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Chimps at Humane Society Sanctuary Barely Get Outside. What Happens Next?

August 4, 2021 by Leave a Comment


The News

Project Chimps, a 236-acre forested chimpanzee sanctuary in Georgia, features picturesque hiking trails, beautiful banquet facilities and festive events for visitors. What it does not feature, however, is far more remarkable: daily access for the chimpanzees to the 236 forested acres. Access to the forested habitats is so limited, in fact, that the 77 chimpanzees who live at this Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) facility get outside for just a few hours once every three days. It’s the antithesis of a chimp-centric sanctuary.

When, in May 2020, 22 Project Chimps’ employees and volunteers blew the whistle about this and several other serious animal welfare deficiencies at the sanctuary, local and national animal advocacy groups began to privately – and then publicly – demand that HSUS transform Project Chimps into a true sanctuary that meets the standards set by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS).

Before the whistleblowers came forward, animal advocates believed that Project Chimps was a true sanctuary. The photos and videos that Project Chimps posts online each day show chimpanzees moving freely through a lush habitat and basking in the sun — not languishing in concrete rooms. “The images of former research chimpanzees enjoying their ‘retirement’ don’t resemble their day-to-day lives behind bars,” said Lindsay Vanderhooght, a whistleblower who Project Chimps sued for defamation. “Images that depict the true conditions in which the chimpanzees live wouldn’t bring in donations, so Project Chimps is engaging in greenwashing.”

Project Chimps’ social media posts give the impression that the chimpanzees spend their days outdoors.

While Project Chimps does acknowledge that the chimps have access to the habitat just once every three days, it claims that the “porches” where the chimps spend their days are also outdoors. This is not true; the porches are covered concrete rooms that merely have a view of the outdoors through metal bars.

Project Chimps claims that the chimpanzees have access to the outdoors every day on “outdoor porches,” but the porches are covered concrete rooms with metal bars

According to animal caregivers who worked at Project Chimps, the incessant confinement in overcrowded spaces with minimal enrichment has triggered and/or exacerbated stereotypic behaviors, such as hair plucking, feces smearing, pacing and swaying. After whistleblowers posted videos of these behaviors, Project Chimps attempted to downplay them in a blog post entitled, “Is Anyone Normal?” While Project Chimps accurately states that chimpanzees display these behaviors if their environment doesn’t enable them to fulfill their behavioral needs, it doesn’t acknowledge its role is causing these behaviors and the gravity and extent of the problem at its own facility. 

Project Chimps posted an article about abnormal chimpanzee behaviors without acknowledging its role in causing them

Project Chimps occupies 236 acres, but only six of them serve as an outdoor habitat for the chimpanzees. This habitat is divided into two yards. Each day, Project Chimps rotates one group of chimps into each yard for a few hours. Because Project Chimps currently has five groups, each group has access to a yard just once every three days.

For the past several months, advocates have asked Project Chimps to implement a temporary fix until additional yards are created. Instead of rotating one group of chimps into each yard in the middle of the day, Project Chimps could rotate two groups of chimps into each yard every day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That schedule would give the chimps access to the outdoors four or five times per week instead of two or three times. 

Another temporary fix would be to split the six acre habitat into five yards instead of two – one yard for each of the buildings (“villas”) that house the chimps. That would provide the chimps with unfettered access to the outdoors every day. 

If Project Chimps split the six acre habitat into five yards instead of two, then all of the chimps could have access to the outdoors every day instead of every three days

Over the past year, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), an advocacy group that litigates on behalf of captive animals, has issued several public statements calling on HSUS to give its clients Hercules and Leo, who they liberated from a lab, daily access to an outdoor habitat. Following are excerpts from its first statement, posted in October, 2020:

“In 2018, after Hercules and Leo arrived at Project Chimps, we wrote to Kitty Block, president of HSUS, on behalf of our clients and presented our serious and well-founded concerns about Project Chimps’ capacity to provide appropriate care to Hercules and Leo, especially regarding daily access to an outdoor habitat, which is essential to chimpanzees’ ability to exercise their autonomy and their physical and psychological health. Ms. Block dismissed our concerns, writing that HSUS is ‘confident that Project Chimps will devote the resources necessary to provide the best lifetime care to all of the chimpanzees at its sanctuary, including Hercules and Leo.’”

The Nonhuman Rights Project is calling out the Humane Society for its failure to fulfill the promises they made to Hercules and Leo after they were liberated from a lab.

“We have learned and Project Chimps does not dispute, that Hercules and Leo are confined to an indoor housing structure with cement floors and an enclosed porch all but ten hours a week. Project Chimps’ Executive Director told us they expect the earliest they will receive daily outdoor access is in two years. In our view, this timeline is an unacceptable failure to live up to Project Chimps’ founding promise: lifelong exemplary care for chimpanzees retired from research.”

The Nonhuman Rights Project is calling on The Humane Society of the United States to provide its clients, Hercules and Leo, with daily access to an outdoor yard.

In June, Project Chimps posted an article written by an artist who painted a mural inside of a chimpanzee enclosure: “Murals Enrich Lives of Endangered Chimps in North Georgia.” According to chimpanzee caregivers, murals might serve as a distraction for a few minutes, but they wouldn’t enrich the lives of the chimps any more than murals in zoos enrich the lives of those captive animals. True chimp-centric enrichment engages the minds and bodies of the chimps who, by virtue of living in captivity, cannot perform the activities that would keep them engaged in their natural habitat. Also, paintings of elements from nature or the animals’ natural habitat can frustrate the animals, who crave the real thing. To the tourists passing through and people on social media, however, the decorative walls leave a better impression than flaking grey paint on concrete.

In the article about murals, the Executive Director of Project Chimps, Ali Crumpacker, states, “They [the chimpanzees] gave so much to humanity. It’s time to give back.” Warehousing chimpanzees in concrete rooms (with murals) is not “giving back” to them. It is taking away what few pleasures they could have in captivity. In response to Crumpacker’s remarks, Cory Mac, an organizer in the campaign to help the chimpanzees, said, “Painting murals is a cynical waste of resources; the time and money spent on these projects should have been devoted to chimp-centric activities. Also, the chimps never “gave” themselves to humanity. Their freedom was taken away from them against their will.”

The murals on the walls at Project Chimps are no more enriching for the chimpanzees than zoo mural are for the captive animals who are put on display

Despite the fact that the chimpanzees spend their days in concrete rooms, HSUS has used its PR machine to lead the public and its donors into believing that Project Chimps is a true sanctuary, and The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) is enabling HSUS to perpetuate this falsehood. GFAS, a global sanctuary accrediting organization, continues to accredit Project Chimps despite the fact that it does not meet many of the standards it sets for great ape sanctuaries. In fact, whistleblowers at Project Chimps identified 21 examples.

Whistleblowers documented 21 conditions at Project Chimps that fail to meet GFAS standards for great ape sanctuaries. Click the illustration to see all 21 conditions.

Puzzled by the GFAS accreditation, TheirTurn researched the relationship between GFAS and HSUS and identified several conflicts of interests, outlined in detail in another article. In short, GFAS is comprised of people affiliated with HSUS; has administrative ties to HSUS; and is partially funded by HSUS. How can GFAS make unbiased assessments of an HSUS sanctuary if HSUS is one of its donors? 

GFAS defines a sanctuary as “any facility providing temporary or permanent safe haven to animals in need while meeting the principles of true sanctuaries: providing excellent and humane care for their animals in a non-exploitative environment.” GFAS knows that the chimpanzees are not receiving excellent or humane care. Project Chimps doesn’t even have a veterinarian on staff with primate experience. It also knows that, by transforming Project Chimps into a tourist attraction, HSUS is not creating a “non-exploitive environment.” 

Click image to play video

In May 2021, Project Chimps held a ribbon cutting ceremony – with no sense of irony – to announce the opening of new hiking trails for visitors. “The hiking trails are one of many amenities designed to entertain visitors, but true sanctuaries are created for and designed around the needs of animals, not visitors,” said Bob Ingersoll, a primatologist who advocates on behalf of captive chimpanzees. “If Project Chimps is going to hold a ribbon cutting ceremony, it should be to announce the creation of new outdoor yards or a clinic for the chimps, not a tourist concession.”

At Project Chimps, HSUS has prioritized amenities for tourists ahead of some of the basic needs of the chimps.

On July 2nd, 2021 Kitty Block, the CEO of HSUS, issued the following statement in response to a letter-writing campaign calling on her to improve animal welfare at Project Chimps: “The HSUS has clearly communicated that we agree with Project Chimps’ longstanding plan to build out its facilities and staff to support more time in outdoor habitat space for all the chimps at the sanctuary, and that we’ll be directing our future financial support of the sanctuary toward those priority needs.”  While advocates are glad that HSUS is finally acknowledging the need to build yards for the chimps, Ms. Block’s statement begs many questions:

  1. If Project Chimps was meant to be a sanctuary where “chimpanzees will thrive” and “make their own decisions on how they live,” then why didn’t HSUS create sufficient outdoor areas six years ago — before they began bringing in the chimpanzees?
  2. What is HSUS’s plan and timeline to create new habitats?
  3. What steps will Project Chimps take now to increase outdoor time in the existing habitat?
  4. Why does the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) continue to accredit a sanctuary that provides its animals with so little time outdoors and that prioritizes amenities for tourists ahead of the some of the basic needs of the animals?

Despite the fact that it didn’t have outdoor space for the chimpanzees util 2018, Project Chimps began bringing in chimpanzees in 2016.


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HSUS’s Chimpanzee Debacle

April 6, 2021 by Leave a Comment


The News

In June 2020, I posted an article entitled “Why I’m Blowing the Whistle on HSUS” in order to raise awareness of the plight of chimpanzees at two sanctuaries run by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) – Project Chimps in Georgia and Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in Liberia. Both are plagued by substandard facilities, deficient veterinary care and unqualified management. At Project Chimps, the residents are held in concrete rooms for all but about 10 hours a week because HSUS has not created enough enclosed yards on its “236-acre wooded habitat” to be able to provide the 77 chimps with daily access to the outdoors. Instead of acknowledging and fixing these serious, systemic problems, HSUS has used its PR machine to minimize them or deny that they exist. It has also used its lawyers to silence and intimidate those who speak out.

Precious, a chimpanzee at Project Chimps

In May 2020, HSUS inadvertently shined a national spotlight on Project Chimps by suing two women who came forward with credible and extensive evidence of animal neglect. Appalled that HSUS would sue whistleblowers (an intimidation tactic typically associated with big animal ag), animal advocates around the country, including several with expertise in captive primate care, stepped in to support the whistleblowers and amplify their calls for reform at Project Chimps.

Project Chimps, an HSUS sanctuary, sued former employees Crystal Alba and Linsday Vanderhoogt after they came forward publicly with evidence of animal cruelty

Despite not having visited Project Chimps, I believed the whistleblowers – not only because of the evidence they provided, but also because I saw the same problems during my two visits to HSUS’s chimp “sanctuary” in Liberia. There, HSUS is overseeing the care of over 60 ex-lab chimpanzees who the New York Blood Center (NYBC) moved to islands on a river when they no longer needed the chimps for experiments. Despite having received a $6 million check from NYBC in 2017 and hundreds of thousands of dollars in large and small donations from the public since 2015, HSUS has not built any desperately needed infrastructure on the islands.

National Geographic published an in-depth story that corroborated their allegations.

In October 2020, The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), an organization of animal rights lawyers who represent captive chimpanzees and elephants, took the unusual step of issuing a public statement calling on HSUS to improve animal welfare at Project Chimps. NhRP was particularly distressed by the fact that Hercules and Leo, chimpanzees who they freed from a laboratory, did not have daily access to the outdoor habitat. HSUS dismissed their concerns, arguing that the concrete porches where they spend their days are outdoors.

HSUS claims that the 77 residents of Project Chimps have daily access to the outdoors, but advocates believe this is misleading because the “porches” are enclosed concrete rooms

The Nonhuman Rights Project issued a public statement demanding that Project Chimps provide its clients, Hercules and Leo, with daily access to the outdoors

On March 21st, NhRP marked the three year anniversary of Hercules’ and Leo’s arrival at Project Chimps by issuing another public statement, this time asking its global network of supporters to call on HSUS CEO Kitty Block to provide Hercules and Leo with daily access to the outdoors. NhRP and PETA, which also issued a statement, must have agonized about publicly criticizing another animal advocacy group, but, by repeatedly dismissing the concerns they raised in private, HSUS left them with no choice.

The Nonhuman Rights Project is asking its supporters to call on HSUS CEO Kitty Block to give the chimpanzees the choice to spend their days in the forested habitat

Primate community stakeholders (sanctuary directors, primatologists and veterinarians) are aware of the systemic failures at Project Chimps, but they have not spoken out publicly. That can be attributed to a desire to avoid infighting or, more likely, to a fear of retaliation. HSUS is well known in the animal advocacy community for using its resources to intimidate and silence its critics. It used its lawyers at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a global law firm with 12 offices in the U.S., to represent Project Chimps in its lawsuit against the whistleblowers. (HSUS ultimately dropped the suit, but not before the whistleblowers spent $30,000 on legal fees, a very large sum for young people earning a modest sanctuary salary.)

Fear of retaliation also helps to explain why former Project Chimps employees, who bonded with the chimpanzees, have been silent for the last year. Their fear of violating their termination agreements, however, could be outweighed by their desire to help the chimps.

The Nonhuman Rights Project is calling on The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to provide its clients, Hercules and Leo, with daily access to an outdoor yard.

A conflict of interest could also explain why stakeholders in the primate sanctuary community have been silent. Many receive monetary and/or non-monetary support from HSUS that they cannot afford to turn down.

Since writing my first article about the plight of the chimps in HSUS’s care, advocates have asked me why HSUS, an organization whose mission is to protect animals, is failing the animals in their own care. I can only surmise, based on my experience at its chimpanzee sanctuary in Liberia, that HSUS doesn’t want to spend the money to transform Project Chimps into a real sanctuary. This frugality is inexcusable not only because of HSUS’s considerable wealth, but also because the organization has raised millions of dollars off of the plight of captive chimps.

The 77 chimpanzees at Project Chimps have access to an outdoor habitat for approximately 10 hours per week. They spend the remainder of their days in concrete porches that HSUS and Project Chimps describe as “outdoors”

Over the past several months, outside inspections that revealed serious deficiencies have left HSUS with no choice but to publicly acknowledge problems at Project Chimps in Georgia, but the organization has downplayed the problems as minor. If HSUS were to acknowledge the seriousness of the problems, then it would be forced to make the necessary investments and to acknowledge that the whistleblowers who they sued were right all along.

Continued public pressure will ultimately compel HSUS to fix the systemic failures at Project Chimps, but shouldn’t HSUS have wanted to live up to its promise to provide a “great home for retired chimpanzees” in the first place?

Progress For Science, a Los Angeles-based animal rights group,  protests at the Santa Monica home The Humane Society of the United States board member Steven White over the mistreatment of animals at its Project Chimps sanctuary

In order for HSUS to uphold the mission of Project Chimps “to provide lifelong exemplary care” to the chimpanzees in its care, it must do the following:
  1. Begin constructing additional yards on its 236 acre forested property so that the chimps have access to the outdoors every day instead of every third day.
  2. Rotate two groups of chimps (instead of one) into each of the two yards every day (one group in the morning, and the other in the afternoon) so that the chimps have access to the outdoors between 4 and 5 times each week.
  3. Hire an Executive Director who has chimpanzee experience; who instinctively prioritizes the welfare of the animals and who has the respect of his or her peers in the primate sanctuary community.
  4. Hire a veterinarian and vet tech who have chimpanzee expertise.
  5. Appoint two people to Board of Directors of Project Chimps who have captive chimpanzee experience and are willing and able to function independently from HSUS.

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Animal Rights Groups Call for New Leadership at HSUS’s Project Chimps

January 25, 2021 by Leave a Comment


The News

Multiple animal advocacy groups are calling on the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to replace the current leader of its chimpanzee sanctuary with an Executive Director who has chimpanzee experience (petition). The sanctuary, Project Chimps, was thrust into the national spotlight in May, 2020, when 22 employees and volunteers sent a letter to the Board of Directors to sound the alarm about poor veterinary care, overcrowding, a lack of sufficient enrichment and infrequent access to the outdoors.  The death of Alex, a chimpanzee whose symptoms were ignored by Project Chimps leadership, has created an added sense of urgency around this demand.

“While Project Chimps has made some cosmetic changes as a result of increased public scrutiny and primatologist Steve Ross’s blistering critique of its welfare management programs, the organization’s leadership continues  needlessly compromise the health and wellbeing of the chimpanzees,” said Crystal Alba, a whistleblower who the organization sued in 2020. “Until it is managed by someone who has chimpanzee experience and who prioritizes animal welfare, Project Chimps will continue to fail the chimpanzees in its care.”

In January, 2020, HSUS conducted an internal investigation of its sanctuary after receiving complaints about animal mistreatment by employees. In her report, Katie Conlee, HSUS’s  Vice President of Animal Research Issues, wrote, “the root causes of various problems appear to be inadequate management.”

The Humane Society’s internal investigation of Project Chimps revealed that “the root causes of various problems appear to be inadequate management.”

An inspection conducted by an external expert in October and November also exposed deficiencies in the organization’s leadership. Dr. Steve Ross, a renowned primatologist, gave Project Chimps a D grade (67%) on its welfare management programs as part of his highly anticipated assessment of the sanctuary. Welfare management programs are the responsibility of the organization’s leadership.

Dr. Steve Ross, a renowned primatologist, gave Project Chimps a D grade on its welfare management programs, which are the responsibility of the organization’s Executive Director

In 2020, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took the unusual step of issuing public statements calling for reform at Project Chimps, though neither made specific recommendations regarding the organization’s leadership.

Animal rights groups, including The Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), have called on HSUS to improve animal welfare at Project Chimps

At Project Chimps, the 78 chimpanzees have access to an outdoor habitat for approximately 10 hours per week. For the remainder of the time, they are held in concrete enclosures. Local and national animal advocacy groups are calling on Project Chimps to create additional habitats so that the chimps have daily access to the outdoors.

Roxy and Lindsey, two of the 78 chimpanzees at HSUS’s Project Chimps facility in Georgia

 

 


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Animal Rights Activists Protest HSUS Board Members in NYC and LA Over Animal Cruelty at Project Chimps

November 13, 2020 by Leave a Comment


The News

Several dozen animal rights activists in New York protested at the Upper East Side home of Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) board member Sharon Lee Patrick over her ongoing refusal to address the inhumane living conditions at Project Chimps, an HSUS sanctuary in Georgia. The protest came just one week after Los Angeles-based activists with Progress for Science staged a similar protest at the Santa Monica home of another HSUS board member, Steven White, who is a managing director of the international investment firm Angelo Gordon.

Activists began protesting HSUS board members in July, 2020, after less confrontational approaches failed to compel HSUS to acknowledge a litany of animal welfare issues raised in a letter to the board sent by 22 people who either worked for or volunteered at Project Chimps. The welfare issues cited in the letter include poor veterinary care, overcrowding, rushed chimpanzee introductions, a lack of sufficient enrichment and infrequent access to the outdoor habitat.

Among the most contentious issues raised in the letter is infrequent access to the outdoors. According to the whistleblowers, the 78 chimpanzees at Project Chimps can access the outdoor habitat for just 10 hours a week. They spend the rest of their waking hours in enclosed concrete rooms that HSUS and Project Chimps describe as “porches” that are “outdoors.” This deficiency triggered the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), a renowned legal advocacy group, to issue a public statement calling on HSUS and Project Chimps to provide the chimpanzees with daily access to an outdoor habitat.

Excerpt of Project Chimps statement addressing animal mistreatment allegations

During the summer of 2020, National Geographic, which learned about the whistleblower allegations, conducted its own investigation of Project Chimps and published their findings in an in depth story on July 9th. In a letter to the editor, Project Chimps argued that the article was biased and excluded their side of the story.

In addition to protests, animal rights activists are using social media to expose the inhumane living conditions at HSUS’s Project Chimps facility in Georgia

In late October and early November, activists with several grass roots animal rights groups, including Progress For Science and Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), sent letters to the corporations sponsoring HSUS’s annual fundraising gala asking that they confront HSUS about the cruel conditions at Project Chimps. Among the major corporations that have not yet responded are the insurance behemoth Liberty Mutual and PVH Corp, which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and several other luxury fashion brands.

Liberty Mutual, a sponsor of HSUS’s annual “To The Rescue” fundraising gala, ignored letters sent by advocates soliciting their assistance with HSUS

On November 7th, Project Chimps posted a statement on its website defending against specific allegations made by the activists. In the statement, Project Chimps does not validate any of the welfare concerns cited in the letter to the board sent by 22 former employees and volunteers.


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Activists Protest Annual Canadian Pig Wrestling Festival

August 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment


The News

Animal rights activists in Canada led by Humane Society International are protesting an annual pig wrestling festival that attracts 35,000 people and brings $4 million to the local economy.

News & Opinion

Do we really need to terrorize these innocent, intelligent pigs by chasing and wrestling them in a field of mud for sake of entertainment?   Thanks to the animal rights movement, the use of animals in entertainment will eventually be banned.  In the meantime, we must all continue to be a voice for these pigs, the killer whales held captive at Sea World, the bulls who are stabbed in bullfight arenas, the elephants beaten in submission at circuses and the horses forced to pull carriages in congested urban areas.  If you absolutely must harm an animal to amuse yourself, buy a fucking piñata. Learn more about animals exploited for entertainment and see how you can help.


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