In today’s story “Oregon Sanctuary to Keep Chimps in Settlement” William McCall, for the Associated Press, writes the following:
A three-state battle over a pair of chimpanzees and a dozen gibbons has ended in a settlement that will keep the chimps in Oregon and most of the gibbons in South Carolina, with a few returning to Texas.
The apes were removed last year from Primarily Primates, a Texas animal sanctuary in San Antonio, during a dispute over its management.
…Three gibbons will return to the Texas sanctuary, which merged in March with Friends of Animals, based in Darien, Conn., and has made improvements at its facility.
…The settlement also ends a legal battle over Primarily Primates in state court in Texas after the Texas attorney general’s office seized the San Antonio animal sanctuary in October 2006 during an investigation into allegations of substandard conditions and misspent donations.
But the investigation ended with the appointment last year of a new board of directors for Primarily Primates that included Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, a global animal rights group.
Feral said Friends of Animals had filed a lawsuit in Texas state courts that also will be dismissed with the settlement.
“I really am very happy about it,” Feral said Wednesday, adding that it avoids “a protracted case in court that is expensive and debilitating for everybody.”
She said her organization is satisfied the two chimps have a good home in Oregon and welcomed the return of three of the gibbons to rejoin the lone gibbon left behind in Texas when the animals were transferred to South Carolina.
…She said Friends of Animals raised about $1.5 million for improvements at Primarily Primates in the past year, doubled the staff size, added a fulltime veterinarian and completed a wide range of much-needed renovations.
Full article at OregonLive