Burrito’s father, Mack, passed away on Sunday at the estimated age of 46.
After spending decades in research, Mack was rescued by Save the Chimps and brought to live on a sunny island home in Florida. He died peacefully during an afternoon nap. Please take a minute to read about his life.
Our hearts go out to his human and chimpanzee families.
Rest in peace, Mack.
We just sent out an e-news announcement with a link to the video below.
Sign up for our e-newsletter if you didn’t receive the announcement, and
check out the video below to learn about our new dream!
(view in full screen mode for full effect – click on the brackets below the video image)
Share this video! Just direct people to this blog post or this link: http://chimpsanctuarynw.org/events/auction2010/video.php
If you’re a Primate Patrol member or follow the Primate Patrol page on Facebook, you know that Dodge recently altered their advertisement campaign which had included a chimpanzee named Suzie (Suzy).
Dodge took it a step further and released a powerful statement, which included these sentences:
“Dodge is firmly committed to never using great apes in our advertisements again.”
“We are not a company that hides behind issues or brushes them under the rug. We are a company that meets issues head on and moves forward. And we promise to keep doing everything in our power to be one of the most honest and forward-thinking companies out there.”
This morning, Dodge published the link to their statement on their Facebook page. They have received a bit of flack from Dodge enthusiasts who clearly do not appreciate PETA, who Dodge mentions in their statement.
If you’re a Facebook user, please counter these folks by liking the Dodge Facebook page and politely thanking Dodge for indeed being a forward-thinking company on the issue of great apes in entertainment. Corporations can never make everyone happy, but we should praise them when they make compassionate decisions.
My Dodge Neon was the vehicle that Keith and J.B. drove from Pennsylvania to Cle Elum, following the Cle Elum Seven’s journey to freedom over two years ago. So now I have two big reasons to appreciate Dodge.
Check out last night’s coverage of the Great Ape Protection Act, which included an interview at the sanctuary with Executive Director Sarah Baeckler, an interview with our friend Debra Durham of PCRM, and a goofy Foxie. You can watch online here: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/100170339.html?tab=video
Please leave a comment below the video and thank KOMO for covering the news of Maria Cantwell’s introduction of the Great Ape Protection Act to the Senate.
The feature about Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest that aired several months ago on King 5′s Evening Magazine is re-airing TONIGHT. Watch it and tell everyone you know to watch it! The show begins at 7pm and it looks like CSNW will be the second story. For those not in the Seattle area, hopefully they will post a video on their website after it airs: http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine
Update after the airing – link to the video online: http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine/Retired-chimps-living-in-luxury-99898444.html
If you receive our e-newsletter you found out some sad news this morning – at least four of the 202 chimpanzees living at the Alamogordo Primate Facility who are slated to be transferred to Texas and made available for biomedical testing are children of the Cle Elum Seven.
We were able to determine this thanks to Project Release and Restitution and the information they have available on their website.
Learn more about this transfer of 202 chimpanzees from our July 16th blog post and view today’s newsletter with details of whose children are among the group: August e-newsletter.
There is hope for these and all chimpanzees in biomedical research in the United States, however. Today, Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell introduced a companion bill to the Great Ape Protection Act, first introduced in the House of Representatives as HR 1326. Passing GAPA would mandate that federally-funded chimpanzees be retired to sanctuary and would outlaw the use of chimpanzees in painful and invasive biomedical research.
Learn more about GAPA and how you can help from the Seattle Times editorial co-written by Executive Director Sarah Baeckler and from the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine.
This is a crucial time for chimpanzees and we have the power to help them. Thanks to everyone who is speaking out for them.
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest is a finalist for a Seattle Weekly Best of the Web Award! We’re in the category of “Best Use of a Blog to Make Bank.” We’ll find out at an invite-only party on June 17th if we won.
Our friends at PAWS won the award for Best Online Presence – Nonprofit. Congrats to them and fingers crossed for us!
Yesterday, Candy alerted me to Sheril Kirshenbaum’s Discover blog asking for photos of kisses. Sheril has a new book coming out soon called The Science of Kissing, which features chimpanzees in a few chapters.
I submitted J.B.’s photo of Annie kissing Missy that we have available in our online store. Sheril liked it so much, she posted it to her blog today with links to our website to find out more about the sanctuary. Check out the blog post, feel free to leave a comment, and browse all of the kissing photos (Praire Dog Snog is pretty cute).
We’ve reached the $45,000 goal!!! We will replace one more window if we reach $50,000 – only $1,800 more to get there. That will allow us to replace a grand total of seven windows – one for each chimpanzee! Two windows from LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, One from Anna Kircher’s generous match and you blog readers, and hopefully four from the 2nd Anniversary Fundraising.
The remaining windows we will keep as they are so that we can open them for air circulation. We are waiting for our welders to fit us in to their schedule. As soon as that happens, we’ll start installing the first three picture windows!
The idea behind our 2nd Anniversary Fundraising was to raise crucial funds for our operating expenses before doing any more projects, so any additional funds raised will go towards these operating expenses. Let’s see how far we can go!
A big thank you to recent donors who helped put us over the top:
*Karen and Don Young for their amazing $7500 match. They really allowed us to reach that goal so much faster!
* Frank Milette of Magnetic & Penetrant Services Co., Inc. Frank is volunteer Cari Parker’s boss. Remember that big roll of pink paper? Cari saw the paper at work, thought of Jamie, and asked her boss if she could bring it to the sanctuary. As a thank you for letting her give the chimps the paper, Cari shared a photo of Jamie in her giant pink nest and a link to our website, and Frank immediately wrote a very generous $1,000 check!
*Barbara Bakeletz (Barb in Ohio) who donated $875 to get us to the $40,000 goal.
* Volunteer Stephanie Perciful, who raised $700 through the Pet First Aid Class she and her husband Tim taught last week. Thanks to all who attended the training and donated!
* Tamela Burgess has been “feeding the banana” for months by working really hard to produce amazing and sought-after jewelry for her Etsy store. Her total raised so far is over $1,500!
*A special thanks also to our monthly donors, who keep us going whether we are having a special fundraising drive or not.
*I don’t want to leave anyone out! There have been so many donors over the last two months, and I will be updating our donor list soon to reflect all of these wonderful folks. Everyone who has given any amount since March 17th has contributed towards the 2nd Anniversary Fundraising. Our success is thanks to all of you.
In November 2008, volunteer Dakotta, of the High Mountain Sustainable Project, and myself came out to build the sanctuary compost boxes in preparation for a garden in the future.
The ground around the perimeter fence is nothing but fill dirt. But, in spring of 2009, we got serious and 96 wheelbarrow loads of compost, manure and top soil later…
And man o’ man, was last year’s garden successful!
But it just keeps getting better! This year, we’ve built up the trails around the beds so that the soil stays nice and warm. We are also in the process of tearing down the straw compost boxes and replacing them with wooden ones.
We’ve also added more beds around the south side of the building so that the chimps can get a closer view of what’s growing in their garden!
Royal City’s Cloudview Ecofarms have donated tons of starts for this years garden, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, onions, and lettuce.
Because of all of our hard work this year, I am now officially calling myself, Dakotta, JB, and volunteer Denice the “Garden Committee”. With the help of all these individuals, we’ve landscaped the area around the chimps’ outdoor area, which will soon also include more garden beds of fast-growing veggies, like carrots, lettuce, kale, etc…
Can’t wait to show you all the finished product! We’ve come a LONG, LONG way, baby!! Thanks so much Dakotta, JB, Denice, the awesome folks at Cloudview Ecofarms, and everyone one else that has contributed. You guys are awesome and are helping us provide the chimps with fresh (and enriching) food!
Get your own copy of the book Sanctuary: Year One. Forward by Jane Goodall. Full of amazing photos of the Cle Elum Seven. Shop for all items in the online store.
