Today marks the third annual Animal Sanctuary Caregiver Day and I would like to invite you to join me in saying a huge “thank you” to the incredible team of people responsible for the day-to-day care of our monkey residents here at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary.
When our team members tell new acquaintances that they work with monkeys, the response is usually something along the lines of: “Wow! You are so lucky!” And they are right: it is a huge privilege to work with our more than 500 residents and to play a role in giving monkeys rescued from sad, cruel, and sometimes abusive situations, a second chance at life. But, despite this, it is also an extremely demanding role – physically, mentally, and emotionally.
For example, monkeys don’t give a hoot about human holidays like Christmas, 4th of July, or Thanksgiving; they still need their enclosures to be cleaned, their medications to be administered, and their food and water to be provided to them. That means our site must be staffed and fully operational 365 days per year and thus our caregiving staff regularly forgo spending holidays with loved ones to be at work and see to the monkeys’ needs. Indeed, the need to have people present at all times in the case of an emergency means that most of our staff live on site at the Sanctuary.
South Texas weather can be brutal, with temperatures dropping to below freezing on winter mornings and rising to a scorching 110+ degrees during the long, hot summer. Just as they have no regard for human holidays, the monkeys’ needs don’t change for the weather and so, whether it is hauling sacks of feed, working to maintain enclosures, lifting heavy water troughs, or cleaning the monkeys’ living spaces, come rain or shine, our team is there from 7:00 AM every single day for the monkeys.
Our caregivers do everything in their power to treat and care for any monkeys in need of medical attention. This might mean providing round-the-clock care and monitoring, painstakingly trying over and again to convince a reluctant monkey to take the medicine which will make them better, and, perhaps most importantly, knowing the hundreds of individual monkeys under our care well enough that slight changes in body condition or behavior are noticed before serious illness might set in.
Inevitably, some treatments fail, untreatable conditions reach their natural conclusion, or old age catches up. By far the most difficult part of the role of caregiver is the loss of our friends. The average lifespan of the monkeys we care for can be placed at around 25 years old. With more than 500 monkeys under our care, and many of those monkeys having come to us already in adulthood and with preexisting health conditions due to their past treatment, loss is sadly a part of any animal caregiver’s reality.
But, even in the face of such loss, our caregivers must continue. They may take a moment to say goodbye, to shed a tear, to hug one another, to share a memory of that monkey’s life, but then it is right back out there and on with the job. Because, no matter the day, no matter the weather, no matter the hundreds of other things that might be going on around them at any one time, our team knows that the monkeys need them and that is reason enough to always be there.
It is thanks to you – our wonderful supporters – that our Sanctuary exists and it is thanks to our dedicated caregiving team that the monkeys housed here receive the absolute highest standard of care possible.
To you, and to our caregivers, a heartfelt thank you!
For the Monkeys,
Liz
