Season of Hope

All photos by Jane or Steuart Dewar, unless otherwise indicated.
Note: almost all photographs are thumbnails that you can click to bring up a larger version!

by Jane Dewar, 08Dec2003

When guests visit Gorilla Haven, it’s always fun to see their reactions.  One recent guest was my dear friend, Linda Percy.  Linda used to be manager at the Limbe Wildlife Centre when we first met in 1999.  During that trip, the first earth was moved to begin what is Phase 1 of the GH project.  I get emails constantly from people asking when more villas will be online to accept more gorillas, and always feel we’re not moving fast enough.  But Linda’s recent visit reminded me, we’re moving incredibly fast, as the GH project is bigger than most people realize, and our small staff is doing amazing work.

The Habitat Gates are now operational, and islands of larger trees are being hot-wired off in Joe’s acreage, which is a slow-going process.  With weather variable, we still might be able to let Joe outside soon, but for now, Joe’s enjoying looking out his windows at all the construction and people going by.  Meanwhile, the current cold weather would mean even if Joe’s acreage were ready for him, we wouldn’t be able to let him out anyway.

As the year comes to an end, 2003 has seen many wonderful and many sad things.  Joe is thriving and each time I see him, I know we’ve done something amazing and wonderful.  Gorillas I know and love have died and some have had babies, as the ying and yang of life goes on.  The sadness of Debbie’s passing has been tempered with the joy of the birth December 4^th of Makari and JoJo’s new baby in Louisville.  JoJo’s mother, Lenore, was an old friend, with whom Debbie is honored with our Deblen Bai, near where Phase 4 will be one day.  Makari was a toddler being raised by surrogate Debbie when I first began to study gorillas back in Chicago in the 1980’s.  Seeing her as a new mom again (her son Jelani is almost 7 years old), cradling her baby and showing such tender love and care, gives me hope. Photo right by Roby Elsner.

Outrageous politics involving gorillas continue to cause me and others a lot of distress, including the case of the 4 baby gorillas known as the Taiping 4.  More details on their story can be found at www.ippl.org but three countries were involved in the slaughter and/or transport of these 4 gorilla babies – Nigeria, South Africa and Malaysia. The gorillas are most likely from the jungles of Cameroon, where poachers slaughtered countless numbers to supply the demand of zoos like Ibadan in Nigeria and Taiping in Malaysia. The gorillas are then smuggled next door to Nigeria, where mysteriously they are listed as “captive born” and given official CITES (Convention for Trade in Endangered Species) export papers, since CITES bans export of any “wild born” endangered species.  Ibadan Zoo had one elderly female gorilla, and no one could explain how she miraculously bore 4 babies under 4 years of age in less than a year.  Taiping Zoo claims they were duped… and President Clinton didn’t have sexual relations with anyone named Monica…. Right.

While the government of Cameroon has repeatedly asked for the return of these gorillas, no one seems to be paying attention to Cameroon’s wishes.  Indeed, the latest news is that  a deal has been struck to send these gorillas to Pretoria in South Africa, a zoo with a poor track record of keeping gorillas, especially compared to Limbe Wildlife Centre, where the gorillas should be returned. It’s a complicated, but heart-breaking story, especially given that the very people charged with protecting endangered animals seem to be the ones profiting from their use or unable/unwilling to stop the abuse.

At the moment, we have 14 dogs and 20 cats, besides Joe. With the exception of Bwindi and Soakie, who we found at shelters, all the animals are rescues and strays.  Although I haven’t seen them yet, I understand two more dogs have been seen on the outskirts of our property, half starved and being ignored by everyone, hoping the next person will “make it right.”  This is an attitude which seems to pervade these days, and I’m the one who’s seen as a lunatic since I’ll take on the challenge to try to help the helpless, and tackle the impossible.  I don’t always take a problem from start to finish, but at least I help get the ball rolling … I’d like to share two examples of how just a little effort can and does make a huge difference.

In August a starving, almost hairless male collie appeared, who we named Barkley, even though he never barked.  Just looking at him made me cringe, thinking of the neglect it took to get him in such bad condition.  People were telling me to ignore him, since I couldn’t “save the world” but looking at Barkley, I didn’t have a choice – my heart and my gut told me I had to at least try.  So I went on the internet to find the Atlanta Collie Rescue.  It’s rare we find purebred dogs, so I figured I could find Barkley a home.  Beth and I emailed and she agreed to pick him up and take him home for foster care and rehabilitation, until he was ready for adoption.  We just received photos of the collie now named Carrick, and he’s thriving.  The photographs spoke for themselves.  Indeed, when I showed the before and after photos to some of our staff who helped catch Barkley for me, they didn’t believe he was the same dog, and thought the lighting or photos were doctored to make the changes look more impressive.  But that’s just what a little love, time and patience can do.  The top two photos were taken by me in August, 2003; the bottom photo taken in late July of 2004 is courtesy of Bill, his new owner who says that Carrick loves his walks and riding in the car and, true to his former name (Barkley), now barks frequently! A photo likes this makes all the efforts worthwhile.

In October 1997 Steuart and I were awakened at 6 a.m. by a call from an old friend who runs a primate rescue center in Kentucky.  April Truitt specialized in monkeys, but she was in Georgia, at the home of a woman who was keeping 5 adult chimpanzees inside a windowless, tiny cinder-box building in her backyard.  The woman had kept these chimps as babies and they were her “children” who she adored.  But she’d been ill and by the time Steuart and I got there to help April’s call for assistance, we were shocked.  The chimps – all in their mid-20’s -  were living in two small cages, the bottoms of which were covered in almost 3 feet of their waste, old newspapers, soaked with feces, urine and rotting food.  Gorilla Haven was just beginning then, and some thought we should take the 5 chimps, and forget the silly idea of GH.  I even lost a dear and long-time friendship over our refusal to change Gorilla Haven into a “Chimp Haven” (there is now a place actually called Chimp Haven).  But one must keep focused on one's dreams, while trying to help others reach their own dreams, and so Steuart and I both agreed to do whatever we could to help.

For the next few days Steuart and I drove the hour and a half each way to help April and Rachel help these chimps, by starting with the basics - getting their hellish cages cleaned! That meant making all 5 of them stay in one of their small cages.  I’d just been hospitalized for a back problem, so I wasn’t up to the hard physical work involved in cleaning up, so instead I took on the task of entertaining the 5 chimps, and doing what I could to keep the fire of waste burning.  Finally, the last day, the chimps were ready to move into a cleaned cage – with a real floor and working drain.

Donald, was the only male and he was carefully watching me talk to his “owner”, who was of the generation and mind-set that chimps are pets, and who didn’t have a clue that the life her “children” were living was abusive and an abomination. I’d try convincing her to let me give them blankets and towels I’d bought at Walmart, but she refused, saying they’d destroy them and clog up the drains again ...  but she was interested in the blankets and towels and from her own squalid living quarters, I could tell she could probably use them too, so I didn't object.  Finally, the owner agreed I could give the chimps a full roll of paper towels, which I’d stuff with peanuts, seeds, grapes, etc, inside the cardboard roll. From what I knew about chimps, I was convinced Donald, as the only male and boss of the group, would grab all 5 paper towel rolls.  But instead, when the chimps were let into their newly cleaned quarters, all of them grabbed one paper towel roll, making happy food grunts and squeals.  But Donald was the one who started the tears flowing for me.  Instead of opening his goodies, he held on to his paper towels, then came up to the front of the cage, smiling and screeching and hooting at me, nodding his head in excitement and joy.  I asked the experts for confirmation, that what I was seeing was Donald saying “thank you” …

Donald and the girls went to the Yerkes Field Station in Atlanta, where I last saw them, before April built a place for them at her sanctuary in Kentucky.  I need to get there to see Donald and the girls (one died, after years of prior medical neglect), but I got these photographs of Donald, outside and relaxed, as he’s now part of a larger group of chimpanzees, living a better life than he ever had.  Both photos are courtesy of April Truit, with the top right showing Donald eating an apple, and the photo left showing Donald relaxing as a younger chimp grooms him.

I didn’t “save” Carrick or Donald, but I helped in the process.  That’s all.  I didn’t ignore the overwhelming horror of the situations and assess them as “hopeless.”  I tried.  So, this holiday season and into the New Year, go out there and make your own little bit of a difference.  Visit a senior citizen home.  Walk a dog for a shelter.  Help at your place of worship. Write to GI’s away in parts of the world protecting our freedom. Volunteer at your children’s school.  It doesn’t have to be a big, impressive show of effort – just like the tiny dots in Seurat’s paintings, the combination of the small dots can create a huge, and lovely image and help enhance this season of Hope now and well into the future.

      Happy Holidays!
                            from all of us at Gorilla Haven