Boat Loads of Food Shared by Hungry Chimpanzees Abandoned by NY Blood Center

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.care2.com/causes/boat-loads-of-food-shared-by-hungry-chimpanzees-abandoned-by-ny-blood-center.html

by Laura Simpson November 8, 2015 5:30 pm

A strikingly beautiful chimpanzee named Mae stretches out on the beach with her head on her elbows as she surveys the bounty in front of her. She takes her time at breakfast today, deciding which new fruits and vegetables look most tantalizing. Which might taste the sweetest? Which will be the most fun to open? She doesn’t rush her choice as the food delivery boat glides away with the promise of return by dinner time.

In recent months, hunger has been replaced with contentment for dozens of chimpanzee survivors of Vilab II in Liberia. The center was established 30 years ago to develop hepatitis B and C vaccines in collaboration with New York Blood Center (NYBC) and the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research (LIBR). Liberia’s close ties with the United States and large wild chimpanzee population provided an ideal location to build a research facility utilizing chimpanzees as non-human test subjects.


The chimpanzees were desperate for food when rescuers arrived.

Ultimately, when the chimpanzees were no longer needed, some were sent to bordering countries and others relocated onto six islands on the Farmington and Little Bassa rivers. The island have no natural habitat, food supply or fresh water. At that time, NYBC publicly announced its intention to offer permanent retirement to the chimpanzees, including funding for their lifetime care. For approximately ten years post-research, NYBC publicly declared that they were providing for the chimpanzees, but now all evidence suggests that the chimps were essentially abandoned on the islands, getting food and water as little as two or three times a week.

No One Knew the Chimpanzees Were Going Hungry

It wasn’t until last March, when the blood lab announced their decision to withdraw funding entirely, that animal rescue agencies discovered the depth of neglect that had gone on in secret for so many years.

FULL story at link.