LIFE BEFORE MONA
Seven of the chimpanzees rescued by the Fundación Mona were owned by a circus animal trainer living in the Valencia region. The animals were forced to learn various tricks, such as riding a motorbike or dressed up as bullfighters and made to play at bullfighting. They were used in television shows and adverts, for example, McDonalds, Telefónica and Estrella Damm. For at least eight years their home was an old, broken-down lorry parked in a dirty farm on the outskirts of Valencia. Inside the vehicle, they lived in dirty cages so small they could barely stand. Some of the chimps were chained up inside the cages and spent most of the day in the dark. Day after day they lived in these conditions, unable to mix with each other and unable to move more than a few centimetres either side in their cages. These chimps will live out the rest of their days peacefully in Mona’s sanctuary, and never again will they be exploited for business purposes. |
