By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

An associate veterinarian at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is quitting his post to become director of operations at the Jane Goodall Institute, which has provided a refuge for chimpanzees orphaned by the bushmeat trade in the Republic of Congo for more than a decade.

Dr. Ken Cameron will be in charge of general sanctuary operations, which includes the well-being of the sanctuary's 113 chimps, expansion and future development, supervision of sanctuary personnel and the development of a veterinary health program.

The majority of chimps in the sanctuary were confiscated from hunters trying to sell them into the pet or entertainment trades.

Cameron served a two-year internship at the Cincinnati Zoo before joining the staff in 1993.

He took leave from the zoo in July 1997 to serve as field director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project in Central Africa. He also served as an alternate member of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force Steering Committee since 2001.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com