Sometime in 1968, criminal hunters killed the parents and caught two baby chimpanzees somewhere in an African forest. The babies were Quennie and Francis.

They were already “reserved” to a North-American, Mesker Park Zoo, in Evansville, for the price of USD 500 each. Months later, the zoo was already dealing them with another zoo, Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Park, in Colorado. And chances are that this zoo also “borrowed” them to experiments in labs.

Among zoos and labs, they were exploited for more than 20 years and gave birth to, at least, 10 babies, who were all taken out of them.

In 1996, Queenie and Francis were transferred to La Paz zoo, in Bolivia, which did not afford to take care of them. After 8 years, the zoo just decided to euthanize them, which was fortunately avoided due to the work of representatives of GAP Project in the USA and Brazil. The zoo was convinced to “donate” them to the Sanctuary in Brazil. Finally, in February 2004, they started their new life, enjoying the care and respect they deserved.Quennie spent the last 7 years of her life in peace and in the company of her long friend, Francis. Even though there was no more exploitation, she was not friendly to humans in general, for all the trauma she had suffered.

She left us on June 19, 2001, unexpectedly. She was almost 50 years old – https://www.projetogap.org/en/news/a-survivor-is-dead/