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[Benjamin Bayliss <ctrkgrendel AT yahoo.com>]

Chimp dies after transfer to Texas sanctuary

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - One of nine chimpanzees moved to a Texas sanctuary after Ohio State University decided to close a research center died following his transfer, school officials said.

The 35-year-old male, named Kermit, stopped breathing Thursday after workers at Primarily Primates in San Antonio sedated him during a move from a transfer cage to living quarters, university spokesman Earle Holland said. Workers tried to resuscitate the chimp.

The university suspects Kermit's head fell forward while he was sedated, blocking his airway. Obesity may have been a factor in the death of the 300-pound chimp, Holland said.

Ohio State veterinarians were to travel to San Antonio to check on the other chimps, and meet with sanctuary officials and the veterinarian performing Kermit's necropsy.

The other chimps were successfully sedated and doing fine, Holland said. Chimps can become violent when confronted by humans so they are sedated when being moved, he said.

The nine chimps left Ohio on Monday and arrived in San Antonio on Wednesday. Kermit was the largest of the group and one of two dominant males.

The primates were moved after Ohio State officials said the campus chimpanzee center was closing due to a lack of funds. The university is paying $324,000 to build a facility at Primarily Primates and will provide an endowment for the chimps' care.

 

 

 

Ohio State chimp dies shortly after arriving at Texas refuge

By Kevin Kidder

The Columbus Dispatch

Friday, March 3, 2006 1:33 AM

One of the nine OSU chimpanzees that were taken to a Texas primate refuge died yesterday afternoon, university officials confirmed last night.

Kermit, a 300-pound alpha male in his mid-20s, had arrived at Primarily Primates near San Antonio and was being unloaded from a cage when he collapsed, said William Yonushonis, who is in charge of lab animals at Ohio State University.

Veterinarian Thomas Vice had administered a shot of anesthesia, followed by two smaller doses, when Kermit collapsed in a sitting position that blocked his airway.

Workers administered CPR, Yonushonis said, but Kermit died.

"I'm distraught, the whole university community is distraught," Yonushonis said.

The chimpanzees have been at the center of a heated confrontation between the university and OSU researcher Sally Boysen, who spent 23 years with the chimps in her labs.

Boysen sued OSU over the animals' transfer, but a federal court on Monday declined to issue a restraining order. The chimps were moved that night.

Boysen did not return several phone calls last night.

She and two animal activists had chained themselves to the gate outside the center in an attempt to prevent the chimps' transfer Monday but removed themselves when OSU police threatened to arrest them.

At about 10 that night, she watched as the chimps left in a trailer with police escort.

The animals arrived in Texas Tuesday afternoon, the university said.

Yonushonis was flying to San Antonio last night to check on the eight other chimps, all of whom were transferred to a temporary cage at Primarily Primates. Yonushonis said he would "review the situation."

A necropsy on Kermit is planned for today at the Southwest Center for biomedical research near San Antonio, Yonushonis said.

kkidder AT dispatch.com

 

 

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