- Another GFAS sanctuary faces investigation. From just over 500 chimps, 190 have perished.
Published by -NAWA News Feed- in -Animal Welfare- · Sunday 19 Jun 2022
A federal complaint has been lodged against the national refuge for federally owned chimpanzees who were once used in experiments by an animal rights group.
Chimp Haven (Keithville, Louisiana) which is accredited by the ill-named and troubled Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) claims it is the World’s Largest Chimpanzee Sanctuary on their website. According to Stop Animal Exploitation Now, a federal citation and Chimp Haven's own claims concerning an escape and deaths caused by chimp fighting demonstrate the sanctuary's poor treatment.
After a female was assaulted in April by others to whom it was being introduced, the sanctuary in north Louisiana stated it moved quickly. In May, that animal was put down. On June 2, a second female fled twice.
Animal-handling standards were broken in both occurrences, according to a warning letter from the US Department of Agriculture. Chimp Haven was also reviewing its processes for introducing and separating animals, and trees near the second female's main enclosure had been chopped to prevent further escapes, according to the report.
Since its inception in 2005, Chimp Haven has cared for over 500 chimps. According to an emailed statement, 190 of them have perished, with five of them dying as a result of chimp aggressiveness.
Chimpanzees in the wild also assault and murder each other, according to Michael L. Wilson, an evolution anthropologist at the University of Minnesota who studies chimp behavior and biology.
"Killings... have been documented at most long-term study sites in Africa," he stated in an email, adding that they "may occur suddenly and unpredictably, without obvious provocation."
He took part in a 2008 study that indicated that, after disease, attacks by other chimps were the second most common cause of mortality at one wild colony over 46 years. Other chimp attacks were the source of 17 of the 130 deaths, or 20% of the 86 deaths for which scientists had a reason.
Because of the death of a female chimp attacked by other chimps and two escapes by another female in one day, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a warning letter to Chimp Haven in June 2021. The inspector saw that the sanctuary has taken steps to address issues.
One male had bled to death and another had died after being attacked by others, according to the sanctuary's report to federal officials in December 2021. It was also claimed that seven animals had escaped through an unlocked skylight in the same month.
"Animal sanctuaries should keep animals secure and unhurt, not allow catastrophic injuries that need death or escapes of potentially dangerous animals," Michael A. Budkie, co-founder of the Ohio-based animal rights organization, stated.
"The care and well-being of chimpanzees is our first focus at Chimp Haven," the sanctuary wrote in an emailed response. There has never been such a large-scale effort to transition chimps "from laboratory settings to a life that closely resembles life in the wild," according to the report.
Because "chimpanzees need dynamic social groups to thrive socially, physically, emotionally, and psychologically," hundreds of animals have been introduced to each other. Such introductions haven't always worked out, according to the statement.
"Managing chimpanzees in custody provides significant challenges," noted Wilson of the University of Minnesota in an email. "Chimpanzees are powerful, smart, impulsive, and capable of violent attacks."
He argued that captive chimps "are likely to be better off in many ways if kept in social groups with numerous males and females, but such groups also pose many management issues, including the possibility of aggressiveness."
More to come as the investigation proceeds.
Watch here as the Executive Director of GFAS says they “are all it for the money”.
Related stories:
