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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-05-chimp_N.htm

People who own chimps rethink choice of pet

By Monica Hortobagyi, USA TODAY

A growing number of pet owners spooked by February's chimp attack are looking 
to give up their great apes but are finding it difficult to do so. 

April Truitt, director and founder of the Primate Rescue Center in 
Nicholasville, Ky., reports a 50% increase in calls from chimpanzee owners 
seeking homes for their animals since the mauling in February, which left 
Charla Nash, 55, in critical condition without her hands, nose, lips, eyelids 
or facial structure. Since then, a relative of Nash has filed a $50 million 
lawsuit against chimp owner Sandra Herold.

"I think there's a level of fear (among) primate owners," said Linda Brent, 
president and director of Chimp Haven, whose sanctuary in Keithville, La., 
usually receives about 14 requests to take in a chimp in a six-month period. 
Since the attack, Brent said, 12 owners have called regarding such requests.

Owners of primate pets are usually unprepared for the demands of their 
animals, Brent said. Many buy them after only minimal research and know 
little about stimulating the animal's physical, emotional and mental 
well-being. Few owners are aware of the financial demands either, said Susan 
Altrui, spokeswoman for the Little Rock Zoo.

Chimps live 50 to 60 years, and lifetime care can cost $750,000, excluding 
building costs, said Truitt, who started the center to care for her pet 
chimpanzee and adult monkeys who could no longer be controlled.

"After only six (years), people realize the chimps shouldn't be in their 
homes anymore," said Diana Goodrich of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in 
Cle Elum, Wash.

Too much to handle 

Judie Harrison and her husband, Greg, took out a second mortgage to meet a 
breeder's $45,000 cash-only demand for a chimp. The couple put 8-month-old 
Mikey in a playpen, which he climbed out of within half an hour.

Over the next six years, the Harrisons invested $41,000 in three cages for 
Mikey and Louie, a second chimp they bought. Mikey broke the welded wire of 
one cage and "peeled it back like it was a tuna can," Harrison said.

An adult chimpanzee can be seven times as strong as an adult human. The 
Harrisons faced frequent cage repairs because of that strength.

"Mikey would just take the bars of his cage between his thumb and forefinger 
and squeeze them together, but to put them back in place, my husband would 
have to use pliers. And my husband's a big man," Harrison said.

The Harrisons, who are trained to get a chimp back in its cage with minimal 
harm to the animal or public, felt they could no longer care for Mikey and 
Louie. Judie spent six weeks seeking shelter for the chimps. She eventually 
found a home at the Little Rock Zoo.

Retiring a pet chimp "is something that people need to start on earlier 
rather than later, because it's just not easy to place chimpanzees," Brent 
said.

Non-profit sanctuaries face challenges in maintaining enough revenue to 
support their operations, and many are unwilling to take in more animals 
unless the owner can offer financial help.

"It used to be that the real battle was to get (pet) owners and biomedical 
agencies to agree to surrender the chimpanzees," Truitt said. "Now, we have 
them convinced, but there's not the funding."

With a blank check, all 225 privately owned chimps could be accommodated in 
the USA's 10 accredited sanctuaries. "It's strictly about money," Truitt said.

Despite their "endangered" status in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service lists captive chimps as "threatened." This distinction lets 
biomedical research use the apes, and it allows roadside zoos, breeders and 
circuses to purchase and sell the chimps to any interested buyer.

Breeders take baby chimps from their mothers days after birth to sell them, 
Truitt said. "The sooner they're pulled, the more valuable they are," he 
said, because younger babies bond more readily with pet owners.

'An accident waiting' 

Twenty-one states ban the possession of non-human primates, 12 regulate their 
possession, and 17 have no laws, according to an analysis by Born Free USA, a 
non-profit animal-advocacy group.

A U.S. Senate committee has taken up the Captive Primate Safety Act, which 
would prohibit possession of a non-human primate.

"The whole idea of anybody wanting to entertain keeping any wild animal is 
just an accident waiting to happen," said Carol Asvestas, director of Wild 
Animal Orphanage in San Antonio.

At some point, it becomes clear to the pet owner that the animal can no 
longer be kept safely, Truitt said.

"They turn and look at you, and you know in that instant that the balance of 
power has shifted," she said.