More CSNW in the News
Additional Newspaper coverage
Pant-hoots from Upper County’s newest residents--Cle Elum-Seven chimps arrive Friday, June 13
by Jim Fossett, Northern Kittitas County Tribune (Reprinted by permission of NKC Tribune, Cle Elum, WA)
CLE ELUM – Motorists along Route 10 listening for the echo of red tail hawk and osprey were surprised to hear instead – the hoots of happy chimpanzees.
Friday, June 13, at 9:00 a.m., six chimp girls and a boy rescued from a Buckshire Corporation lab near Perkasie, Pennsylvania finished a 2,800-mile cross-country trip via truck at Route 10’s Mile 93 Marker, where a small group of television and newspaper journalists had gathered, just outside Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (CSNW), the chimp’s 18,000-square foot, $285,000 retirement home. One CSNW official promptly dubbed the chimps – The Cle Elum-Seven.
Inside their new home, radiant concrete floors and a commercial-class electric heater hung from the ceiling warmed four bedrooms equipped with bunks and an indoor recreation room. Just outside, via a tunnel entrance, they can romp at will in an outdoor play area flush with pristine views of CSNW’s 26-acre spread.
Wrapped around the compound is an imposing electrified fence broken once by a giant, Jurassic Park-sized steel door, custom built in Minnesota. Inside the chimp house, doors between all the different areas are controlled by pneumatic pressure. You can here the familiar release of air as cage doors open and close.
After 30-years imprisoned in lab cages not big enough to house three or four good-sized bales of hay, and after countless injections of human viral strains and antidotes in a windowless, 200-square foot basement – the chimps apparently found freedom, friendship, and fresh air here in Kittitas County.
“They’re not exactly free,” said CSNW founding director Keith LaChappelle, whose farmhouse adjoins the chimp compound. “What they’re free from is hardship and abuse and a chance to live out their lives.”
Chimps are a life form living on the only known planet in the universe hosting life.
“That’s one of the many reasons they’re precious to us,” said Diana Goodrich, CSNW Director of Outreach.
Chimp caretakers working with Goodrich and LaChappelle at CSNW are J.B. Mulcahy, Director of Operations, and Sarah Baeckler, Executive Director. All are well-credentialed chimpanzee experts, apparently seeded with a passion for the Cle Elum Seven’s well being.
The Great Ape Protection Act was recently introduced in Congress to stop invasive testing on the 1,200 chimpanzees in American labs and to retire the 600 chimps still used by the U.S. government. Retired chimps are sent to sanctuaries like CSNW, which began in 2003 after founding director Keith LaChappelle became aware of the issue and wanted to help.
When the chimps got settled into their new digs, each was given a banana donated by Safeway.
“What’s that sound they’re making?” inquired a Westside TV journalist.
“It’s the pant-hoot,” replied Goodrich, with a smile. "It means they’re happy and contented – and we’re thrilled to hear them doing that.”
SIDEBAR
Teary Goodbye
Rich Shive, the caretaker who spent the last 20-years of his life caring for the Cle Elum Seven accompanied the chimps to CSNW.
“It’s bitter sweet letting them go, and it hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said, obviously struggling with his emotions. “When you think about the nine-to-five, I’ve literally spent more time with these guys than with my own family. Every morning for the last two decades,” he added, “I’ve woken them up and fed them breakfast. I’ve known the male, Burrito, since he was 4 years old. Known the others since they were in their teens. Missy’s my favorite,” he said. “She’s mild mannered and gives affection back. Inside the compound just now,” he laughed, “Missy wanted to groom me, so I let her take my arm and look for bugs.”