How It All Began
Amy Kerwin founded Primates Incorporated in 2004 while working with 97 rhesus monkeys for five years in a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin. She thought the least laboratories and society could do is give back to the monkeys whenever possible by retiring them into enriching and spacious sanctuaries.
She began networking with labs who had retirement programs in place and discovered existing sanctuaries often had to turn away laboratories due to funding and space constraints. Since her work environment did not believe in primate retirement, she resigned in 2004 to focus on developing Primates Incorporated into a spacious and enriching monkey sanctuary. She has been interviewing other sanctuaries and networking with primate retirement supporters for over 15 years. She is proud to say the sanctuary is a result of many caring individuals who worked together to get the sanctuary built to be able to help the first five rhesus monkeys retire to the sanctuary in 2018.
Amy believes that the least laboratories and society can do is give back to the monkeys whenever possible by retiring them into enriching and spacious sanctuaries.
As a result of the paper she wrote in 2006 entitled “Overcoming the Barriers to the Retirement of Old and New World Monkeys from Research Facilities,” she is contacted by 1-2 researchers annually asking for advice on how to best retire their monkeys.
She also believes that, by reporting success stories and by retiring monkeys whenever possible, the number of monkeys retired from research facilities will increase and the act of retiring monkeys from research will become more of a common practice.
Our Sanctuary
Our vision for this sanctuary is to serve as a prototype for other communities to establish their own sustainable versions so that the thousands of primates who have a chance at retirement can live at a peaceful and spacious sanctuary, such as this one.
We anticipate building up to five separate building structures (capacity of 100 monkeys) gradually over the next twenty years.
We never want to reach our capacity, however, as we aim to place monkeys at species-appropriate monkey sanctuaries throughout the country when space is available.
Thank you to Kyle Dumbleton for the stellar architectural design and use of the blueprints for this website.
Our Innovative Housing
This design includes a spacious and secure indoor building that will have all-season greenhouses and outdoor structures during the nice weather; each sanctuary model housing 3-20 monkeys will fit on a ½ acre.
Since thousands of monkeys could be retired if enough sanctuaries were available, Primates Incorporated also aims to serve as an innovative prototype for caring communities to be able to construct a sanctuary in any climate so no monkey is ever turned away from retirement again.
Our Environment
Located in the town of Springfield in Marquette County, Wisconsin, this beautiful plot of land will accommodate spacious and secure homes for future primates. It is 17.29 acres of mixed meadow and wooded areas. It is also home to a large swath of native Wisconsin flowers and plants, which we plan to help preserve the population of the federally-endangered Karner Blue Butterfly.
Our Staff
Amy M. Kerwin
Executive Director
Fallon Mullen
Animal Care Manager
Hilary Hemmes-Kavanaugh
Primatologist
Breanne Cyr
Primate Behavior
Rehabilitation Specialist
Amber Zorn
Animal Caretaker
A special thanks to the animal care volunteers who are helping the monkeys and saving costs for this nonprofit organization!
We are: licensed by the USDA, members of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance (NAPSA), and accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS).