Veg monkey sanctuary needs help to win Facebook prize money
(no cost to you)

Dear Veg Friends,

If this request resonates in your heart, please pass this along to your contacts.

I am at Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary in Gainesville, Florida for my 3rd volunteer visit.  JF is an intentional community on all vegetarian land. NO meat is allowed on property. The majority of food is vegan (JF accepts donations of vegetarian food but only purchases vegan food) and we actively spread the vegan message as hundreds of interns and volunteers come here each year from all over the world to work with monkeys. Many experience eating pure veg for the 1st time and leave JF as committed vegetarians or vegans. JF also has a Volunteers to Vegans program where the local community is invited here for a work day with a gourmet vegan meal offered.  You can read more about V toV here- http://junglefriends.org/volunteers2vegans.shtml
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As far as I know, Jungle Friends is the only primate sanctuary in the USA that is pure veg and actively spreading the veg message of compassion for all beings.

Thirty percent of our monkeys are retired from laboratories. Seventy percent of our monkeys are former pets or entertainment animals. Many of our monkeys never saw another monkey until they arrived here to be socialized with their own species.  The reason the percentage for lab monkeys here is so much less than the pet population is that labs retire their monkeys in groups (such as 10 at a time or 30 at a time).  Jungle Friends rarely receives funding from laboratories when we accept their monkeys. We need to fundraise for each monkey we accept.  It costs at least $5000.00 to build a habitat and over $100.00 per month for food for each monkey. Our power bills run over $5000.00 per month.  We also need reserves for veterinary care, cleaning supplies, monkey blankets, and food for our human volunteer staff.

We care for 120 monkeys right now on 12 acres. The county has limited the number of monkeys to 120 which is why we are promoting our expansion project.
Please visit http://junglefriends.org/expansionproject.shtml to learn why and how we need to expand.

At JF, we have spider monkeys, tamarins, marmosets, squirrel monkeys, capuchins and a kinkajou.  We also have six rescue dogs on property (including a 3-legged dog), and a forest full of bunnies and squirrels.  We are built to capacity and cannot accept any more monkeys.  We continually receive requests to accept more monkeys but we cannot. Most legitimate primate sanctuaries are also unable to accept any more animals.

Primate sanctuaries are not priorities for vegetarian and vegan animal rights activists who mainly focus their fund raising efforts on farm animals and companion animals yet primate sanctuaries are continually asked by laboratories and pet monkey owners to provide care for “throwaway” monkeys retired from research or no longer safe to be household pets. Many monkeys from laboratories can not be retired to sanctuaries and are killed.  No countries with monkeys natural to their ecosystem will accept monkeys from the USA so captive monkeys cannot be released back into the rainforest. 

All primate sanctuaries need funding so they can expand their acreage, build new habitats, recruit sufficient staffing and reserve money for veterinary care.  As a vegetarian and pro-vegan primate sanctuary, we are asking for your support.

We have an opportunity to buy the land next door for $200,000.  If we acquire this land, we will be able to accept so many more monkeys.

The veg community can help us right now by using Facebook to vote for JF in the Chase Community Giving awards.  If you are not a Facebook member, please join up to vote then follow the next directions. If you are a Facebook member, log on to Facebook then go to the Jungle Friends website (www.junglefriends.org). Next,  click on the blue hand in the Chase Community Giving box.  On the new page, click “Like” then “Vote for this Charity.”  If you have an extra few minutes, please also click on “Share this Charity with your Friends.” By whatever method possible, please spread the word to all your friends and family who love animals. We need this vote request to spread around the world as quickly as possible.

Our deadline is July 12th at noon . If we win the first prize of $250,000, we will have all the money we need to buy the land and be able to grow and accept so many more monkeys. If we can be in the top five charities, we can win $100,000.00 which will give us half the money we need to buy the land next door.  If we are in the top 200, we can win $20,000.00 which will help us greatly.  Monkeys need your help.

Thanks you,

Amy Lynn Caplan
Pacifica, CA.
Vegan