Fundraising

Dear Furless Friends,

Since most people can't make it to the jungles of Africa, we are pretending the jungles are in Cincinnati, Ohio. Keep your eyes open, there will be hundreds of people dressed as mountain gorillas running through the streets of downtown Cincinnati on April 2nd. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund is hosting the Gorilla Run and all of us are helping to keep Dian Fossey's dream alive. Remember the movie "Gorillas in the Mist"?

This is where we need your help.....So what's our story?

In 1985, Dian Fossey was murdered. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund (MGCF) took the initiative to keep her dream alive. When MGCF took over the project there were only 248 mountain gorillas left in the WORLD. Because of the projects that MGCF oversees there are now 880 in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A mountain gorilla can only be seen in Africa, these animals do not survive in captivity therefore they'll never been seen in any zoo.

Mountain Gorillas are one of our closest relatives, sharing 98.6% of our DNA. This makes them the closest link to mankind and we are trying to help keep these animals from extinction. MGCF introduced veterinary medicine back in 1986 with a project called, Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The local governments are convinced that this project saved the gorillas from extinction during the war in the mid 90's.

Thanks to all the wonderful supporters, the MGCF was able to expand its veterinary program, which is offered to the local Ugandans and Rwandans to become veterinarians. In late 2013, the MGCF opened the Ruth Keesling Wildlife Health and Research Center, first of its kind for Africa and mountain gorilla protection. Veterinary medicine has now expanded to a vast majority of wildlife in the central African region. MGCF was the first in the world to ever build an "on location" vet center in 1986 for the protection of endangered animals. Since then, 20 expatriate veterinarians have served in the countries and now 36 local verterinarians have been educated to take over and protect their own wildlife. This has been the leading cause which contributed to the population growth of the gorilla. This is a great thing for central Africa!

How are we doing this.....
We are asking each gorilla to set a fundraising goal of $250 and it's very easy. Just log on to the events web site at https://www.crowdrise.com/CincinnatiGorillaRun2017 and press the "click here to contribute" button. Make sure to select the person who you are supporting in the run. If you don't know anybody in the run no problem, just choose Unrestricted Donation - MGCF can direct where most needed. During these difficult economical times, your help is very important to the gorillas. Please help in any way you can.

Thanks so much from all the gorillas.