28 years in a lab, finally free.

How wonderful - I have a lump in my throat ; the way Vanilla kept looking up - mind blowingly happy !

Chimps do speak, it's just that many choose not to try and understand.

Heartbreaking. And wonderful too.

Re my comment about plants and fungi fighting each other, see The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
by Peter Wohlleben, Mike Grady, et al.

Nature is a thug and Nature can be beautiful. Both are true.

Very few human beings kill or torture for pleasure, elegran.

People hunt and farm for food. They capture territory for those things and also for control of energy-providing resources like wood, coal, iron, etc.

We are not so very far removed from our other ape cousins. There is savage TV footage of chimpanzees hunting in groups. Why do they do it? Because meat is such good food. Same as us until farming developed.

Plants and fungi fight with each other, and with us and other animals in the sense that many of them make themselves toxic to greater or lesser degrees.

"Nature" is a killer, which any history of diseases (human and otherwise) will tell you. This is why, until modern medicine, half of all children died within their first few years of life. It's only in the last couple of centuries that we've begun to keep most kids alive till adulthood, and to extend longevity for adults. Look at stats from less developed areas of the world if you don't believe that.

Baggs

Babs03

If an asteroid came our way and just took human beings out leaving the animals and forests/seas/flora and fauna to coexist in peace I’d say bring it on!

The flora and fauna of Earth never coexisted peacefully. There is always competition for resources and always will be. It's what drives evolution and life itself.

"Nature" is not sweet and kindly.

But animals harm one another for definite reasons - competition for territory, food or mates, or in selfdefence if they or their family are attacked. Very few of them kill or torture for pleasure, or "to see what happens next if I do this" It seems only to be humans who have the curiosity to experiment, and to justify whatever they do as being for the common good. it is true that good for some can result from suffering for others, but that doesn't help the animals caged for experiments.

“ I spent my early years in a biomedical research laboratory in New York where chimpanzees were commonly housed in 5’x5’x7’ cages suspended above the ground like bird cages"

When I hear about the torture and murder of people, I honestly think lets release the poor animals who have to experience this and use the perpetrators of such horrendous acts...

Babs03

If an asteroid came our way and just took human beings out leaving the animals and forests/seas/flora and fauna to coexist in peace I’d say bring it on!

The flora and fauna of Earth never coexisted peacefully. There is always competition for resources and always will be. It's what drives evolution and life itself.

"Nature" is not sweet and kindly.

Vanilla:

“ I spent my early years in a biomedical research laboratory in New York where chimpanzees were commonly housed in 5’x5’x7’ cages suspended above the ground like bird cages. I was among thirty chimpanzees to be sent to the Wildlife Waystation in 1995 where I joined a small family group.

In 2019, the Wildlife Waystation closed, causing nearly 480 animals to need to be re-homed, including 42 chimpanzees. I was among the final seven to be re-homed, and my family and I made the cross-country trip to Florida in a FedEx airplane, thanks to the FedEx Cares program. From Orlando, Pero Family Farms generously drove us to the sanctuary in a climate-controlled semi-truck. It took a lot of devoted people to make our move to Florida possible and now I look forward to calling this my forever home.

After quarantine, a process that all new chimpanzees at Save the Chimps go through, my family and I are being introduced into one of the larger family groups here at the sanctuary. I am now fully integrated into the group and we have a 3-acre island to explore and the freedom to choose where and how to spend our days. My first time outside, I was in awe of the open sky, a sight I had never seen in my life as my former homes had cage tops. I enjoy exploring the island and relaxing and grooming with my family on the island.”

That made me tear up.

Thank you for sharing the news, but I couldn’t watch the video.😥

That's wonderful. I've not seen - and don't want to see - the video BUT I've been watching the programmes where chimps, orangutans and others have been rescued over time and now have excellent play places and are looked after with a lot of care whilst at the same time ensuring they're doing what such animals do in the wild. I find the programmes incredibly moving and uplifting

Thank you for sharing, pure joy x

Thanks MissA. Good news but I couldn’t watch the video. Treatment of animals but especially chimpanzees, so like human animals, is so distressing

Goodness me - that's amazing. I feel humbled by her joy .

Babs03

If an asteroid came our way and just took human beings out leaving the animals and forests/seas/flora and fauna to coexist in peace I’d say bring it on!

Absolutely! (And the way things are going at the moment it won’t take that long)
there was a documentary on Channel 4. I think it was a good few years ago now that showed how quickly nature would take over. If human beings were no longer on the planet. It was really amazing to watch…

Poor creature

Better late than never, I guess.
Its Vanilla's right to live happily.

She has earned every minute of it.

Poor thing, but free at last.

Thank you for sharing this

You're very welcome.
I agree, we should be able to bottle that feel good feeling.

28 damn years in a metal cage...

The sheer joy and delight on Vanilla's face is a pleasure to see 😃
Thank you for posting this good news MissAdventure 🤗

If an asteroid came our way and just took human beings out leaving the animals and forests/seas/flora and fauna to coexist in peace I’d say bring it on!

Breaks my heart the way humans use and abuse animals.