The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary

In the lab the chimps had been torn from their mothers just days after birth,  held captive in tiny cages and used for decades as living test tubes for the study of lethal human diseases like HIV and Hepatitis.  The Chips of Fauna Sanctuary is about a remarkable family of chimpanzees who live at Fauna farm, a sanctuary for great apes who were retired from a biomedical research lab in New York State.  The chimps arrived at the Fauna severely traumatized in both mind and body.  There was Sue Ellen whose teeth had been knocked out, Chance who spent the first five years of her life in isolation and Tom who had been injected with multiple strains of HIV for 30 years.  But somehow Gloria and her team broke through the years of anger and distrust and have given these chimps the kind of retirement they deserve.  Andrew Westoll, a primatologist-turned-journalist, recently spent months living and working at Fauna farm and grew to know the 13 residents and their heart-wrenching histories.  The Chimps at Fauna Sanctuary is their moving biography.  Join the conversations live or send your thoughts and questions ahead of time to theartofrelating@hotmail.com