Gloria Grow
Gloria Grow
Founder and Director of The Fauna Foundation and Co-Chair for Project R&R

Gloria Grow is the Founder and Director of Canada’s only chimpanzee sanctuary—the Fauna Foundation in Montreal.  In 1997, Fauna was the first sanctuary in the world to accept HIV infected chimpanzees retired and rescued from the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in upper state New York.

Gloria attended the Nash Academy of Animal Sciences and owned a dog grooming business for 15 years. Upon turning 40, she determined she wanted to do more meaningful work in animal protection, a feeling reinforced by a 1996 Animal Rights march she attended in Washington, DC. Gloria decided to participate in a project called Caring for Chimpanzees run by Dr. Roger and Deborah Fouts, at the Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute. Within days of arriving, Gloria decided that she would build Canada's first sanctuary for chimpanzees from biomedical research.

Gloria currently serves as Co-chair of Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories, a NEAVS campaign to end the use of chimpanzees in research. She co-authored two papers on the psychological effects of captivity and research on chimpanzees. Gloria is a Trustee of the American Fund for Alternatives to Animal Research (AFAAR) and is a founding member of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance.

 Gloria has served in consultative, advisory board and practical capacities for other chimpanzee sanctuaries and facilities, including

  • Chimps-Inc, USA
  • Stichting  AAP, Netherlands and Spain
  • The Center for Great Apes, USA
  • Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care, USA
  • International Primate Protection League, USA
  • The Jane Goodall Institute, Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Uganda
  • Primate Rescue Center, Inc., USA
  • Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
  • Quebec City Zoo, Canada
  • Parc Safari, Quebec, Canada
  • ChimpanZoo, USA
  • Jane Goodall Institute, USA
  • Species Survival Plan
  • Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group, USA
  • The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute 

Ms. Grow has made numerous presentation in Canada, the USA and Europe on topics including her most popular: In Their Own Words: Stories of Chimpanzees Rescued from Research. She is a charismatic speaker featured internationally and in the US across the media. . She has appeared in PBS, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery documentaries and over 34 major newspapers have repeatedly interviewed Gloria. Her expertise continues in the forefront, underscored in distinguished media including ABC News, Reuters Associated Press, National Geographic News and Nature Magazine.

About Gloria and the Chimpanzees

With vision and determination, Gloria created a world-renowned sanctuary that provides retirement to biomedical research chimpanzees and other abused, abandoned and rescued animals from research, farming, the pet industry, education and other forms of institutionalized use. The Fauna chimpanzees have specific medical, emotional and social needs. Many display psychological and emotional behaviors much like that of humans who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition to being the sanctuary director, Gloria serves the chimps as daily and medical caregiver, therapist, friend and family.


Photo: Fauna Sanctuary co-founder Gloria Grow gets a grooming from an elder chimp named Pepper.
Photograph by: Vincenzo D’Alto, Gazette file photo from "Rescued from lives of pain: Andrew Westoll introduces readers to the chimps of Fauna Sanctuary"
By Kathryn Greenaway, THE GAZETTE June 3, 2011

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