Chimps For Life

Watch this video to see the average day at LCRP!

Chimps For Life is a fundraiser for LCRP, or Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection, which was started by Diana Schmidt's aunt and uncle, Jenny and Jimmy Desmond. Chimps For Life is raising money to donate to LCRP to help the chimps toward a better life and a better home. LCRP is moving to a new location which is bigger and better for the chimps. We are raising money for lots of food and a new home for all 36 chimps that Jenny and Jimmy are rescuing. The chimp's mothers were killed by poachers for bush meat. Once the baby is alone, the poacher takes the baby and sells him/her as a pet, which is illegal. LCRP confiscates the chimps from people who have them as pets and helps them back into good health, then puts it in a sanctuary. When chimps are pets, they are treated really badly. Most don't get food or water and are dying because there are chains around their necks. LCRP is saving the chimps from the people that treat them badly, then they nurse them back into health, and treat them like any other human. Chimps For Life is a fundraiser supporting LCRP and the chimps, so that one day, poachers will learn that chimps are really important to our ecosystems, and don't deserve to be treated so badly.

Any type or amount of donation can help these orphaned chimpanzees.

When chimps are in the wild, they don't get off of their mom's backs for over a year. After that, they only go a few feet away from their mothers for about 2 years. When their mothers are killed by poachers, they get none of that. LCRP is providing all of the care that the chimps need to the babies, but we still wish they didn't have to. Poachers shouldn't exist. LCRP is there when the chimps really need to, but it is not a good thing that the chimps have to be with humans because they should be with their moms. Our short-term goal for LCRP is to save the baby chimpanzees. The long-term goal is to stop poachers, but that is going to need a worldwide effort.

The LCRP family continues to grow with each new chimpanzee rescue.  LCRP currently cares for more than twenty-five chimpanzees, most of whom are under five years old and given the chance at a healthy life, may live up to 60 years. All of LCRP’s chimpanzee family members are orphans whose mothers and other family members were killed to be eaten; the young chimps kept alive to be sold into the local and international pet trades.

Liberia is home to the second largest population of western chimpanzees and contains the largest tracts of remaining intact tropical forests in West Africa.

Wildlife trade and hunting are decimating these remaining populations and ecosystems. Without organizations like LCRP, victims of the trade cannot be confiscated and perpetrators stopped from committing crimes against Liberia's flora and fauna. 

Donate to Chimps For Life or directly to LCRP to help baby orphaned chimps to have as good of a life as they deserve.