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CNN...
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Laboratory chimps get a new lease on life
By Kim Segal and John Zarrella, CNN
updated 4:50 PM EDT, Sat April 21, 2012
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Save the Chimps spent nearly a decade rehabilitating chimps from the Coulston Foundation
The 266 chimps were used as medical research test subjects until 2002
The animal welfare group recently transported the chimps to a sanctuary in Florida
It's the first time these chimpanzees have lived outdoors
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PHOTO:
More than a decade ago, more than 265 chimpanzees -- including Howard, pictured here in 2002 -- spent their days at a New Mexico medical research facility being poked, prodded and confined to small cages. Then, the Save the Chimps foundation intervened. After nearly a decade of rehabilitation, the chimps were transported to a 150-acre sanctuary in Florida. CNN went along with the last group as they made the journey and experienced their first time outdoors.
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PART ONE...
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Alamogordo, New Mexico (CNN) -- Shortly after her birth, Moesha was taken away from her mother and sent to a laboratory for a life of medical testing.
Like the 265 other chimpanzees at the Coulston Foundation's facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, Moesha would be poked and prodded in the name of medical research. Moesha was one of the lucky ones: She survived. Others were not so fortunate. Three chimpanzees housed at the Coulston Foundation were literally cooked to death when their enclosures heated to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
When federal authorities found out about the facility's mistreatment of these animals, it lost its funding and went bankrupt.
That's when a team of animal welfare experts stepped in and changed these chimpanzees' lives forever.
With the help of a $3.7 million grant, the Save the Chimps organization purchased the facility in 2002 and transformed it into the world's largest sanctuary for chimpanzees. It would serve as temporary housing for the chimps until the organization could create a more permanent outdoor sanctuary in Florida.
But first, Moesha and the others -- isolated for most of their lives -- would have to learn how to live as family units. And that process would take nearly a decade of rehabilitation.
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Learning to become chimps again
One of the first priorities in rehabilitating the chimps was modifying their cages, known by the Save the Chimps team as "the dungeon." This gray, concrete structure housed 54 chimpanzees, most of them crammed into small, individual cages. The cages where the rest of the chimpanzees were housed weren't much bigger but they shared the space with another animal or two.
"It was six months of cutting doors into six-inch thick concrete walls so that chimps could actually see each other for the first time and meet each other for the first time," said Save the Chimps sanctuary director Jennifer Feuerstein.
Even with the new doors and skylights, the dungeon still had a dark feel to it, and resembled a concrete block of prison cells. Once the buildings were modified, the care of the animals became routine and the team began to slowly create diverse family groups for the chimps.
"The ultimate goal was forming family groups of 20 to 25 chimpanzees," explained Feuerstein, "We did it by introducing one chimpanzee at a time, so we're talking over the past 10 years thousands of thousands of introductions."
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CONTINUED...
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.CNN...
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Laboratory chimps get a new lease on life
By Kim Segal and John... more
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