World’s Primates Lose a Great Friend: Linda Howard
Shirley McGreal
September 2006
We at IPPL and animal-lovers around the world are devastated at the tragic passing of our friend and colleague Linda Howard on 27 July 2006. Linda was just 39 years old. She was a resident of San Antonio, Texas.
The primates never had a better friend and the primate abusers never had a more formidable foe. Linda also worked for the protection of exotic cats kept as pets, unwanted domestic cats and dogs, factory-farmed livestock, and the promotion of vegetarianism. She also helped the human victims of Hurricane Katrina. She maintained two Web sites (http://www.aesop-project.org/ and http://www.petmonkey.info/) that were wonderful sources of up-to-date information about issues affecting primates.
Despite her years of selfless struggle on behalf of our primate cousins, Linda had never seen a wild monkey. In fact, she had never left the United States until recently. I felt she should have a chance to see the monkeys, for whom she had worked so diligently for so long, living in freedom as they were meant to live. For this reason I invited her to come with me to attend the International Primatological Society Congress held in Entebbe, Uganda, in late June, and to travel with me afterwards to see monkeys. Linda was so excited. She got her first passport and endured the battery of shots needed for travel in tropical Africa. We left for Africa on 23 June. Many field primatologists attend these conferences to present their observations of wild primates. Linda enjoyed listening to their talks. She also heard presentations by some primate experimenters.
In Uganda they serve a soda called "Bitter Lemon" which is no longer available in the United States. Linda became addicted to this refreshing drink! She was also happy at the availability of good vegetarian food on this carnivorous continent.
After the conference we first went up to Murchison Falls National Park in northern Uganda. On the drive up we saw many troops of baboons. Every time we saw one, Linda would insist the driver stop, and we would watch the troop until the baboons disappeared from view. We saw the spectacular waterfalls and lots of elephants, crocodiles, and hippos along the banks of the Nile. Then we went on to Jacana Lodge in the forested area of Queen Elizabeth Park. Our days there were surely one of the greatest thrills of Linda's life. The trees were full of exquisite colobus monkeys and the more elusive red-tailed guenons.
One night I was in the lodge reception area while Linda stayed in the room. There was a knock on the door. Linda knew it wasn't a staff member, because they would always knock and announce their names. She opened the door and there stood a mother and baby baboon. It was as if they somehow knew there was a friend behind that door. The baboons made no effort to enter the room; they just stood there a few moments, and left. Linda was totally overjoyed. Another thrill was when a mischievous vervet monkey got into the Range Rover we were traveling in—the driver was less thrilled, however!
Now Linda has left us. Her husband Noam has asked that memorial donations in honor of Linda be made to CERCOPAN (see their Web site at www.cercopan.org/), for construction of an enclosure for monkeys rescued from trade. CERCOPAN is a sanctuary for guenon monkeys in Nigeria and is run by Linda's friend Zena Tooze. Zena writes,
We will be sure to design something very special. We are working on a new site for CERCOPAN in Calabar which overlooks the river, with mangrove and swamp forest on the other side—really lovely, and a truly beautiful setting for Linda's memory. I hope it works out for her family's sake, and for all our monkeys, who will have SO much more space there.... if so, it will be these funds that enable us to start building there, and we will dedicate the whole start of this site for CERCOPAN's primates to Linda.
You can send a donation via PayPal through CERCOPAN's Web site or mail a check made out to "IPPL for CERCOPAN" to IPPL, P.O. Box 766, Summerville SC 29484.
