The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary - by Andrew Westoll (Paperback)

About the Book

This is a fascinating and moving account of a remarkable community of chimpanzees who gradually learn to become chimps again after spending years in research laboratories. Brimming with empathy and touching stories, this book makes us question just what we owe to the animals who are our nearest genetic relations.

Book Synopsis

"Astonishing . . . Moving." --People

"The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is an unflinching, visceral look at the emotional and physical damage--actual, real damage done to specific, individual apes--in some of America's most notorious biomedical research labs. It is also the story of humans who were driven to provide them with refuge, retirement . . . and, ultimately, their inherent right to dignity." --Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants

IN THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS, Gloria Grow has created a rehabilitation center like none other. Thirteen chimpanzees, rescued from zoos and medical testing laboratories, now call Fauna Sanctuary home. After decades of cruelty and deprivation, these resilient primates are finally free to eat, sleep, play, and roam in peace--all while fighting their personal demons. Primatologist and author Andrew Westoll lived and worked at Fauna one remarkable summer, and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is his poignant testimony to the capacity of these animals to heal--and to learn to be chimps again. This is an absorbing, bighearted story about the species more closely related to us than any other.

"There is plenty of moral outrage in this book, but there is also plenty of wonder . . . Impassioned and well reasoned." --Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Back Cover

Astonishing . . . Moving. People
The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is an unflinching, visceral look at the emotional and physical damage actual, real damage done to specific, individual apes in some of America s most notorious biomedical research labs. It is also the story of humans who were driven to provide them with refuge, retirement . . . and, ultimately, their inherent right to dignity. Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
IN THE CANADIAN WILDERNESS, Gloria Grow has created a rehabilitation center like none other. Thirteen chimpanzees, rescued from zoos and medical testing laboratories, now call Fauna Sanctuary home. After decades of cruelty and deprivation, these resilient primates are finally free to eat, sleep, play, and roam in peace all while fighting their personal demons. Primatologist and author Andrew Westoll lived and worked at Fauna one remarkable summer, and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is his poignant testimony to the capacity of these animals to heal and to learn to be chimps again. This is an absorbing, bighearted story about the species more closely related to us than any other.
There is plenty of moral outrage in this book, but there is also plenty of wonder . . . Impassioned and well-reasoned. Cleveland Plain Dealer
ANDREW WESTOLL is an award-winning narrative journalist and the author of The Riverbones, a travel memoir set in the jungles of Suriname, where he once lived as a monkey researcher. He lives in Toronto.
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Review Quotes

"The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary is a true story of endurance and resilience, compassion, dedication and love. I knew the prison-like conditions of the medical research facility from which Gloria Grow rescued these chimpanzees; when I visited them at their new sanctuary I was moved to tears. Finally they had reached a secure haven where, gradually, they could recover from their years of torment. Andrew Westoll is a born story teller: The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, written with empathy and skill, tenderness and humour, involves us in a world few understand. And leaves us marvelling at the ways in which chimpanzees are so like us, deserve our help, and are entitled to our respect."
--Jane Goodall Ph.D., DBE, Founder - the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace

"This book will make you think deeply about our relationship with great apes. It amazed me to discover the behaviors and feelings of the chimpanzees."
--Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation

"This book is a wonder. Passionate, intelligent, moving and, above all, tremendously important, it illustrates the triumph of the wild spirit and offers surprising hope that the human animal might yet be redeemed. Think of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation and J.M. Coetzee's The Lives of Animals, and you'll have some idea of what it is you hold in your hands. It has been a long time since any author has inspired me to such extremes of compassion and humility."
--Barbara Gowdy, author of The White Bone
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