Chester & Festus

I’m Chester and I am around 29 years old now, and I live here with my companion, Festus. We came from another sanctuary that had to close, but our story goes much further back than that.
We were found in the garden of a house, tied together by our necks. From what people could tell, we had probably been kept there for more than 20 years and used for tourist photos.
That kind of life leaves marks. Festus doesn’t have any teeth left, most likely they were pulled out so he couldn’t bite. We were mishandled for so long that we developed unusual social and psychological behaviors. Neither of us trusts humans easily. We can be aggressive with people, so staff and volunteers never enter our enclosure or have physical contact with us.
Because we lived our entire lives in captivity, we never had the chance to learn the skills a monkey needs to survive in the wild. So, release isn’t an option for us. This sanctuary is where we reside, with space, safety, and the stability we lacked for most of our lives.