498 | Sanctuaries Europe and Asia chimpanzees have been mistreated, often shockingly, in zoos, circuses and other forms of entertainment, and in medical research laboratories Many of these were taken from Africa, snatched from the dead bodies of their mothers as infants Others were born in captivity We owe it to these unfortunate individuals to provide them with safe havens where they can live out their lives in relative freedom once they have been rescued In the UK, Jim Cronin founded the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, which he runs with his wife, Alison Originally this center was built to provide a home for the infant chimpanzees smuggled into Spain from West Africa and used as photographers’ props in tourist resorts Jim worked with a British couple who lived in Spain, the Templars, and with the police, to stop the illegal trafficking, and also with tourist agencies, persuading them to warn visitors of the cruel practice Jim has now rescued chimpanzees and other primates from many parts of the world In America, Wally Swett began taking in abused animals, mostly primates, discarded by the pet and entertainment industries His Primarily Primates is situated in San Antonio, and now provides sanctuary for several groups of chimpanzees Patti Regan, at the Center for Orangutan and Chimpanzee Conservation, Vachula, Florida, and April Truit, at the Primate Rescue Center, Inc., Nicholasville, Kentucky, have both built small sanctuaries for ex-pet and exentertainment chimpanzees A very difficult challenge is to create sanctuaries for chimpanzees who have been used and abused in medical research laboratories These individuals are typically full grown, and often they have been housed alone for most of their lives, so that it can take years to re-socialize some of them The very first rescue of a group of ex-lab chimps, released onto a manmade island at Lion Country Safaris in Florida, is described by Linda Koebner in her moving book From Cage to Freedom They are still there Years later, the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection Act or CHIMP Act, H.R 3514, sponsored by U.S Representative James Greenwood, was passed by both House and Senate in 2000, and signifies the U.S government’s commitment to partner with the private sector to provide sanctuaries for chimpanzees retired from medical research In December 2006, President George W Bush signed the Chimp Haven is Home Act into law, which prohibits the removal of or research on retired chimpanzees living in federal sanctuaries Chimp Haven (http://www.chimphaven.org/ index.cfm), a nonprofit organization, has received $24 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to build and manage a sanctuary on a 200-acre site of forested land donated by the citizens of Caddo Parish in Louisiana Chimp Haven must raise funds themselves equal to 10 percent of the government grant There are other sanctuaries in North America Richard Allen and Gloria Grow of the Fauna Foundation have built a sanctuary for 15 chimpanzees near Montreal in Canada It was the first sanctuary of its kind, built to house chimpanzees infected with AIDS and hepatitis as well as clean individuals It serves as a precedent, inspiring others to make the same commitment The next sanctuary for ex-lab chimps was built by Carole Noon in Florida The first group to be housed there comprised 21 of the so-called Air Force chimpanzees from the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico Some of these are descendents