Former circus ape Regina can finally live an ape’s life

Chimpanzee can be a real chimp again at AAP

On Tuesday 30 August Lithuanian chimpanzee Regina arrived at AAP. This 18-year-old female was stolen as a baby from her chimp family in Cameroon. In Lithuania she was forced to perform tricks in a circus for eleven years. When Regina reached puberty and no longer obeyed she, like many other circus animals, was discarded and locked in the basement of the circus master. This is where she spent the past six years in solitude, without any form of distraction or the company of fellow chimps.

Regina’s hopeless situation seemed to close to an end when the Lithuanian animal rights organisation Pifas started to care for her cause and notified AAP about her. Several court cases were fought to free Regina from her basement, but the circus master did not grant the lonely chimpanzee a chance of a better life: he appealed every court ruling.

Fortunately, more and more people started to take an interest in Regina’s fate. While AAP intensely consulted with the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment to ensure shelter for Regina in Almere, almost 14.000 people from all over the world signed a petition for her release. In addition, thousands of people followed the developments in Regina’s case on Facebook. All these efforts combined enabled Regina to take the first step to a new monkey life today.

David van Gennep, director of the AAP Foundation: “the sad fate of Regina is indicative of that of many other circus animals. When the animals are young they are still impressionable and they perform the tricks they are ordered or even hard-handedly forced to do. When they no longer obey or they become too old, they are discarded and this is not just common practice in Lithuanian circuses. In our own country, for example, there is still no legislation to ensure animal welfare in circuses. Even more, in June of this year Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Trade, Henk Bleker, decided that in his opinion circuses no longer require a permit for keeping exotic animals, whereas zoos do have this obligation. Therefore, circus animals are outlawed, also in the Netherlands”.

Luckily, for Regina the future does look bright. At AAP she will learn to be a chimpanzee again. For the first time in 18 years she will be faced with fellow chimps, with whom she can eventually build up a proper social life, with the help of the various experts working at AAP.

Watch the video of Regina's arrival: