Touching video shows chimp seeing sky for first time after being caged for entire life
28.06.2023 - 08:07
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
This is the heartwarming moment when a chimpanzee survivor of a grisly laboratory experiment programme saw the sky in her new home for the first time. Vanilla the chimp looked delighted as she arrived at the sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida.
As reported by the Mirror, the 29-year-old chimp was once a victim of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York. Before it closed down in 1996, LEMSIP once housed around 300 chips and another 300 monkeys.
According to advocates for the animal Project R&R, chimps like Vanilla were denied outdoor access and kept in small cages. Vanilla lived there until she was two before she was taken to a much larger enclosure, the Wildlife Waystation in California.
Her Save the Chimps profile reads: "I spent my early years in a biomedical research laboratory in New York where chimpanzees were commonly housed in 5’x5’x7’ cages suspended from the ground like bird cages. I was among thirty chimpanzees to be sent to the Wildlife Waystation in 1995 where I joined a small family group."
She was kept there until 2019 when the refuge went out of business and was threatened by wildfires.
The profile explained: "In 2019, the Wildlife Waystation closed, causing nearly 480 animals to need to be re-homed, including 42 chimpanzees. I was among the final seven to be re-homed, and my family and I made the cross-country trip to Florida in a FedEx airplane, thanks to the FedEx Cares program.
"From Orlando, Pero Family Farms generously drove us to the sanctuary in a climate-controlled semi-truck. It took a lot of devoted people to make our move to Florida possible and now I look forward to calling this my forever home."
Vanilla was greeted by a big hug from alpha male Dwight as