CHCI is a sanctuary. Tatu and Loulis deserve to live out the rest of their lives in the home that they have known for the last 20 years.

I truly hope that the university embraces CHCI’s mission of sanctuary and does not force Friends of Washoe to move them out of their home.

As for it being a “win-win” to move to CSNW; it would be incredibly stressful for the chimpanzees to move, especially since they are elderly and I don’t see how CWU would benefit, because they do not own Tatu and Loulis.

If the chimpanzees leave CWU’s campus it will be the decision of Friends of Washoe—not CWU—and their relationship with the university will end. Further, before CSNW is volunteered, the directors at CSNW (all past CHCI students) feel that it is in Tatu and Loulis’s best interest to stay.

CHCI’s student internships should not be undervalued by CWU. CHCI is the epitome of CWU’s “Learn. Do. Live.” The chimpanzees teach students respect for the animals in their care, compassion and empathy for the captive lives they are forced to live and, perhaps most importantly for a scientist, humility. During my time as a student at CHCI, Tatu, Dar and Loulis were the best teachers I had.

–Rozsika Steele

CWU 2010, env. studies, primate behavior, ecology & anthropology