Peppy and Helen: 25 Years with IPPL

Shirley McGreal, IPPL Founder and Executive Director
April 2007

Peppy and Helen were born at the Comparative Oncology Laboratory of the University of California at Davis: Peppy on 23 January 1979, Helen on 2 April 1980. The now-defunct laboratory used gibbons, some imported under suspect circumstances from Thailand, in viral cancer experiments. Many baby gibbons were injected with a lethal C virus at just a few months of age, and successfully infected animals died.

Peppy was lucky. We call him “The Gibbon That Got Away.” He was infected with the gibbon leukemia virus in March 1979, at just two months of age. Repeated tests showed him to be “Ab-” (which means “antibodies, negative”) and “viremia, negative.” A note on his medical record states that “the virus preparation may have been inactive.”

Helen was never involved in experimentation. The laboratory was probably keeping her for breeding purposes, to produce more babies for research.

IPPL followed the fate of the gibbons at the laboratory for many years and opposed the experiments. In 1976 gibbons were added to the U.S. Endangered Species List, and from then on a permit would be required to harm them. IPPL complained to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that gibbons were being killed without permits. The laboratory was contacted and instructed to apply for a permit. It applied to kill ten gibbons per year and, despite opposition, the requested permit was issued.

The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute, which fortunately dropped its ?nancial support of the gibbon colony in 1980. The 50-plus gibbons were distributed to various zoos and animal dealers. One, wanted by no other facility because of his compromised mental and physical condition, came directly to IPPL in 1981 (we named him Arun Rangsi and he is still alive and well).

In 1980 ten gibbons were sent from California to the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, Sterling Forest, New York. The facility director, Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowsi, was friendly to IPPL and ?nally yielded to my pleadings to send us a girl gibbon named Helen as a companion for Arun Rangsi.

In April 1982 John McGreal drove to New York, planning to bring Helen home. But, in the next cage, there sat a little boy gibbon named Peppy who was very upset and had clearly been recently separated from Helen. We couldn’t leave him behind! Finally, after many phone-calls to laboratory of?cials, Peppy was also prepared for the long road trip from New York to South Carolina.

It was such a wonderful sight to see four lustrous dark eyes shining from the shipping kennel instead of the two I expected! Helen and Peppy are both black phase gibbons (white-handed gibbons come in either black or buff). They loved each other, but played with Arun Rangsi, too.

Peppy was always affectionate and he still sucks his thumb. On one occasion he sucked it raw and meaty. Our vet took a look at it but said there was no way to stitch it up, as Peppy would remove the stitches and only make things worse. Instead he suggested the best policy was to “wait and see.” We did—and Peppy’s thumb soon looked normal.

Helen is a mischievous gibbon—she is nicknamed “Hellion.” One day she stole my glasses, which often happens with gibbons. Usually they get bored quickly with the keys, glasses, or whatever they pick from caregivers’ pockets. Instead Helen climbed to a high perch, put on my glasses, and sat watching the world through them for several minutes. Then she was kind enough to give them back to me!

Peppy and Helen form a wonderful compatible gibbon couple and we hope they will spend many more happy years with IPPL.