chimpanzee retirement
Socks
Sometimes the simplest things provide entertainment. Today (Thursday), Sarah brought in a few pairs of socks she no longer wanted. Jamie was the first person to try them out. She took the longest pair and put one over her hand, pulling it all the way up to her armpit. She walked around for quite some time like that, then pulled it off and put it on the other arm. Missy put another sock over her left foot. She made a point of showing me her foot with the sock when she saw me.
Haunting Before Photo of Jody
I keep thinking about the photo below. Jody looks so fragile. Like all of the chimpanzees who came from the laboratory, Jody’s hair is very sparse and her skin is loose over her atrophied muscles. I think this will be a “Before” photo and I will take another photo from the same vantage point in several months. Soaking in the sun and having the ability to climb and run and play will make a huge difference.
Nests and Grooming
#3 of Top 10 Moments
Foxie gazing at playroom from first front room.
More beautiful photos of the Cle Elum Seven
Can you believe how beautiful these chimpanzees are? Imagine how great they will look once they have soaked in the sun, their hair has filled out, and their muscles are stronger. They are a remarkably calm group and they are adjusting so well to their new environment – as though they’ve been here for months.The window which looks down the driveway is definitely the current favored spot by all, and the mural painting that volunteer Julie Nealey of Posh Pallette designed and volunteer Kim Michaels painted just a couple of weeks ago makes an incredible backdrop for these photo portraits of our new friends. Scroll over the photos to see the names of the chimpanzees.
Chimpanzee “Retirement” on This American Life
If you have eleven minutes right now, listen to the last segment of Ira Glass’ This American Life episode #350 here. This segment, called Almost Human Resources, is with Charles Siebert, a reporter who is a contributing writer for the New York Times. The subject of the interview is “retirement homes” for chimpanzees! Siebert does a really good job of articulating some of the problems of using chimpanzees for human purposes, including their use in the entertainment industry. It is so great to hear this issue within a fairly mainstream setting (hopefully that’s not an insult to the program) with a remarkable amount of depth considering the rather light-hearted beginning to the topic. Siebert is apparently finishing up a book he has written about chimpanzees in retirement called “Humanzee.”
Towards the end of the interview, Ira asks Siebert what he thinks about this so-called “retirement” for chimpanzees once used in research and entertainment and Siebert replies, “I’ve come to feel that it’s the best we can do for them given the circumstances, but, in the best of worlds, it shouldn’t have happened. They shouldn’t have been kidnapped from their lives for these purposes…”
I couldn’t have said it better.
Diana
