Chimps will stay at Oregon sanctuary

PORTLAND – A three-state battle over a pair of chimpanzees and a dozen gibbons has ended in a settlement that will keep the chimps in Oregon and most of the gibbons in South Carolina, with a few returning to Texas.

The apes were removed last year from Primarily Primates, a Texas animal sanctuary in San Antonio, during a dispute over its management.

A settlement announced Wednesday ends a federal lawsuit and will let the chimps – named Emma and Jackson – stay at Chimps Inc., a private, nonprofit sanctuary in Bend, Ore.

“I’m thrilled with the settlement,” said Paula Muellner, executive director of Chimps Inc. “That means Emma and Jackson can be here forever.”

The gibbons, the smallest ape species, were moved last year to the International Primate Protection League in Summerville, S.C.

Three gibbons will return to the Texas sanctuary, which merged in March with Friends of Animals, based in Darien, Conn., and has made improvements at its facility.

The lawsuit was filed last June in U.S. District Court in Eugene to challenge plans to return all the apes to Texas in a case that pitted animal rights advocates against each other over the quality of care for animals discarded by researchers, pet owners and the entertainment industry.

The settlement also ends a legal battle over Primarily Primates in state court in Texas after the Texas attorney general’s office seized the San Antonio animal sanctuary in October 2006 during an investigation into allegations of substandard conditions and misspent donations.

But the investigation ended with the appointment last year of a new board of directors for Primarily Primates that included Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, a global animal rights group.

Feral said Friends of Animals had filed a lawsuit in Texas state courts that also will be dismissed with the settlement.

She said her organization is satisfied the two chimps have a good home in Oregon and welcomed the return of three of the gibbons to rejoin Kimchi, the lone gibbon left behind in Texas when the animals were transferred to South Carolina.

Feral said gibbons are social apes that sing to each other.

“Kimchi, once owned by a zoo, has been singing alone,” Feral said. “Their distinctive singing is an important way for gibbons to interact. As a solo, the song of a gibbon is a very lonely sound.”