Kyle Melnick

John Richard barely slept Monday night, kept awake by traumatic memories from his three years in the U.S. Army. He struggled to get out of bed the next morning, so he drove to his recent haven: a monkey sanctuary.

There, Louie, a 1-year-old black-handed spider monkey, wrapped his arms around Richard’s neck and chirped into his ear. Richard felt his heart rate slow.

“It just brings a relaxation over me just instantly,” Richard said.

Richard has sought ways to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder since he was discharged more than three decades ago. Since he began volunteering with the sanctuary in southeastern Mississippi last fall, Richard has found his most effective coping mechanism: spending time with monkeys.

April Stewart, a U.S. Air Force veteran, founded the Gulf Coast Primate Sanctuary in October to care for primates in need. But the sanctuary also has provided an unintended benefit to about 30 volunteers, some of whom are veterans like Richard.

The result? Monkeys who have been surrendered and people who have suffered trauma are helping each other learn to trust again.

“There’s something magical that’s happening here,” said Stewart, 51. “There’s such a peace that we have.”

Stewart has relied on animals to cope with her own PTSD since, she said, a fellow service member sexually assaulted her while she served in the Air Force Security Forces in 1997. Stewart said she didn’t report the sexual assault for fear of reprisal. Because of that, Rose Riley, spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said in an email to The Post, Stewart “was not offered the resources available to victims.”

Stewart left the Air Force soon after the assault, she said, and became a radiographer. Stewart said she ignored her PTSD for years, but when her youngest of four adult children went to live on his own in 2020, she said she struggled to sleep and suffered panic attacks when she left her house.

In addition to talking with a therapist, Stewart coped by rescuing animals: dogs, cats and monkeys, a pet she had wanted since she was a child. Mississippi is one of more than a dozen states that allow residents to own primates as pets.

In 2023, Stewart adopted Louie, then still a baby, from someone who could no longer care for him. Stewart researched issues of people illegally owning and trading primates, and wanted to provide a space where they would be safe. So in October, she obtained a license from the U.S. Agriculture Department to own up to 50 primates on her 15-acre property in Perkinston, Mississippi.

Around the same time, Richard met Stewart in a church lobby in Wiggins, Mississippi, where he saw a small body inside Stewart’s jacket and thought she was carrying a baby. But when Richard approached Stewart, he saw it was Louie.

Richard, who previously worked as a carpenter, decided to assist the sanctuary build animal enclosures. It gave him an opportunity to help others – and a reason to leave his house, which he has struggled with for years.

His fear and anxiety can be crippling: He loses his appetite, struggles to sleep and suffers panic attacks in public. He said he endures night terrors from the memory of a colleague dying in his arms during training in a gas chamber at the Army’s Fort Knox base in Kentucky in the mid-1980s.

But when he sees Louie, whom Richard calls his “little buddy,” none of those struggles seem to matter to the monkey.

“I don’t have to worry about talking to them,” said Richard, 64. “They can feel you without speaking.”

Richard volunteers to build enclosures for the monkeys that include logs, swings, ropes, treat baskets, tall perches and slides. In one enclosure, there’s a bounce house.

The sanctuary, a nonprofit that’s funded by donations, has three spider monkeys, two squirrel monkeys, two marmosets and even two kinkajous, tropical rainforest mammals. Their owners surrendered them, Stewart said, but going forward she hopes to also care for former laboratory monkeys, monkeys from the entertainment industry and those confiscated by authorities due to neglect or illegal trade.

Most of the monkeys have needed a few weeks to trust Stewart and the volunteers. For example, the squirrel monkeys, Harli and Max, only recently were comfortable being pet after coming to the sanctuary in June.

The animals aren’t therapy-trained, Stewart said, and don’t make contact with most volunteers. Still, Stewart said she often receives calls from volunteers who, after a hard day, want to watch the monkeys and feed them grapes.

After the AP reported on the sanctuary last week, Stewart said, more veterans expressed interest in visiting. Once all of the animals are comfortable, she said she wants to open the sanctuary for public tours so others can benefit from the monkeys – like Richard has.

When Richard recently visited the outside of Louie’s enclosure, the monkey grabbed his black-and-gray hat and tried multiple times – unsuccessfully – to fit it through a chain-link fence. Richard took a photo of the interaction, and now every time he pulls it up on his phone, which is usually every day, he laughs.

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Video: The Gulf Coast Primate Sanctuary in Mississippi was founded by April Stewart, a U.S. Air Force veteran who hopes her monkeys can bring peace to those with PTSD.(c) 2025 , The Washington Post

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