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[Benjamin Bayliss <ctrkgrendel AT yahoo.com>]

Second OSU chimp dies in Texas

 

Cause of 16-year-old male’s death in enclosure at primate refuge won’t be known for 2 weeks

 

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Kevin Kidder

 

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A second chimpanzee transferred to a Texas primate refuge from Ohio State University has died, the university said last night.

 

Bobby, a 16-year-old male, was found dead Thursday morning in his enclosure by workers at Primarily Primates, the San Antonio refuge where nine chimps from OSU had been sent to live. No cause of death has been determined.

 

His death comes a month and a half after the death of Kermit, a 250-pound alpha male who died while being transferred to a cage at Primarily Primates.

 

Handlers noticed that Bobby seemed to be sick on Wednesday and scheduled a veterinarian appointment for Thursday, OSU spokesman Earle Holland said.

 

After he died, there were no outward signs of injuries. A necropsy was performed Thursday afternoon in San Antonio but the results won’t be known for two weeks, Holland said.

 

William Yonushonis, who heads OSU’s lab-animal program, flew down to Texas yesterday morning to review the situation.

 

Bobby had been held in a 30-by-40-foot enclosure with four other OSU chimps, Holland said. He weighed about 150 pounds and was quickly becoming the alpha male in his new enclosure.

 

"We’re just as surprised as any normal person would be that we sent nine healthy chimpanzees and now two of them are dead," he said. "We’re not oblivious to the fact that two out of nine is not a good sign for us to be seeing, but it’s much too early for us to raise alarms."

 

The chimps are the focus of a federal lawsuit filed by OSU researcher Sally Boysen, who had used the chimps for 23 years at the primate-research lab near Don Scott Field.

 

The university closed the lab after her research funding dried up.

 

Boysen opposed the move to Primarily Primates and in her suit she seeks to have the chimps sent elsewhere.

 

"Let’s see them put a spin on that one," Boysen said last night. "I’ve moved into my anger phase."

 

She was notified of Bobby’s death by the university yesterday afternoon. "You can’t trust a thing they say," she said.

 

Boysen paid $14,000 for Bobby as a young chimp, mortgaging her house to raise the funds. Last night she demanded the return of his body. "I own him. His remains belong to me." Under its deal with Primarily Primates, the university will pay the refuge $324,000 to build facilities for the chimpanzees and to care for them.

 

A necropsy confirmed that Kermit died March 2 of a heart attack.

 

It happened just after he was sedated for the transfer from the trailer that had brought him to Texas to his new cage.

 

kkidder AT dispatch.com 

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