OUR CLOSEST RELATVE

The US is one of the last large scale user of chimpanzees in research. It’s a world of disbelief yet so real. A world of conscious, sentient and sacred lives that have no choice and no voice.
A life of confinement, isolation, pain and fear causing mental breakdowns and self mutilation. A terrifying world of dart guns, knockdowns, biopsies, injections, toxicity testing... and continue to be used in harmful and lethal experiments.

Chimpanzees suffer and endure an unimaginable and indescribable life in laboratories sacrificing decades of their long lived lives.
It’s time the United States change it’s ways and join with other countries who have banned research on our closest relative.

“I’m a child, taken from my family and given another life
times growing up in little pants, sometimes entertain
familiar faces and skin I cannot reach nor touch
the ugly bars that hold me 5x5 are much too much
I’ve grown, I’m alone, I’ve trusted you
my mind and body can’t bear anymore pain
where’s the sun and grass, the wind, the rain…” harry hmura

 

MUSICIANS ENTERTAIN, NOT GREAT APES

Despite the public outcry over the use of young chimpanzees and orangutans in advertising spots such as those created by the Cramer-Krasselt agency for employment Web site careerbuilder.com and in movies and television shows including Dunston Checks In and Passions, great apes are still being bred and trained for use in the entertainment industry. These so-called “performers” are actually captive slave laborers, forced to act in ways not natural to their species and discarded once they outgrow their usefulness. Great apes are also on display in live animal acts at various tourist attractions around the United States and still in some traveling shows like circuses and rodeos.
Though great apes can live as long as 50 to 60 years or longer in captivity, the average show business chimpanzee or orangutan performs only until the age of six or seven. Adorable infant apes are taken from their mothers and raised by humans, yet as the apes reach adolescence they become too large and powerful for handlers and trainers to control.
These unwanted apes end up in tragic situations. Many former performing chimpanzees and orangutans are sent to live in backyard cages, squalid roadside zoos, and biomedical research laboratories. Some are returned to breeding compounds to continue the cycle of broken ape families and service to human whims.

It is the shame of the entertainment industry that nearly none of the users of apes – from film studios to ad agencies – contribute in any way to the long term care of retired chimpanzees and orangutans.
Some great apes are fortunate enough to end up in reputable sanctuaries. These sanctuaries receive no assistance from the companies that profit from using the apes, depending instead on private donations from individuals and occasional grants from foundations.
What can we as entertainers do to stop the cycle of suffering and draw attention to the plight of these great apes? Our first, most important effort is to communicate clearly. We need to spread the word about the damage a few moments of laughter and entertainment causes to our sensitive, social, and highly intelligent genetic relatives. Let everyone know great apes don’t belong in the entertainment industry.