Joining up with Born Free USA!

This month I'm excited to announce a partnership with Born Free USA!

Born Free USA needs little introduction by me, as it's already known as an established defender of animals and their rights. An offshoot of England's Born Free Foundation, the organization's American counterpart has been on the forefront of animal rights, and often primate rights, since its inception. Although Born Free USA technically got its start in 2002, it was created via a merger with Animal Protection Institute, an organization that began in the early days of the animal humane movement in 1961.

Born Free USA helps all animals, but they clearly have a soft spot for nonhuman primates. They also run the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary in Texas, which is home to rescued macaques, baboons and vervets.

You can learn more about Born Free USA on their website, or in my book, Monkey Business.

Speaking of my book....in order to celebrate a collaboration with this wonderful organization, 50% of all profits from copies of Monkey Business sold in the month of March will be donated to Born Free USA!

The book may be purchased through all the usual literary avenues (like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Nook, and more), or now also through Born Free USA's online store.

I look forward to a successful fundraising effort for this incredible and so very worthy organization, and I'm honored to work with them.

Book Review: Opening Doors

Many emotions are experienced by the reader upon getting engrossed in Save The Chimps’ new memoir of their late leader. OpeningDoors: Carole Noon and Her Dream to Save the Chimps by Gary Ferguson follows the steps Dr. Carole Noon took to build her chimpanzee sanctuary. In the process, she unwittingly was building her legacy.

From her primatological beginnings at Zambia’s Chimfunshi sanctuary, to the moment when she had the realization that she was going to be responsible for 266 retired lab chimps (in addition to the 28 rescued chimpanzees already living at Save The Chimps in its early days), Opening Doors touches upon little moments that, together, illustrate how massive Dr. Noon’s accomplishments really were.

The reader has it easy; we get to simply read about the trials and tribulations, and marvel over how it all came together with a little luck and a lot of sweat. It’s difficult to believe that Dr. Noon actually accomplished this much in a relatively short period of time, especially because the path she took to build Save The Chimps was forged by her alone. Nobody had ever built a sanctuary on this scale before, but she was driven to do it because she knew that hundreds of chimpanzees were relying on her.

The photographs in Opening Doors are breathtaking, and the intermittent chimpanzee life stories that accompany the various portraits just may break your heart. At Save The Chimps, sensitive beings who spent decades in uncomfortable laboratory cages where they were subjected to painful medical procedures were finally given the chance at a better life. Instead of dwelling in their misfortune and succumbing to the emotional turmoil of their past, they were eager to move on with their lives, forging new families and friendships while feeling grass under their feet for the first time ever.

I was lucky enough to meet Carole Noon in 2008. She took me on a tour of Save The Chimps. We spoke about the vegetarian lifestyle we both had in common and she showed me the chimpanzee groups. It felt like I was meeting a celebrity. Her intensity intimidated me, although I tried - most likely, unsuccessfully - to hide it. Had Opening Doors existed at the time, its contents could have better prepared me more for the whirlwind that was this woman...maybe.

Dr. Noon’s life was cut short by cancer in 2009. If the book’s insights are any indication, I would think her humble and practical nature would be grateful that this book exists, if only because it shows the emotional resilience and strength not of herself, but of the chimpanzees.

PRC blog post about pet primates

This week I wrote a blog post for Primate Rescue Center.

The PRC executive director had asked me to elaborate on some of the less-obvious reasons that primate pets are a bad idea. Recent news stories about online scams, violent confrontations at the time of sale, and legal issues that arise when primate pets attack the public are rather common and even seem to be increasing in frequency.

I'll admit, usually my go-to argument on this topic relates more to the pets' needs and the psychological and physical suffering that awaits primates who spend years in captivity. Maybe that's because my priorities are those individual pets, not the humans who are also involved.

However, if this week's PRC blog post reaches new ears by instead relating to the dangers inherent to the potential pet owners, so be it. If it gets more people to reconsider buying a monkey as a pet, that's the goal. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that it features two adorable photographs (Zulu the chimpanzee and Carlos the macaque, in case you're wondering. Both reside at PRC and both spent part of their lives living as pets before arriving at the sanctuary).

Read it, share it, pass it around. If the end result is change, then I'm happy.

Click here to read the post on the Primate Rescue Center blog.