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I’ve spent so many days here looking for my mother. Every time they brought me outside after I arrived in this place, I looked.
But all I saw were humans, staring at me with excited expressions on their faces. Some of them I moved toward because I thought they might be able to comfort me, or because I was curious about them. I soon learned that those who brought me out to these visitors controlled this aspect of my life too. If they didn’t want me to interact with someone, I was pulled back by the leash and collar they put around my waist. Whatever feeling I tried to express–frustration, unhappiness, loneliness–was mostly ignored.
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Sometimes I sensed the people who came to look at me were nervous. I understood why, because I could feel my enormous strength even then, when I was small. As my strength grew, I found myself alone more and more. For a long time, I saw no one else like me. Now there are others. I see them sometimes. We express our despair by screaming and banging on the walls. Shaking the barriers that keep us here. Rocking back and forth to console ourselves. But nothing changes.
There was one, they called him Tommy. When he got here, I thought I saw in him the same pain I felt. The pain of being in a cage, alone, and not understanding why. One day, he was gone. I don’t know where he went. Maybe he found his mother, and I’ll find mine.
Dear John,
Above, the Nonhuman Rights Project imagines the perspective of Louie–one of seven chimpanzees held captive in a roadside zoo in Michigan called the DeYoung Family Zoo. These chimpanzees previously included the NhRP’s first client, Tommy, who, according to public records the NhRP obtained, died in 2022 “curled up in his sleeping spot” inside a building at the DeYoung Family Zoo.
One year ago, with the support of world-renowned chimpanzee cognition and behavior experts, the NhRP filed a lawsuit demanding the DeYoung Prisoners’ right to liberty and release to a chimpanzee sanctuary. A trial court judge denied the chimpanzees the possibility of any relief from their imprisonment simply because they’re chimpanzees. We expect a hearing in the case early next year, and we’re looking forward to challenging this judge’s legally wrong decision.
The DeYoung Prisoners need your help. They need the legal right to liberty–as all great apes do. Please donate today [[link removed]] so the NhRP can reach as many people as possible with their stories and bring as many resources as possible to the fight for their freedom next year.
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Thank you so much for reading and for your support.
The NhRP
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The NhRP is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (Tax ID #: 04-3289466). It is solely through your donations that we can continue to work for the recognition and protection of fundamental rights for nonhuman animals.
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