New president champions for chimps

Cathy Spraetz, a native of Georgia, was recently recruited by the Chimp Haven Board of Directors as president of the sanctuary near Keithville.

“My background is nonprofit administration, not primates,” she said. When she arrived to see the facility, she said she had doubts. “I thought, ‘I’m a city girl, born and raised in Atlanta; this probably is not for me.’ When I walked up the steps, one of the chimpanzees was sitting on the highest perch in the play yard with his chin in his hand staring intently at me. It was as if he was saying, ‘Welcome to Chimp Haven.’ And I never looked back.”

Now, she’s looking ahead to some significant improvements in the facility of which many local residents are unaware, Spraetz said. Chimp Haven’s Master Plan calls for making the entire 200-acre property serviceable for its primary mission as a federally recognized chimpanzee sanctuary.

“The majority of our residents are previously research chimpanzees that have been retired,” Spraetz said. “These are primarily chimpanzees that have spent decades in research labs. They didn’t volunteer for that job. It’s only fitting that we, as a community at large, take care of these amazing creatures, realizing all that they have unwilling sacrificed for our benefit.”

A total of 166 chimpanzees live at the facility. The master plan allows for the care of 500. Spraetz said it costs approximately $6,400 a year per chimpanzee, and she said the sanctuary can’t survive without help from the community, not just locally but nationally.

“The National Institutes of Health owns these chimpanzees, but they only pay us 75 percent of the cost of their care. We have to raise the other 25 percent, and that translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Spraetz said. “And, there are more to come. We are expecting the National Institutes of Health to announce they are going to retire all federally owned chimpanzees from research. The recommendation is that they come to sanctuary.” This means the local sanctuary would have to expand to accommodate new residents because they are already full, she said. And there are more customers waiting in the wings.

“There are 60 more coming from the New Iberia research center,” she said. “We’re in the middle of a $5 million campaign to raise enough money to do some construction because we don’t have enough living areas. They’ve already been retired, and they’re just waiting to be transported to Chimp Haven, which we anticipate will happen in September.”

Chimp Haven is more than half way to the campaign goal, Spraetz said.

Age and disease are a factor in the cost to care for an individual chimpanzee, Spraetz said. Funding is needed to provide for their ongoing care because chimpanzees are subject to the same kinds of ailments and diseases humans have, she said.

Males have a greater risk of developing sudden cardiac arrest; many have kidney disease or diabetes. Some of the chimpanzees who have had less opportunity for sufficient exercise are more likely to be obese, Spraetz said.

In addition to needing the care of the on-site veterinarian and the vet tech staff, these require medication and the expenses that entails as well.

“We have a number of chimpanzees who were in AIDS/HIV research. One of the reasons that chimpanzees are not good research subjects for finding an AIDS vaccine is that they never develop AIDS,” Spraetz said. “When they are injected with the virus, their status is HIV positive; however, even [with that status] they have absolutely no symptoms. They can remain HIV positive for life with no impact on their health.”

Fortunately, she said, the AIDS medications the chimps receive have been provided to this point.

“One of the things that would be lovely is if we could create an endowment,” Spraetz said, “that provides continuing care for the chimpanzees.”

In the meantime, Chimp Haven will continue its regular Chimpanzee Discovery Days, on-site and schoolbased education programs, and opportunities for visitors to get a behind the scenes look at the care and housing of the chimpanzees who have contributed to human health, Spraetz said.

She said there will probably be no shortage of potential residents for the facility, and that’s what keeps her working.

“Very often people don’t value them.

You’d be surprised at the number of people who say why don’t you just euthanize them,” she said. They haven’t really thought about what that means.”

– Joe Todaro