FORMER OSU CHIMPS IN TEXAS
Animals live in ‘degradation,’ caretaker says
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Mike Lafferty
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/10/17/20061017-D1-04.html
The Texas animal refuge where Ohio State University sent its research chimpanzees this year is a "disaster," a court-appointed caretaker said yesterday.
Lee Theisen-Watt said Primarily Primates is cramped and dilapidated, and that the animals’ drinking water is contaminated with sewage.
Theisen-Watt took over Primarily Primates on Friday. A court hearing in the case is set for Oct. 27.
"The damage runs deep and wide," she said. "Every time you think you have a handle on it, the scope widens. Every day reveals another horror."
About 800 monkeys, chimps and other animals are housed at the refuge.
Ohio State sent nine chimps and three capuchin monkeys to Primarily Primates in February after university officials closed a chimpanzee- research center operated by OSU psychology professor Sally Boysen.
The university agreed to pay the refuge about $324,000 to build new housing for the animals and to fund an endowment for their care.
Two male chimps died shortly after they arrived in Texas.
Theisen-Watt also said the new housing that Ohio State paid for is nowhere near ready, despite assurances that refuge officials gave weeks ago.
"Even footings haven’t been poured," said Theisen-Watt, a Dallas-area primate-care expert.
She was appointed after the Texas attorney general’s office sought control after looking into allegations of financial irregularities at the facility.
Auditors have been examining Primarily Primate’s books since the operation was seized Friday.
Primarily Primates said there are no problems.
"The money has not been misappropriated. We can account for every dollar ever raised," said Eric Turton, the refuge’s attorney.
Primarily Primates was supposed to build two enclosures, each with indoor and outdoor areas.
Turton said the buildings are going up and that Ohio State’s money is in a separate account.
Ohio State has maintained that the animals are no longer its concern.
"I have no knowledge if money was spent the way it was supposed to be spent," OSU spokesman Earle Holland said.
Theisen-Watt said some of the OSU animals are in poor health. She said one of the females is seriously underweight and that Darrell, a male chimp, has been kept in solitary confinement since arriving at the refuge.
"The only way Darrell gets a view of the outside is if one door to the outside is opened. His view is a brick wall and bars," she said.
This latest twist follows a court case against Primarily Primates that was dismissed. The suit sought to have the Ohio State animals moved.
Wallace Swett, who founded the refuge, resigned as president during the summer. He remains on its board.
"I don’t know if (Swett) really understands the level of degradation that the animals in his care have reached," Theisen-Watt said.
Swett was not available for comment.
mlafferty@dispatch.com

==============================================

Temporary caregiver given authority to transfer primates

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5564175

SAN ANTONIO -- An Austin judge gave a temporary caregiver at an animal sanctuary the authority on Thursday to transfer animals to other facilities after hearing about financial, health and safety concerns at the primate retirement center.
Lee Theisen-Watt said Travis County Probate Court Judge Guy Herman also gave her the authority to take the advice of trained veterinarians, up to and including euthanization, if they deem it is the right choice for animals housed at Primarily Primates, Inc.
"What we need to do is provide immediate rescue for these animals now, the animals that are deemed to be in the most tragic conditions," she said.
Theisen-Watt was placed temporarily in charge of Primarily Primates by a court last week when the state attorney general's office stepped in, seizing the facility without notice under a temporary restraining order. Another hearing will be held Oct. 27 to determine whether to extend and expand the restraining order until the case gets to trial, said Tom Kelley, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
The sanctuary's attorney, Eric Turton, said he tried to delay the hearing because he was tied up in court Thursday. Kelley said Herman denied that motion.
"This is absolutely ridiculous," said Stephen Tello, interim executive director and trustee of Primarily Primates. "I can't believe he didn't even give us an opportunity to present our case."
Controversy about conditions at the sanctuary has been building for months. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has led an effort for change at the San Antonio compound and filed a complaint with the attorney general earlier this year.
"The animals deserve the sanctuary they were promised," said Leana Stormont, an attorney for PETA who has been at Primarily Primates for several days.
Tello said he is scared those now in charge will start euthanizing animals immediately.
"I just think that this is extremely unfair and I think hundreds of animals are going to start dying at Primarily Primates," Tello said. "I think the judge just gave them the go-ahead to start murdering animals."
Theisen-Watt said there are no animals in need of immediate euthanization but that they are evaluating animals in the most grave condition, including two monkeys, "day-to-day."
Theisen-Watt said there are 40 primates, about half chimps and half monkeys, that need to be transferred to other facilities soon. She said she hopes to start relocations next week.
"Every single day these animals are suffering and that's why we initiated this motion, because to wait another week would be to allow these animals to continue to suffer," she said.
The sanctuary already was the target of a lawsuit this year that ultimately sought to relocate some former cognitive research chimps to a sanctuary in Louisiana because of concerns about their welfare. That suit was thrown out by a judge last month.
The lawsuit related to seven chimps and two monkeys transferred to Primarily Primates from Ohio State University earlier this year in a more than $300,000 contract. Originally nine chimps and three monkeys were moved, but a monkey reportedly escaped on the day of arrival and two chimps, Kermit and Bobby, died within two months of coming to the 75-acre compound.
The chimps and monkeys were named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit along with two of their former caretakers at Ohio State and a California veterinarian.

======================================================================

Police take over Texas facility that houses OSU chimps
Officials allege that money was misused
http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/10/15/20061015-B4-02.html
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A Texas facility that Ohio State University paid almost $400,000 to care for nine research chimpanzees was taken over by police Friday for allegedly mismanaging donors’ money and providing substandard living conditions to its almost 800 monkeys, chimps and other animals.
OSU professor Sally Boysen, who in February called the facility a cesspool and tried to prevent her research chimps from being transferred there, said yesterday that the development proves the university sent the animals to a "horrific" new home.
"We’ve known it was coming," Boysen said of the Texas attorney general’s move to take over Primarily Primates, which Boysen said was hording animals without the resources to properly care for them.
"This all was precipitated by the move of my chimps to this facility in what only could be described as a commando-type raid," Boysen said. "You know the results."
Two of the nine OSU chimps died shortly after arriving at the facility, north of San Antonio. Also, one of three monkeys the university sent there escaped and is presumed to have died, Boysen said.
Earle Holland, OSU assistant vice president for research and communications, said yesterday that he had no knowledge that any of the university’s money had been misspent. The university doesn’t own the animals anymore, he said, and it knows nothing more of the police takeover than what he’s learned from media reports.
Under the contract, Ohio State agreed to pay Primarily Primates $324,000 to build permanent housing for the animals, and Holland said that as far as he knows, that is still being done. The university also paid $72,000 for their care.
Asked if the takeover vindicated Boysen’s concerns, Holland said: "I wouldn’t respond to something like that."
"No response is a response," Boysen countered, adding that the OSU animals were some of the most sophisticated chimps in the world.
The university sent the animals to Texas after closing a primate learning program operated by Boysen.
"This is what I have prayed for over the last several months," she said. "That through (the three former OSU research animals’) deaths, other animals will find their way to better surroundings, because otherwise you can’t live with the pain. You just can’t."
Boysen said she will travel to Texas soon in hopes of visiting with the remaining animals: "I’m looking forward to it, and I’m dreading it."
She hopes to have them transferred to another facility and resume her research, but she needs to raise the money, she said.
bbush@dispatch.com