Earthkeeper Hero: IPPL's Dr. Shirley McGreal

[Guest guest]

Article and photos at http://www.myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=s_mcgreal

 

" Individuals really can make a difference. "

 

EARTHKEEPER HERO: DR. SHIRLEY MCGREAL

by Julian Siminski

 

Photo caption: Dr. Shirley McGreal, Founder and Director of the

International Primate Protection League (IPPL http://www.ippl.org), a

primate sanctuary in South Carolina, is a hero. Having been directly

involved in the rescue of adult and baby Gibbons and other primates since

the early 1970s, Dr. McGreal has made herself the bane of poachers and

endangered primate traffickers worldwide.

 

Her journey into the primate world began slowly and innocently. " I was

living in India writing my doctoral dissertation and constantly saw monkeys

around the cities I visited, " she said. " I talked a lot with the Indians

about their views on animals and visited a Monkey Temple in Varanasi and a

Rat Temple near Bikaner. "

 

Dr. McGreal, a native of Cheshire, England, stayed in India from 1969 until

1971 when she moved on to Thailand. There her interest in primates changed

from purely academic to more activist. " When I moved to Thailand in late

1971, I had to pick up my air freight from India at the airport's cargo

area. I saw crates of monkeys awaiting export and imagined they were asking

me to help them. I later learned these tiny monkeys were Stumptail Macaques.

I began to read all I could about primates. I was surrounded by them in

Bangkok as many of my neighbors had gibbons and monkeys as pets they were

openly sold at the Sunday Market in Bangkok. "

 

Dr. McGreal wanted to help these primates. She began by contacting all of

the authors whose books she had read on primates, and reports got plenty of

advice and information in return. Enocouraged, she founded the International

Primate Protection League in 1973 with one member - herself (the League now

has 15,000 members around the world), but it wasn't until 1981 when IPPL

adopted its first primate - a two-year-old male Gibbon who had spent his

entire life in a laboratory.

 

" He had gone mad from living alone and with only an artificial wire covered

with a towel to act as his mother, " said McGreal. " This 'surrogate mother'

did not have the caring qualities of a real mother and the baby gibbon

developed a habit of banging his head out of frustration and loneliness.

When this Gibbon came to IPPL, we had to work very hard to give him love and

a feeling of security. We also gave him a name instead of a number. At the

lab he was #HL98, which was tattooed in blue on his tummy. Here at IPPL's

sanctuary he is named, Arun Rangsi, which is Thai for Rising Sun. "

 

These days the IPPL sanctuary covers some ten acres, houses and cares for 34

Gibbons, a few friendly otters, and some happy dogs. The sanctuary has three

full-time caregivers, two full-time and one part-time office staff, a full

time groundsman, and several eager volunteers. IPPL also has one Night Nanny

for one of the newer arrivals, a baby Gibbon the staff has named Courtney.

 

Dr. McGreal's work has been recognized with such international honors as the

United Nations Environment Program Global 500 Award, the Marchig Award for

Animal Welfare, and an award from the Interpol-Dutch Police league for work

she did on a criminal investigation. She thinks that governments not only

benefit from groups like IPPL but need such groups to make sure the

governments are doing their job in protecting animals.

 

Dr. McGreal also believes that any of us can be a hero in our own way and

that each person has more power to change things than they realize.

 

" Individuals really can make a difference, " she says. " We especially believe

in the power of the pen - it's a tool that can be used for good by both

young and old - write letters! "

 

A tragic event that occurred at the Cairo airport supports McGreal's belief

in the power of grassroots activism. Airport veterinarians drowned an infant

chimp and an infant gorilla in a chemical vat. They claimed that they feared

the animals might have contagious diseases, though no actual diseases had

actually been discovered in the primates. Outraged, Dr. McGreal immediately

fell to action, organizing a " letter blitz " to the government of Egypt.

After receiving thousands of letters and hundreds of petitions condemning

the killing, Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Wally publicly vowed that it

would never happen again, and that the Egyptian Government would, in future

cases, contact African sanctuaries and international animal protection

groups to deal with questionable animal cases instead.

 

Dr. McGreal also treads dangerous territory in her work. She actively

exposes animal traffickers and the ways in which they have been able to

transport endangered species to sell in countries around the world. This is

not safe work: gorilla researcher and conservationist Dian Fossey is

believed to have been killed while attempting to foil some poachers. Dr.

McGreal risks her life every time she goes undercover to nab smugglers. " My

scariest experience was when I went undercover to Singapore, into the

compounds of some of the leading animal dealers, " said McGreal. Singapore is

a center of endangered animal-smuggling operations.

 

" I told them I wanted to ship animals from Asia to the United States, "

continued McGreal. " The dealers told me all about their smuggling

techniques, such as hiding animals in false petrol tanks on trucks and

shipping them on small boats. If they had figured out that I was working to

expose their activities, I might have never been seen again. "

 

With the information Dr. McGreal collected, she wrote a detailed news

article called, " The Singapore Connection " which was published worldwide by

Reuters. Many believe Dr. McGreal's investigative story was instrumental in

Thailand's eventual ban on commerce in gibbons.

 

Currently Dr. McGreal and IPPL have called for an investigation of the

circumstances under which four young gorillas were shipped from Nigeria to

Malaysia in January 2002. Gorillas are legally protected in Nigeria and both

there and in Malaysia benefit from a treaty which bans trade in highly

endangered animals. Gorillas are a highly endangered species listed on

Appendix I of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species). " This is CITES' most restrictive category, " says McGreal, " and all

commercial trade is banned. Gorillas live in groups. To catch baby gorillas

for trade, mother gorillas are shot and often the silverback (older,

dominant) male and other gorillas are also killed while protecting their

families. "

 

On being tipped off that four gorillas had appeared at Taiping Zoo, the IPPL

began an investigation of the circumstances. On learning that a notorious

Nigerian animal dealer might be involved, IPPL contacted the Malaysian CITES

unit and provided the unit with a copy of the Nigerian dealer's price list,

which offered four baby gorillas for US $1.6 million dollars (it is not yet

known whether this dealer was involved in the transaction).

 

The Taiping Zoo has issued a statement that they imported the gorillas for a

captive breeding program, and were purchased legally from a new Nigerian zoo

where the gorillas were born. No Nigerian zoo has ever bred gorillas.

 

" These animals are young and may well die before reaching maturity, " McGreal

says. " Most of the gorillas imported to Asia have died of a ground pathogen

called pseudomonas pseudomallei and we worry about these young animals.

Further, there is no guarantee they will breed.

 

The sad reality is that, in acquiring what were certainly wild-caught

gorillas, the Taiping Zoo was acting in a species-destructive manner and it

is very likely that the mother gorillas were eaten after being shot, which

would mean that the zoo was participating in the bushmeat trade it

deplores. "

 

All of Dr. MrGreal's work within the IPPL are time, energy, and

cost-intensive and almost always require a lot of risk, more than most

people would be willing to take on, which begs the question, is it worth it?

 

" I love my work and there is a distinction for me between work and play

which is my definition of happiness, " stated McGreal. " If it weren't for

IPPL, I'm quite sure that these Gibbons would either be in continuous

abusive situations or probably dead. " To Dr. McGreal, that is just not

acceptable.

 

There are other heroes in this story too: the staff of the IPPL who work

side-by-side with Dr. Shirley McGreal, and the countless workers at Primate

centers around the globe who have toiled to save, one-by-one, Macaque,

Gorillas, and Gibbons. And finally there are the primates themselves.

Gibbons like Arun Rangsi who survived a lonely beginning to life, or Beanie,

who, through lack of care in his original laboratory, lost his eyesight. Or

the baby Gorilla and baby Chimpanzee who died painfully in chemical drums on

the airport tarmac in Cairo. Their plights and heroism will not be

forgotten.

 

Written by Julian Siminski