About the Founder

Jungle Friends founder Kari BagnallKari Bagnall is founder and director of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, a non-profit organization offering a safe haven for monkeys in need of permanent sanctuary care. Jungle Friends is home to over 300 new-world monkeys. Most were retired from laboratory research, others were cast off from the exotic pet trade, and some were confiscated by the authorities. Kari was introduced to a vegetarian lifestyle nearly 50 years ago when she moved into a yoga ashram in Phoenix. Today, vegetarian communal living is a part of the Jungle Friends experience for interns and volunteers from around the world. As part of the sanctuary culture, people are encouraged to adopt a vegan lifestyle, to have compassion for all of the Earth's remarkable inhabitants, and to join us in hope that these individual acts of kindness across species will one day reach the 'critical mass' needed to transform the world.

Learn more about How Jungle Friends Began

Kari's memorial to her mother.