Chimp Sketch of the Week #25

Pepper (RIP)

I logged on to facebook the other day and I saw a post that Pepper the chimp had passed away. Pepper was born in 1970 and spent her first 27 years in research, first at a Merck, Sharp & Dohme laboratory, followed by seven years at the Buckshire Corporation. When she became too strong to control, she was sent to the NYU Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Pepper spent some time in breeding, but was mostly used for research, including some 307 knockdowns, 36 punch liver biopsies, one open wedge liver biopsy, six cervical biopsies, 10 lymph node biopsies, and four bone marrow biopsies. In the lab, Pepper was plagued by fear and anxiety, and would rather starve herself than face an unpleasant situation. Luckily she spent the end of her life in Sanctuary at Fauna but unfortunately so many others do not.

I never met pepper of course but reading about her in the book The Chimps Fauna Sanctuary make me feel as if I did. It would be nice if everyone reading this post would go here and make a small donation to the Fauna Foundation in Peppers honor.

References:

http://www.releasechimps.org/chimpanzees/their-stories/pepper/

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

Drawing based on photo by Frank Noelker


for a complete obituary of Pepper please click here 

Chimp Sketch of the Week #24

Toby

Toby is a chimp living at the Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary in Canada. No one is sure where Toby was born but he lived his first 24 years in a zoo in Quebec, taught to act as a human child, wear clothes and eat with utensils. He still likes to wear bracelets and sunglasses from time to time but he also shakes his head continuously as a sign of stress and anxiety. Life for Toby at Fauna is not always easy being a bit of an outsider due to coming to the sanctuary later then most and from a different situation. He has had a few altercations with the other chimps once having a finger bit clean off of his hand.

To read more about Toby and the other residents at Fauna you should read the Book The Chimps Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll and read my review of the book here www.thisviewoflife.com

Chimp Sketch of The Week #18

TOM


Tom is the oldest chimp at the Fauna Sanctuary and the only one born in Africa, Tom is the chimp ambassador of project R&R. It is their mission to end the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research and to help provide them release and restitution in permanent sanctuary. During his life in testing laboratories Tom was purposely infected with HIV. 


read more in my complete illustrated book review of the Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary at www.thisviewoflife.com 

Chimp Sketch of the week #15

Here are two more residents of The Chimps Fauna Sanctuary Regis and Rachel. Again  these are 5 minute preliminary sketches based on photos by Frank Noelker for larger portraits I have planed.