Carole C. Noon


Carole Cooney Noon was an American anthropologist and primatologist best known for founding Save the Chimps, a Florida non-profit chimpanzee sanctuary that is the largest such sanctuary in the world as of 2009.

Early life

Carole C. Noon was born on July 13, 1949 to the union William and Dorothy Cooney in Portland, Oregon. She has two sisters named Lee Asbeck and Kay Shelton. During her early years, her father, William Cooney, moved the entire family to an island in the South Pacific, for a business venture, where she spent a significant amount of her childhood. Years later, her parents divorced which resulted in her mother, Dorothy, moving Carole and her sisters to Honolulu, Hawaii and later Cleveland, Ohio. She went on to marry Michael Noon, who she later divorced.

Education

Noon attained a bachelor's degree from Florida Atlantic University. She then earned a master's in anthropology and a doctorate in biological anthropology, under Dr. Linda Wolfe from the University of Florida, specializing in captive chimpanzees. She conducted much of her field research at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, where chimpanzees were orphaned by the bushmeat trade in Africa. There, she completed her dissertation on the re-socialization of chimpanzees and earned her PhD in 1996.

Career

Following the US Air Force’s decision to bid away all its chimpanzees in 1997, with the help of Jane Goodall, Noon co-created Save The Chimps Foundation, which is known today has the world’s largest sanctuary for chimpanzees. Noon’s bid for the chimpanzees was rejected, and they were later sent to the Coulston Foundation, who was known for violating the Animal Welfare Act. Noon went on to sue the US Air Force and settled out of court for the custody of 21 out of the 140 chimps. In 2001, she opened a sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida with the assistance of the Acrus Foundation. In 2002, The Coulston Foundation went bankrupt, and with the help of a grant on the Acrus Foundation, Dr. Noon and Save the chimps bought their lab in Alamogordo, New Mexico and rescued 266 chimpanzees and 61 monkeys. Save The Chimps became the largest chimpanzee sanctuary overnight, housing and caring today for 282 chimpanzees. She worked tirelessly to improve their conditions, train staff to care for the chimps.

Awards

In 2004 she won the Jane Goodall Award for Lifetime Dedication to the Care of Chimpanzees.

Death

Dr. Carole Noon passed away early in the morning on May 2, 2009, of pancreatic cancer. She was in her home at Save the Chimps and surrounded by her sisters.