Perkinston, Miss. – In the embrace of a joyfully chitring spider monkey named Louie, an army veteran who fought for decades with a post-traumatic stress disorder that he finally feels in peace.
“Being here brought me a lot of faith,” said John Richard. “There is no feeling.”
The link started last fall when Richard helped two married veterans to install the Sanctuaire du Primate de la Côte du Gulf, volunteering his time to build the enclosure which is now the house of Louie in the south-east of Rural Mississippi.
During a recent visit, Louie quickly climbed Richard’s body, wrapping her arms and tail around him in a sort of hug. Richard, in turn, placed his hand on the back of the primate and whispered gently until Louie dismelled and swarmed.
“He makes his little sounds in my ear, and you know, he always says to you:” Oh, I love you “,” said Richard. “I know you’re fine. I know you won’t hurt me. ” »»
Richard said that his link with Louie has helped more than any other SSPT treatment he had received since her diagnosis over 20 years ago.
It is a similar story for the founder of the sanctuary, April Stewart, an Air Force veteran who said that she had developed the SSPT following military sexual trauma.
“It destroyed my life. It was like cancer, “she said. “It was a trauma that has never been correctly healed.”
Stewart’s love for animals was a way to face. She has not necessarily decided to create a place of healing for veterans with the SSPT, but this is what the sanctuary has become for certain volunteers.
“By helping primates learn to trust, we are also reappearing confidence, and we give ourselves grace with people,” she said.
His property of 15 acres, nestled in the middle of wood and agricultural land, is filled with rescue dogs, two rather noisy geese and a black cat. It also houses three spider monkeys, two squirrel monkeys and two Kinkajous, a tropical mammal which is closely linked to the raccoons.
The sanctuary of the city of Perkinston, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) with regard to the north of the Gulf coast, includes three large enclosures for the different species. Each has a smaller and air-conditioned area and a large fenced outdoor area, where the primates swing from the platforms and the living room in the sun. Checking the animals – Changing their covers, bringing food and water – is one of the first and last things Stewart does every day.
However, she cannot do it alone. It is based on a group of volunteers to obtain help, including several other veterans, and hopes to open the sanctuary to the public next summer for guided educational visits.
Stewart and her husband, also a veteran, decided to open the sanctuary in October after the first rescue and withdrawal of the monkeys. With the help of two exotic animal veterinarians, they have formed a foundation which governs the sanctuary – which, according to her, is the only primate sanctuary of the Mississippi authorized by the American department of agriculture – and guarantees that animals will be taken care of even when the Stewarts will no longer be able to manage it themselves.
All the animals were once someone’s pet’s pet, but their owners could not take care of them. Stewart pointed out that primates do not make good or easy. They need a lot of space and socialization, which is often difficult to provide for families.
The objective of the sanctuary is to provide a habitat as natural as possible to animals, said Stewart, and to bring them together with their own species.
“It’s their family,” she said.
