Robert Ingersoll

Robert Ingersoll has been a tireless champion of captive chimpanzees since the 1970s. He entered the world of primates as an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma's Institute for Primate Studies, where the research focus was on cognition, language, and interspecies communication between chimpanzees and humans, using American Sign Language. He quickly came to see the chimpanzees as friends rather than as research subjects. After several productive years, funding for the program was cut by the university, and the chimpanzee colony was sold to a medical research laboratory for invasive research. This led Robert to a crusade to free his chimpanzee friends that has lasted decades.