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Ore.: Lawsuit filed over chimpanzee care

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A federal court in Oregon has become the latest
battleground over the care of chimpanzees and other animals at a Texas
animal sanctuary now under new management.

A lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Eugene claims that
two chimpanzees, 12 gibbons and a longhorn steer transferred from
Primarily Primates Inc. in San Antonio should remain in the care of
other animal sanctuaries in Oregon, South Carolina and New Mexico.

The two chimpanzees, named Emma and Jackson, are currently living at
Chimps Inc., a nonprofit private sanctuary in Bend, while the dozen
gibbons are living at the International Primate Protection League
sanctuary in South Carolina. The steer is being kept by Marguerite
Gordon, a landowner who lives in New Mexico and offers refuge for
animals, according to the complaint.

The case appears to have pitted various animal rights advocates
against each other over the quality of care for animals discarded by
researchers, owners and even zoos.

Eric Turton, an attorney for Primarily Primates in Texas, called the
sanctuary near San Antonio a 'retirement home for animals.'

But Bruce Wagman, a San Francisco attorney who filed the lawsuit, said
it was an example of 'institutional hoarding,' and claimed the Texas
facility simply cannot effectively manage hundreds of animals its
care, including more than 60 chimps.

'That facility can never come back up to speed,' Wagman said Monday.

Turton said, however, that the Texas facility founded in 1978 has been
unfairly attacked recently by animal rights activists who have made
allegations dismissed by the courts in Texas.

In April, a Texas judge ended a legal battle over control of Primarily
Primates after the Texas attorney general's office seized the roughly
75-acre sanctuary last October and appointed a receiver to manage it
while allegations of misspent donations and substandard conditions
were investigated.

'There was zero misuse of anything,' Turton said. 'Not one penny. It's
never the findings of the court, it's always just 'allegations.' This
is just ridiculous.'

The judge ordered management of the Texas facility turned over to
Priscilla Feral, who runs the global animals rights group Friends of
Animals, based in Connecticut.

'They vindicated the place and dropped all the charges and we arranged
a settlement,' Feral said Monday, adding her advocacy group has a
'spotless record' for animal care for over 50 years.

Friends of Animals is merging with Primarily Primates, taking over
administrative duties and restructuring its management.

The Texas attorney general's investigation grew out of a complaint
about the care of some retired research chimpanzees transferred from
Ohio State University last year. Animal rights activists were
concerned that an older chimp named Kermit might have suffocated while
sedated during transfer, but a necropsy showed he died of a heart
attack associated with pre-existing heart disease.

Last year, a court dismissed a lawsuit by People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals charging conditions were substandard at the Texas
sanctuary.

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