To start off, I will say that the one positive thing that I got out of my internship with Alouatta Sanctuary is that it really opened my eyes to the fact that not all those who work in the animal/conservation world really care about the animals. I had to deal with “bosses” who were demeaning and rude and largely absent, another thing I had not done beforehand, especially when working with animals. The summer I was there, back in 2015, almost every single intern left early (over 8 of us left—including 3 the first full day that I arrived). At first, we all kind of hoped that it was a fluke with our summer. That is, we hoped that the way Seth and Jolie (the directors) were acting towards us and the animals was a one-time thing because of stress or something. But now we realize that it wasn’t. The first time I was in David at a hostel, and I told the owner where I was coming from, his reaction was, “Oh, you’re at the scam sanctuary!”. By this point, I already knew what the sanctuary was like, but I didn’t know that many of the locals referred to it as such. I had tried finding reviews before going, but seeing as I could find no bad ones—which, given, was a bit suspicious seeing as every place has at least one bad review—I figured it would be fine. Now I realize they have TripAdvisor take down any negative reviews (which defeats the point of the site, no?) so here we go… I don’t expect a sanctuary to necessarily be very friendly to people. It’s always a plus, but I also understand that the animals tend to come first. After all, that’s the entire point of a sanctuary. However, that wasn’t even the case here. Several incidents have allowed me to really see that the reason Seth and Jolie are in this is for the money and the glory, not for the animals. First, there was a blind howler monkey, Stevie, on the sanctuary. During one of our first group meetings with Seth and Jolie, Jolie announced their plans to still release Stevie in the wild, insisting that she would survive (despite the fact that she had trouble in areas she was even familiar with) and that Rugby—another howler monkey at the time that was about the same age as her but not in any way related to her—would take care of her. It was once she said those words that I realized how little they know about animal behavior. Releasing this monkey would mean her death. Either by starvation or at the hands of another wild animal, or even by a falling tree (this was on a teak plantation). Just a few weeks later, Seth and Jolie just an hour and a half away in David, Stevie was attacked by one of the adult males of one of the wild troops. Terrified (she obviously hadn’t seen the attack coming), she plummeted out of the trees and to the ground—thankfully it was low tide so there was no water in the mangroves—and one of the managers ran after her (I do have to say, Ailsa and Jess were amazing managers, despite Seth and Jolie). When she brought her back up, Stevie was covered in bites and scratches, and couldn’t move one of her hands very well at all. Seth and Jolie were contacted, but they stayed in David (apparently, Jolie “didn’t sleep well in the jungle”—despite the fact we were beside a half-rainforest, half-plantation area and living in a field) and didn’t even have a vet come out to see the hurt monkey. When I left, weeks later, Stevie was still having trouble moving those fingers. Then, there was Angie the capuchin. This is where a lot of friction began generating between the directors (and some of the managers) and the interns. Angie was attacked by the wild capuchins through the fencing of the enclosure she shared with Ace, the other capuchin. So she was brought to the house of the woman that owns the property (Nixa, who I had the pleasure of meeting once and was a wonderful lady, despite what Seth and Jolie would sometimes say about her) along with one of the managers who was injured in the field (although I understand the need for time to recuperate, another intern was laughed at by Seth after being attacked by Angie when she asked if she could go to a clinic or something to have the bite checked out). This manager would take Angie out of her dog crate every couple of hours to walk her around on a leash in the backyard, and then put her back. Well, one day, Angie somehow escaped the dog crate and the house, and was never seen again. A mistake by the manager, yes, but it was how it was handled afterward that had the rest of us weary of Seth and Jolie. First, we were told by the managers (after they spoke with Seth and Jolie) that Angie would be fine because it turns out that she had actually lived in the wild for 10 years before becoming a pet and Nixa’s house backed up right into a rainforest corridor (the validity of which none of us know, as one intern reported that he saw one tree in the backyard but not a forest, and he wasn’t aware of this whole thing going on when he arrived, so it was an unbiased report). When we asked how they knew she had lived in the wild before, we were told that Jolie had interviewed this island community that had seen Angie up in the trees before. When there were murmurs of confusion about this story, it suddenly turned into that the vet could tell by looking at her teeth (although why this didn’t happen when Angie was first brought to the sanctuary, none of us know). Any questions about the subject, no matter how nicely they were brought up, were answered with hostility and accusations. Another problem with the capuchin situation is that capuchins love water. They love to wash their food in it, splash in it, drink it. It’s important for them. The only water bowl they had in the enclosure was small, think the size of a salad bowl that you serve from, and cracked and plastic and filthy. We would often bring up in meetings that we should get another bowl for them. Ace would usually spill the water almost immediately whenever we filled it up (and when we were there, it wasn’t raining all that often, so the water tank at the top of the “hike”, where the baby howlers/capuchins were kept, wasn’t all that filled). We started bringing up jugs of water with us on the hike, but even those wouldn’t be enough. In the heat, the water would evaporate almost immediately. But whenever we brought up buying them a small plastic kiddie pool (this way, we could at least fill it up with some jugs of water and it wouldn’t spill out the cracks, or it could be filled with rainwater when it did rain), we were told there wasn’t enough money in the budget (which we weren’t allowed to see). Each of us was paying $1,000 a month, there were about 11 of us there on average, and the majority of the food we, and the monkeys, ate would be rotten by halfway through the week. Furthermore, all of the water was from the rain, we rarely turned on the generator (maybe once a week, except if Seth was there, then he would have it running all the time), and they weren’t paying property taxes or anything. And Seth and Jolie were able to go on surfing trips, fly to and from San Diego, wear Lulu Lemon, drive the car everywhere (so lots of gas…even once driving all the way to the sanctuary to pick up another intern that they were obsessed with to go surfing with him, just to find out that via lack of communication he was actually in David with the rest of us for our half-day and they had driven that entire way for nothing. The driveway alone would be an hour round-trip worth of gas. But they wouldn’t let the managers take the car to take the bitten intern to a clinic, and whenever they were around, just had us pay to taxi ourselves everywhere), and more, but couldn’t spend some money for a new water bowl for the capuchins. There were also two tamarins on the property. They were ex-pets, apparently, had to be kept separate because they were hostile with each other. So they were kept in fairly small cages (not tall enough for us to stand up in, and just about 2 meters wide, tops) and were, when there were enough interns, given enrichment and human contact for a few hours each morning (again, if there were enough interns. But with so many leaving, they quickly lost priority). They were kept near where we lived, and this way, whenever visitors came around, they were shown the tamarins. These social animals were just being kept in solitary. When we asked about sending them to another sanctuary with tamarins, we were told “things fell through”. Furthermore, they were not native to the area, so they couldn’t even be set free. Essentially, they were just pets once again, this time in an outdoor cage (when it would rain and get very cold, you could see them shivering. When we brought this up to Seth, he told us that we should be using the mono (monkey) rags, something we had never heard of, and that he acted as if was common knowledge. We got to the box, and they were all moldy and destroyed as they hadn’t been used for months), and got very little attention or enrichment or care. Almost all of the food bowls, with the exception of some of the hanging baskets for the howlers and capuchins, were old peanut butter jars cut in half. While this is nice in that it is recycling, these makeshift food containers would be used for weeks on end without being changed out. They might be rinsed every once in a while, but that was it. Anyone that has worked at an accredited zoo or aquarium, or any animal care facility really, will tell you that it is best to use metal, as plastic fosters bacteria and is not as sanitary. But, again, this was the cheapest thing and instead of cutting costs by, say, not going on as many surfing trips, the animals got the brunt end of it. The human side of things was just as bad. A number of the interns received emails with a large number of swears and name-calling, despite the fact that the original emails were very polite. I personally didn’t receive any of these, so I don’t feel comfortable posting any of the ones forwarded to me, but just reading them would make one think it was written by a pissed 17-year-old boy, not a 30-something-year-old-man that’s supposed to be your boss. Seth also made fun of the accent of one of the interns from Italy when she dared contradict him on something he was saying, a very juvenile response that was also not expected from someone who was supposed to be a superior. I’ve never worked in such an unprofessional environment. Being out near a “rainforest”, one can except a casual atmosphere. But definitely not a hostile one that made it very uncomfortable to work in. Seth and Jolie were largely absent, but things were actually worse when they actually came around (especially Seth…Jolie tended to stay away). Tensions rose, and no one felt comfortable asking questions or making suggestions, as the few of those that did were yelled at in almost no time, or cut off before they had even finished their sentence. The sexism that Seth demonstrated was also very surprising, as he always spoke so highly of his sister (mainly, I realize now, to try to exalt himself by association). The male interns were visibly treated differently, even if they acted the same as everyone else. It was a male intern that Seth and Jolie wanted to take surfing (without even offering it to anyone else), and that they decided to teach how to set up camera traps, despite the fact that there were interns that had been there longer, done more work, and expressed more interest in the project (not myself, but others that were very interested in that sort of thing and had actually chosen to come go to Alouatta because of the camera trap project they advertised). We were told that there would be professionals on site. Ailsa had her PhD, and Jess her masters, but that was about it. Even then, their areas of study weren’t rainforest ecology, and there were no primatologists around, as was purported in the advertisement. We were told during one of our meetings that this wasn’t a field school, and we could pay thousands of dollars to go to one to get taught if we wanted to (despite the fact that we were all paying $3,000 and we took tests that one of the managers and Seth made...some interns actually took out more loans for the program because of the steep cost, thinking it would be worth it). But really, we were just reading from books how to use GIS—something we didn’t need to travel to Panama (although I love Panama!) and spend thousands of dollars to do. They also lied in grants…one that they wrote was left lying around (how is still unclear. I think at some point they were trying to illustrate how great they were, but it backfired in this situation) stated that one of the managers was a professor of ecology. But she was neither a professor (she had just completed her masters’ program) or have a class to teach (we weren’t taught anything, unless you count reading papers on ethograms and their uses, which as the majority of us already studied animals, understood their importance). There was more, but seeing as it was over a year ago, I can’t say for sure what else it said, so I don’t want to say anything that might be false. The best part of the program was, without a doubt, the monkeys (some of which I recently heard passed away, all within a few days of each other) and Pablo and Ofelia, the two Panamanian workers. Seth and Jolie claimed to love them, but Ofelia would be left waiting on the roadside for her ride to the sanctuary (the driveway was very long—about 30 minutes driving—and very hilly, and Ofelia was an elderly woman) sometimes for several days (obviously she would go home at night) because she wasn’t told that she wouldn’t be needed for work and that nobody was going to pick her up. I cried while leaving Ofelia because she was such a wonderful person that really cared about us. Pablo was also great, and was always willing to do extra to help us out. I wonder of the sustainability of this project run entirely by Americans, as I really feel like more heavily involving the local people would be the better course of action. Especially because Ofelia was much better with the monkeys, and much more loved by the monkeys, than either Seth or Jolie, who would get uncomfortable when we mentioned Ofelia’s connection with the monkeys. Submitted from David, Panama on 8/18/2016.
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The 4 weeks I spent at Alouatta Sanctuary were interesting to say the least. Like most other interns there, I found I was not the only one who had come into this experience excited to do research and help rehabilitate infant howler monkeys. It was the only volunteer program that would allow me to actually handle these monkeys with the very limited primate experience I had. My interview with Seth Hopkins went very well, I had thought. It lasted far longer than the time I was told it would take, which to me meant that I was dealing with an owner who really put his time and effort into picking the right people to come and work with the Sanctuary. I remember going over the internship packet information in detail and explaining the research projects I was interested in. Never once during that conversation was I led to believe that there were no current research projects taking place at the Sanctuary and it would be my responsibility to start one if I wanted to do any research during my stay. I also specifically remember being told that transportation to and from the airport was something guaranteed to me and something I didn't have to worry about. Seth Hopkins was very charming, and I even came out of the interview thinking that he smiled a lot and seemed like a really great guy. It was very exciting, but everything changed for me as soon as I arrived at the airport in David. Before my first flight around 3 am, I made sure that I emailed Seth Hopkins with a reminder that I was coming in to Panama that night. Four flights and 18 hours later, I did not have a reply to my email. I tried using the pay phone to call all of the phone numbers given to me in case of an emergency and none of them were answered. I knew that since no one had replied to my email that no one was coming for me. I waited about an hour and hitched a ride with a local man that knew Seth by name and offered me a ride. Obviously, this was a moment of desperation for me. I knew this was a risky choice, so before I left with this guy, I emailed Seth Hopkins and explained what was going on. Trying to find the location of the Sanctuary was very difficult, but I managed to arrive in one piece, thanks to the friendly local. When I arrived, I found out that our camp didn't have internet for the last few days, due to Seth not actively putting more data onto the portable wifi, and no one was informed of my arrival until a few hours after I had landed and my email was finally viewed by Jolie Colby (who lives in California). The acting manager apologized profusely and made me feel a little better about the situation. It was also explained to me, later on, that the arriving interns usually wait between 2-6 hours to be picked up from the airport, due to Seth's lack of organization and care. I finally met Seth Hopkins a day or two after arriving at the Sanctuary. I was told that I would be refunded for the money I paid the local to drive me, and that he didn't know why his "driver" wasn't able to pick me up. I was shocked he didn't offer an apology for neither being there to pick me up, nor his lack of organization, but the most upsetting thing was that I got a completely different explanation about what had happened in an email from Jolie Colby. The rest of my experience just being around Seth was very difficult. I soon found out that he was very hard to approach with concerns about anything regarding the Sanctuary. For the most part, Seth was never around, which was very nice, however, Seth's lack of commitment to deadlines and plans that he made posed even more problems. He was supposed to being us food twice a week and would often show up a few days late with produce from a list that was not updated. While I was away on vacation I was told that the propane for the stove top burner ran out and wasn't replaced for a few days. On top of this, the produce we had for ourselves was shared with the monkeys, and during my stay there I witnessed the food supply get so low and we could not possibly give them the diverse diet they were intended to get. Seth was often late to our weekly meetings as well. This is a time we are supposed to come together as a group, think of ideas to better the monkeys in any way, bring up concerns and make suggestions. Unfortunately, that is not the way group meetings worked. During the first few meetings I attended people hinted towards some concerns and suggestions, but Seth quickly and rather dominantly brushed them aside. I personally had come up with an alarming amount of concerns about the size of the enclosures, the necessity for a quarantine enclosure, the amount of excessive handling, the necessity for enrichment, the sitting with and petting of monkeys being called "enrichment", and the inaccurate diet information for the monkeys. Never once did I feel comfortable enough to address these issues with Seth. I was told, if I did, it wouldn't end well. Based on the stories of interns getting fired for asking too many questions and having too many concerns, I felt it wasn't my place to bring any of it up. It took me 2 days of shifts to realize that there were several problems with the way Seth ran his "Conversation" program. By week 2 some of the other interns were coming towards the end of their stay and decided it might be time to converse with Seth about some of the disappointments they experienced while at the Sanctuary. Seth was told that some people felt misled during their interviews about the lack of research and that if there is no research going on at the time that they should have been informed, rather than made to feel like there were a few different research projects going on that they could choose from and participate in. They also addressed how Seth didn't always make himself approachable and that's why these concerns weren't brought up sooner. We also addressed our concerns for the only means of transportation, Seth's truck, being with him while he disappears into the city for days at a time, and that if there were an emergency we would want to be able to get to a hospital quickly enough. We were all surprised that Seth was about to keep his cool and address our concerns with a respectable manner. At this point I had never witnessed an outburst by Seth but I had been told he could be very aggressive and domineering. This all had changed by the next morning when we were all aggressively woken up by Seth's "emergency meeting" at 6 am. So much for the prior night's meeting going well. For almost 2 hours we listened to Seth yell at us for being "worthless consumer's", "soft" and "selfish" "manipulators", trying to "get every penny out of our dollar" by wanting to be involved in the research that we were told was going on at the Sanctuary. We were told to "fucking quit" and that he could hire locals to take our places. We were made to feel worthless and selfish. On two occasions I walked away from the meeting because I couldn't believe what he was saying to us. At one point, I couldn't hold my tongue and I told Seth he was acting like an "asshole". He later admitted to me that I was right, but he would fire me if I didn't apologize about my comment in front of the whole group because even though he was acting like an asshole, it was not my place to say and I shouldn't get away with calling him out in front of everyone else. During my meeting with him about whether or not I could stay at the Sanctuary based on my comments, I tried, for 2 hours, to speak cordially with him and address my concerns, all while trying to figure out if he deserved an apology and if I should or should not stay. During this talk, most of my comments and concerns were deflected and manipulated back onto me. Thankfully, I recorded this conversation in its entirety (part 1, 2, 3, 4) in the hopes of catching the way he berated us the day before, but Seth, for the most part, had kept his cool. At the end of our talk I decided to apologize and stay because we were so understaffed at that point it would have been more selfish to leave, and I wanted to see this experience through. However, upon listening to the recording over again some time later, I realize that Seth is what is wrong with conservation and I should not keep my mouth shut about him and how he "runs" his Sanctuary. I will never recommend anyone to visit or intern at the Sanctuary. It is not a successful rehabilitation center. There are two dogs which are dirty who like to follow you up into the jungle and try to play with the monkeys (and the monkeys will try to play back), and this is very detrimental to the survival of the monkeys since poachers tend to use dogs to help find the monkeys in the wild (as of March 14, 2016 there are three dogs). The dogs will also sleep in your bed while you are gone and are full of ticks and fleas. One of the dogs is slightly aggressive as well. There was a cat at the Sanctuary who we tried to have brought to the vet for 3 weeks or more before Seth brought him in. He was skin and bones, had trouble walking and eating, and it's nails were growing into the pads on his feet. The pillows they have to sleep with are full of mold and need to be thrown away. Rain continuously floods the sleeping area because the mesh walls covered with a piece of plastic that is not tied down tends to blow up in the wind and allows the rain to get inside. The spider monkey needs to be rehomed in an area where there are wild spider monkeys, and not kept in a small enclosure where she will become more and more aggressive. Zita, the capuchin, had a terrible skin condition while I was there which took weeks to even try to treat. She was not even brought to the vet, but someone was made to take pictures which the vet apparently looked at and determined a diagnosis from. However, the medicine worked only temporarily and her condition soon worsened. The howler monkey enclosure needs to be deeper into the forest so that handling time is minimized because it's clear they'd rather take a nap on you and rely on you for food than they would like to explore the canopy. Despite all of these problems, I do have great memories from my time spent at the Sanctuary. All of the other interns got along great and did the most they could do for these monkeys. It was hard to want to stay and work for someone who didn't appreciate you and didn't take conservation seriously, but choosing to leave the Sanctuary early would have been a huge burden on the few interns who were there and would ultimately affect the well-being of all of the primates. It is unfortunate that it seems like Alouatta Sanctuary may be the most equipped place to handle all of these primates in this area of Panama, because it most definitely is not up to par with being a successful rehabilitation and research center. It is more or less a complete scam, with these wonderful primates being used as bait. Submitted from the USA on 4/27/2016.
In a larger post, I discuss the four weeks I spent at Alouatta Sanctuary. Touching on topics such as animal care and handling, the director's (Seth Hopkins) mismanagement of the Sanctuary, and the research (or rather, lack thereof). I also include just over 2 hours of conversation between Seth and myself that should show just how much of a master manipulator he is. It was recorded the day after Seth woke us up at 6 am for the "emergency meeting". During the "emergency meeting" I said he was being an "asshole", and we had to have a talk about it (which is what I recorded). The recording is long and somewhat embarrassing for me, but it should all be there (part 1, 2, 3, 4). Seth needs to realize his actions have consequences. He is using the system to screw the interns over in order to make money and I honestly have my doubts whether he cares about the monkeys' overall health and happiness and rehabilitation at all. Submitted from the USA on 4/27/2016.
When you deal with Alouatta Sanctuary, you aren't dealing with just one person from just one email. Alouatta works under multiple different aliases. Keep your eye out for the ones below.
Submitted from Montreal, QC on 3/27/2016.
Alouatta Sanctuary advertises itself as a self-start up with grassroots and honest intentions. However, they never seen to go into how they actually started. We think it might be because their inception was a result of destroying another person's Alouatta. Here is an email from the original starters of Alouatta and how Seth and Jolie went about starting their Alouatta. Submitted from Panama on 3/27/2016.
I had an overall very poor experience during my internship, and ended up leaving a few days earlier than expected. I will be breaking down what alarmed me in three parts: "What matters to me most: THE PRIMATES", "Treat people the way you want to be treated", and "Safety first… or, so I thought". I would not recommend coming to this Sanctuary if your hopes are to learn proper rehabilitation techniques and practice field research. Submitted from Iowa, USA on 2/24/2016.
For my last post about the Sanctuary, I will finish with my concern for my own well-being. I am good at rambling, but I will keep this one short and sweet. We are located about 30-40 minutes away from the main road. The amount of time it would take to reach the main road on foot would be about 3 hours. Due to where the Sanctuary is located and the overall nature of the work we perform, it is a necessity to have a vehicle. I learned shortly after arrival that there are plenty of times when the other workers would take the truck for personal reasons, and sometimes for days at a time. Ben and Pablo both informed us that Seth was known to take the truck into David for days at a time while he was “working at the Sanctuary.” During my stay, Pablo the maintenance worker, took the truck overnight to work on his property. I let everyone know I was not comfortable with this, but they let it happen anyway. I am not the most sure-footed person in the world. I brought an epipen, but have no idea if I am allergic any of the many stinging wasps and other insects found in and around the Sanctuary and what their effect would be on me. One night there was a scorpion right outside of my bed. There were nights where there would be loud, likely drunk, people pulling up to our dock by boat. This gives them easy access to where we are sleeping. I did not feel comfortable being in a place with all the potential for accidents or other dangerous situations without a way out. I had already been planning on leaving after seeing the lack of research and the effect that it has had on the (unsuccessful) releases of the monkeys. I wanted to leave because I felt that the monkeys were not getting the ultimate care they could to have the best chance at release. I also felt that other monkeys (for example, Luna the spider monkey) were being kept because they were rare and would increase the amount of people Alouatta could have pay to come visit the Sanctuary. Not only did monkey care upset me, but the more I learned about the disrespectful ways the directors acted towards interns who give their time and money to come support an important cause sent up red flags. My final straw was the security and safety I did not feel was a concern. I left within 48 hours of the truck being taken overnight again, for personal use, and when I left I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Submitted from Iowa, USA on 2/24/2016.
Alouatta "Sanctuary" is a scam! One that is endangering the lives of multiple primates kept onsite and stealing money based on false pretenses. I accepted a 2 month internship (to the tune of $2000 USD) at Alouatta Sanctuary that was supposed to last until April while I waited to hear back from the graduate schools I applied to. I only made it 2 weeks before the appalling conditions that the animals were subject to and the complete incompetence and negligence exhibited by the directors prevented me from staying any longer. The first sign that this was a scam: There is absolutely NO scientific research being conducted WHATSOEVER. There is not a single Ph.D. present though they claim there are, nor were there any protocols or lessons provided regarding any sort of research. And, as I was informed by the on site managers, there has not been at minimum for the last 6 months. The first two paragraphs in the contract very clearly spell out that there is a variety of research being conducted and that we will be trained in one or more of the areas. THIS IS A LIE. The only activities conducted here were animal husbandry and chores. This work is perfectly fine for a volunteer or in a work trade agreement for room and board. However, the internship paperwork clearly states that we are paying for the training in these scientific fields, which did not occur. EXCERPT FROM CONTRACT: "I, ____________________________ of ______________________________ have volunteered to participate in research projects currently being conducted at the Alouatta Sanctuary (the Sanctuary) in the Republic of Panama. The Sanctuary conducts research in the following scientific areas: Primate Conservation, Primate Rehabilitation, and Primate Cognition. I understand that my activities will be supervised by the Sanctuary staff and that I may be asked to participate as required in one or more projects in the areas of research listed above. I understand that I will be living at the Alouatta Sanctuary and that during my stay I will receive training in at least one of the above stated scientific areas." Second sign this is a scam: This is a FOR PROFIT organization. The money paid through Paypal goes directly to a US bank account where the directors live. None of it is managed by the managers, who are the ones that live onsite and know what is needed to up-keep enclosures, do land and building maintenance, and to take care of the primates. I am not quit sure what is done with the money, but I can assure you it is not used for any scientific equipment or for primate care (other than food). Third sign this is a scam: There is little to zero reputable animal care happening at this facility. There is not so much as a clinic or even a box full of medical supplies. Many of the animals are dehydrated, suffer from cuts and lesions received from other animals or the badly built enclosures. There are no animal care protocols available, nor are there any real bio's on the animals and treatment or rehabilitation plans in place. Currently there are 3 primates who need to be transferred to a location more suitable, however these perfectly healthy non-native primates are forcibly being kept in isolation at this "Sanctuary". I felt both ethically and morally wrong participating at this organization. The directors clearly have limited knowledge of both primatology and wildlife rehabilitation and have not allowed someone with more knowledge to create guidelines and protocols in order to better their animal welfare. Additionally, they lied and mislead in multiple instances in the intern paperwork in order to prey on inexperienced students and volunteers. These individuals came to Alouatta Sanctuary in order to further their education of scientific practices and to gain first hand experience in conservation efforts. This was promised in the contract. However, it was painfully absent from the Sanctuary itself. Myself and multiple other interns and volunteers who have experience in animal rehab and primatology are determined to truly rescue these animal and see that Seth and Jolie do not negatively impact another animal or prospective animal rehaber. If anyone has any information regarding a board of ethics we can appeal to or other foundations or organizations who may be able to help rescue the onsite primates, please let us know in the comments section below. Submitted from California, USA on 2/24/2016.
I was raised, as many others are, being told to treat others the way you want to be treated. Yet, I have seen and heard many terrifying things about how Seth Hopkins treats interns, workers, and others that have come to the Sanctuary. Firsthand Experience The things I witnessed and saw firsthand are discussed (with emails) in the post “And so it begins...”. I interned with the woman who asked apparently too many questions about her stay with Alouatta Sanctuary. During her e-mail conversations she was met with more and more hostility and rude remarks from Seth Hopkins. He eventually just went off on her after she wanted to know why her cancellation policy did not reflect that of my own cancellation policy and another intern’s despite arriving just one week later than us. I can also say that during our time there, she had no intention of leaving. She just wanted everything to be updated and accurate. After spending as much money as we did to work for free at this Sanctuary, I think everyone would want everything to be updated and accurate as well. After she stands up for herself HERE Seth called and talked to the site managers, Ben and Virginia, but then decided to call Pablo (a Panamanian employee) saying that he needed to escort her out immediately or he was going to call the cops. Let me note that he KNEW we were extremely short staffed (another intern had just left), but he didn't care. After she asked up an updated policy, he freaked out, letting his fear of her leaving (and therefore requesting a refund, as stated in some of the contracts) matter more than the desperate need for staff. The most logical thing for him to do was demand she leave the Sanctuary immediately. Not only that, but she was to be watched like a hawk while packing up her belongings because she was obviously insane and likely to steal everything she touched. I thought that it was, ironically, quite an insane reaction on their parts. BUT a couple days later, we got a visitor at the Sanctuary. This is when I met Steven Walker. Steven and his wife were the actual starters of Alouatta Lodge. They fell in love with nature and the howler monkeys, and wanted to be able to give others a chance to experience the beauty of their lodge. They had to return home to finish up their children’s schooling, that’s when they rented out their place to Seth Hopkins and Jolie Colby. Steven told Ben, Virginia, and I how hard it can be to get on your feet running a place like the Alouatta Lodge... So, he was very reasonable and understanding when they weren’t able to pay rent for the first six months they resided in his home away from home. Steven also got the runaround with Seth through email. Seth would say one thing, then deny it later - despite Steven having it in writing. Steven said that it seemed as though Seth and Jolie were very interested in making a good profit from the Sanctuary. For Steven, money wasn’t the point of a place like Alouatta Lodge. Steven tried to be understandable about the costs of running a sanctuary, but he would also see posts from Seth and Jolie about their the vacations and trips they would be taking, while still not paying their rent. After racking up a lot of money owed to the Walkers, I suppose Seth and Jolie decided they had to leave. Instead of doing what normal people would do by telling the original owners that they cannot afford to stay in the area and that they would be better off finding another person to look after their property, they ransacked the place. Steven told us about the deck they took out, the broken glass, beds missing, and furniture strewn across the yard left to rot. They took his two tamarins and cut through the welding of their enclosures, and moved them to their new location (where Alouatta Sanctuary is now housed). Some would question this "Steven character", but everything he said made so much sense. Everything he said was consistent with what we had experienced in our dealings (and that told to us by others) with Seth and Jolie. And not only that, but right when he pulled up he walked to the tamarins and knew exactly who they were, and was able to show one of our managers, Ben, right where they had to cut the welding to steal the enclosures. He talked about how Amigo had been his dog and even informed us Amigo had reached the ripe age of 14. You can see the Gofundme he created to get his place back together and his short explanation of what they did HERE. This whole exchange confirmed all that I had assumed about the people I was working for and helping support, and I was NOT okay with it. Not one bit. I now was firm in my decision to leave the following day. Secondhand Accounts Our poor manager, Benjamin Gombash, had to deal with all the shortcomings at the Alouatta Sanctuary since his start in August, 2015. After a few days of getting to know each other, I began questioning the lack of protocols and research being done at the Sanctuary. He informed me that in his time at the Sanctuary, there hadn’t been any real research or extensive field work going on, and that yes, most interns were a bit disappointed. He had also gotten the short end of the stick, saying that he had been told in his interview that he would be getting twice the salary they ended up actually paying him AFTER he arrived. Ben told me a story about how a manager flew in, only to leave 5 days later due to being very misled about what her job would entail and what all the sanctuary offered. This manager asked Seth a few questions, and as expected, Seth took every question as an insult. He got very angry and she decided right then and there that she would be leaving. A few days later, Seth decided it would be a good idea to have a meeting with all the current interns to discuss this incident. To his surprise, when Seth asked the group if they felt like they had been lied to, Ben told me all 8 interns raised their hands. The discussion went on and Ben actually felt rather good about the end result of the meeting, and everyone went to bed. The next morning at 6 am, bright and early, Seth calls for an “emergency meeting.” Ben explained how this emergency meeting was perfect for Seth because everyone was caught off guard/woken up just to be yelled at for an hour and a half. Seth was calling people out, telling people that they should just quit. He told one girl that “no matter how long she grew her dreads, she would never be spiritual” or some garbage to that effect. What I’m getting at is that he is a very rude man, who sits on this high horse thinking he is above everyone and everything. He treats people as garbage and refuses to face the consequences of his actions. This is not okay. Submitted from Iowa, USA on 2/24/2016.
I am very passionate about wildlife, and am exploring different potential career paths. I know I would like to do something involving wildlife conservation, so this internship sounded like the perfect fit for me to learn about wildlife rehabilitation and research. Within my first few days, I started getting worried. Firstly, there are virtually no protocols (at least none were presented) about how to properly care for the primates, what food and how much to give them, nor were there any on how to properly rehab/release them into the wild. One specific example: we are told the howlers get about 80-100% vegetables, and 0-20% fruit, and that you put it all “in the big Tupperware.” Not specific fruits and vegetables, not specific weights of food, but just the big bowl. There was also no research investigating whether the amounts were adequate and/or if what they were eating was appropriate, and I was told there hadn't been any research in the past 6+ months. I noticed that the monkeys didn’t forage as much as I expected, and that most of the time they would try and come down from the trees about an hour before feeding time and just wait for us to feed them. I made a few suggestions on how we could potentially increase their foraging time by slowly decreasing the amount we fed them over time. This would allow them to become more independent and eat more leaves. Of course, this new protocol would need to be monitored too. I have enough experience to understand that when changing procedures it is necessary that the new protocol is effectively monitored to see how a change in procedure affects (good or bad) the howlers. I also mentioned how we should look up different rehab efforts and write up specific protocols to give them the best chance at being successfully reintroduced to the wild. My suggestions were all met with an “it is what it is/meh/yeah maybe we could” attitude, with no action. What I learned was that it was very hard to change any of the procedures or simply try out potential changes because most ideas brought up to the directors, Seth Hopkins and Jolie Colby, were usually disregarded. It appeared that suggestions were viewed by them as accusations and they took advice very poorly, hopping on the defensive any chance they could get. I would not be so upset with the lack of change if the Sanctuary had historically had more positive outcomes. Two monkeys said to have been “successfully released into wild troops” still hung around the area we called the Triangle. This area had two enclosures, one holding the spider monkey, Luna, the other holding the capuchin, Zita. Two previously rehabbed and released monkeys (Nina, a howler and Ace, a capuchin) are always seen hanging around the enclosures when we go up to feed and socialize, and try to steal the food and enrichment given to the two captive monkeys. This would be what I would call a failed release. There have been a few primates which have died in the care of the Sanctuary (under the direction of Seth Hopkins and Jolie Colby). Here are a few examples: there were three tamarins (two females and one male) who were once in the care of a Steven Walker (the ORIGINAL starter of Alouatta Sanctuary: see the "Primates stealing primates?!" post for the story), but then in the care of the Seth Hopkins and Jolie Colby I was told the male tamarin died, for reasons I’m unsure of. I have also been told that the Sanctuary acquired four kinkajous, two of which attacked each other and died in the enclosure they were all put in. Shortly after, the other two were released. I asked about what procedures are used to decide when animals are ready to be released, and my question was not answered. It sounded rather willy-nilly, which is, in my opinion, not okay. I came here to give the best care to these primates while learning about how to rehab successfully and these processes were all very alarming. Stevie (the blind howler monkey) and Luna and Zita (the Triangle monkeys). I mentioned them previously but these three were the most worrisome in my opinion. Here, I will elaborate.
I am confident that there is still hope for some of these primates, but only if we take action and use teamwork. Submitted from Iowa, USA on 2/23/2016.
Instead of telling the truth and disclosing accurate information to the volunteer, Jolie slandered and vilified a past intern who had negatively (but truthfully) reviewed their Sanctuary on TripAdvisor. Note: the Sanctuary quickly had the negative review removed. In the interest of full disclosure: The volunteer obtained a full refund of the deposit. Submitted from Edmonton, Canada on 2/23/2016
We've come across some very disturbing news. Remember all that stuff Alouatta Sanctuary advertises on its website? Where is the information about how Seth Hopkins and Jolie Colby stole monkeys and vandalized the original Alouatta??? Maybe they thought it wasn't relevant? Maybe it's why they figured after they push interns off their "Sanctuary" that these interns would steal and vandalize too. Steven Walker and his partner were the original founders of Alouatta and boy oh boy do they have a story to tell! Check out their go-fund-me post here. Submitted from Panama on 2/23/2016
I arrived on a Monday in February 2016 to find: one volunteer had just quit and left earlier that morning, another was considering quitting early, and another was "on strike" from all but essential duties. My commitment was for just one week, but I only lasted 48 hours at the sanctuary. I chose to leave early as I felt the director's behavior was unsafe (at any hour and without warning a volunteer could be forced to leave) putting them in potentially dangerous situations. Submitted from Wisconsin, USA on 2/21/2016
I've become inspired. Not to change the world. But to help who I can. My time at the Sanctuary was short - not because I wanted it to be, but because I was asked to leave after asking simple questions. First indication that I would be trouble: I asked who would be picking me up at the airport. Second indication that I was the worst kind of trouble: I asked for an invoice. Last straw: I asked what my contract said. That's the short and sweet of it. The simple things in life (itinerary, receipts, legal contracts) were basis enough to ask for me to leave - or I would be arrested. Forcibly removed. See for yourself. (Not everything is in writing, but more than enough is.) You can find the interactions here: arrival question, invoice question, contract question, and the last straw. Submitted from Montreal, Canada on 2/21/2016
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