By Patti Ragan, Director of the Center for Great Apes

Dear Center Family and Friends…

We’ve had a very special event this week, and I wanted to share it with a few of you before I tell about in our next Email Newsletter.

Four years ago, a tragic situation occurred at a small unaccredited zoo in Nebraska. Four chimpanzees out-placed from pet homes and the movie business ended up in that little zoo a year earlier. When the zookeeper there left the one lock on their cage open… the chimps realized it, and all four let themselves out and ran through the zoo. According to news reports at the time, they climbed trees and ran about exploring. They did not attack or bite anyone. The zoo manager chased the chimps down in his golf cart, shooting three of them dead.

One chimpanzee, Ripley, saw his younger brother (Tyler) shot… and then ran back into his cage and closed himself in.

A year earlier, Ripley had arrived in Nebraska from Hollywood where he appeared in many TV shows (including the Jerry Seinfeld Show). He grew up in the same entertainment compound where many of our chimpanzees here at the sanctuary were born and lived. But, when the trainer decided to stop working great apes in show business and then sent all his apes to us in Wauchula in 2005, Ripley had already been living at Zoo Nebraska for nearly a year.

When this sad news of the escape broke, I contacted the manager at Zoo Nebraska offering to take Ripley here immediately and reunite him with his father, brothers, sisters, and many companions he had grown up with. Additionally, zoo directors, curators, and professionals from several AZA accredited zoos and animal welfare organizations urged the Zoo Nebraska staff to send Ripley to the Center for Great Apes.

They never responded to us… and instead sent Ripley to a breeder in Missouri where he lived for the next 3 years. Since he didn’t breed there, they then sent Ripley back to California to another entertainment compound to be used as a breeding male. Ripley has been at that facility for over a year, but once again did not breed the females there.

So… that trainer offered to send Ripley (now 19) to Wauchula, and we readily accepted.

We are so glad to have Ripley here with his sisters Maggie and Bella… his little brother Mowgli… his former mate Jessie… and his only offspring, little Kodua. He’ll be in quarantine for a period, but I’ll update with photos as soon as he is reunited with his friends and family again.

Thank you for your support that has allowed us to change lives for these great (and, I do mean GREAT) apes!