Harmony

Remarkably, because of the special soul that he is, Kareem was somehow able to survive, despite the horrible conditions and unforgivable neglect to which he was subjected at Coulston Foundation. But his journey in research was not over.

Kareem’s story starts with the heart-wrenching fact that, like many chimpanzees who were born in research facilities, he was pulled from his mother at just a few days old. It’s difficult to think about the devastation that Kareem’s mother must have endured when her baby was pulled from her loving arms. Caregivers swaddled him in diapers and placed him in the lab’s chimpanzee nursery.

Kareem was only 5 years old and living at the now-closed Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York City. It was 1994 and a compassionate caregiver named Nancy was trying to lure Kareem back into his small cage after a day of innocent play in the lab’s nursery playroom. Kareem was tired of going back into a tiny cage each time his play sessions were over, so he held back.