Ohio State officials maintain it was an accident and not substandard care that caused the death of Kermit, a 25-year-old male chimp, during his transfer from OSU’s now-closed chimp center to Primarily Primates, a San Antonio sanctuary.
The staff of the OSU chimp center held a protest last Monday, in which Dr. Sally Boysen chained herself to the security gates of the center in symbolic protest of its closing. OSU had opted to transfer the chimps to Primarily Primates’ care after the center was unable to obtain new funding and safety concerns for the chimps began to arise.
Boysen was not permitted to accompany the chimps on their journey because once the animals left OSU property, they were legally the property of Primarily Primates, said Earle Holland, OSU spokesman.
“Some people responded by saying we should exercise more control over the process, and considering we had a contract transferring ownership, we were limited in what we can do,” Holland said.
The Lantern was unable to contact Boysen.
Lisa Wathne, a captive-exotic-animal specialist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said she had been to the primate center as late as August 2005. She said she saw the conditions of Primarily Primates, including inadequate diets, improper housing and a lack of enrichment for the primates.
“I went because we’ve been receiving so many (employee) complaints … One of the women working there at the time walked me through the facility to point out her concerns,” Wathne said.
The chimps arrived at Primarily Primates Wednesday afternoon without incident after leaving last Monday evening, Holland said. The staff at the primate center decided to leave them in their transfer cages to allow them time to calm down before being transferred to their temporary housing.
“This is not an unreasonable thing to do,” Holland said.
At this point, the animals were sedated so the staff could transfer them safely out of the cages, also not unusual, he added. They started sedation procedures with Kermit, since he is one of the alpha males, weighing close to 300 pounds. After the initial dosage did not sedate Kermit, procedures were followed to give incremental dosages to start the transfer.
“At some point, they found he wasn’t breathing, so they immediately started CPR,” Holland said. “They continued CPR until they realized he had no heartbeat and no respiration, so he was dead.”
Dr. William Yonushonis, director of the University Animal Laboratory Resource, said he went down to Primarily Primates on the next available flight to San Antonio to monitor the situation of the other chimps, and found them to be in good shape physically and mentally.
“Our chimps started grooming each other, climbing vertically. They were calm,” Yonushonis said. “I could get close to them and they were non-aggressive and they were only in the facility for a couple of hours.”
He also said the sedatives were given by Dr. Thomas Vice, a veterinarian and expert in exotic species. Vice is one of six veterinarians Primarily Primates has on retainer.
“I’ve visited there three times. We had a national expert on primates look at the facility and found that it’s in order,” Yonushonis said.
Many people still remain unconvinced that OSU did the best they could for these chimps.
Leslie Day, director of Chimps Inc., said she was concerned when she first heard of the decision to move the chimps to Primarily Primates and said she was not surprised Kermit died.
“It’s horrible, it’s like murder. We knew something terrible was going to happen. It’s something probably everyone else in the primate environment would know,” Day said. “It’s probably just going to get worse.”
The Lantern received no response to interview requests from Primarily Primates’ owner, Wallace Swett.
