|
April 05, 2008
Palm Beach Post
Chimps get second chance at Fort Pierce sanctuary
By SUSAN R. MILLER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
FORT PIERCE — Golf carts rumble across the potholed gravel pathways that wind through this 200-acre chimpanzee sanctuary.
The sound of excited hoots and pants reverberates through the air.
It's lunchtime and a cavalcade of employees is delivering cucumbers, apples and, of course, bananas in what could be described as a Meals on Wheels program for chimps.
Before moving here, most of the inhabitants ate only dry monkey chow and drank water. That's why fresh fruits and veggies are so vital to the residents of this abandoned orange grove-turned-chimpanzee sanctuary, says Carole Noon, the woman who has made Save the Chimps her life's calling.
Noon, a petite, no-nonsense woman with a sardonic sense of humor, created the nonprofit organization more than 10 years ago after the U.S. Air Force got out of the chimpanzee research business.
Most of the research subjects were sent to the Coulston Foundation, a biomedical research lab in New Mexico. After a yearlong legal battle, Noon was awarded custody of 21 chimps - survivors or descendants of the original chimps used in the NASA space program. Coulston, which had numerous Animal Welfare Act violations and was facing bankruptcy, sold the facility to Noon and donated the 145 chimps living there.
Other chimps that have outlived their usefulness as research subjects, pets or entertainers have since joined the group, which today numbers 288.
|
Dr Carole Noon, Founder of Save the Chimps
|
Noon's organization cleaned up the New Mexico facility and then got going on what today is a 12-island sanctuary in Fort Pierce. Each of the 3-acre islands is surrounded by water so the chimps can roam free, play on the wooden jungle gyms, swing on tires, hang out in hammocks or simply sit and watch the world go by. Each island also has a concrete building where the chimps go for their meals, lie in the shade and seek shelter during a storm.
Slowly, as introductions are made and new social groups are formed, the chimps are moved from New Mexico to Florida. So far, 136 reside in Florida on seven of the 12 islands. The remaining 152 in New Mexico eventually will move onto the five unoccupied islands.
But socialization doesn't happen overnight.
"It's like putting together a puzzle. You can get five together, and then the sixth you add throws off the group's dynamics," said Kelly Overton, managing director.
All of the introductions take place in New Mexico, and each chimp has to meet the others before a group is completed.
Before coming to Save the Chimps, many of the chimps lived their entire lives in isolation. That can take its toll. Fear, shyness and aggressiveness must be overcome.
"It's like taking a classroom of 10 from the city and moving them into the country," Overton said. "It can take a while for the chimps to adjust."
The most recent group of 10 came in October. The next group is expected within a few weeks.
It costs about $2,500 to transport each chimp in the custom-made trailer that can move 10 at a time.
Taking care of this many chimps comes with a pretty hefty price tag. The organization's annual budget is close to $4 million, which includes a quarter of a million for fruits and vegetables.
"When you divide that up into nearly 300 chimpanzees, it's a bit of a bargain," Noon said.
Though there are other chimpanzee sanctuaries, including Chimp Haven in Louisiana and Chimps Inc. in Oregon, Save the Chimps is the largest in the world, Noon said.
Room and board for each chimp costs about $10,000 a year. Money comes from private foundations and individual donors who can sponsor chimps, their meals and even their move to Florida.
"Financing is always going to be a challenge unless an endowment falls from the sky and hits me in the head," Noon said with a chuckle.
The decision not to open the sanctuary to the public was something Noon struggled with.
"What we came up with is that if we are going to say these chimps are retired, we have rescued them from exploitation, then it would be hypocritical to open the gates ... and say they are here for your viewing pleasure," Noon said.
Noon has one goal.
"The real job of a sanctuary is to go out of business having solved the problem that it was created for in the first place. This place was built to become obsolete someday."
But, she added, "It's not going to happen in my lifetime, or your lifetime, either."
When asked if there's one thing she would like people to know about chimps, Noon, who has worked with them for 25 years, grinned and said: "They have a sense of humor, they have a sense of self, they have personalities. I am looking at you, with a few degrees of DNA in a different direction."
Click here to view this article online at the Palm Beach Post.
 Click here to view a short video about Save the Chimps posted online at the Plam Beach Post.
| 
