GAP Project Spain are reporting back German Schwaben Park Zoo, located in the woods Welzheimer, 45 minutes northeast of Stuttgart, which abuses of 44 chimpanzees according to a well-documented denunciation of the organization Animal Equality, in Germany.

At first , the Zoo , which uses chimpanzees in a circus show, accepted to transfer the primates and stop exhibiting them. In negotiation with GAP Project International, which offered to receive a group in its affiliated sanctuaries in Brazil , they began to establish conditions to perform the transfer , as if they treated well the primates .

GAP Project put as a condition to go there to inspect the situation and decide what was possible to be done, and how the chimpanzees could be transferred and where to .

The German Environment Ministry has so far not made ​​a definitive pronouncement, nor made ​​a decision on disabling that Zoo or the prohibition of that humiliating show with chimpanzees .

The statement of Proyecto Gran Simio (GAP Spain,) about the mistreatment committed against these chimpanzees documented by Animal Equality shows chimpanzees practicing coprophagia , self – mutilation , repetitive movements – all product of stress , etc. .

The director of GAP Spain , Pedro Pozas Terrados , made ​​an appeal : ” The Spanish primatologists Spanish, as well as the ones on Max Planck Institute,  in Germany, who perform a lot of study on the cognitive abilities of great apes , need to be involved in this fight and not allow these circus shows with chimpanzees . ” And he adds : ” Not only should they conduct studies of behavior in the wild or in captivity , but they must beyond, must protect them and defend their fundamental rights . ”

Finally , Pedro Pozas asks: ” If we do not protect the captive great apes and those who are free in the wild , what are the studies of primatologists and scientists for? For massaging their ego ? One could not exist without the othert , so it is needed to make a common front to prevent this barbarism to continue. ”

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President , GAP Project International