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The Mona Foundation was set up to end the exploitation of primates in captivity. The foundation has established a sanctuary near Girona in Spain, which provides a home where rescued chimpanzees and other primates can live in a natural environment and where people can be inspired to understand and respect wild animals.
Why a chimp sanctuary in Spain?
For many years, an illegal trade took place between West Africa and Spain, supplying chimpanzees to be used in circuses and tourist shows. During the 1970s and 1980s it was common to see photographers at Spanish resorts using chimpanzees as props to entice tourists to pay to be photographed with them. Although this trade has been stopped, many chimps from this time still languish in poor conditions in captivity. Many more have been bred from those originally imported from Africa and are kept in cramped conditions in travelling circus and zoo.
In 2001, the Spanish customs authority recognised the Mona Foundation as a national centre for the rescue and rehabilitation of illegally held primates. In that year, the centre took in its first residents, a group of chimpanzees that had been kept for more than eight years in the back of a truck by a former circus trainer.
The plight of captive chimps is not unique to Spain. Many other chimpanzees are kept in poor conditions in private collections, zoos and amusement parks in Europe. In many cases these chimps are housed on their own without the company of their own kind. As chimps are highly intelligent and sociable animals, this is a major animal welfare problem.
The origins of the Mona Foundation
The origins of Mona Foundation go back to 1984, when Simon and Peggy Templer, an English couple living in Breda, Catalunia, established a small sanctuary to rehome chimpanzees recovered from Spanish beach photographers. In that time, Olga Feliu was working as a vet in the area and was often called upon to help at the sanctuary. The project came to an end in 1996 as the Templers became too old to continue the centre. However, they made arrangements for all their chimps to be rehomed at the south of England. In the year 2000, the Mona Foundation was founded and start the building of the sanctuary with the aim of re-establishing a primate rescue centre in Spain. Olga Feliu is now Director of the sanctuary.
The Mona Foundation is registered as a charitable organisation with the Justice Department of Catalonia, one of Spain's 13 administrative and legislative regions. Its registration number is 1404. In accordance with the regulations of this registration the Foundation files a plan of activities at the beginning of each year and a set of accounts and achievements at the end of each year. The Foundation is governed by a board of three trustees : Olga Feliu , Amparo Barba and Manuel Marana .
Who supports the Mona Foundation?
The Mona Foundation is dependent on voluntary donations from members of the public and from individuals who give their time to help the project. In addition, the foundation is grateful for substantial contributions from the following:
District Council of Riudellots de la Selva, which has given the land on which the sanctuary is build and paid for the building of an information centre.
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), which helped to design our main outdoor enclosure and covered all the construction costs. WSPA also pays and annual grant towards the running costs of the centre.
Other key sponsors are:
One Voice, France
Fondation Brigitte Bardot
Schweizer Tiershutz, Switzerland
The Deputation of Girona
International Primate Protection League, UK
The Born Free Foundation, UK
Mazuri Foods, UK
Girona Wholesale Food Market
Girona Airport
Triplevedoble, Spain
Formigons Alsina, Spain
Activities & Achievements
The Mona Foundation has re-homed eleven chimpanzees varying in age from one to 47 years. Three of these chimps were confiscated by the Spanish authorities from travelling circuses or zoos, seven were rescued from a former circus trainer who used them for many different types of performances and one came from a zoo in Germany where it had been kept on its own for several years.
The chimps share a 5600 metre square, semi-natural enclosure, which includes various climbing structures, observation points and extensive areas of grassland and a pond. The enclosure is dived in half with and all male group in one side and a mixed group with youngsters in the other half.
In addition to the work of rescuing and caring for primates, the Mona Foundation places a high priority on education work to foster a better understanding of the needs of primates and the problems caused by keeping them in captivity for entertainment. A dedicated educational department organises visits from school parties who take part in a range of special activities and exercises. Smaller groups of both children and adults visit the centre of a regular basis and all receive a detailed talk on the origins of the project, the reasons way primates can suffer so much in captivity, and the need to do more to protect them in the wild.
A series of research projects are also being undertaken which aim to describe how chimpanzees, rescued from poor conditions, adapt once they are given more space and the opportunity to develop social groups. This research is undertaken by collecting data through observation on the movements of each chimp and their interaction within their group.
How we care for primates at Mona
The Mona Foundation aims to give chimps conditions as close as possible to that which they would experience in the wild in Africa. Although they have spent much of their lives in the company of humans, in the Mona sanctuary they are encouraged to live and behave like wild animals. Our carers prepare food for the chimps and clean out their sleeping quarters each the day, but for almost everything they are left to take care of their selves. Chimps are very good at looking after each other when they have a problem, and by encouraging this, our chimp groups become more self-reliant. For example, although Romie and two of the younger chimps, Bongo and Waty, were quite traumatised when they arrived at the sanctuary, they have helped each other grow in confidence and become more relaxed. Mona staff only intervene with the chimps when a serious health problem arises.
In the wild chimps compete to establish a hierarchy in their group, especially males who try to gain the favour of the females. Because there are many more males than females at the Mona sanctuary it is not possible to keep both sexes in our main enclosure as conflicts would break out between the males. For this reason we keep our adult males together in one enclosure and females and young chimps in a separate enclosure.
As we are able to re-home more females this situation may change. Chimps at the Mona sanctuary are prevented from breeding by using contraceptive pills. We do this because we need to keep the space so that more chimps can be rescued from poor conditions.
Many people ask if the Mona Foundation could return chimps to the wild in Africa. This would be impossible for the chimps living at our sanctuary because they are too used to humans to survive in the rainforest or the African savannah.
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