Well, there it is.
I recently took a job at a primate sanctuary (as fundraising director) and it has been a truly eye-opening experience. It is certainly unlike any job I have ever had. I thought talking about it might lead to some interesting conversation.
In what way has this new job been eye-opening?
Do you get to interact with the primates? What kind of primates?
how many animals are there? are they generally being rescued from bad circumstances? what kinds of primates are they? what are your eyes opened about?
Right now we have 170 primates. They are all New World primates, meaning white-faced and tufted capuchins, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, tamarins, and marmosets. Most of them are capuchins.
They are indeed being rescued from bad circumstances. They come primarily from two sources - “pets” relinquished or confiscated from overwhelmed/neglectful owners, and monkeys retired from laboratory research. Probably the most eye-opening thing has been gaining a deeper understanding of just how truly awful we are to animals in general. Monkeys are a good example of how we have commodotized other living beings. With breeders, infants are torn away from their mothers within hours or days of birth, and since monkeys form close family bonds, this is actually quite traumatic for them. We have one who had to watch her babies starve to death because they were taken from her and placed in another cage before they were old enough to eat on their own.
Most of the monkeys here have special needs as a result of life in captivity. Some of them have diabetes as a result of being fed a lifetime of ‘‘people’’ food, and we have some amputees because monkeys in captivity have a tendency toward self-mutiliation. We also have blind monkeys, paraplegic monkeys and elderly monkeys. Many of them are missing their teeth because apparently that’s a thing owners do - remove their monkey’s teeth to reduce the chance of injury when bitten. They have depression and anxiety and some are on SSRIs. Our saddest monkey is probably also the sweetest - he was found on the side of a road with large bald patches all over him - it is believed he was severely burned. He had to have one eye removed so now he is this tiny scrawny hairless monkey with one eye, he looks like an old pirate.
I don’t think most people realize the extent to which primates are still used in research. At least, I didn’t. One of the monkeys here is facing a lifetime of health problems after his use in iron toxicity studies. These are monkeys who were in labs for decades, were 30 years old (which is quite old by monkey standards) before they ever met another of their own species or saw the outdoors.
Then they get here, where they have as natural a habitat as reasonably possible and companions to hang out with, and they are transformed. It’s really quite astonishing to see.
I do interact with the monkeys. I talk to them and watch them but I cannot touch them. We have a no-touch policy here with the exception of the vet techs. Nobody goes into a cage with a monkey. Primates can be quite dangerous and we have a lot of volunteers so safety is of primal concern.
If you think about it, most people work for a primate sanctuary one way or another.
Regards,
Shodan
Perhaps I should have specified non-human primates. 
95% of animals used in research are mice, rats, or zebrafish. So relatively speaking, very few primates are used in research. However, they are still important in many infectious disease studies. Without the use of primates, medical advances would be severely limited in many fields.
It’s basically a necessary evil.
What is the end goal for the monkeys? Will they live their lives out at the sanctuary or do they go someplace else once rehabilitated?
This has always been my understanding as well, but a lot of animal rights advocates argue that animal research isn’t really as effective as proponents would have us believe. I have a number of studies on my current reading list that purport to provide evidence for this. I’m still quite ignorant on that subject so I’ll leave it at that.
As for the latter part, the ‘‘necessary evil’’ part, I would say that’s been my attitude for most of my life. Learning more about primates has made me second guess it because they are really quite intelligent and their capacity for suffering is readily apparent. It raises all kinds of sticky ethical issues I have only begun to confront.
The most recent statistic I get is 117,000 nonhuman primates currently used in lab research. It might be a small percentage of all lab animals, but that’s a lot of monkeys. A lot of institutions have phased out of primate research in part because of growing public outrage, and actually that’s how we get our lab monkeys. When institutions decide to shut down their programs, they give them to us. We also get ‘‘retired’’ monkeys - the ones deemed too old or in poor condition to be viable subjects.
Also, lab monkeys live terrible lives. The only law that really influences ethics in laboratory research is the Animal Welfare Act, and it basically gives research institutions the responsibility of policing themselves. Researchers are also free to withhold pain medication, anesthesia, etc. if they deem it scientifically necessary to do so. As a result, there may be no effort to minimize suffering. Since most monkeys used in research are bred for that purpose, many of them never see the world beyond a lab. The more I think about it, even in the most humane circumstances, it is still pretty horrific.
There are goals for some to be released into their native habitats, depending on the circumstances, but for most of them, this is not an option, and they will spend the rest of their lives here. The sanctuary secures the funding for full-time care for the rest of the monkey’s natural life before it takes one in.
Aside from humans,Chimpanzes are the only animal I am afraid of… All other primates make me uneasy… Odd,huh.
I was going to ask, “do you have any lemurs?” (I love lemurs – think they’re extremely cool); but your above, answers that.
Dreadfully sad reading, save for the last line – seems that we don’t do well by our cousins. I had gathered that monkeys-as-pets is in the main not a good idea, for the pet or the owner; generally accepted wisdom being – if it’s a thing you absolutely must do, have several (monkeys being very social creatures); and find a way to have lots of room for them to do their thing in.
Full disclosure, primates have freaked me out for most of my life too. Mostly because they’re so weirdly like humans but then not like humans at all.
I am, however, learning to appreciate them.
But you’re right to be afraid of them. Primates can be very dangerous. Which is why it’s pretty risky to have one as a ‘‘pet,’’ and why the sanctuary as a general rule strongly discourages keeping them as pets. A lot of our volunteers and staff are people who thought they would make great pets and turned out to be very wrong. But having developed a bond with the little critters, they visit with them here on a regular basis and find this arrangement better for both parties.
We have one group of monkeys here who were former pets. They got loose and attacked the housekeeper, putting her in the hospital for several weeks. It was either death or sanctuary. Thus here they are.
And – re your post #12 – keep them and the housekeeper, well apart …
Do you have any former zoo monkeys? Or former circus monkeys?
Do you have to clean up their droppings? How similar are they to human turds?
I think we have one monkey who was in the entertainment industry. I’m not sure what the history is though. We were actually trying to acquire Justin Bieber’s monkey (for real) but there were legal complications so that fell through.
The cages are cleaned twice a day and droppings taken to the dump. I have never seen monkey poop because this place is kept spotless and odor free.
Ook?
Congratulations on your new employment adventure, Spice Weasel! Do you hold fundraising events? How do you get your message out to donors?
Does your sanctuary have breeding programs? If so, what happens to the offspring? If not, what forms of contraception are used to prevent unwanted pregnancies? Do you know how the sanctuary decided on its stance on captive breeding?
What do you think of your sanctuary’s communication and outreach efforts? Will you have any input into this side of the business? I’m thinking specifically of the anti exotic pet message - something really difficult to promote, since exotic pet owners see themselves as unique and special, and that the advice against exotic pet ownership doesn’t apply to them. (Yes, I have some experience in this area!)
Are the funds you raise earmarked for specific purposes? For instance, could donors offer a certain gift with the proviso that it only goes to husbandry of existing resident animals, not legal costs or land acquisition or whatever else your organization spends money on?
Thanks for the thread, lots of great questions and answers.
Yay, development questions!
Actually this is the million dollar question. I was hired because they feel they are at an impasse, fundraising-wise, and with plans to expand the sanctuary with an additional 100 monkeys we really need to build capacity. Fundraising for a sanctuary has a lot of inherent challenges, given that it’s kind of a niche thing. You would think that universities turning their monkeys over to us would be all too happy to contribute to the cost of care, but no, that actually happens very rarely. The vast majority of our funds come from individual donors. One of the first orders of business as development director is figuring out who these people are and what motivates them to give. Our biggest donors seem to be people who owned monkeys and now have them living at the sanctuary.
I have a lot of grantwriting and database management experience, but I’m new to the world of individual donor solicitation. So in addition to hiring me, the sanctuary also hired a consultant who is training me how to do all this. Currently we’re doing outreach at local retirement homes by giving a presentation about the work we do, and then later in the fall we are going to have an awareness event on site - not soliciting funds at that point, just letting potential donors get to know us and what we do. Honestly the easiest way to get donations is to bring people here to meet the monkeys. When people come to this place, they are amazed and inspired because it is beautiful and animals and humans alike are very happy. We are in a remote location surrounded by nature and the habitats are as natural as possible (living trees, etc) so it’s really just a lovely place to be.
I think this particular sanctuary is unique because a number of the staff and volunteers live on site (I do not), so it’s like a community more than a place of employment. Every evening there is a communal vegan meal - yeah they’re really into veganism here, we’re not allowed to bring animal products on site. From sunup to sundown they are out there, cleaning, feeding and making medical rounds, and everybody is required to carry a walkie-talky (including me) so everybody is always aware of what is going on at all times. It’s difficult to describe the level of passion and dedication these people have but sufficed to say it’s a sight to behold.
All monkeys are vasectomized before they are released into their habitats. We’ve had a couple of cases where a monkey was pregnant when it arrived or a vasectomy didn’t take, but it’s rare. In those cases we just allow them to be raised naturally by their mother. Our baby monkeys are pretty happy.
This whole place is the brainchild of one very dedicated woman who received a monkey as a pet. When she learned how the exotic monkey trade worked, she was horrified, I think at one point she witnessed for herself the separation of mother and child, so she quit her job and founded the sanctuary. That was decades ago, but it’s safe to say that the entire mission of this place has been centered, from the very beginning, on minimizing the damage wrought by the exotic animal trade.
Yes, the anti exotic pet message can be a tough sell, but the truth is we don’t have to reach out to people and convince them to relinquish their pets, they come to us. We get calls every day from people with pet monkeys who can’t handle them anymore. We can’t take them all. A lot of them end up euthanized.
As I understand it we’ve tried to do education in schools in the past but the message is rather lost on the kids, who just end up asking how they can get a pet monkey. We are not open to the public but we have volunteers from around the world coming in and out all the time, so if someone really wants to see the monkeys, they can.
I think the sanctuary has done a decent job with outreach but the truth is I think we could have a stronger community presence. This place can be very insular and few people who work here have ties with the city. I think this is going to be the most challenging part of my job. We certainly need to step up our social media efforts because while some donors are local, we can’t sustain the sanctuary with only local resources.
We do have funds earmarked for specific purposes, and we receive a lot of ‘‘in-kind’’ donations meaning we send out an e-mail or Facebook post saying we need, say, a bucket, and someone just goes out and buys us the bucket. I think people are a lot more comfortable with that kind of donating, when they can see where their money is going exactly. And that’s going to be a major part of our campaign this year, laying out our needs and the costs in great detail so people understand where their money is going.
