Treating rescued chimps on The Sunday Edition

First aired on The Sunday Edition (24/07/11)

Running a rescue centre for traumatized great apes takes guts and empathy, qualities that Gloria Grow has in spades.

Grow is the founder of Fauna Sanctuary, the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Canada. She says it's a cross between a mental institution, a maximum security prison, a daycare centre and a New York deli during lunchtime rush.

The centre, which Grow and her veterinarian husband opened in 1997 near Chambly, Quebec, houses chimps rescued from research labs, zoos and circuses.

The animals, who bear the psychic and physical scars of years of experimentation and human cruelty, and Grow are the subjects of a compelling new book The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. The author, Andrew Westoll, spent months there as a volunteer caregiver, getting a close-up view of what it's like to rehabilitate these traumatized creatures.

Westoll, who had initially studied to be a primatologist, says he knew that he had to immerse himself in this environment to be able to write about it.

"You can't really get to know them unless you spend a lot of time with them," Westoll said in a recent interview with CBC's The Sunday Edition. "That's something I learned as a scientist."

In the book, Westoll describes Grow's efforts to form relationships with these animals, many of whom were subjected to brutal laboratory experiments involving lethal human viruses. 

"[She] had to build this trust over an incredibly long period of time with these chimps to make them see that she was there to help them and not to hurt them. The physical stuff is there but the psychological journey of getting to know these chimps and making them realize that they're in a safe place — that's the real struggle she had to deal with."