Time to Give Something Back (Article)

[Guest guest]

This is an article Anji, Paul and I found in the National Post yesterday.

Enjoy!

Bliss.

 

October 18, 2000

 

 

It's time to give something back

On a Quebec farm, abused animals and lab chimps have found a home

 

 

Cleo Paskal

National Post

 

The former lab chimps are recovering -- they're socializing, even goofing

around.

 

 

It started with Jethro and one of the first recorded cases of equine road rage

of the modern era. Jethro pulled a calèche in Montreal. One day traffic, heat,

pollution and general despair got the best of him and he snapped. Jethro tried

to pull his calèche over the top of the car in front of him. He was promptly

slated for the glue factory.

 

Someone who knew Jethro also knew Gloria Grow, a dog groomer, and her

veterinarian husband, Dr. Richard Allan. The couple had recently bought a

130-hectare farm south of Montreal. They were asked if they would take in

Jethro. They agreed.

 

And that was that.

 

Gloria and Richard quickly went from having three sheep, a handful of goats and

some chickens to providing refuge for more than 400 abused pets, zoo and farm

animals. Their Charlotte's Web barn houses an actual Charlotte that was given

sanctuary when she escaped from a hog farm. There are rabbits that were

abandoned when, in the post-Easter period, they stopped looking so cute. There

are ostriches, emus, rheas, llamas, highland steer, sheep, dogs, cats and a

large contingent of Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs -- leftovers of a mid-'90s fad.

Seems that, no, they don't stay small and cuddly.

 

Not content with giving a new life to animals that had experienced unfortunate

run-ins with humans, Gloria and Richard (with the help of many volunteers)

redeveloped part of their farm into wetlands so as to provide wild animals a

place to go (there are also bee and butterfly gardens). All kinds of birds can

be seen floating on their small lake. Chinese geese, seagulls, ducks and swans

glide by as enormous frogs jump out of their way. " They just know it's safe, "

says Gloria with quiet pride.

 

But even that wasn't enough. When Gloria turned 40 in 1995, she decided to do

something even more meaningful with her life. It started with a simple question:

Does society owe a debt to animals used in furthering the well-being of humans?

 

Gloria and Richard decided yes.

 

Gloria started studying chimps and their use in biomedical experiments. She was

appalled at their condition and touched by their plight. In particular, the

chimps that were being used in AIDS research. Hundreds had been infected with

HIV but they weren't developing AIDS. Apparently, the chimps made poor test

subjects. When she heard that one of the big labs was closing down, Gloria

decided she would build the world's first retirement community for biomedical

chimps. She explains, " They have given humankind so much, my heart and my

conscience told me it was time to give something back. "

 

Richard and Gloria used their retirement money to build a 9,000-square-foot

sanctuary, the Fauna Foundation, with indoor and outdoor play areas, a huge

kitchen for preparing meals and individual " territories " for each chimp.

 

In 1997, 15 chimps arrived. They were in terrible shape. Physically, they were

scarred from the repeated testing. Some had been in a lab for more than 30 years

and had undergone countless biopsies. Others had worked in the entertainment

industry before being sold to the labs (it is quite common for circus, film and

TV chimps to be sold off before they get too big and strong). Some had had their

front teeth knocked out with crowbars to keep them from biting.

 

But their real trauma was psychological. All were suffering from a

stress-induced need to self-mutilate. Some had chewed off their own fingers,

others had pulled out their hair or nails, a few suffered such severe anxiety

attacks they would go into convulsions. One chimp attacked her own foot as if it

were not her own. And then there was the anorexia and the uncontrollable

rocking.

 

Gloria, Richard and their team of volunteers began painstakingly to nurse them

back to health, slowly, stripping away layers of trauma. They began to learn

about the chimps' lives, as therapists learn about their patients.

 

One chimp, Rachel, had been a pet in Florida, with her own nanny, frilly dresses

and bubble baths. When she grew too big, the nanny dropped her off at a lab. She

went from being a member of a family to a thing. Rachel has a tendency to try to

damage her wrists and neck.

 

Another chimp, Billy, likes cleavage and will " flip his lip " at a pretty girl.

He had endured countless liver punctures performed by male lab technicians. The

trauma caused him to chew off his thumbs. He doesn't like men.

 

Gloria also discovered that the former circus chimps had a taste for pasta, beer

and cigarettes -- the things they had been fed by their handlers. And they still

craved them after decades of being given the tasteless monkey chow the lab fed

them.

 

Volunteer Arryn Ketter explains: " There are a lot of outstanding psychological

issues. But, at least, now they nap. Napping would have never happened in the

lab. Humans can't sleep properly if stressed, and neither can chimps. And there

was no sunlight. Or exercise. The cages were 5x5x7 feet. It's not just about the

procedures. "

 

There are other signs of recovery as well. The self-mutilation has all but

stopped. They are socializing and even goofing around. They eat. They cuddle.

 

" If [lab animals] are used, " Gloria believes, " they deserve something after.

That individual that served us should be honoured. "

 

As for Jethro, you can find him in Richard and Gloria's roadside corral. He's

the one happily munching hay or rolling on the ground, ignoring the cars as they

roar by.

 

- Cleo Paskal's column appears every other week. Her e-mail address is

me - For more information on the Fauna Foundation, visit

www.faunafoundation.org

 

 

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