Fauna Foundation

Fauna Foundation
3802 Chemin Bellerive
Carignan, Québec J3L 7M1
Canada

{sanctuaries-website
fauna.found@sympatico.ca

The Fauna Foundation was established as a not-for-profit organization in 1997 by Gloria Grow (Project R&R Honorary Co-Chair) and her partner Richard Allan, DVM. Fauna had rescued hundreds of domestic, farmed, and exotic animals for year prior to that, then in 1997, Grow responded to a plea to take in 15 chimpanzees from biomedical research, many of whom had been infected with HIV, from the now closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York. Since then, Fauna rescued four other chimpanzees from zoos, three of which had a history of use in research as children.

Life for Fauna’s chimpanzees has dramatically and continually improved since their arrival. In the laboratory, the majority of the adult chimpanzees had lived in 5′ x 5′ x 6′  cages, while the younger chimpanzees lived in even smaller cages designed for monkeys and baboons. Therefore, the sanctuary is committed to ever expanding the chimpanzees’ facilities and enrichment of their daily lives. Various projects have included the creation of an overhead “skywalk” tunnel system through which they can explore much of the property, and the building of lush islands that permit life without bars. At Fauna, the chimpanzees make choices, often for the first time in their lives – choices about where they will go, what they will eat, and whom they will befriend. Fauna currently has 12 chimpanzees in residence.

In recent years, Fauna grieved the deaths of Tom (2009), Sophie (2008), Jeannie (2007), Billy Jo (2006), Donna Rae (2005), Annie (2002) and Pablo (2001). Their sudden and untimely deaths were surrounded by complications and compromises in their health from decades of research. The loss of these seven special chimpanzees has made Gloria Grow an even stronger advocate for Project R&R as they remind us of the urgency to get the remaining chimpanzees out of U.S. labs before it is too late for them.

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