animal rescue
Burrito grooming Negra
Nothing like a good face-grooming in the afternoon
Jody and the toy chimpanzee
Jody didn’t quite know what to make of the plastic chimp toy we put out for enrichment the other day. She decided to take things into her own hands and threw a “car” at the toy.
She got out of the way in case the toy retaliated.
NY Times op-ed by Charles Siebert
One year ago, before the Cle Elum Seven arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, I posted a blog entry with a link to a radio interview with Charles Siebert on This American Life.
Today, Siebert had an op-ed printed in the New York Times entitled Something Wild. Here is an excerpt:
There is something about chimpanzees — their tantalizing closeness to us in both appearance and genetic detail — that has always driven human beings to behavioral extremes, actions that reflect a deep discomfort with our own animality, and invariably turn out bad for both us and them.
Siebert uses specific examples of chimpanzee individuals to illustrate humans’ uncomfortable relationship with our closest evolutionary relatives, and our stubborn desire to make them fit into our concepts of of who they are, which manifest not from observing and appreciating chimpanzees as a distinct species, but from our attempts to make them our human-like playthings as “pets” and “entertainers” or human surrogates in biomedical research.
Siebert explains what I have observed of captive chimpanzees – they live in a world of lost identity. They did not have the opportunity to grow up within a chimpanzee culture, but they cannot fit into our human culture either, no matter how hard we try to force them to.
Sanctuaries like Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest try to make the best out of the inherently unjust situation of captivity. We allow the chimpanzees to be who they are, which is sometimes a strange mix of learned “human” behaviors and a renewed expression of their instinctual chimpanzee selves. Our deepest hope is that we can provide for those in our care while working to ensure that one day sanctuaries like ours will not be necessary because chimpanzees will no longer be used for human purposes.
early Valentine’s gift from Wigt Printing
This was a Valentine’s card we received from W.I.G.T. printing today! The calling cards that they printed for us (from a design by our volunteer graphic designer Kim) are really great. So great, that I want all of you to have a chance to get some to pass around. They are smaller than a business card, and perfect for giving to people that you talk to about the Cle Elum Seven or leaving in little stacks at friendly businesses. I’ll make them available through our online store soon.
Here are the cards:
and on the back of the Jody card:
There are three cards – Jody (above) and Negra and Burrito (below)
Valentine’s Party?
Shelly C. thought it would be great to have another call for some party donations for the upcoming Valentine’s Day party. Let us know if you’d like to contribute – it’s kind of like passing the hat around the office, only parties for the Cle Elum Seven are way more fun than office parties. This will be their first Valentine’s celebration!!! We’re brainstorming the menu already.
Oh, and speaking of celebrations, we’re almost done mapping out the birthdays for the group. We had to choose birthdays for most of the chimpanzees because they were not known, but we know they all deserve their own special day. I’ll update y’all soon with the actual dates.
Thanks!!
Jamie has something to remember… her red tutu
Last week Jamie took a small piece of cloth mesh (it may have been part of a troll costume), and tied it around her toe, then her finger. Jamie really likes shoes and feet, so I often show her my own toes. I have a toe ring, so maybe she was emulating that, or maybe she had something remember 🙂
Today she spent much of the day wearing her new red tutu, courtesy of her friend Tamela.