Quoted in People Magazine

 The Chimpanzees In Need emergency rescue effort I am leading celebrated another major victory recently, as we safely relocated eight of the chimps to their new sanctuary home in Florida. The day was wonderful for so many reasons, and it's been thrilling to see the media coverage of this collaborative project.

One of the most notable was People Magazine, whose article included this comment from me:

I'm so grateful to have eight more chimps rescued! In total, twenty three have now been brought to safety thanks to Chimpanzees In Need, and eighteen await. We hope to rescue them all in 2022!

Click here to read the full article - the story was also shared in LA Daily News, Vegan Magazine, and various local Florida publications.

Rest in peace, Shirley McGreal

Shirley McGreal, founder of International Primate Protection League, passed away after a long life spent protecting wildlife and encouraging others to do the same.

I am so saddened to hear of her passing. She was an indomitable inspiration to many and a huge force against primate exploitation in many countries - someone who really helped shape a better future for captive and wild animals. Read more about her here.

I last saw her in 2019, when I visited IPPL for a few days and interviewed her for The Founders, a book on sanctuary founders I was writing. The book is not yet published, but her chapter has been written for a while now. It concludes:

"The sanctuary is where she’s made her peace in a world that churns with so much torment. She is 'completing her life,' she admits, and when her time on earth is over, she wants to be cremated and have her ashes scattered in the gibbon graveyard in the middle of the sanctuary. There she will finally rest, overseen by the garden statues sent from all over the world, amongst the exotic apes she helped bring home as their overlapping whoops layer through the air in a blessing."

Interviewed in Mongabay article

 Mongabay recently explored the otherwise-untapped market of GIFs relying on primate exploitation. When they initially approached me for an interview, I was intrigued because somehow the issue had never been brought to my attention - though for sure it's very obvious that there are many online GIFs showing primates in harmful ways (wearing clothes, performing, "acting" like humans, etc.)

I spoke with them to explain why the use of primates is so harmful, and the many ways it has negative repurcussions in the lives of the individual animal depicted but also others of the species.

Read the whole article here.

Presenter on World Animal Protection's webinar

World Animal Protection invited me to present on a webinar they were hosting titled "Protecting Nonhuman Primates Exploited as Pets: Sanctuaries and Solutions." It was organized to encourage support of the Captive Primate Safety Act, and also featured a special message from U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer and my colleague Amy Kerwin, Founder and Director of Primates, Incorporated.

My presentation focused on the impact of the exotic pet trade on overburdened sanctuaries, and also how primates suffer as individuals when forced to live in human homes. 

I was honored to be a part of this important webinar, and I hope to work with World Animal Protection more in the future!

Interview on Furthest From The Wild podcast & videos

Filmmaker Alex Tello has a Furthest From The Wild podcast focused on discussion of issues impacting exotic animals in captivity. He asked me to come on the podcast and discuss the work NAPSA has done to eradicate cruel monkey rodeo sideshow events. I was happy to oblige, and we ended up discussing much more.

The podcast can be heard in its entirety here, and he is releasing the video recording of our interview in edited segments on YouTube over the next few weeks. I will add the segments to this post as they are released, so check back!

 

 

Thanks to Alex for hosting me!

Interviewed on Climate Healers podcast

I recently was invited to be interviewed on Sailesh Rao's podcast Climate Healers. We spoke about my work with NAPSA, primate exploitation in this country, and the Chimpanzees In Need rescue effort I am leading. I'm grateful that he hosted me for this episode!

The interview was recorded for Facebook Live, and can be viewed here.

Interviewed on NBC 30-minute special

Down to Earth with Dagmar is an NBC program featuring "stories to inform, awaken, and inspire San Diego" hosted by journalist Dagmar Midcap. This spring, the Chimpanzees In Need fundraising team met with Dagmar and her team numerous times as they worked to film about our campaign and the need to rescue chimpanzees from the closed Wildlife Waystation.

The result is a 30-minute special called "The Extinction Crisis: The Lucky Six" which followed the transport of six of the chimpanzees to a sanctuary in Washington state. It aired September 9th in San Diego, but is going to air around the country in the top ten markets at various times. My interview is in part one, which you can view below.

Thank you to Dagmar and team for covering this important effort and helping to spread the word about the continued need to help the remaining chimps!

Interview in "A Checkered Past" documentary with Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara

 Since 2019, I have been leading the Chimpanzees In Need emergency rescue fundraiser focused on safely rehoming the forty two chimpanzees left in limbo when the wildlife refuge caring for them suddenly shut its doors. It's been a massive and overwhelming project stretching across sectors, industries, and communities. It's tested me in a lot of ways, and it's taught me a lot. 

Once in a while, it can also be fun - like when I got to work with filmmaker Shaun Monson, who wanted to film about this urgent need and document the work being done. He brought in animal activists and award winning actors Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara, and over a series of shoots, his documentary short A Checkered Past came together.

I am so grateful for Shaun, Joaquin, and Rooney caring enough to work on this and help us spread the word. The chimps will surely benefit from it.

Watch the full short below!

Co-hosted WORT radio show

WORT 89.9 FM is a radio channel based in Madison, WI who invited me to co-host the hour-long Access Hour show with Amy Kerwin, Founder and Director of WI-based primate sanctuary Primates Incorporated. I really do love recording shows like this, so I was happy to accept!

Amy and I spoke candidly about the issues related to primates' use in the pet trade, entertainment, and biomedical research. I talked about the broader issues related to captive primate retirement to sanctuaries, and Amy was able to give more specific feedback based on her experiences. It worked out really well, and we had a lot of fun.

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Access Hour: The Importance Of Primate Sanctuaries And Helping Monkeys

I have another podcast interview pending, so stay tuned for more audio interviews like this one!

Guest column published in Ocala Star Banner

As Program Director of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance, I am often response for quickly identifying and reacting to instances of primate exploitation in the media. Oftentimes, smaller publications reporting on an event or attraction don't always recognize that they are inadvertently promoting something harmful, and it can be helpful when primate experts point this out to them. 

The Ocala Star Banner printed had an article about an animal care facility (note that I am not using the term "sanctuary") that was holding public painting classes featuring ring-tailed lemurs running loosely over the attendees. While permitting public contact with primate species is always frowned upon by experts, to be doing this during a national pandemic that has been proven to jump across the species line is particularly irresponsible.

I wrote a letter to the paper, who then published it as a guest column. I am grateful that they reacted in concern and appreciation for my advice, and I hope that people who read the article came away leaning a bit more about what a true sanctuary does and does not do with the animals in its care.

Read the article here.

Media coverage of chimpanzee rescue

The collaborative fundraiser / rescue effort that I am leading celebrated a major victory recently, when 6 of the 32 remaining chimpanzees were successfully rehired to accredited sanctuary Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Washington.

So much effort went into the day, from the veterinarians ensuring the chimps' health and safety to the transport crew who drove in the trailer (all the way from Georgia!), to the caregivers who had to coax the chimps into their transport cages and then say goodbye, to the fundraising crew who helped raise the dollars to make it all happen... so when we waved the trailer off, loaded up with 6 chimps, there were many relieved tears.

Media coverage continues to roll in, as the story was picked up in markets all up and down the west coast. Highlights of the coverage include:

On television -

CBS Los Angeles: 6 Wildlife Waystation Chimpanzees Taken To New Home In Washington State

Fox26 KMPH: Six Rescued Chimpanzees Begin their Journey to Their New Forever Home

In print -

 Los Angeles Daily News: ‘Lucky 6’ Chimps on the Move: Forgotten Wildlife Waystation Animals are on Their Way to Sanctuary

On radio -

KNX-AM (link coming soon!)

Also, check out this great video California Department of Fish & Wildlife put together!

National media coverage of tragic Buck the chimp

 Buck was a chimpanzee who was kept as a "pet" in a home in Oregon for the last 17 years. His owner had always refused all efforts to place Buck at an accredited chimpanzee sanctuary. There was a consistent fear among experts that Buck, like other privately owned chimps, would one day react aggressively - with tragic consequences. Sure enough, last Sunday he did, attacking the daughter of his owner until police shot him dead.

After having known about Buck for years, coming away frustrated when his owner would refuse sanctuary assistance, it was very, very upsetting to see this outcome. Even though it was rather expected, it also felt avoidable. If only someone had been able to convince his owner to let him live the sanctuary life. If only he had lived a more natural life in which natural aggression wouldn't cause his death. If only Buck hadn't been bred and sold as a "pet" in the first place. If only...

Chimp attacks always bring media attention, and this one was no different. I first spoke with The Oregonian about Buck, and the story (and my quotes) were then picked up all over the nation and globe, appearing in sites like Newsweek, MSN, Yahoo, Fox News, and then sites in other countries like The Independent in the UK, and others in India, Brazil, Indonesia, and more.  

I also did a longer interview with Newsweek for a future piece to come out about the exotic pet trade,  publication date TBD.

Filming with Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara

Much of my recent work as Program Director of NAPSA has focused on Chimpanzees In Need, a massive chimpanzee rescue and fundraising effort I am leading. The campaign has been around for over a year now, and through the highs and lows there have been some fun times too...

We recently filmed a short documentary with filmmaker Shaun Monson that will feature actor / activists Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara.

Both came to the site of the rescue efforts to see the 32 chimps still in need of help, and could not have been more kind, gracious, and willing to assist.

I look forward to sharing news of the film's release in just a few more weeks.... stay tuned!

 

Featured in Barbara J. King's Animals' Best Friends

 The esteemed Dr. Barbara J. King has a new book out, and I am honored to be featured in it. 

Pages 197-198 of Animals' Best Friends focus on primate retirement from laboratories, and Dr. King explained well the facts I had presented regarding the financial benefits of primate retirement, and how housing in laboratories differs from that of sanctuaries.

Buy the book here.