Resources & Archives An Important Sanctuary Rises in Florida; Retired Air Force Chimps to Enjoy A Place in The Sun Photo courtesy of: The Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care (Summer 2000) — There is a new 'center' for good news and goodwill taking shape in southern Florida. And NEAVS is proud to be playing a significant role in supporting The Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care's efforts to relocate 21 Air Force chimpanzees who were formerly used in research and then condemned to lives of imprisonment, abuse, neglect and further experimentation. Said NEAVS President Theodora Capaldo, EdD, "For more than a century, NEAVS has espoused an ethically and scientifically sound idea: that all animals should be spared the indignities and horrors of experimentation. Support of the Center's work - to rescue and relocate our primate cousins - provides NEAVS with a wonderful opportunity to directly aid in the rescue of individual animals who need our help right now!" The Center's Sanctuary lies 12 miles west of the south Florida coastal town of Ft. Pierce, home to three college campuses, a marine field site of the Smithsonian, and the internationally recognized Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. The site is convenient to Ft. Pierce for students and Sanctuary staff, yet rural and private for chimpanzee residents. The 150-acre site is dotted with citrus trees, scrub and gentle clearings. There will be an Introduction Building for new residents and Group Housing facilities. Both the Introduction Building and the Group Housing facilities will include outdoor areas for climbing, swinging, and other enrichment opportunities. (Visit the Center's Web site: www.savethechimps.org for a closer look.) "We at NEAVS salute your vision and determination," Capaldo told Center Project Director Carole Noon, PhD. NEAVS Advisory Board member Roger Fouts, PhD, who is world famous for his work on communication and chimpanzees, also serves on the Center's Board. "Dr. Fouts' support of the Center's work speaks volumes as to the many positive achievements to come and to Dr. Noon's commitment to 'doing the right things in the right way'," said Capaldo. "NEAVS will continue to put pressure on the government to, at long last, 'do the right thing' and provide care and sanctuary for the dozens and dozens of animals still warehoused in deplorable conditions," Capaldo said. "With the Center's work, NEAVS' work and the work of many other organizations of goodwill and resolve, these very individual beings will no longer be anonymous statistics and potential victims of further research. Instead, they will spend their days free of the threat of vivisection, loneliness and neglect." Back to UPDATE 2000 Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 Summer mainpage.