The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll

May 10, 2011 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: animals, nonfiction

Years ago I lived a long time in a populous third-world country. I remember saying to a friend living in the U.S. that a focus on animal rights seemed a distraction in view of human living conditions around the globe. She gave me a look I can still see to this day and have thought about many times since. "Why are we more important than every other living species?" and "What would our lives be like without other species?" she could have asked. There is no doubt in my mind that we must be more min...more Years ago I lived a long time in a populous third-world country. I remember saying to a friend living in the U.S. that a focus on animal rights seemed a distraction in view of human living conditions around the globe. She gave me a look I can still see to this day and have thought about many times since. "Why are we more important than every other living species?" and "What would our lives be like without other species?" she could have asked. There is no doubt in my mind that we must be more mindful of species living on the planet around us and treat each with great care and respect. That is also the theme of this fine documentary about research chimps living out their final days on a farm in Canada.

Westoll was a scientist first, but changed his focus to writing later in his career. He urges us to look at the evidence and acknowledge that we have a duty to restrict testing of animals in the name of science. And he urges us to insist Congress pass the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA) which has been on the roster for discussion and passage for years now. Once again we lag behind other Western nations who long ago restricted the use of primates for research. Apparently studies using primates have determined that primates are sufficiently different from humans as not to be of great use in providing useful information for medical use. But the studies continue, Westoll suggests, perhaps because they are so lucrative to the grantees receiving federal monies.

In the meantime, social animals of great intelligence and emotional range are subjected to lives of captivity and the cruelties of isolation, are introduced to disease and treated with disregard. This story tells us mostly of what it is like to live with the animals now, their research days behind them (several were smuggled out of research facilities by sympathetic caregiver scientists). One is struck anew how little we know, and how barbaric we seem. Surely groups of disenfranchized over the years should have taught us how cruel and thoughtless we seemed before finally recognizing their rights (the poor, women, blacks). This is not a screed, nor a diatribe. It is a man reflecting on meeting some unusual characters who have a history, and with our help, a future.
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May 28, 2013 Scotchneat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, outcasts

This book is hard to read. Not because it's written poorly, but because the subject matter is hard to face.

Westoll, who has a background in primate anthropology (I use those words on purpose), spent a summer as a volunteer at Fauna Sanctuary - the only Canadian accredited chimp sanctuary. Located in Quebec, this sanctuary is where chimps who were used in medical research and/or worked in small circuses or zoos go to die.

What the Grow family have set up is a place where they can have a better res...more

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May 02, 2012 James Creechan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a wonderful book and a relatively quick read. The author was trained as a primatologist in the South American Rainforest where he studied wild capuchin monkeys. But in this book, he worked as a volunteer for a year in a Canadian sanctuary for chimpanzees who had been rescued and released from Medical research laboratories (private and government( in the United States. He was invited into the Fauna Sanctuary outside of Montreal by Gloria Grow who established this refuge and is its princip...more This is a wonderful book and a relatively quick read. The author was trained as a primatologist in the South American Rainforest where he studied wild capuchin monkeys. But in this book, he worked as a volunteer for a year in a Canadian sanctuary for chimpanzees who had been rescued and released from Medical research laboratories (private and government( in the United States. He was invited into the Fauna Sanctuary outside of Montreal by Gloria Grow who established this refuge and is its principle driving force. Westoll tells the story of Gloria and her family and many volunteers who are dedicated to giving these primates a peaceful place to live out their lives, and he tells the story of the movement to ban medical experimentation and drug testing on a captive population of primates numbering in the 10's of thousands who are locked in cages and inhumane conditions. But, Langston's story is mostly about the 13 individual chimps that he came to know and understand over a year. Along the way, he describes the tragedy that each of those 13 chimps went through and how their road to recovery was never going to be fully complete and satisfying. There can be no happy endings when creatures have been treated so badly in the name of science and commerce. But, everyone at the sanctuary — and anyone who reads this book— will come away with a greater appreciation for how chimps are much like us and yet are so different from us. The final sentence of the Afterword describes the soul of this book "But for those left behind, a small measure of solace might be found in the lessons that the chimps of Fauna Sanctuary have been teaching Gloria for more than a decade now: that no matter what kind of trauma we've been through, we all have the capacity to recover and help others heal".

This book is a well deserved award winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction (Canada). The author is one of a number of wonderful young Canadian writers who have specialized and focused on writing about science from a biographical perspective. (less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Grrace rated it 3 of 5 stars

Chimps of Fauna sanctuary was...ehhh, pretty good.
I think the general knowledge contained within it was gorgeous and interesting and engaging. How the information is presented, however, can be confusing and sketchy at some times - Andrew Westoll, it seems, needs to work on his journaling.

But again, behind the mediocre writing was an incredibly captivating story of chimpanzee pyschology and behavior. I'm a huge fan of ethology so that's probably what hooked me - and hooked me it did. (Not sure if...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Kathleen McFall rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent book and I recommend it. Andrew Westoll has made an important contribution to the ongoing debate in society about the use of non-human primates in biomedical research.

Through Westoll's words, we journey with him as he accumulates experiences, facts and revelations during his guest stint as a writer/worker at Fauna Sanctuary, a rescued chimp sanctuary.

We learn details about the daily life and needs of chimps (they like tea and smoothies, and smell very bad), about their human...more This is an excellent book and I recommend it. Andrew Westoll has made an important contribution to the ongoing debate in society about the use of non-human primates in biomedical research.

Through Westoll's words, we journey with him as he accumulates experiences, facts and revelations during his guest stint as a writer/worker at Fauna Sanctuary, a rescued chimp sanctuary.

We learn details about the daily life and needs of chimps (they like tea and smoothies, and smell very bad), about their human-like social tendencies and ability to form genuine friendships and strategic alliances, about their grief when their friends die, about their robust capacity for aggression and the need for keepers to be relentlessly vigilant in protecting themselves and the weaker chimps, and about their pranks and jokes. Eventually, we come to an unavoidable acceptance of the "humanity" of the chimps.

We also learn firsthand about the heartbreaking physical and mental damage done to the group of rescued chimps at Fauna Sanctuary. And, given a reader's nascent empathy with the chimps (see paragraph above), the consequences of (mostly) biomedical research and captivity for the purposes of human entertainment (a circus, for example) are keenly felt.

Westoll effectively breaks out of the strident and unhelpful one-sided (from both animal activists and the scientific community) diatribes about the use of animals in medical research and brings calmer language to a social debate which is among the most significant and paradigm-shifting now underway in society: is it ethical to subject animals to experiments in ways that damage (or kill) them so as to advance medicine? The implications not just for biomedical research but for our own definition of what it means to be "sentient" are profound.

In my view, participating in this debate requires an honest appraisal of facts. This book contributes to the debate by presenting a straightforward description of the consequences to these chimps of being subject to years and years of invasive research. It is not a pretty picture.

Westoll ably places the debate in context by tracing the evolution of chimp research and its many failures to deliver on its promise the last many decades.
However, for me, the book fell down a bit by an unwillingness to meaningfully wrestle with the issue from the perspective of the benefits of the research. For example, the same week I read this book, worldwide headlines were made about a potential vaccine for HIV/AIDS stemming from research on non-human primates. Is a vaccine that could help millions of people worth the price of hundreds of chimps lives?

That is the fundamental question with which we wrestle. It is not an easy one. But for readers interested in this question, this book is worth reading.
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Jul 30, 2011 Fence rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 500s, non-fiction

In Fauna Sanctuary Gloria Grow rescues animals. There are dogs, horses, swans, a donkey, and of course the chimpanzees. Most were retired from research facilities where they were the subjects of medical research into Hepatitis, HIV, and the like. There are a few who were circus chimps. Some of them started life as pets, cute little chimps to dress up and play with, until they grew too big and strong and dangerous. Anyone who heard of Travis and his attack on Charla Nash knows that a chimp is not...more In Fauna Sanctuary Gloria Grow rescues animals. There are dogs, horses, swans, a donkey, and of course the chimpanzees. Most were retired from research facilities where they were the subjects of medical research into Hepatitis, HIV, and the like. There are a few who were circus chimps. Some of them started life as pets, cute little chimps to dress up and play with, until they grew too big and strong and dangerous. Anyone who heard of Travis and his attack on Charla Nash knows that a chimp is not to be taken lightly. And yet people continue to try and keep them as domestic pets.

In this book Westoll spent a year working in the Fauna Sanctuary. He gets to know not only the people who work there but also the chimpanzees themselves, and their horrific lives spent as test subjects, being knocked out, biopsied, infected, and isolated.

chimps of fauna sanctuary

This is a heart-breaking story. Made all the worse because it is true.

The chimps Andrew meets, from bully boy Yoko to peace-maker Jethro to Rachel with her love for human clothes, all have huge issues and problems. They have been so mistreated that many can never fully recover. All Gloria can offer them is the chance for some respite and the hope that they can find some peace. But they are so damaged, physically and phychologically, that they are almost beyond hope.

Westoll paints a very readable tale of a year in the life of these chimps and people. He also fills us in on the backstories of the chimps, what they were through in their years as research animals. Being torn away from their mothers when only a few days old, and, in many cases isolated for years. He tells us of the research that proves that chimps and other primates need love and contact in their formative years, just as any human child does. How it is becoming more and more accepted that they can suffer from PTSD, just as people do, and yet that they are so dissimilar from us in other ways. All that HIV research they endured did nothing to help people, chimpanzee’s never develop AIDS, the disease affects them in a totally different manner. Likewise the Hepatitis research can be done now with artificially grown human tissue, much more beneficial than testing treatments on a chimp.

And even if it was of some benefit Westoll argues that it is ethically and morally wrong to use chimps in such a way. He compares it to the medical research performed on African-American men who were not given treatment for their syphillus in prison in the past. We wouldn’t do that now, someday will people look back with the same horror as what we are doing to chimpanzees today?

The United States is the only country in the world that still experiments on primates. And much of Gloria Grow’s work is involved in lobbying for legislation to protect the chimps. If you would like to donate to her, or other chimp sanctuaries you can find details here: http://www.faunafoundation.org/

I found this a fascinating book, hard to read in places, and maybe a little biased, but I think we can excuse Westoll that, he did live in the sanctuary for a year, and to be honest, I think I’d be on the chimps side too.(less)

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Jun 09, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

A true story, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, serves as permanent retirement home for chimps which were used in biomedical research and experimentation. The sanctuary, founded in 1997, is located on a 240 acre farm outside of Montreal. It's founder Gloria Grow originally used a portion of the property as a dog rescue refuge for puppy mill dogs.

The author Andrew Westoll, hoping to gain more knowledge about how the chimps transitioned from the research labs, and often cruel experimentation, to life...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Alexis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

A friend of mine read this book in one day, so I was excited to read it. I was not disappointed. This is a book that is mainly about chimpanzees, but it encompasses many different things. It's the story about a sanctuary that housed 13 chimpanzees who have been damaged by lab research, or abandoned by zoos or the circus. Primatologist turned journalist Andrew Westoll spends 10 weeks working at the Fauna Sanctuary, located in Quebec. He tells the story of the chimps, but also of the people who ar...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

The world needs more people like Gloria Grow, and her friends and family. The world needs more people to speak up for those animals who can't vocalize their needs. The world needs more people like Andrew Westoll, to tell the stories of lab chimps. Honestly, this book was a wonderful, informational, heartfelt story of 13 chimps that were retired to a sanctuary in Canada. I don't know what more to write about this book for a review (perhaps I should do it a little later when the ending of this boo...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Andrew Westoll is a journalist who also wrote a book about studying monkeys in Suriname. He spent over a year at the Laura Sanctuary to write this book. Gloria Grow has run the sanctuary for animals including chimps since 1997. The chimps were mainly brought from research facilities in the US after they were retired. Chimps were used for research in all sorts of ways since the 1920s but became important again in the 1980s for AIDS research. The tests, vaccinations, and surgeries they went throug...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Jennifer D. rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: arc, non-fiction, 2011-books

Actually a 4.5 Star read!

This book is hard to review because it is a necessary story, a hard story and a story that shows how ruddy right shitty human beings can be; the hard part comes from not wanting to be a hard-ass on author Westoll for some less than stellar passages and other cliché moments of self-inspection. Please know that Westoll is a journalist and was, briefly, a primatologist - living for one year in Suriname to study. He comes from a research, scientific and fact background. He s...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Andrew Griffith added it

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is the story of former zoo and lab chimps and the people who care for them in their sanctuary outside of Montreal. A very powerful story on a number of levels and not an easy read. Some things that stood out for me:

How could we be so cruel to a species that shares so many of our social and nurturing instincts? Not uncommon as we look back at history but still striking;
The long-lasting effects of trauma (or PTSD) that is not unique to humans;
The dedication and determ...more The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is the story of former zoo and lab chimps and the people who care for them in their sanctuary outside of Montreal. A very powerful story on a number of levels and not an easy read. Some things that stood out for me:

How could we be so cruel to a species that shares so many of our social and nurturing instincts? Not uncommon as we look back at history but still striking;
The long-lasting effects of trauma (or PTSD) that is not unique to humans;
The dedication and determination of the team at the sanctuary, bordering on obsessiveness, required to make it work (the 'crazy ones' to use the iconic Apple ad);
How my rationalization - I didn't know - is one that has been used throughout history, and is not justification, just as ignorance of the law is no excuse ...; and,
The range of personalities and temperaments of the chimps, their social habits and structures, and the similarities and differences between them and us.
The end result is greater awareness of animal suffering from testing or other activities, and more sympathy for some of the issues pressed by PETA and other organizations. Some quotes to give the flavour of the book:

A primatologist would say Toby is a 'highly enculturated' ape. His identity lies somewhere between chimpanzee and human. Toby is a member of a strange new tribe of beings we have forged from the formal shape of the wild chimpanzee, a new hybrid fashioned in human laboratories, circuses, movie sets, and living rooms over the past one hundred or so years. Toby is, for all intents and purposes, the confused and conflicted humanzee of lore....

The Fauna staff acted on the simple but revolutionary idea that resilience in the face of suffering is not limited to humans but is a trait shared across species lines and perhaps throughout the animal kingdom....

... dramatic discoveries from the past half-century that illustrate how similar humans and chimpanzees are. With each breakthrough, a trait once thought to be uniquely human has been shown instead to be uniquely animal...

.... The core message of this field [trans-species psychology] is that human and animal minds are not distinct, as conventional wisdom holds, but are inextricably linked by our shared evolutionary history. The trans-species psychologist seeks to translate the latest scientific understanding of animal consciousness into human ethics, law, and culture. The goal? To usher in a new paradigm for the way humans relate to animals.

.... More and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that the ways in which chimpanzee physiology differs from that of humans are not, in the end, all that subtle and that extrapolating results from chimps to humans requires a hefty leap in logic. Although it would be wrong to suggest that we have learned nothing from research on chimps over the last sixty years, the disaster of the HIV-AIDS research is certainly a cautionary tale worth heeding.

A society's decisions about which communities or animal species are fair game for invasive research have never been based on how useful the results of the research might be or how many human lives 'hang in the balance.' these decisions have always been based on something much more fundamental: the moral and ethical beliefs that hold sway in that society at the time....

... and then we're left searching for some kind of message from across the chasm. When science finishes narrowing the gap between us and the rest of the apes, this might be one of the few traits we can all agree is uniquely human: we ask why. We search for meaning. We find purpose in our lives by leaving no stone unturned in our search for it.(less)

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Jun 09, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is equal parts heartbreaking, and hopeful - and completely fascinating. Author Andrew Westoll spent several months volunteering at Fauna Sanctuary, a huge farm and sanctuary for retired and rescued lab chimpanzees. Its founder, Gloria Grow,has made it her life mission to give back to the chimps who have given up so much. The chimps' stories are personal and heartbreaking; subjected to years of medical research, they are both psychologically and physically damaged. They've been infected...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Lise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a powerful story....and it's tempting to look at the cover and think it might just be a diatribe against humankind's poor treatment of our closest genetic relatives. But it's more than that. Westoll carefully weaves together a story that has you thinking about where you draw the line between animals and humans. I came into this book thinking that there were limits to appropriate testing on animals, but that it was not entirely wrong. I'm questioning that now, especially when presented wi...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. An amazing true story of a writer who spent several months as a volunteer at a chimp sanctuary in Quebec. He writes about the individual stories of each of the chimps, as well as the people who run the sanctuary. These chimps are all rescue animals, many from bio-medical labs, and their stories are heartbreaking to say the least, but so powerful.

What I perhaps loved the most was the utterly un-romantic view of the sanctuary Westoll presents. I think many of us have fantasies a...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Talia rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is a heartwarming, eye-opening, and heartbreaking story of Gloria Grow and the chimps she is providing sanctuary to in Canada. Westoll tells of his personal time at Fauna, as well as the history of human interactions with chimps and the individual histories of each amazing chimp living at Fauna. I laughed at the antics and developing relationship between the author and the chimps. They all have such individual personalities. I cried as I read over the horrendous ord...more

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May 05, 2012 Cat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Read. This. Book. Absorbing & inspiring. Ok, here's a longer review. The stories and lives of the chimps at the Fauna sanctuary really shine through. Get to know them, the circumstances that brought them to sanctuary, and the wonderful people who work at Fauna, including the formidable and fabulous Gloria Grow.

I give this 5 stars for content (!) but 3.5 for the writing. The author's story-telling is very accessible and personable, but the writing was a touch overwrought at times and the edit...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Tamara Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in2012

I am having a hard time deciding how I feel about this book. It tells the vivid and horrific tale of chimps used in biomedical research. The treatment and social isolation of these creatures is appalling and disturbing. Enter the kind hearted people of Fauna Sanctuary who give the chimps a second lease on life. LOVE.

What I do have a problem with is that I don't feel that "life" is equivalent to "quality life". Allowing animals with diseased organs from years of biomedical testing, severe anxiet...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Author Andrew Westroll, tells the heart breaking true life stories of chimps living on a 240 acre farm near Montreal. Westroll volunteered to work for the sanctuary's founder, Gloria Grow for several months. He got to know the individual chimps and learned their terrifying histories.
We learn that the US is the only country still permitting biomedical research on chimps. Attempts are being made to pass legislation banning the practice.
Arguments have been made that although chimps and humans ha...more Author Andrew Westroll, tells the heart breaking true life stories of chimps living on a 240 acre farm near Montreal. Westroll volunteered to work for the sanctuary's founder, Gloria Grow for several months. He got to know the individual chimps and learned their terrifying histories.
We learn that the US is the only country still permitting biomedical research on chimps. Attempts are being made to pass legislation banning the practice.
Arguments have been made that although chimps and humans have over 94% DNA in common, there are enough differences to have made much of the experimentation without value for humans.
Baby chimps were removed from their mothers right after birth and kept in isolation, and so did not learn socialization skills.They lived in fear of humans who would approach the cage with dart guns to knock them out. From there they were repeatedly injected with deadly viruses or subjected to invasive surgeries.The lab chimps suffered from resulting PTSD, severe psychotic withdrawl or rages, were physically ill from HIV, hepatitis, heart strain and other physical conditions . They subjected themselves to self mutilation and were terrorized to the extent that they would attempt to severely injure other chimps or humans when they eventually came in contact.Several of the chimps at the sanctuary were brought up as pets and discarded to labs when they became to big to dress up and play with, or had been circus performers.
Within the sanctuary they are given the chance to heal their physical and mental wounds as much as possible. They slowly begin to socialize with other chimps, building strong friendships and alliances and show grief and mourning when a friend dies.
The physical layout of the sanctuary seems an ideal one where the animals can experience the sun and contact with one another, and retreat to be alone if they wish. I wish more pictures of the buildings and more diagrams were displayed as I found it hard to visualize.
You can read all about the sanctuary and its chimps and see their pictures here:
http://www.faunafoundation.org/index....
The book is highly recommended although the individual histories are hard to read. For some reason the farm will not be allowed to accept any more rescued or retired chimps, and I hope that this will be changed.(less)

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Jul 06, 2011 Kiley rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is at its best when it focuses on the chimps themselves and their stories of trauma, of rehabilitation, of idiosyncrasies and on Westoll's own reactions to them and how he changes as a result of his time at the sanctuary. When it does this, the book is unputdownable. Less successful is the extent to which Westoll's own activism made it into the pages of the book; his need to have us, the reader, do something about the plight of the lab chimps. He could have achieved...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Moved me to tears. Of course that doesn't take much as far as chimps are concerned. This is the first time I have brought myself to read about some of the real life atrosities these chimps have suffered (and most of the book is actually about their new lives in sanctuary) in much detail. I, of course, knew of them from Goodall and Fouts, but Gloria Grow rescued chimps from one of the most horrible situations they could have been in and twelve years later they are still suffering from PTSD. But a...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Eve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, read-2011

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll, centers on a subject that frankly makes people uncomfortable. Since the 1930s, Chimpanzees and other primates have been used for scientific experiments ranging from flying to the moon to medical research, most notably in relation to Hepatitis and HIV. Can living in a tiny cage your whole life, and being subjected to several surgical procedures a month really affect an animal who's never known any other way? You bet your front teeth it can!

Journali...more

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May 11, 2011 Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nature, non-fiction

Read this book. It is a vital look into the world of biomedical research and the chimpanzees who suffer, rather pointlessly, simply because they are so much like us.

Andrew Westoll gives the reader an amazing and heartbreaking look into the lives of retired biomedical research chimpanzees living out the rest of their days at Fauna Sanctuary. These chimps, before they were rescued, endured everything from hundreds of invasive surgeries to isolation that has left them as psychologically disturbed...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Shelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, finished-in-2012

An interesting look into Canada's only (as far as I know) chimpanzee sanctuary.

Honestly I didn't even know we had a chimp sanctuary up here, so this was an enlightening read for me.

I enjoyed the way Westoll gave us a look at each chimp in the sanctuary at the time of writing, as well as a look into their past. Knowing where each chimp came from gave a better look at how far they've actually come in their retirement from lab testing.

It was also interesting to read about how various groups are w...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Randy Mcdonald rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canlit, history, science, cultural-studies

Andrew Westoll's The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary was an amazing read. His book worked at many levels: it examined the workings of the Fauna Sanctuary of the title, a place where abused chimpanzees could find succor; it took a good look at non-human primate intelligence and psychology, underlying the many ways in which humans and chimps are alike, from their love of social structures and interactions to the PTSD individuals of both species can suffer; it presented a portrait of barely-restrained an...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Janet Koops rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary was an engaging and eye-opening read. Westall's account of his stay with Gloria Grow at the Fauna Sanctuary and details the heart-wrenching story of the sanctuary's inhabitants. Not only do you experience Westall's thoughts and experiences as he becomes accepted by the chimps, you also learn about the life of chimps as subjects in biomedical research -- and not surprisingly, researchers don't come out looking too good. The book if full of heartbreak and love, about...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I had no idea that Canada even had a Chimp Sanctuary. I think everyone should have to read this book so they can understand about the conditions lab animals used for medical research.

I truly understand why animal sanctuary's are so important in helping the recovery of animals from circus's, zoos, lab facilities.

I hope the author gives a portion of the proceeds back to Fauna and readers will give money to this cause. Or in the words of Gloria, give...more

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Apr 05, 2012 David Buhler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: animals

The first few chapters I feared it was a mediocre 'I said - she said' thing; but then Westoll added history, science and mixed it all together into a delicious repast for a hungry reader. The chimps of Fauna Sanctuary were rescued from medical-research labs where they had been unbelieviably tortured, physically and mentally. At the Sanctuary they are able to live the remainder of their lives with much more personal freedom and social interaction. They often showed amazing and touching affection...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Jennifer Keenan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I cannot believe the torture these Chimps go through throughout their "career" in these biomedical testing facilities. I cannot stop thinking about each and everyone of them. Andrew Westoll's writing helped me to think about things from a chimp's point of view and also from a human's stand point. (not so different) I felt that I was pretty knowledgeable on this topic before reading this book but boy was I wrong. I admire Gloria Grow and all of her staff for doing everything in their power to giv...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Lynn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, favourites

Amazing, heartbreaking, hopeful. All these words describe the story of the chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. Primarily rescued from biomedical research labs, these animals have experienced horrors beyond belief. Fauna Sanctuary is their last stop and the people who work in the sanctuary do their best to give the chimps a peaceful life. The most touchng part of the story is that the chimps are able to give their trust to humans after everything they've endured. Gloria Grow, her family and co-workers are...more

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