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Stories and victories of GAP Project International’s president
posted in
23
Feb
2010
Published at ANDA (National Agency of Animal Rights) website
Microbiologist and businessman Pedro A. Ynterian could not imagine how much his life would change after buying Guga, a three-month-old baby chimpanzee, in 1999. His idea was to raise him in the apartment he lived in São Paulo, but after a little while the Cuban/Brazilian naturalized citizen realized that having a chimpanzee as a pet made no sense at all. Then, he assembled a adequate captivity enclosure in the farm he had already a conservation reserve in Sorocaba, countryside of São Paulo, and dedicated to get other chimpanzees to be Guga´s partners and friends. This was the beginning of the first great primates’ sanctuary of the country. As a result, he got deeply involved in the matter of protection and defense of the great primates’ rights and the affiliation to GAP International Project – Great Ape Protection. The activities related to mistreating denounce, rescues of animals and promotion of information became so notorious that since September 2008 Brazil is the headquarters of GAP Project International and Dr. Pedro was elected its president. In Brazil, GAP has fours sanctuaries affiliated to it, among them the one in Sorocaba. Together, they host more than 70 chimpanzees and others animals confiscated and rescued from circuses.
ANDA – Were you the one who started GAP Project in Brazil? How did everything begin?
Pedro Ynterian: When we started the Great Primates’ Sanctuary in Sorocaba we began to see the sad reality of the abuse committed against the great primates in Brazil, especially chimpanzees. We contacted GAP Project International, at the time in United States, and asked for the representation in Brazil. They gave it to us in 2000.
ANDA – What is the most astonishing story witnessed during this period you have been living with these animals?
Pedro Ynterian: Maybe one of the most astonishing was the fact that we were able to give back chimpanzee Hulk his sight. He lived for 30 years without being able to see, because his eyes were burned in a circus so he could be controlled and used. A surgery, made by one of the most renowned eye doctor of Brazil – Dr. Walton Nosé – as a volunteering work made it possible. Hulks’ happiness of being able to see again, for being able to see where they were and see other chimpanzees – by that moment he only heard them – was one of the greatest emotions of our lives.
ANDA – What is the origin of the animals that are in GAP and for what kind of things they have passed through?
Pedro Ynterian: The great primates who are in the four Brazilian sanctuaries affiliated to GAP came from circuses, zoos and private and commercial breeding centers. All of them have deep scars of abuse and mistreating. At the same time circuses hurt chimpanzees physically, pulling out teeth, castrating them and hitting, zoos destroy their mental serenity, turning them to be mental disturbed beings. Maybe they can overcome physical violence, but the mental made them give up and they just recovery partially. Someday humanity will understand what it means to a sensible and intelligent being as a chimpanzee to be submitted for hours and hours, in small enclosures, to human harassment. It is a humiliation with no means and those who defend it, for personal or corporative money profit, should be submitted only for a week to this treatment, so they can feel their guilty and someday the society charge them for it.
ANDA – Sorocaba sanctuary is opened to receive other animals apart from great primates. Do you think there is a lack of options in the country to receive animals victims of exploitation?
Pedro Ynterian: We opened Sorocaba sanctuary to felines and bears as a way to demonstrate to society what circuses do with all the animals, not only chimpanzees. At the same time, we collaborate with environmental authorities, which today do not have replacement areas for hundreds of felines, abandoned by circuses and that zoos, not following their obligation, do not accept to host. Taking care of felines and bears is much more simples than taking care of great primates. To felines, there is no variation on the food and if the enclosure is adequate, they do not cause any problems. In the case of tigers and bears, it is necessary to offer a swimming pool with treated water, which made it more complex. If there was fund – public or private, with a medium cost an efficient sanctuary for lions could be built and this would solve the problem of several animals who suffer today for not having a place to go.
ANDA – How the NGO is run? Does the project receive donations? Do you do partnership with companies and the government?
Pedro Ynterian: The sanctuaries are run with funds provided by the families that own it. There is no public or private fund or international support for the maintenance of the sanctuaries. And this is unique in the world, because the majority of the sanctuaries that we know are supported with society and organizations donations. GAP Project has a small on line shop that generates some fund, but is sustained by volunteer word of its members and by the economical support of the sanctuaries owners.
ANDA – The sanctuaries are not opened to visitation, trainning jobs or volunteers in the field, to guarantee the welfare of the animals. What’s your opinion about places opened to the public?
Pedro Ynterian: The sanctuaries, that in Brazil are classified as “Wild Exotic Fauna Maintainer”, do not allow public visitation to guarantee the privacy and the integrity of the life of great primates and other animals who live there. Public visitation é the main source of disturbance that can exist for any animal, especially for great primates, due to their similarity with us – they understand that they are being used for human amusement. The concept of zoo – and the way it exists today in Brazil and a lot of other countries – does not accomplish its real function. They host a very diverse group of animals in small spaces and they are submitted to the public harassment, which turns them to be a kind of caricature, not what they are in reality, in the wild. About the argument that they teach people, this is fake, because it educates our children in a wrong way by showing beings that are not anymore representative of their species. They are disturbed and completely modified in their reactions.
ANDA – A lot of people believe that, to preserve a species, it’s necessary to reproduce the animals in captivity or “protect” them in zoos. What’s your opinion about that?
Pedro Ynterian: We think that, in sanctuaries, a controlled reproduction – and depending on the financial conditions to maintain it – should be allowed. In zoos it should be forbidden, because it means to generate more disturbed beings who do not have anything in common with the original species. In the case of chimpanzees, the reproduction inside familiar groups in sanctuaries is very important to support the health of the group. When a baby is born the energy of the group changes, the adults become more responsible and boredom is reduced, because a baby and a young chimpanzee excites everyone with plays and activities. We should also consider that felines – that reproduce more quickly – must have a controlled reproduction in places that are prepared to maintain them. We must be aware that exist less than 15 thousand lions all over Africa and the estimation is that they are extinguished in the wild in 10 to 15 years, like tigers and other wild cats. If we do not create a mechanism to preserve the species in captivity – because in the nature men are uncontrolled – in a few years we will only be able to know these beings in films.
Pedro Ynterian: We think that, in sanctuaries, a controlled reproduction – and depending on the financial conditions to maintain it – should be allowed. In zoos it should be forbidden, because it means to generate more disturbed beings who do not have anything in common with the original species. In the case of chimpanzees, the reproduction inside familiar groups in sanctuaries is very important to support the health of the group. When a baby is born the energy of the group changes, the adults become more responsible and boredom is reduced, because a baby and a young chimpanzee excites everyone with plays and activities. We should also consider that felines – that reproduce more quickly – must have a controlled reproduction in places that are prepared to maintain them. We must be aware that exist less than 15 thousand lions all over Africa and the estimation is that they are extinguished in the wild in 10 to 15 years, like tigers and other wild cats. If we do not create a mechanism to preserve the species in captivity – because in the nature men are uncontrolled – in a few years we will only be able to know these beings in films.
ANDA – What´s the best way to help and to protect wild animals? How can the society collaborate with the preservation and the welfare of the species?
Pedro Ynterian: The big challenge is to protect the animals in their habitat. We fight for that, but I am not optimistic about what we will be able to reach. The biggest enemy of all is the profit generated by the areas where they live and it’s more than demonstrated that it is very hard to fight against the power of money. African, Asian and Amazon countries, which still have a variety of their natural fauna, do not have the needed awareness for preservation and the majority of the politicians consider the animals – who do not vote or support them – the last choice, which results in sacrifices with no mercy in the name of power. Anyway, we can not give up hope and sustain our mission and fight, denouncing and alerting through every possible way and about all our needs, if we want to defend the Planet in extinction. The first ones we should defend are the ones that arrived here before us: the animals.
ANDA – Which message do you wish to leave, based on these 10 years of experience with the Project and contact with the animals?
Pedro Ynterian: The main message is that, after 10 years of fights and victories, it was worth it. Throughout these years we rescued chimpanzees from circus, a part from zoos and commercial breeding centers. We helped, together with other organizations and people, to convert Brazil in a country almost free – and soon it will be – of circuses with animals and showed that this means the preservation of the integrity of living and sensible beings. The message we have promoted and will continue to defend – and which we hope will touch the heart and minds of young people – is that when you see an animal being mistreated, no matter where it is, do not accommodate and fight against the ones who cause suffering to million of innocent and defenseless beings. To sum it up, joy our fight.
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