Rita Miljo

Hello All,
I just returned from a sanctuary conference hosted by IPPL. I had the great honor to meet Rita Miljo the founder of CARE, a rehabilitation center for baboons in South Africa. She currently has about 300 baboons at the center, she is truly amazing. Construction at the sanctuary is moving forward rather quickly, we are installing the electric and heating this week. We then will be starting on indoor caging. We could use all of your help, if you are interested in volunteering or helping plan a fundraiser please contact us at primatesanctuary@yahoo.com.
Thank You
Scott

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Murderous Mary

There is a fascinating story at Blue Ridge Gazette that takes place in 1916 about a circus elephant named Mary, who was larger than Jumbo, the circus elephant at Barnum & Bailey. Mary killed her keeper and was hung from a crane used as a scaffold. The accompanying photos were taken from the Archives of Appalachia of East Tennessee State University.

Ringling Bros. established an elephant sanctuary in Florida 11 years ago and helped pass the Asian Elephant Conservation Act in 1997.

Circus elephants have pedicurists to take care of their feet. Read about Mike Hayward, a Ringling Bros. elephant pedicurist here. Like Mike Hayward, I used to draw pictures of elephants, altho I started drawing elephants at the age of 10.

While I enjoyed circuses very much as a child and stood fascinated outside my office around 10 years ago while I watched a long line of circus workers and performers walk to the train station, I don't think wild animals should be used in entertainment. Creating a sanctuary for their retired elephants was the right thing to do.

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JACKO EXCLUSIVE: FOR SALE - JACKO'S MENAGERIE

The following came via Monkeywire.

25 March 2006
Ryan Parry Us Correspondent In New York
HARD-UP Michael Jackson is desperately trying to raise cash by selling animals from his run-down Neverland zoo at bargain prices. The shamed pop star - said to be £150million in debt - has been ringing round Hollywood frantically trying to offload his neglected collection of tigers, elephants, orangutans and giraffes. An insider said: "Michael's fortune is nothing like it used to be. "He's desperate for cash and is offering the animals for a fraction of what they're really worth. He needs money fast."

The source said Jacko even approached "V for Vendetta" producer Joel Silva, offering him two giraffes for £6,250. They would normally fetch around £25,000 each. Jacko is advertising his £15,000 tigers at £3,750 - and two £35,000 elephants for just £9,000 each. The 47-year-old singer also has a £5,000 crocodile on sale for a snip, or rather a snap, at £1,250. A camel, alpaca and a number of llamas have already been repossessed. But Jacko still has a group of £10,000-a-head orangutans which he's trying to flog at a quarter of their true value. The star, who has been living in Bahrain since being acquitted on child sex abuse charges in June 2005, was ordered to close down his Neverland ranch last week after failing to pay staff or renew insurance policies.

Labour officials in Calif ornia shut down the 2,800-acre estate and fined Jackson £99,400 - further adding to his financial troubles. The animals are currently being looked after by state officials. But last night welfare groups called for them to be farmed out to charitable organisations.

Jackson bought Neverland - in the rolling hills of Santa Barbara County - for a reported £11.3million in 1987.
One of the zoo's previous inhabitants, Bubbles the chimp, became his most famous companion and moved into the main house with him. But he wore out his welcome and is now said to be living at a sanctuary in Sylmar, California.( Just to correct a bit of misinformation in the article: Bubbles is in an approved sanctuary in Wachula, Florida.)

In 1991, Jackson's close friend and confidante, actress Elizabeth Taylor - who donated an elephant to the Neverland menagerie - married seventh husband Larry Fortensky at the ranch. Children were frequently invited to the zoo, including child star Macaulay Culkin and others selected by charities with which Jackson was involved. One wide-eyed youngster g asped: "It's fantastic. Just like Disneyland - but you've got it all to yourself."
mirrornews@mgn.co.uk

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Water & Thirst

A 3 year drought in Kenya has driven elephants out of Tsavo East National Park, cattle herders in and increased conflict between wildlife and humans and humans with each other as all search desperately for water.

"Kenya's worst drought in a decade is having a devastating effect on national parks as humans and animals compete for increasingly scarce natural resources... Wildlife is straying out of the parks, and cattle and herdsmen are straying in as each tries to search wherever they can for food and water... The parched earth and rising dust signal growing conflict between animal and man. What little food remains is being fiercely fought over...Three years of failed rains has stripped the park of vegetation; where there should be wildlife, there is cattle...Grazing cattle in national parks may be illegal in Kenya but herdsmen who bring their cows in from outside are desperate and prepared to risk arrest... Julius Chiptea, senior warden, says three years of failed rains has fuelled a conflict between animals and man.

Read more at BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Drought threat to Kenya's parks.

Amboseli National Park has allowed Maasai herders in and is turning the park over to the local tribesmen. Conservation groups have sued to stop the turnover.

"Kenyan officials recently bent stringent conservation regulations to allow cattle into the Amboseli National Park -- the only permanent source of water in the region -- to help the Maasai save their precious livestock from a punishing drought... The drought has begun to kill animals in wildlife sanctuaries and is driving elephants from national parks and game reserves to search for food and water near human settlements...

Amboseli is essentially a huge salt lake that fills with water during the rainy season and dries up in arid months, except for the swamps and streams that provide water for wild animals, migratory birds, cattle and people. The water comes from rain and melting snow from Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain, which dominates the skyline from neighboring Tanzania.

The Maasai say they are happy they will be able to set new priorities regarding access to water and pastures for cattle and wildlife once control of the park changes. They plan to press the county council to open more parts of Amboseli to livestock.

Amboseli makes more money than all but one of Kenya's 59 national parks and reserves. Six of these make a profit and finance conservation in others. Taking Amboseli from the Kenya Wildlife Service would hurt the less popular sanctuaries, said Maina, the agency's spokeswoman.

Kenya is not the only East African nation struggling to ensure that wildlife and people can share water and land. Ethiopian authorities have relocated members of local ethnic groups from the Nech-Sar National Park and handed over its management to a private firm.

The Netherlands-based African Parks Foundation is expected to take over Ethiopia's Omo National Park, home to the Mursi, very tall nomads famous for the huge clay plates inserted into the lips and earlobes of the women.

Ethiopia's government says it needs to develop the tourism industry, which is Africa's second-largest source of foreign exchange after oil.

In Tanzania, conservation workers are concerned that officials are studying an application by a Dubai-based businessman to build a hotel on the route of the annual migration of more than 1.5 million wildebeest, zebras and other grazing animals.

The planned hotel in the Serengeti National Park would violate a ban on building permanent structures inside national parks."

Read more at People Vs. Wildlife in Parched Kenya.

From www.islam-online.net:

"At least 40 people, mainly children in northern Kenya, have died of drought-related malnutrition and associated illness since December along with thousands of livestock. But many more have died in tribal warfare over grazing lands and water sources.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki had declared the drought a national disaster and the UN had appealed for more than 230 million dollars in emergency food aid donations. The UN estimates that 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Burundi will need food aid to survive the drought.

In Somalia, dehydration has killed at least seven people in the past month as severe water shortages from the drought force many to drink their own urine, according to aid group Oxfam International. In the worst hit regions of Somalia, people are already surviving on three cups of water a day for washing and drinking - one 20th of the recommended daily minimum.

Heat, starvation and diseases have affected hippos, zebras, wildebeest and gazelles. East Africa should now be preparing for the migration of the wildebeest - the biggest movement of wildlife in the world - but instead, the animals are slowly starving.

Hippos, which need large quantities of mud to cool their bodies, have begun to die and 60 bodies have already been found. Anthrax has killed off herds of the endangered Grevy's zebras, thought to have caught the disease from cattle grazing near their habitats.

Wild animals are spooked by Masai herdsmen who have driven their cattle into the nature reserves searching for a few patches of grass where their livestock can feed. Wildlife rangers have tried to protect wild animals by stopping pastoralists driving their cattle into the national parks."

Kenya's most vulnerable population, their children, are dying from starvation. An Oxfam worker is blogging from Kenya right now. (the above photo of a zebra at Hell's Gate National Park, Navaisha, Kenya was taken by Antony Gitonga for www.eastandard.net)

Hello visitor from www.senate.gov! 4 hits in 2 days!

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Endangered Species Act: Senator Durbin Vs. Senator Obama

I emailed Senators Durbin and Obama regarding the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and here are their replies (I added the bold to emphasize the contrast in their positions):

from Senator Durbin

"I share your interest in preserving endangered species. The loss of plant and animal species due to human activities has important implications for our future. The Endangered Species Act has played an important role in the preservation of many species threatened with extinction. This will be one of the most important legacies we leave to future generations.

Most recently, the House passed the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act (H.R. 3824) by a vote of 229-193. This bill would make the biggest changes to the Endangered Species Act since it was first enacted more than 30 years ago. The legislation would eliminate critical habitat requirements, allows the Interior Department to set requirements for the science it uses, and create a program to compensate property owners if steps to protect species thwart development plans.

Many people have expressed concerns that this bill would eliminate important protections for species and provide what in effect would be large subsidies from the government to affected property owners.

This bill has been referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. I am not a member of this committee, but I will continue to keep your concerns in mind as I work in the Senate to protect our nation's endangered and threatened species.

from Senator Obama

"The goal of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 is to conserve and protect both the species that are threatened or in danger of extinction and the ecosystems upon which they depend. It currently protects more than 1,200 animal and plant species, of which approximately 25 are found in Illinois. The law can become controversial, however, when projects that may conflict with the ecosystem of species listed as threatened or endangered are proposed in a particular area.

I strongly support the goals of the Endangered Species Act, which has paved the way for a number of species - - such as the bald eagle - - to return from the brink of extinction. However, during the past 30 years the Endangered Species Act has not always worked perfectly. With all of its accomplishments, we have learned not only what works, but also what is ineffective. Consequently, the Endangered Species Act needs to be updated and improved. And that means moving past rigid ideological positions so that we can reach consensus on the right solutions.

As a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which has jurisdiction over the Endangered Species Act, I will closely consider and evaluate all good-faith proposals to improve the implementation of this law - - within the scope of ensuring that the accomplishments of this law are not undermined. You can be sure, therefore, that your comments will weigh heavily in my evaluations."

Senator Durbin understands the meaning of 'endangered" and "protect". Senator Obama views these words as "rigid" and "ideological'. I've already emailed Mr. Obama regarding my lack of support for him. He will not get my vote in anymore elections. You've lost me, bud.

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Not For Sale

I forgot to go to Holy Angels gym to vote in the primary yesterday!

So, in the interest of elections and campaign issues and videos of Judy Baar Topinka doing the polka with George Ryan, I am presenting the following issues of interest to primates and nonprimates alike. ; )

NO REAL APES Jane Goodall and the Chimpanzee Collaboratory are campaigning against the use of real apes in movies and TV. Unfortunately, this campaign does not include other animals. But, it's a start in raising people's awareness on how apes are treated when they are used as "actors". This has come up on the blog before. I've posted here and here about Hollywood and apes.
THE SELLING OF OUR NATIONAL FORESTS The Senate unfortunately passed drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. This bill is now in the House. Now, it looks as tho our national forests are next. The following is from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Bush administration wants to sell off an astonishing 300,000 acres of our national forest lands across 35 different states -- to pay for its mismanagement of America's finances.

We need your immediate action to stop this raid on our natural heritage, which would sacrifice some of our nation's most treasured wildlands, including irreplaceable expanses of several NRDC BioGems.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp and tell the U.S. Forest Service to withdraw this proposal to sell off any part of our national forests for the sake of funding budget shortfalls.

The Bush administration has cynically put forward this national forest sell-off as a fast way to raise millions to pay for a rural schools program that has run out of funding.

America's rural schools deserve financial support -- but destroying our legacy of national forests to pay the bills is unconscionable.

The Bush administration's lengthy list of "Forests For Sale" includes prime habitat in Montana for bears, elk and wolves; popular recreation spots in Alaska's Tongass National Forest; old-growth forests in northern California; wildlife-rich ecosystems in the Appalachians and hundreds of other natural treasures.

Logging companies, real estate developers and other commercial interests are already lining up to start the bidding.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/takeaction.asp and tell the Forest Service to protect these priceless wildlands for all Americans, present and future.

Thank you for helping to protect the legacy of America's national forests.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
NRDC Senior Attorney

This is from an LA Times editorial piece by T.A. Barron called Where the Roads End:

Despite all the land-eating sprawl, oil and gas development and population growth we see around us, the United States still has a bounty of unprotected roadless areas totaling almost 60 million acres. That amounts to one acre for every five people in this country. It is a precious gift, that open land, both for ourselves and for future generations. The great question we face today is whether we will keep it — or squander it.

Starting almost three decades ago, the U.S. Forest Service began a process to determine the fate of those 60 million acres. Unlike the majority of our national forests, which are already open for industrial uses, these lands lacked any roads. But they also lacked any long-term protection as designated wilderness areas. They were the last of the nation's untouched, unplanned, unzoned real estate. And the time to decide their fate had finally arrived.

What ensued was a remarkable exercise in democracy. Spanning more than 20 years, the process included official review and broad citizen participation. The Forest Service held more than 600 public meetings across the country and received a record-breaking 1.7 million official comments. This totaled five times more comments than we had ever witnessed in the development of any other federal rule. More than 95% of these comments supported the strongest possible protection of our nation's roadless lands.

The result? The Roadless Area Conservation Rule was issued in 2001. It firmly protected the 60 million acres in question. But this amounts to only 30% of our national forests, leaving most of the rest open for timbering, extractive industries and energy development.

Enter the current Bush administration. On May 13, 2005, it announced the summary repeal of the Roadless Areas Conservation Rule. Why? The official reason was to give control to state and local authorities (even though these lands belong to all Americans). The real reason, however, was to encourage more aggressive timber sales, oil and gas drilling and mining. All those years of democratic debate, hearings and public comments went right out the window — and into the ever-growing scrapheap of administration efforts to undermine our nation's environmental laws and natural heritage.

The new Bush rule invites states to file petitions describing their own management plans, which opens the door to development of these areas. And if the state plans turn out to be too favorable to conservation, the Forest Service isn't obligated to approve the petitions.

Even so, the people of this country have pushed back. More than 250,000 people have signed a citizens' petition to restore the 2001 rules. In California, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Maine and Montana, a group of state leaders are legally challenging the administration's shortsighted policy.

Outrage over the Bush reversal is steadily growing. Many people cherish their roadless places and want to protect them. Just as important, they understand something that President Bush and his allies do not: Such places belong to all of us, including generations to come, not just those who happen to live in the state where the public land is found.

Express your outrage over the loss of our national heritage, our wild places, our public lands by emailing your Congressman (so easy to do at Contacting the Congress) and signing petitions, like the ones above. We vote, businesses don't. We have the power.

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A Better Place

This link: The Austin Chronicle: News: A Better Place will take you to an August 5, 2005 story on Primarily Primates and Wally Swett, the founder.

Many visitors land here because of Oliver. Oliver is a resident of Primarily Primates and the story, while not about him, mentions a little about him.

If we lived in a perfect world, we would have no need for zoos and sanctuaries. Zoos offer hope for the future and sanctuaries, a refuge from the past. Together, they offer a better place for wild animals who day by day are losing their place in this world.

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Thanks for Stopping By!

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth this year at the Pet Expo! We had repeat visitors from last year, visitors who check our website periodically and visitors who met with us for the first time! Many Pet Expo visitors were excited that a primate sanctuary is in our area!

I forgot to bring my camera! We were in a very nice location, next door to the Rainbow manufacturer of air cleaners (their 1955 air cleaner looked exactly like mom's canister vacuum cleaner which used water) and a German Shepard rescue and across from a doggie-doo clean-up company and a hedgehog rescue.

We are finishing Phase I of construction this month and entering Phase II. We need your help to complete Phase III, a home and office for Scott and volunteers, before the end of the year. Please email us if you can donate your time, talent or $$. If you're an animal, primate or baboon lover, consider us in your estate planning. If you'd like to join our mailing list, please email us. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of your donation goes towards the sanctuary. If you have any questions, please let us know! We are happy to answer questions!

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Quiz Time!

OK, time to test your MONKEY knowledge!

Here are links to 2 primate quizzes, one easy and one very difficult!

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022106 @ Lincoln Park Zoo

Here are some photos I took on a bright, winter Saturday at the zoo:


Tigers once lived as far north as Siberia, as far west as Turkey and as far south as Indonesia. Today, they are found in shrinking pockets of forest habitat. These 2 tigers are grandsons of Tiger # 2 of the joint Soviet-United States Siberian Tiger Project. Peter Matthiessen wrote Tigers in the Snow about the Amur or Siberian Tiger and the surviving cub of Tiger #2, Lena, who was rescued and went on to live at the Indianapolis Zoo. I heard Lena passed away 2 years ago. The rocks in front of the viewing window are heated!
Here is Kowali, a Western Lowland Gorilla, and her 7 month old, Amari, taking a break. I think this is known in yoga as the "I'm tired and you ain't going anywhere" pose.
Here is a view south overlooking the waterfowl lagoon.

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Chicagoland Pet Expo March 17, 18 & 19

We're going to be at the Chicagoland Pet Expo next weekend for the 3rd year in a row! Please stop by our booth if you plan to visit the expo. It's at the Arlington Park Racetrack. I'm working the event but I also plan to do a little shopping for some kind of climbing structure for my 2 silly cats, Giselle and Maude.

The Chicago Sun-Times article on the coyote population was picked up by the Smithsonian magazine! This piece of news came from our friends at Gapers Block.

Good news to report about the sanctuary! Our sanctuary is near completion of Phase I. Phase II is right around the corner and involves a very expensive item, fencing, which is made of steel, which doubled the cost of our contractor's estimate because steel prices went up. Phase III is the most expensive, $90K, because it involves Scott's living quarters and offices.

Scott is attending the International Primate Protection League meeting in South Carolina later this month. He will be meeting Rita Miljo who started a baboon sanctuary called Care in South Africa 18 years ago. You can view more photos of Rita and Care at Brilliant Creatures. Way back on April 11, 2005, I did a little post about her here. But, she really deserves repeated mention for the great and hard work she is doing, rescuing and rehabilitating baboons.

Your donations and in-kind contributions are very much needed to keep going! We're near the finish line! We really depend on your support. We have baboons, former pets, circus performers and lab research animals, waiting for the completion of their new retirement home. We would like to begin accepting baboons by the end of the year and with your help, we can do it!

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