Help rescue Wenka and 17 other Elder chimpanzees before time runs out.
Ask for their release from research labs and placement into permanent sanctuary.

Wenka is a frail 54-year-old chimpanzee, held at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, who deserves the comfort of sanctuary before she dies. In captivity, chimpanzees can live up to 50-60 years (however, the average lifespan is between 30-45 years). Her time is running out.

Your immediate help is needed to secure Wenka’s release along with 17 other chimpanzees born between 1950 and 1960, who are still held at labs around the country.* Some have spent their entire lives in a laboratory enduring multiple procedures or being repeatedly “bred” to make more babies for research. Some were captured as infants in Africa.

The Chimpanzee Elders Who Need Our Help*

• Gwen, age 54 – New Iberia Research Center (deceased)
• Susie, age 52 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Wenka, age 54 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Cheeta, age 51 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Lulu, age 51 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Maxine, age 51– Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Flo, age 51 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Harriet, age 49 – Primate Foundation of Arizona, AZ (deceased)
• Karen, age 50 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Billy Ray, age 49 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Guy, age 49 – Alamogordo Primate Facility, NM (government owned)
• Jake, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA (deceased)
• Jenda, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Reba, age 48 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Boka, age 47 – Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA (deceased)
• Diana, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Jan, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Julius, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Lady Bird, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Pumpkin, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Sandy, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Walter B., age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Clay, age 48 – New Iberia Research Center, LA
• Martha, age 48 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA
• Mary, age 48 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center, GA

*Some labs have not responded to our requests for 2006-2008 information. Therefore, it is unknown if all the individuals listed above are still alive, have been transferred to other facilities, or if other elders exist.

You can change their fate and help make their remaining years a life of dignity and protection in sanctuary by clicking here to sign onto the Project R&R letter demanding their immediate release from the laboratories that currently hold them.

She was old and grateful for the small kindnesses,
like good fruit and sunshine.
–A former Yerkes lab worker’s recollection of Wenka

A former lab worker remembers Wenka vividly: “Her fingers were long and delicate, her palms fragile, and they seemed to perfectly represent her sweet and passive nature.” According to Project R&R’s sources at the Yerkes lab, Wenka is still alive – presently living in a group setting with seven or eight other chimpanzees who are all younger than her. Our most current information indicates that she is the third oldest chimpanzee in research in the world.

HOW TO HELP
Sign the Project R&R letter that will be sent to NIH officials, lab directors, and affiliated university presidents – individuals who can show compassion to these elderly chimpanzees whose lives have been spent and exhausted by research.

According to a recent independent public survey
commissioned by Project R&R, 71% of Americans
support the release of chimpanzees who have spent
longer than 10 years in a laboratory.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Make a donation: help Project R&R’s rescue
efforts. These chimpanzees have little time left!