Many of you know that Chimps Inc. and the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) are involved in a lawsuit regarding the custody of Emma and Jackson and twelve gibbons currently residing at the IPPL sanctuary in Carolina.  The federal lawsuit was filed against Primarily Primates last year to ensure that the animals that were relocated to our sanctuaries would reside at their current homes indefinitely.  The month of March marks Emma and Jackson’s one year anniversary in their new home.  Throughout the year, Emma and Jackson have had the time to make family connections with other chimpanzees, overcome many of the psychological maladies that they arrived here with, regained confidence and adopted proper captive chimpanzee mannerisms. 

A recent order by the federal court dismissed the case.  The court determined we [each of the plaintiffs] had not spent $75,000 on the animals, which is the minimum amount of money required to file in federal court.  Since Chimps Inc. has been able to show that we have spent over $100,000 on Emma and Jackson we have refiled our case (less than a day after the ruling) in the federal court of Oregon. 

Despite the fact that Chimps Inc. and IPPL have legal rights to the guardianship of the animals, the reason that we have continued our lawsuit is to protect the family groups that have developed over the last year.  Chimpanzees, like humans form strong family bonds which they maintain for a lifetime.  They demonstrate emotions similar to those we call love, anxiety (such as when separated from one another), fear, and trauma.  These emotional and cognitive faculties warrant them moral consideration.  Uprooting Emma and Jackson from the only chimpanzee family they have ever known will inflict untold psychological damage and relocating them threatens their health and well-being.