Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp mauling

NY Times op-ed by Charles Siebert

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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.

Today Show spot

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Sarah, CSNW’s Executive Director, was the expert voice on a segment on the Today Show this morning about chimpanzee pet ownership. The segment spent a great deal of time with a pet owner in Montana who has two male chimpanzees around six years old. These chimpanzees were bought from the same breeder who sold Travis, the chimpanzee who attacked Charla Nash in Connecticut last month and was killed because of the attack. The young chimpanzees in Montana, Connor and Kramer, recently escaped their enclosure and bit a woman.

Their owner has admitted in a public hearing that the chimps have bitten up to 40 people. She allowed the Today Show crew to be in the living room with the chimpanzees while filming. Clearly, this is a tragedy just waiting to happen. Just like Travis’ owner, Connor and Kramer’s “mother” may indeed love “her” chimpanzees, but she is not considering the best interest of them or of her community. Connor and Kramer need to be placed in a sanctuary before it is too late.

After watching the clip, please contact the Today Show and thank them for including expert opinion and encourage them to delve into that opinion deeper for future shows. There are many chimpanzee experts out there who will explain, as Sarah did, that chimpanzees do not belong in human homes and do not belong in entertainment. Jane Goodall recently wrote an excellent article on the subject for the L.A. Times.

Tragedy of keeping chimpanzees as pets

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We prefer to keep things focused on the positive and love sharing the daily lives of the chimpanzees at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. But the fact is that it is a shame our sanctuary has to exist at all. The Cle Elum Seven never should have been used in research or entertainment. Chimpanzees simply do not belong in biomedical research, entertainment or in people’s homes as pets. Period. And yesterday there was evidence for some of the reasons why this is true.

On Monday afternoon in Stamford, Connecticut a 15 year old chimpanzee “pet” named Travis attacked a woman he had known for years, leaving her in critical condition. When the police arrived at the scene, they fatally shot Travis. There are now numerous stories with greater detail about this incident all over the news, including NBC.

Travis was bred in captivity to be used by humans. He reportedly appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola. His owners drove him around town. And this was not the first time the authorities of Stamford had to be called in to try to contain him.

For those of us who care for chimpanzees, it is difficult not to be angry about this incident. We know that chimpanzees should not be kept as pets – we’ve seen tragedies like this before. We know that chimpanzees should only be kept in secure enclosures. We know that chimpanzees in entertainment are usually discarded after a few years because they become too difficult to “handle.” And we know that chimpanzees are intelligent, social, amazing, and, yes, sometimes violent beings.

There should be laws in place in every state banning the keeping of chimpanzees as pets. Hollywood by choice or by being forced through legislation should never use a chimpanzee in entertainment again. Our hope is that this tragedy will create action to make these things happen, and we will do our part to help.