Bullet is one of the oldest of the chimpanzees we are caring for. His story is a heartbreaking example of the suffering these chimps have endured. Bullet‘s right arm was amputated at a very young age when his mother was shot and he was seriously injured. In 1979, when he was just three years old, he arrived at the laboratory in Liberia and began being used in painful and stressful experiments. Over the decades, he was confined to small cages, anesthetized over 400 times, had 55 liver biopsies performed, and had his blood drawn hundreds of times (which can all be terrifying procedures for a chimpanzee). He also managed to survive Liberia’s civil wars, at a time when many of the chimpanzees in the lab died of starvation and dehydration because their caretakers were unable to reach them.

 

Bullet was finally retired to the islands about a decade ago and is enjoying his well-deserved retirement. He now lives on Island 5 with Samantha, Doris, Sabel, Sally, Joyce, Chop Suey, Ms. Bush, Franzsica, Lolo, Dovelee, and Mallak.