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One Chimp’s Journey to Sanctuary – part one

Kareem 1989 Cropped

#KareemStrong

It was a dark day for little Kareem. The innocent, baby chimpanzee could never have known that one small act of defiance would change his life forever.

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.

“The day he resisted going back into the cage, was the day I knew he was never going to the playroom again. His time was up.” This is the chilling remembrance by Nancy Megna, who worked at LEMSIP and contacted me shortly after learning Kareem had moved to Project Chimps.

Nancy shared her haunting memories about young Kareem and his playmates in the research lab.

Nancy Megna carrying four young chimps in the nursery at LEMSIP. Photo courtesy of Nancy.
Nancy Megna carrying four young chimps in the nursery at LEMSIP. Photo courtesy of Nancy.

My phone started ringing

Kareem is a former research chimpanzee who spent 29 years in various laboratories in the United States. At least one of those labs – the Coulston Foundation (also now closed) — had a horrible reputation for its cruel treatment of animals.

As much as we can tell from online records and personal accounts, Kareem’s journey took him from LEMSIP in New York to Coulston in New Mexico, then to MD Anderson in Texas and finally to the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, where he was retired from research in 2015.

Kareem was strong, inside and out, so he survived. And on November 7, 2018, he moved to the Project Chimps sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia. For the rest of his life.

Kareem is magnificent. And I could tell right away that he is a very special chimp. Of course, all chimpanzees are special, but Kareem has something unique inside him. You can see it in his eyes and his behavior towards humans and other chimpanzees. It turns out that others had seen it too. Since the day he was born.

We posted pictures of Kareem on our social media channels the day after he arrived. Then my phone started ringing. Kareem’s former caregivers wanted to check on him and share his story. That’s how I came to learn more about this amazing chimpanzee and his harrowing journey to sanctuary.

And that’s when I knew we had to share their stories with you.

Kareem at Project Chimps.

The day she hoped would never come

Nancy shared many details with us and referred us to other caregivers in Kareem’s life. Slowly, we began to piece together Kareem’s story.

It happens that Nancy was with him on one of the most fateful days in his young life. It was the day he was removed from the LEMSIP nursery, at the age of 6, and placed into the lab’s research program. It was the day Kareem had to grow up. Far too soon.

Much like the day when a child leaves home, it was a day everyone knew was coming but one that his caregivers hoped would be delayed as long as possible. According to Nancy, refusing to go back into their tiny cage after a day in the nursery playroom brought them one step closer to moving out of the nursery and into research. She coaxed and coaxed, but he wouldn’t go back to his tiny prison. So his fate was sealed. From that point on, Kareem began his long and frightening life as a research chimpanzee, subject to any experiments done wherever he lived.

Kareem as an infant. Photo courtesy of Lisa Jones-Engel
Kareem as an infant. Photo courtesy of Lisa Jones-Engel

The next chapter of Kareem’s life was a dark one. But before we can share that story, we need to go back to the beginning, with Kareem’s birth at LEMSIP and the stories shared by one of his first caregivers, Lisa Jones-Engel.

In a few days, we’ll share the second of this three-part story about Kareem’s journey to sanctuary.

You can make a difference for Kareem and the other chimpanzees we still need to relocate to Project Chimps by making a year-end gift today.

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