Comments on: Chimpanzees Are NOT Pets!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:57:24 +0000

It is saddening to see that so many comments refer to the ‘rights’ of humans and the ‘safety’ of humans. What about those of Chimpanzees?
I don’t doubt that Travis and Moe (his horrific story was mentioned above) were happy and loved, and that their owners gave them everything that they possibly could. But the fact remains that Chimpanzees are better off in the company of their own kind, not drinking champagne and watching TV.
Scott, I was touched by your post and your desire to own a Chimpanzee of your own, but do you honestly believe that owning a Chimpanzee, dressing it in clothes and diapers, and feeding it junk food is “giving them the lives that they were ment to have, Safe from Preditors that could take their lives”?
If that was the life Chimpanzees were meant to have they would have evolved to that standard by now, and would be our equals.
I urge EVERYBODY to go the following website:
http://www.monkeyworld.co.uk
This non-profit wildlife park houses abused and abandoned primates. Please go online and read the stories of the rescued chimps, and see for yourself the dedication of the staff in giving these chimpanzees the best life that they can possibly have, which means natural chimp groups, limited human contact and a lifestyle mimicing the African jungle as much as possible. While a lot of chimps at the park were beaten by their previous owners and came to the centre facing drug addictions from their owners drugging them to keep them quiet, many were also given up by their well-meaning owners who realised that the life their chimpanzee was living, while loved and lavished with toys, food and attention, was unnatural and really an unfullfilled life.
I urge everyone too, to go online and, if you haven’t already seen the documentary series that they film at the Park (‘Monkey Business’, now renamed ‘Monkey Life’) that you buy the DVDs. I watch these constantly because Chimpanzees are so similar to humans in so many ways, but so different – that it is funny and heartbreaking at the same time.
Watch them in this documentary and you will clearly see how much happier Chimps are in a natural life.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:47:54 +0000

Hi Everyone,
I hope my comments do not offend anyone but I felt I had to comment on this as I feel very deeply about this subject. It has been a dream of mine to some day to have a chimpanze, I think it is sickening that the government has banned the ownership of these exotic animals. Yes what has just happened in the news about Travis is very sad and feel for both in this situation. When you look at the bigger picture for one the Government has just taken another right away from us, and I am truly not against the government. Now if we would like to talk numbers not statistics because I am now talking about human lives. There have been in the past 40 years we have lost 2 human lives to the attaks of chimpanziees and 343 cases of bites and scratches. Yes that is tragic that is 2 human lives. Did you know that we loose 20 human lives per year to brutal attacks from our mans best friend the dog. When you try to get numbers on bites and scratches on humans from dogs there is no trace of a number that is because it is too numerous to calculate. Yes and I did say 20 HUMAN lives per year to brutal dog attacks. I am truly a dog lover as I have 5 of my own and love them like they are my children. Now take these numbers into account, We have lost 27 thousand human lives due to plane crashes from 1982-2004 how does that feel now. Realy makes you sick to your stomach. Did you also know that we loose 2,200 human lives per day to Heart Disease. Here is another in 2001 from October to December we have lost 700-1000 human lives due to car crashes. Also we have lost 12 human lives due to Astroids hitting them in the past 400 years. Now I have not even mentioned humans murdering other humans. Now I ask you why hasen’t the Government done something about all of the above deaths? I am not saying that the 2 human lives taken by chimpaziees in the past 40 years is not bad BUT why has the right to own Primates been taken away from us. I have talked to people who have them and they are like there children, as some are unable to have there own, as it has been mentioned they have 98.7% human DNA. I do belive that the Government should be able to control the Poachers that kill the parents and steel the babies. It has also been mentioned that dogs were wild animals aswell at one time but took centeries to tame them, well does anyone know how long we have been trying to tame the chimpanzee? They are alot like children and you should have all the facts about raising one! Why should the rights be taken from some or most that have never harmed a soul and lived their lives healthy and happy. Is it possible that we may be able to give them the lives that they were ment to have, Safe from Preditors that could take their lives. I truly hope this does not offend anyone but hope there is some others that have compasion and the love for all creature of gods earth.
Thanks so much

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:58:13 +0000

“There has been selection on them against agression, which is why a dog, unlike a wolf, will not automatically tear you to pieces.”

The true story of Farley Mowat’s groundbreaking research on wolves in the wilds of northern Canada has been around for years and was made into a movie in 1983… why is it that you’ve not educated yourself about the true nature of wolves… While wolves are indeed hunters, they don’t practice as you suggest in the quote above.. Watch (or read) this fascinating story that has changed the opinions about wolves’ natural behaviors of millions of people around the world…

Your misinformation is harmful to sustainable environmental practice.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:10:58 +0000

In many parts of the world escaped cats and dogs are a nuisance and threat to the local wildlife. “Exotic” pets that are local to the area may be much better.

By: Lactate dehydrogenase

Lactate dehydrogenase — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:14:35 +0000

You really want to keep a pet? Keep a shrew. You will be endlessly entertained when you have to leave your job and keep on procuring live food for their high metabolism 24/7

By: Oakspar77777

Oakspar77777 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:36:18 +0000

The arguement that cats and dogs (assumably other domestics like chickens, sheep, goats, horses, mules, cows, etc) are acceptable pets because of “thousands of years of domestication.”

If keeping domestics is acceptable, then domesticating wild creatures is as well, as that is the source of all domestics.

Take the Chinchilla. In the wild they are so high strung and altitude sensitive that most early attempts at domestication failed. Now, only a century later, they are much calmer, more social, and come in a variety of colors and coats (the first two being far more important that the third). While they are still a rather jumpy and fragile pet, most people capable of caring for a rabbit can handle a chinchilla.

So, with training and breeding, who is to say that Chimps won’t someday be the companion pet so many wish they already were? Unless you are a filthy neo-hippie willing to destroy/sterilize all living domestics (including agricultural/aquacultural animals) and return to a “wild animal only” earth (not a friendly place to man, by the way), then domestics are okay. If existing domestics are okay, then it follows that creating domestics from new species is okay.

By the way, many of the early Puritan settlers took wild skunks in as pets. Very similar to housecats and never descented like today’s pet skunks are.

By: Kenneth Fowler

Kenneth Fowler — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:10:54 +0000

I fully expected to find comments on the chimpanzee tragedy, here and in the main stream media, to bridge the spectrum from “a freak accident and the owner had a perfect right to harbor the animal in her home” to “a wanton, irresponsible act and the owner is criminally liable”. Sadly, I was not disappointed. My only question is why do so many not consider it a triple tragedy? The chimpanzee was robbed of a life in its natural habitat, the victim, the target of the attack, was mauled and almost killed, and the owner, a victim herself of self-delusion and transference, even now lacks an understanding of her ethical and moral failure – the animal was treated like a favored toy or fetish; she attributed human-like behaviors to the now 200 lb. adult chimpanzee, a creature of enormous strength, a great ape, an omnivore (opportunistic meat-eater), a primate that has been shaped by Darwinian evolution and natural selection from its beginnings in the Paleogene, six million years ago, when our paths diverged, to unpredictable and violent behavior driven by a need for territorial protection, warped in unknowable ways by being removed from its own ecological niche in the tropical forest and kin-selected communities. Society failed as well by anthropomorphizing the owner’s ill-considered belief that this was her child – it was not and all in all nature was violated. I mourn for at least two of the victims.

By: jay

jay — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:22:47 +0000

The reason more people are killed by dogs in the US than by exotic pets is because there many more dogs in the US than exotic pets by a ratio of more than 100:1. By your logic motorcycles are safer than cars

Don’t forget that more humans kill humans (including spouses, parents and children) than all other animals.

What does bother me is the form that legal structures might take. Even some of the posts here seem to be basing the legal arguments on potential (determined by whom?) danger to humans and I can see this getting rapidly out of hand as lawmakers decide what is ‘dangerous’ (we see how this becomes perception driven in the ill thought out bans on breeds of dogs). Many domesticated animals can be dangerous under some circumstances, as well as many exotic wild animals that cannot (no one to my knowledge has been killed by a bog turtle).

I don’t believe primates are suitable pets, but I’m also very concerned about the wisdom of legislators once they get rooting around the tent.

By: Letraix

Letraix — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:35:43 +0000

“Since chimps and bonobos share 98.7% of our DNA, don’t they deserve the same respect?”

Actually, no. Not a good argument. Where exactly should this DNA similarity cutoff lie? If humans evolve into something that looks and behaves human (superhuman, even) but only has 98.5% in common with normal human DNA, should they be downgraded to animals? Or should chimps be upgraded? What about 90%? How about 82.7? Should we look to domesticated animals to get a baseline? I really don’t think “percentage similarity of DNA” is a useful measure, particularly of something as subjective as “respectability”.

Chimps are animals. Very cool, interesting and emotion-jerking animals, but I don’t see why they should enjoy more respect than a domesticated dog, a wild crocodile, or the noble pig on his final walk to sausagedom. (Feel free to argue that humans are animals too, but that is apparently the Gold Standard (pah!) being compared against here.)

That said, no, I don’t want a chimp for my birthday, for the other rather sensible reasons listed above. You can keep your Great Danes and pitbulls too.

By: asrtobiologiste

asrtobiologiste — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:51:18 +0000

Did anyone read the murders in the rue morgue???

Is it just me, or is this eerily familiar?