SOROCABA SANCTUARY
 
VITOR: A REAL SURVIVOR
 
Vitor was born in a Chimpanzee breeding place in Morrete, Paraná, almost ten years ago, son of Lulu and Flint. His left arm was hurt due to a dispute between his mother and another female who lived with her. When he was five days old, weighting only 1,72 kilos, Vitor was anesthetized in a surgery room in "Pequeno Príncipe" Hospital, in Curitiba, an excellence centre to children treatment.

His left arm was amputated from his forearm down. Four days later, fever and infection took him again to the surgery room to get an amputation up from the forearm, closer to the shoulder.

The veterinarians and human physicians that reported the case, maybe unprecedented in the world, have published their extraordinary surgical work in magazine Archives of Veterinary Science, mentioning that a new anesthetic methodology with a larynx mask had been used in the chimpanzee’s surgeries. Due to the great similarity of breathing systems of chimpanzees and men, the methodology was used in this case.

After his miraculous recuperation, Vitor was sold to a circus. The circus maintained him for about seven years before deliver him to us. When Vitor arrived we were deeply chocked and until nowadays we get astonished with how he managed to adapt to live without his left arm, acting normally in all kinds of situations. Vitor traveled, for years, in a small truck of only nine cubic meters all over Brazil, imprisoned in chains and with a small window to see the world in from of him. Despite everything that he suffered, Vitor is a happy being. Whenever we arrive early to take him the yogurts and his favorite fruits in the morning, he receives us with a big smile and a hug.
 
Vitor lives alone, he is afraid of other chimpanzees. He was attacked twice by Martin, just after his arrival, and knew how to defend himself. But he was marked by that aggression. He has a tunnel that he uses to sleep, dismissing the bedroom, and in his opened area (with electric fence), we built a special platform so that he can climb 10 meters high, in safety. In two years, Vitor double sized. For months he was under a treatment to heal a chronic infection in his left ear. We manage to heal it and he collaborated a lot, letting us do the aids twice or three times a day. There is a possibility that this infection had been accompanied him for years and must had driven him crazy with pain for a long time.

A few days ago we took him to Guga’s territory, which comprehends an area with electric fence that used to be a soccer filed. It still has the goal marks and connects to the school and to the house of the sanctuary. When he entered he asked to grab my hand, so that I would take him to visit all the area. Jealous, Guga saw everything in distance. After all the territory recognition, he asked me to play get and run, a game that a lot of chimpanzees like very much. We played until my breath took away and then I let him alone in a place that was not his, just for a few minutes more.

When I see him strong, happy, laughing and playing, I remember of the impact I sensed when I saw him for the first time. In the first moment I did not cry, because the people from the circus were there. But then, some hours later, alone with him, observing him and gaining his trust, I could not control tears, a mixture of anger, sadness and happiness, because that fantastic being fought to survive as anyone else. He struggled not to die when he kept on being taken, without proper care, to one place to another of the country, until he finally arrived at his destiny – as many others of his brothers in the sanctuary, who got rid of slavery and now and ever will be free from human dominance.
 
Reference: http://ojs.c3sl.ufpr.br/ojs2/index.php/veterinary/article/viewFile/3880/3120
 
Dr. Pedro A Ynterian
President, GAP Project International