Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 27 2008 | By: baraza

I was really pleased to see Dr Jane Goodall sticking her neck out to remind the world that we need to do more to save great apes. In an article published in the Calgary Herald Thursday, October 23, 2008, she says

“In the couple of months since the historic Spanish parliament resolution granting certain rights to great apes, the ensuing debate has taken a wrong turn. As commentators have become mired in the nuances of what rights are appropriate for apes or any other non-human animal, we have lost sight of the central concern — that we continue to use great apes in invasive research, as well as entertainment and advertising, in ways that are unnecessarily harmful and often downright cruel to these amazing creatures.

Like Spain, other countries have recognized this fact. Australia, Austria, Holland, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom have banned or severely restricted invasive research on great apes. While we may not agree on how to get there, there’s a growing consensus around the world that we need to go in this direction.

Over the past century, a wealth of information has been uncovered regarding the behaviour and biology of great apes. We now know with absolute certainty that great apes share many of the same psychological, social, and emotional characteristics as humans.

Taking these findings into account, we can no longer turn a blind eye to their inhumane treatment.

For years great apes have been used in inappropriate and irresponsible ways. Invasive research on great apes continues, despite the suffering it inflicts and the growing abundance of alternative non-animal testing methods. The use of great apes in the entertainment and advertising industry also persists, regardless of the heavy toll it exacts on both captive and wild great apes. What most people do not realize is that performing apes must be taken from their mothers as infants. The premature separation of an infant from its mother can often lead to long-term social and psychological damage. Additionally, entertainment apes have a very short shelf life in the industry. They only remain manageable until they mature, around the age of eight, yet captive great apes can live from 50 to 60 years. Once performing apes are no longer manageable on the entertainment set, they often end up in inappropriate and inhumane living conditions — a roadside zoo, a biomedical research lab, or a breeder compound where the cycle is repeated.

Researchers have found that people who are accustomed to seeing chimpanzees mimicking humans in television programs, advertising and film may be misled into believing that chimpanzees are not endangered.

The misconception that chimpanzees are not endangered negates efforts to raise public awareness and commitments toward their conservation, a consequence that we cannot afford at such a critical juncture. For chimpanzees and all the great apes, once abundant, are now on the verge of extinction. This is due in large measure to the loss of forest habitat from commercial logging, mining and biofuel operations, as well as growing numbers of people in great ape ranges who lack basic needs.

The Spanish parliament’s action serves as a reminder that we must press forward to protect the natural habitats of great apes in Africa and Asia. There is so much to be done.”

UNEP is helping by announcing that 2009 will be the Year of the Gorilla  under the Convention of Migratory species.

At WidlifeDirect we will also draw increasing attention to the conservation needs of our closest relatives - a conservation need that is badly underfunded globally, and where conservationists are working under extraordinarily difficult conditions. We hope you will support our ape projects including the Orangutan Foundation in Indonesia, Lola ya Bonobo bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa, JACK a chimapanzee rescue center in the DR Congo, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Virunga National Park, the Tacugama wildlife sanctuary in Sierra Leone, and Limbe Wildlife Center in Cameroon where rescued gorillas are being cared for.

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Tags: bonobos, chimpanzees, Gorillas, Great apes, Jane Goodall

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 21 2008 | By: baraza

Many of you have probably seen the historic decision by Spain to give apes legal rights.

This is the first time that legal rights have been conferred to an animals by a state. The Spanish parliament’s environmental committee voted to approve resolutions committing the country to the Great Apes Project (GAP), designed by scientists and philosophers who say that humans’ closest biological relatives also deserve rights.

But, reactions to the vote have been mixed – many in Spain wonder if it’s a national priority, especially when Spain has no wild apes of its own. Others see a contradiction with the cruelty experienced by bulls in bullfights in the same country.

Personally I think it’s a step in the right direction but my views are not shared with these guys who seem to believe that humans are created more equal. I would love to poll your views on this development.

I know that some people will never comprehend nor want to comprehend just how similar we are to apes, afteral it’s uncomfortable, it forces us to rethink how special we are.

While at Princeton I read a lot about the Great Ape Project (GAP) and even discussed it with Peter Singer, a world famous bioethicist. I recall that he upheld his moral authority by being a vegetarian and by giving away all his extra money. His views are almost always considered, and almost always controversial. Here is a clip from his article “Of Great Apes and Men” published in The Guardian today

“Paola Cavalieri and I founded The Great Ape Project in 1993 to break down the barriers between human and nonhuman animals. Researchers such as Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey and Birute Galdikas have shown that great apes are thinking, self-aware beings with rich emotional lives, and thereby prepared the ground for extending rights to them.

If we regard human rights as something possessed by all human beings, no matter how limited their intellectual or emotional capacities may be, how can we deny similar rights to great apes? To do so would be to display a prejudice against other beings merely because they are not members of our species - a prejudice we call speciesism, to highlight its resemblance to racism.”

I might not agree with everything Singer says, but I do agree with this stand on Great Apes.

Today I visited their site here and signed their declaration which I should have done years ago. This is what it says in part

“We demand the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans.

The community of equals is the moral community within which we accept certain basic moral principles or rights as governing our relations with each other and enforceable at law. Among these principles or rights are the following:

1. The Right to Life
2. The Protection of Individual Liberty
3. The Prohibition of Torture“

But I can’t help wondering how we got to giving apes rights before we actually made sure that all humans have rights, children, women, the physically and mentally challenged, and people of colour and certain races (to name just a few minorities) are still discriminated against in so many places,…and for those in some countries, apes are just food!

So my challenge to GAP is to focus on getting similar laws passed in Great ape range states.

What do you think … could it happen?

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Tags: Apes, bonobos, chimpanzees, Gorillas, Great Ape Project, Legal rights for apes, Orangutans, Spain

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