The Cle Elum Seven savor their new lives

CLE ELUM -- The Cle Elum Seven have been savoring the taste of freedom at a new chimpanzee sanctuary -- and it's delicious.

For most of their lives, these chimps didn't eat anything much tastier than protein biscuits. But since arriving at the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, they've been munching on ripe bananas, frozen grapes, juicy watermelons, crisp onions and even homemade lasagna.

This is one of 10 such sanctuaries nationally housing a total of nearly 600 chimps retired from biomedical experiments.

"We need these sanctuaries," said Roger Fouts, a professor of psychology at Central Washington University who successfully taught chimps American sign language in 1967. "Those chimps were in basements their entire lives."

At the lab, the chimps were never let out of their 3-by-5-foot cages without first being anesthetized, according to John B. Mulcahy, director of operations at the sanctuary.

Before 2000, many such chimps were euthanized after they were no longer needed. But that year, Congress passed a law requiring labs to donate their retiring chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

The Cle Elum Seven -- Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra -- were donated by the Buckshire Corp. of Perkasie, Pa., which leased them to labs for breeding and hepatitis B vaccine research purposes for more than 20 years. The chimps range from 25 to 35 years old and, on average, weight about 120 pounds.

"We have placed the last of our chimps at (the sanctuary) and have no intentions of acquiring any more chimps," said Sharon Hursh, the Buckshire director.

The Buckshire Corp. is one of a number of private laboratories that are letting go of their chimpanzees, in part due to a recent withdrawal of federal funding for breeding biomedical research chimps.

The $280,000 Cle Elum sanctuary sits atop a lush green hill overlooking the Yakima River. The 18,000 cubic-foot building was funded by private donations and grants, including $6,000 from the Ferguson Foundation and $3,000 from the ARK Foundation.

Four volunteers, who have extensive backgrounds working with chimps and studying primatology, take turns feeding and cleaning up after the chimps.

The building contains four interconnected front rooms and a large, two-story play area filled with toys and blankets donated by the surrounding community.

The walls of the play area offer plenty of high climbing space and are painted with murals of leaves, grass and trees so the chimps can feel more like they're frolicking in the wild.

Caretakers at the Cle Elum sanctuary said it's clear the chimpanzees, whose skin is loose, wrinkly and pale, suffered during their captivity.

Mulcahy said their livers and kidneys were repeatedly biopsied for toxicity measures after vaccines were given, and each of the female chimps was bred for multiple baby chimps that were taken away from them.

"There are a couple of chimps who definitely have some behavioral issues," said Diana Goodrich, the sanctuary's director of outreach.

Jaime has a bald patch on her stomach because she tends to self-mutilate by plucking her hairs. Foxie pushes away her blankets, choosing instead to sleep on bare concrete as she and others did in the lab. Goodrich said these behaviors are typical indicators of lingering stress.

Foxie also wanders around with a teddy bear, caring for it as if it were her own child. At the lab, six baby chimps were taken from her.

Goodrich said she is optimistic about the chimps' recovery.

At first, Burrito -- the only male in the group -- acted subservient to the females. Now that he has space to run around and display his masculine traits, he is moving up in the hierarchy like a normal male chimp.

Caretakers at the sanctuary said they hope research on chimps will disappear for good someday, but nine federal labs and various private labs still house more than 1,100 chimps.

A new bill was introduced in April to prohibit invasive research on chimpanzees and other great apes, permanently retiring them to new homes like the Cle Elum sanctuary, but it has not yet passed. One of the Great Ape Protection Act's sponsors, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., did not return calls seeking comment.

For now, Mulcahy said he and other caretakers at the Cle Elum sanctuary will do their best to inspire people to sympathize with chimps by informing them about their unique personalities.

For example, Goodrich said Jaime likes to pretend she's a human. She cleans up her mess with a mop, drinks water from a mug and spies on her visitors with a mirror when her back is turned. She has also been found with a red bow tied around her neck.

The caretakers have traveled to different schools in the area to implement educational programs about the plight of chimps around the globe.

Keith LaChapelle, the founding director of the nonprofit sanctuary, said they still need to raise more money for an outdoor enclosure they're waiting to build. It turned out to be more expensive than expected.

But a Target wish list Goodrich put online has brought in an endless stream of goodies for the chimps, such as trendy boots and a high-quality blender. Also, their refrigerator is overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables that Safeway donated.

At a median age of 30, the Cle Elum chimps will spend the rest of their lives climbing, chasing each other, playing tug-of-war and enjoying gifts from the public that they long served in the name of science.

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