Finally Buddy's companion gets rescued too

For a second time, AAP's director David van Gennep took the long trip to Murcia, in the South of Spain, together with some of his co-workers. He'd been here before to rescue Buddy, a chimpanzee that had literally been kept on a scrapheap for years.The owner had tried to sell off his place as an amusementpark by keeping a couple of caged chimpanzees.

For years we'd been receiving complaints about the sad way these animals were being kept, but meanwhile it remained unclear how many of them were there. Buddy and a female chimpanzee were mentioned, but sometimes a third chimpanzee was also reported, although this animal seemed to have disappeared later on.

Slow wheels Buddy's female partner died in 2006 as a result of undernourishment and cold. This finally got the authorities in a state of alarm, and so we got permission to get Buddy out of there. He was supposed to be alone, so you can imagine our surprise when we found two male chimpansees on the premises instead of just one! Immediately we decided we should rescue this second animal also, but the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly Not until now did we succeed in also taking Buddy's old mate away from that scrapheap.

Calls of the chimps

Naturally Flako was exhausted after his long trip. He fell in a deep sleep after the anaesthesia, that allowed the vet to do some preliminary checkups on the animal's health. But in a day or two, when he's fit again, he will hear the calls of the other chimps and recognize Buddy's voice. What their meeting will be like when Flako leaves the quarantine in three month's time? Time will tell!