Posts tagged "animal sanctuaries"

Polly Schultz loves to cuddle Baby George.

When he recently underwent surgery, she spent hours snuggling with him on the couch.

There are a few things, however, Schultz can't share with George. She can't eat food in front of him. Neither can any other residents of her house. That would be rude. "We don't break monkey rules," Schultz tells Paw Nation.

Baby George is not one of Schultz's' children. George is a java macaque at the OPR Coastal Primate Sanctuary in Longview, Wash.

Schultz is the founder and CEO of the refuge George shares with other macaques as well as capuchin, vervet, marmoset, tamarin and spider monkeys. Once called Oregon Primate Rescue, the sanctuary was established in 1998 in Dallas, Ore. The new name was adopted to reflect a move to the 28-acre property in Washington state.

Its mission, OPR's website states, is to "provide lifetime care in a humane and enriching environment to unwanted, orphaned or crippled monkeys that originate from private owners, ... government agencies and to those retiring from a life of research."

Since creating the nonprofit, Schultz and her husband Skip have lived with the monkeys 24 hours per day, seven days per week. They haven't had a monkey-free vacation in 13 years. Instead, they share their time together with the primates, often hanging out with the monkeys and watching reality shows on the couch. Schultz says she wouldn't have it any other way.

Gattaras. It's the Italian name for women who feed and care for stray cats. It's not necessarily a flattering term, but at least two "gattaras" are happy to accept the mantle: Lia Dequel and Sylvia Viviani, who run the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary, which helps to care for the strays who occupy the Roman ruins.

"Yes, we are Cat Ladies," Dequel told Stripes.com recently. "And be sure to write that with capital letters!"

Practically everyone who's ever had a Roman holiday has come home with photo albums filled with images of the many stray cats that haunt the ruins of the Field of Mars, the Theater of Pompey, the Colosseum and the Forum. The famous felines have even been recognized by Rome's city council, which declared the city's estimated 300,000 cats an official part of its "bio-cultural heritage."

According to Dequel, "It's a tradition in Rome. When you see ruins, you can dump your cats. They'll find someone to take care of them."

And most times they will, thanks to the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary. Dequel and Viviani took over the sanctuary 16 years ago, and with the help of volunteers and the Anglo Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA), they changed it from a small, cavelike room under the street without electricity or running water into a clean, bright refuge.

The space itself is uniquely located under a busy street, and as Dutch volunteer Karen Cortese told Paw Nation, "We are still squatters and never completely sure if we will be allowed to stay or whether one day we will be evicted. We are still not attached to the sewer system, a big hurdle we have not been able to overcome yet!"

Despite these obstacles, the sanctuary has managed to make a difference for the felines of Rome. Cortese pointed out that many people don't know how most stray males are FiV positive, and many kittens are born with serious eye problems that will lead to blindness.

Medical attention, along with spaying and neutering, can help these cats, and for many of them, this unusual organization of dedicated volunteers toiling away beneath the street is a literal life saver.

Michael Jackson's death last week has left fans with questions regarding all aspects of the singer's life. Pet lovers in particular may wonder about the fate of Jackson's menagerie of exotic animals, especially the most famous of them all: Bubbles the chimp.

Bubbles, of all of Jackson's pets, was probably the closest to Jackson. His 1985 adoption of the chimp from a Texas research facility, and the subsequent bond between man and ape became a key part of the singer's eccentric persona. Bubbles often was seen at Jackson's side as a member of Jackson's entourage during the peak of the entertainer's fame in the 1980s. He attended concerts, album recording sessions, and tea parties at Elizabeth Taylor's house. That is, when he wasn't kicking it in high style at Jackson's Neverland ranch, practicing his moonwalk.

Now in his mid-twenties, Bubbles still lives a stylish life, although much less in the blinding spotlight of his glitzy early years. As he matured, Bubbles became too aggressive for domestic life with the Jackson family and was given to a California-based animal trainer who later entrusted the chimp's care to the Center for Great Apes, a sanctuary for "retired" apes in Wauchula, Florida, where he resides today.