AR-News: FW: (GAPNews) GAP - Brazil helps ex-circus owner open sanctuary

[jim robertson]

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>December 31, 2003
>GAP-BRAZIL CONVERTS EX-CIRCUS OWNER, HELPS  OPEN NEW CHIMPANZEE SANCTUARY
>SAO PAULO, Brazil -- A former circus owner in Brazil has retired the 20
>chimpanzees in her care to a sanctuary she built with the support of the 
>Great Ape
>Project-Brazil.
>Carola Boets, who operated the notorious Circus Garcia in South America for
>decades, retired after Brazilian authorities closed down the operation one 
>year
>ago. But with the support of GAP-Brazil, Boets this week opened a permanent
>sanctuary for the chimpanzees on a farm approximately 45 kilometers from 
>Sao
>Paulo.
>Ironically, GAP-Brazil had been one of the harshest critics of the Circus
>Garcia when it was in operation, and worked closely with the Brazilian 
>government
>to engineer the circus’ closure. But GAP-Brazil president Dr. Pedro 
>Ynterian
>has since shifted his support to Boets, helping arrange strict health,
>enrichment and social protocols at the new sanctuary.
>
>“The Circus Garcia sets a good example for circuses not only in Brazil, 
>but
>around the world,” Dr. Ynterian said. “Carola Boets accepted the
>responsibility to provide for the lives of those chimpanzees they used for 
>so many years to
>produce profit for human beings. Her decision is an example to our society
>that it is necessary those people that keep or utilize chimpanzees also 
>have an
>obligation to provide a decent place for them to retire.”
>
>Most of the former circus chimpanzees are adults of 15 years or older, but
>are considered to be in good physical condition. None has been castrated or 
>had
>their teeth removed – standard practice for many circuses that use 
>chimpanzees
>– yet none had performed past the age of five. Chimpanzees become too 
>strong
>and unpredictable to be trained at that points, and Boets’ chimpanzees 
>had
>been consigned to small, mobile cages.
>
>GAP-Brazil also operates a sanctuary near Sao Paulo, where 22 chimpanzees 
>and
>dozens of other primates now enjoy permanent refuge.
>
>For more information, please contact:
>
>Great Ape Project
>1-503-222-5755
>www.greatapeproject.org
>
>Great Ape Project-Brazil
>5565-9595
>www.projetogap.com.br

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