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A R T I C L E S Feb 16, 2006 Alamogordo Daily News Going home: Research chimps make trip to Florida By Elva K. Österreich News Editor Two hundred sixty-six chimpanzees are going home to Florida. Beginning the migration from little box cages to grassy islands, Alamogordo's chimps are riding, 10 at a time, in a new vehicle built especially for them. The maiden voyage of the Save the Chimps rig began Wednesday as Peggy, Carrie, Melissa, Jake, Alice, Ebony, Christie, Garth, Tony and Mikey watched the former Coulston Research facility on LaVelle Road disappear forever. Each chimp has its own window seat to watch the world go by. "For the first time in their lives they are going to walk on grass," said Save the Chimps director Carole Noon. "No walls, no roof." STC in Florida is the first sanctuary in the United States devoted exclusively to chimpanzees, and is the largest permanent chimpanzee sanctuary in the world, according to a news release from the organization. The facility is providing lifetime care for chimpanzees rescued from research laboratories and former chimp owners no longer able to provide adequate care. "The vision of Save the Chimps is to create a sanctuary where rescued chimpanzees can live out their lives without the threat of ever returning to a laboratory," the release said. "To ensure that the chimps never return to a lab, Save the Chimps does not receive federal funding and survives solely on the support of private organizations and individual donations." The first phase of the "chimp migration" takes 10 chimps from the former research laboratory in Alamogordo to Fort Pierce, Fla. There, the animals will be introduced to a new colony of chimps before they are settled in to their island home at the 200-acre facility. This 37-hour journey from New Mexico to Florida is the first of many trips -- 27 to be exact -- that the STC trailer will make transporting chimps to the sanctuary. "We plan to have them all moved by the end of 2007," Noon said. When the migration is complete, all 266 research chimps will be retired to 12 three-acre islands at Fort Pierce. STC, formerly the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, acquired 266 chimps and the Alamogordo laboratory owned by the Coulston Foundation in 2002. Immediately after taking possession of the lab, STC began renovation of the facility. "They constructed a healthier and happier environment for the chimpanzees, including, for the first time in their lives, fresh food, enlarged cages, enrichment activities, compassionate caregivers and, most importantly, the establishment of social groups," the release said. "The STC team introduced the chimps to one another and allowed them to form family units. Their socialization in New Mexico will help make their transition to their new home in sunny Florida a natural one." As for the former Coulston facility, Noon has a few ideas. "We could turn it into some kind of museum where people could go and see (how research chimps are treated)," she said. "But this is not necessarily a thing of the past. Chimps still live alone in little boxes." Another option for the old buildings: "I'd like to knock them down," Noon said. "With me behind the wheel." ------ On the net: www.savethechimps.org | |||||||||||||||
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