Chimps Find Haven From Labs

Canadian Center Welcomes Animals
Chimps Find Haven From Labs

“They love parties. They just loved tearing open the gifts I wrapped for them at Christmas.”
— Gloria Grow

Gloria Grow scratches the belly of 9-year-old Petra, one of 15 chimpanzees who have been retired from hepatitis and HIV testing at New York University.
(Shaun Best / Reuters)

C A R I G N A N, Quebec, Feb. 18 — On a frigid winter day, Gloria Grow hands out homemade popsicles to her 15 charges, knowing they will soon lose interest and drop them on an already littered floor.
     "It's like a big, crazy daycare," Grow said, laughing and using her sweatshirt to wipe away the volley of spittle that is testing the limits of her waterproof mascara.
     The daycare center is a building the size of a small school gymnasium situated on a 103-acre farm just outside Montreal. Grow's unruly wards are not children but chimpanzees, 15 rambunctious refugees from a New York University research laboratory that is closing down.
     Her sanctuary is the first in Canada for chimpanzees formerly used in laboratory testing. There are about a dozen such centers in North America.
     The project, dubbed the Fauna Foundation, began two years earlier with a crisis of conscience on Grow's 40th birthday. When Grow, an animal rights activist and former dog groomer, and her veterinarian partner Richard Allan decided to offer refuge to the chimps, their idyllic farm was already home to a menagerie of 400 other discarded animals including an ostrich and 30 pot-bellied pigs.
     Early in 1996, Grow attended the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute in Ellensburg, Wash., world famous for its chimps who communicate by sign language. A year later, she had blueprints for her own chimpanzee shelter.

International Red Tape
The Montreal-based Canadian chapter of the Jane Goodall Institute, named after the famed primatologist, used its clout to cut through layers of international red tape restricting the cross-border movement of animals. "There were questions as to why Canada should be a dumping ground for medical research chimps from the U.S.," institute staffer Arryn Ketter said.
     But last September, a truck delivered the first shipment of sedated chimps, retired from NYU's now defunct Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates. All had been used in tests for drugs designed to make life better for humans, including for the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, and of hepatitis.
     Medical research using chimpanzees is not prohibited in Canada but the Canadian Council on Animal Welfare, a national peer review agency on the use of animals in research, teaching and testing, says they are not currently being used there.
     Grow's chimps arrived howling and spitting. Many were bald and their normally strong muscles had partially atrophied, the result of being confined to cages at the lab.

Escape From a Rough Life
Their thick files told sad stories. Many were raised as pets or circus animals before being turned over to research labs. Most were in their teens and 20s, not halfway through the normal 60-year life expectancy of a chimp.
     Billy Jo, the biggest and loudest of the bunch, is about five feet tall and weighs 168 pounds. He is robust, with lustrous black skin, a stark contrast to Tom and Annie, both in their 30s, who are stooped and graying.
     Billy Jo and Sue Ellen, both HIV-positive, were inseparable as youngsters indentured to a circus act. Donna Rae, also HIV-positive, was a family pet who played guitar and rode a bicycle at parties. At age 12, holding her owner's hand, she was walked into a testing lab.
     The chimps bear the scars of the tests. Yoko, who is small, wiry and in constant motion, had 137 liver biopsies. Regis, a playful 9-year-old with the number 645 tatooed on his chest, was "knocked down"—tranquilized—279 times.
     Other scars are less visible. Jeanie, who immediately captured Grow's heart during her early visits to NYU, has seizures during which she hits and bites herself. "They weren't going to send her to us because they said she was crazy ... she snapped during the AIDS study," Grow said.

Attempt to Improve Their Lives
Although they will still be in captivity, Grow hopes to give the chimps the best possible quality of life. They eat their fill of fruit and get daily "enrichment packages" of goodies aimed at keeping them well-nourished, busy and stimulated.
     "They love parties. They just loved tearing open the gifts I wrapped for them at Christmas," Grow said, standing under colorful streamers and balloons.
     As her project unfolded, costs climbed much higher than the originally estimated $138,000, and that stretched the couple's financial resources. To help ease the burden, the Goodall Institute donated $3,450 toward an outdoor enclosure to be built this spring.
     The institute also plans to develop an adopt-a-chimp program that will split proceeds between its African sanctuaries and Grow's Fauna Foundation.

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