Our Mission

The primary objective of the Fauna Foundation is to create a protected environment for neglected, abused farm and domestic animals and former biomedical research chimpanzees. It also aims to foster through education a better understanding of these creatures.

About THE QUEBEC FAUNA FOUNDATION

The Fauna Foundation is a privately run, government-certified, non-profit organization committed to issues of animal welfare and is currently home to 12 former biomedical laboratory chimpanzees.

In 1990, Dr. Richard Allan and Gloria Grow purchases a 100 acre farm in the Monteregie region of Quebec, about 20 minutes from Montreal. In 1997, the property became the not-for-profit Fauna Foundation, whose primary objective was to create a protected environment for native fauna and flora, neglected, abandoned or abused farmed and domestic animals, as well as animals who were used in entertainment, education and research.

Original residents at the time included sheep, goats, chickens and a few turkeys. Shortly after, a carriage horse from Montreal named Jethro was in need of rescue from being sent to slaughter. Fauna offered him a home and its tradition of rescues formally begun.

In 1997, the Fauna Foundation expanded it’s mission by establishing a chimpanzee retirement home for a group of 15 chimpanzees who were being retired from a research laboratory in New York state. Eight of these 15 chimpanzees were HIV+, making the Fauna Foundation the first sanctuary in the world to retire HIV+ infected chimpanzees. This resulted in the Fauna Foundation gaining international respect and recognition for its work in providing sanctuary for retired chimpanzees.