Dear friends,
I want to take a moment to thank you so much for your dedication empowering African communities to save great apes and monkeys. Because of your unbelievable support, PASA member wildlife centers have rescued dozens of orphaned animals since the start of this year.
Each of these innocent animals has endured a world of pain, often witnessing their mothers killed to be butchered and eaten. Too small to be sold for meat, these orphans were tied up and caged, kept as novelty pets or sold on the black market.
Thanks to the support of compassionate people like you all over the world, these apes and monkeys are now receiving care, nourishing food, and veterinary treatment at PASA member sanctuaries.
By collaborating with law enforcement agencies to confiscate and rescue animals and arrest the traffickers, PASA members play a critical role in fighting the illegal wildlife trade.
Baby Gorilla Gets a Second Chance
Bobga, a baby gorilla, was tiny when his mother and family were slaughtered for meat as they tried to protect him. He seemed doomed to spend his remaining days as an illegal pet, without appropriate food or care.
Your support meant Bobga could be rescued! He was given a safe haven at Limbe Wildlife Centre, a PASA member in Cameroon, and every day Bobga is growing stronger. He loves to play and bond with his caregiver.
We even have a video of Bobga playing with a water tub for the first time! Click here to see this precious moment. Bobga is just one of the many lives you save when you donate to PASA and our member sanctuaries.
PASA donors save lives everyday – will you join our movement?
As the threats to the existence of great apes are increasing, your help is needed more than ever. Join PASA as we fight to protect Africa's threatened and endangered primates!
Very best wishes,
Gregg Tully
Executive Director
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
Links:
Dear friends,
I am so thankful for your unbelievable support for Africa’s endangered and threatened primates. You make it possible to protect and save chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and monkeys from the cruel illegal wildlife trade.
Many of you have asked for an update on little Tita. Just a few months ago, baby Tita was a victim of one of the most horrific poaching stories we’ve ever heard about.
Click here to read about Tita’s shocking story: https://www.facebook.com/pasaprimates/videos/10156142551009564
With your support and the dedicated care from the staff at Chimpanzee Conservation Center (CCC), PASA’s member organization in Guinea, Tita is growing stronger every day. She is even making new friends!
Tita was just introduced to the other orphaned babies at CCC – the first chimps she met since she saw her family beaten to death a few months ago. The look on her face when she met the other orphaned chimps was priceless.
We have a video of that precious moment – see it here! https://www.facebook.com/pasaprimates/videos/10156142551009564
Helping Animals by Helping People
Did you know that PASA member sanctuaries employ over 500 people from local communities in Africa?
It takes so many caring hands, hearts and minds to protect and care for the planet’s most threatened and endangered animals. That is why PASA provides opportunities for African sanctuary staff to become leaders in the field of animal welfare and conservation.
In 2016, PASA started a grant to make it possible for African sanctuary staff to attend our annual Strategic Development Conference. The conference brings together sanctuary directors and managers to discuss challenges in conservation and welfare, find solutions, and become stronger organizations.
Click to find out how PASA's grant is cultivating the next generation of leaders in African animal conservation. https://pasaprimates.org/awareness/building-leadership-across-africas-sanctuaries
Another Endangered Baby is Saved
Tragically, this sweet little gorilla is yet another victim of the illegal wildlife trade.
Bobga was very small when his mother and family were slaughtered for meat as they tried to protect him. Though he survived, what he saw will probably scar him forever.
Like many other orphans of the bushmeat trade, Bobga was tied up and kept as a novelty pet. When rescuers found out, they hurried to free him as soon as possible.
Click to watch the moment rescuers cut the rope that was knotted tightly around Bobga’s foot: https://pasaprimates.org/donate-to-limbe
Bobga was brought to sanctuary at Limbe Wildlife Centre, a PASA member in Cameroon. The staff are giving him all the love and tender care he needs at this delicate age, but they can only do this with your help.
What Will You Be Remembered For?
Have you made a Will? Have you considered including nonprofits such as PASA?
When I became involved with PASA, I learned how the organization turns donations into lasting changes that protect primates throughout Africa. I visited PASA member wildlife centers in Africa and saw first-hand that PASA and our members save lives and protect our closest relatives from extinction.
It seemed natural to include PASA in my Will, so I can be sure this essential work will continue. It was easy, and it only took a few minutes.
Including PASA in your Will is a decision you can make today about what happens with your money when you no longer need it. It doesn’t have any impact on you during your lifetime, so everyone can do it whether wealthy or not. Friends, will you leave a legacy as a primate protector?
Very best wishes,
Gregg Tully
Executive Director
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
PS: Don't miss this incredible video of a baby gorilla rescue! https://pasaprimates.org/donate-to-limbe
Dear friends,
This may be the hardest email I’ve ever had to write. It’s also one of the most important.
I need to tell you the shocking story of Tita – the baby chimpanzee who was saved from a violent death by her brave mother, sister, and a heroic crew of rescuers and caregivers. Please note, this email contains graphic details and images of animal abuse.
Last month, just before Christmas, the EAGLE network in Guinea received a call about a chimpanzee in grave danger. When they arrived, they discovered a scene more gruesome than they could have imagined.
Three wild chimpanzees had been captured and tortured. Only one was still alive - a baby girl, of only about 10 months old.
The bodies of her mother and sister lay limp on the floor, where they were brutally murdered moments before.
Rescuers learned that two wildlife traffickers had tortured the chimp family, and that the mother and sister fought with everything they had to save the life of the baby chimp. The older sister, also a young chimpanzee, defended her baby sister for hours. Eventually the poachers set their dogs on the older sister, tied her up and beat her to death.
The baby chimp was alive, but just barely.
Along with witnessing the murder of her mother and sister, she suffered from an infection in her eyes and a broken arm, and her fingernails had been viciously torn out. We don’t know why or how this happened to her, and I can’t comprehend how a person could commit such atrocities. But rescuers knew they had to save her life.
The members of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance provide lifelong homes to rescued orphans like Tita. There are over 3,000 primates in the care of our members who were saved from hunters and smugglers.
The Long Road to Recovery
The baby chimp was swiftly taken to PASA member Chimpanzee Conservation Center (CCC). The staff were incredibly relieved when she ate, drank, and showed signs of life.
They decided to name the little orphan Tita. It means “sister” in the local language, in memory of Tita’s older sister who gave her life protecting her.
Tita is deeply traumatized by being tortured and from the shock of watching her mother and sister brutally murdered. Now CCC staff is caring for her night and day, and providing her with medical treatment and nutritious food to build back her strength.
They’re doing everything possible to save her life, and every day she’s growing a little bit stronger.
But Tita is very fragile and we aren’t sure if she’ll make it.
Tita’s road to recovery will take a long time, and the costs of her extensive veterinary care will be tremendous. CCC is dedicated to doing everything they can for her, but they have limited resources. They can’t save her without you.
Please donate to give her the medical care she desperately needs.
We can’t give Tita her mother and sister back. We can’t undo the trauma she has seen and felt. But with your support, we can help Tita survive.
Her mother and sister died for her to live -- don't let them die in vain. Give now to save Tita.
Very best wishes,
Gregg Tully
Executive Director
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
PS: You have the ability to do something amazing. Please donate today to give life-saving medical care to a little chimp who suffered through unthinkable cruelty.
Links:
Front Page Story Reveals an Illegal Trade
The Size of the Industry is Shocking
As the New York Times reported, international criminal gangs and corrupt government officials are the culprits behind a billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade.
Social media has brought this industry – and the horrific cruelty it causes – to an unprecedented scale. Smugglers in Africa, dealers in Southeast Asia, and private collectors in the Middle East use Instagram, Facebook and other platforms to message each other about buying and selling orphaned great apes who were stolen from the wild. They freely exchange information about prices and fraudulent permits.
The suffering inflicted on the victims of this trade is unimaginable.
These highly social animals are torn from their families when they’re babies. Many live in cages and develop self-destructive behaviors. When the apes are a few years older and become dangerous for people to handle, they’re often abandoned or killed.
“For every successful bust, wildlife specialists say, five to 10 other animals slip through. Poachers often wipe out entire families to get their hands on a single infant, which is far easier to smuggle.” – New York Times
Wildlife centers that are members of PASA have rescued thousands of primates from the illegal trade. They’re committed to giving them high-quality care and returning them to the wild whenever possible. Furthermore:
We can’t do it without you! Please make this work possible by donating today.
Share the Petition to Stop Bushmeat Entering the U.S.
We want to thank all of you who have signed the petition that pressures U.S. Customs to crack down on the illegal import of meat from endangered species.
More than 82,000 people have signed the petition. Thanks to you, the number continues to grow!
Help us reach our goal of 100,000 signatures. Click here to share the petition on social media or by email. If you haven’t signed it yet, please add your name.
Very best wishes,
Gregg Tully
Executive Director
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
Links:
Forging a Stronger Conservation Community
Dear friends,
PASA is busy planning our 18th annual conference for the leaders of our member wildlife centers. Many of them live at sanctuaries that are deep in the African bush, without reliable internet, phones, or even electricity. Saying they’re isolated is an understatement.
They’ve repeatedly said that PASA’s Strategic Development Conference is one of the most valuable ways we empower them. It’s the only time each year that they get together with a group of people who face the same extraordinary challenges that they do and who work to achieve the same goals – saving Africa’s primates and their habitat from disappearing forever.
PASA’s next conference will be in Zambia in September. PASA members told us the most important topics are strategic planning and financial management – not the most exciting, but absolutely essential for running a sustainable, effective organization.
Many of the leaders of PASA member organizations are lifelong volunteers and don’t take a salary. Almost none of the organizations have budgets for international travel. The conference will only be possible if you help to cover the necessary costs for the sanctuary leaders to attend.
Engaging African Communities
For the first time ever, the conference will occur side-by-side with a workshop for people who manage education programs and community development projects. PASA members have decades of experience living alongside local communities and running conservation programs. They’re ideally positioned to use public awareness to convince communities to stop illegally hunting wild animals, selling baby apes and monkeys as pets, and destroying habitat. They also give job training that provides sustainable alternatives.
The combination of the conference and the workshop makes this PASA’s largest event ever. You can make it possible.
Cultivating African Leaders
Hiring and cultivating future leaders is a daunting challenge for many PASA member organizations, especially those that work in very remote areas or unstable countries. To address this, PASA launched the Leadership Development Program which enables promising African management staff to come to the Strategic Development Conference and join PASA’s global network.
Last year, Raymond of Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue was the first participant in the program.
Based on its success, we’re expanding it to more rising stars.
Will you enable African staff to come to the conference and become future leaders?
Very best wishes,
Gregg Tully
Executive Director
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance
Links:
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