PETA saves Lisa Marie Chimp from Elvis Tribute Artist

In 2007 breeders shipped Lisa Marie, just over a month old off to an Elvis impersonator in Chicago who used her in his shows as well as in other traveling shows at schools, parks, and nursing homes. When she wasn’t being hauled around by a leash and forced to perform for human amusement, she was often relegated to a tiny cage in a cramped basement and made to wear a collar with a padlock on it. In 2009, Lisa Marie Presley wrote to the chimpanzee’s owners and urged them to let the suffering animal retire to a reputable sanctuary. They never responded.

But animal advocates refused to give up. And this past September, thanks to a generous PETA patron, Lisa Marie the chimpanzee was finally rescued and transferred to the lush, spacious Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida.She was painfully thin, pale from lack of sunlight, and weak from having had few opportunities to exercise. Lisa Marie has the freedom to venture onto one of Save the Chimp’s emerald islands, but she isn’t ready to explore it yet. Possibly because she spent so many years cooped up indoors, the large green space that should feel like home to her is instead intimidating. But at the sanctuary, animals do everything at their own pace, and the palm trees, tall wooden climbing structures, bridges, and more than a dozen chimpanzees will all wait patiently as Lisa Marie begins to make choices for herself for the first time in her life.