Abandoned on the Ivory Coast with no source of food or water, Ponso is the last surviving member of his colony. Nineteen other chimpanzees from his group died of disease or starvation after the New York Blood Center used the colony for bio medical research and then deserted them.
The NYBC left the chimps on an island just off the Ivory Coast and initially brought regular food supplies because the islands have no natural food source for the chimpanzees. One day, they just stopped coming.
Thanks to the help of a local farmer, Germain, Ponso has survived with little access to food or water. The villager, who lives on a limited income, brings bread and bananas to Ponzo as seen in the video below.
The diet of bananas and bread is not enough to provide a healthy diet for Ponso which is why many have taken to social media to raise awareness for his cause. One group claims that Ponso and his colony earned more than $400 million dollars for the New York Blood Center.
“Ponso is a New York Blood Center chimp and they are accountable for his care. He was acquired by NYBC and used in research in which they made an estimated $400 million. It’s abhorrent that an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars … has left Ponso and the Liberia chimps to die.”
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