US: A former lab research chimpanzee named Vanilla was stunned when she gazed for the first time at the open sky, after being caged for 28 years and her reaction was caught on camera. Save the Chimps,
a privately funded sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida, released the video at the top of this story showing Vanilla being greeted with a hug by a male chimp named Dwight, as her jaw dropped when she looked toward the sky.The organization stated 28-year-old Vanilla had lived in the mid 1990s inside a small cage at a now-closed research lab in New York, before being moved to an animal sanctuary in California, where she lived in a moderate chain link enclosure with a solid top.
“She had never been outside of a lab cage or the garage-sized enclosure she was transferred to in California,” Save the Chimps said.
When that sanctuary closed, Vanilla became one of the very last of its nearly 500 animals to be rehomed. Lucky for Vanilla, her new home is a lush, three-acre island, which she can explore at her leisure with her chimpanzee friends, whom she loves to groom. According to Save the Chimps, “When she’s not exploring the island with her friends, she can usually be found perched atop a three-story climbing platform, surveying her new world.
Dailynews