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!