i'm sure everyone's heard of the chimp who just attacked a woman in CT. apparently the woman who looked after the chimp, who btw was an old entertainment chimp who appeared in Pepsi ads, was like her own child. and when she stabbed him with a butcher knife the chimp looked at her as if to say 'how could you do this to me'
it's true, we shouldn't be doing it to them. chimps are not meant to be pets, and in the words of one interviewer, are ticking time bombs.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/17/america/chimp.php
just got this comment on an old post.
Chasmanian Devil has left a new comment on your post "can i have that chimp as my pet?":
I agree totally that chimps should not be kept as pets. We need better laws to regulate trade in captive-born chimps and other non-domesticated potentially dangerous animals. But, your blog photos, cute as they are, give the absolutely wrong impression as they show a smiling human treating a chimp like a child or cuddly pet. Please consider changing them.
thanks, chas, I completely agree. i tend to focus on the babies b/c those are the orphans people adopt, but i need to concentrate on the adults too, who have their own stories.like kikwit, my favourite bonobo ever. even though bonobos don't have a history of violence like chimps, they are still capable of biting off a finger or breaking an arm. and kikwit would be at Lola if it weren't for the pet trade. so no apes as pets!!!
