When Linda Loebner was a 23-year-old graduate student, she had the opportunity to participate in something bold and exceptional. Researchers had found a hepatitis vaccine and the chimpanzees who had been used for research for the vaccine were no longer needed. Could they survive outside the laboratory? It was a possibility the researchers were willing to explore with Linda’s help. For the first time in their lives, these beautiful and brilliant animals would have the chance to experience the freedom that they had never known before. Linda had the task of working with three specific chimps: a female named Swing, a six-year-old named Doll, and a young male named Sparky.
Linda had to help these chimps learn to survive in the outside world and she was hopeful that they would not only survive but thrive in their new environment. By Linda’s way of thinking, human beings owe chimpanzees so much. “Chimpanzees have provided us with so much in this world. So much knowledge about ourselves, about our social lives, about our dispositions…” Linda said. I think animal testing is a terrible thing, and it went on for far too long. With that said, I know that I and my children have benefitted from the sacrifices these animals have made against their will. We owe them everything.
When the chimps were first released from their transfer cages, they were terrified, Linda recalled. They were afraid to step on the grass and had never known anything but hard bars for years and for some, a lifetime. They huddled in the doorways and wouldn’t come out. However, Linda coaxed them out. Doll went right up the tree, but some of the other chimps had never experienced freedom since they were infants on their mother’s backs. They had lived their entire existence in boxes. For the next four years, she spent every day with these precious primates. She watched over them and comforted them and loved every minute of it.
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All of the chimps eventually settled happily into their new lives and their new home on an island sanctuary in Southern Florida. Linda wanted to pay a visit, but would they remember her 25 years later? No one knew how the chimps would react to seeing her again. Watch the video below to see what happened.
