for research purposes (such as The Gorilla Foundation, and the Great Ape Trust.) I feel that this contributes to a larger confusion about what is and is not a sanctuary - something NAPSA is already trying to resolve. See here to learn more.

Hopefully the article will bring to light the fact that primate sanctuaries have done nothing but strengthen over time, and will consider to do so for the sake of the very deserving animals in their care.

Click here to read the full article.

Interviewed by the Hartford Courant

The animal welfare community celebrated a victory recently when the Hartford Yard Goats, a one-year-old Minor League Baseball team, cancelled an upcoming monkey rodeo performance and agreed to not feature rodeos in the future.

The week prior, I (on behalf of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance) had written to the team to inform them of the inherent harms of monkey rodeos, and to ask for such a commitment. As a former Connecticut resident, I was heartened to hear of the team's quick response and compassionate choice.

The Hartford Courant spoke with me about the rodeos and the Yard Goats' decision. I was pleased to have quite a bit of information quoted in the article, and am so grateful that the right message is being spread about primate exploitation.

Click here to read the full article.

Quoted in The Dodo (again!)

It was recently discovered that Volkswagen and other auto makers relied on primate testing in an effort to study fuel efficiency of their motors. The Dodo contacted me for my take on the issue, and while I did not find it shocking that primate research was used, I was able to talk about why macaques are so often used in laboratories.

Click here to read the full article.

Quoted in The Dodo

A viral video circulated the internet in late January that showed an infant chimpanzee snuggling a dog in a human home (something that is very much frowned upon by experts, as not only is this a highly unnatural and unhealthy life for that individual chimpanzee, but such imagery has negative effects on conservation and primate exploitation in other industries.) I was contacted by a journalist from The Dodo who was featured a number of experts in her article.

I was pleased to be included and participate in spreading the important message about such videos and the harm they can inadvertently cause.

Click here to read the full article.