For most people, the idea of what a chimpanzee is would come from their presence in television shows, circuses, movies, advertisements. and printed media such as greeting cards. What many people don't know is that the vast majority of the chimps they see are infants and juveniles, as very few continue their 'acting careers' once they reach the age of around eight or even younger. This is because adult chimpanzees are immensely strong, intelligent and capable of dealing considerable damage to humans. The tragic event in 2009 involving a pet chimpanzee, Travis is an example of just how dangerous chimps can be to humans. Unfortunately, the presentation of cute chimp babies in the media encourages people to buy them as pets (which, shockingly, is legal in some parts of the USA) This is disastrous for the chimp, an intelligent creature with a highly complex social structure who will grow too strong and dangerous to handle and also potentially disastrous for their human owners.
As well as giving a misleading picture of what a chimpanzee actually is, the use of chimps for comic effect doesn't help their conservation either. A recent study (Chartrand, Hare, Rosati, Schroepfer, 2011) found that seeing chimpanzees in these unnatural situations gave the impression to the viewers that chimpanzees are not an endangered species, and made the viewers less likely to contribute to chimpanzee conservation charities.
As I mentioned earlier, the chimpanzees used in the entertainment industry are almost always infants and juveniles. For a chimp to be trained, he or she will have been removed from their mother at a young age. This denies both the mother and the infant what is an extremely important relationship. Chimpanzee infants will nurse up to between four and five years of age and may remain close to their mothers for the rest of their lives. Not only is the infant missing out on this relationship, but also a healthy social life; chimpanzees naturally live in large fission/fusion communities with complex social structures. Depriving an intelligent animal such as a chimpanzee of a decent social life is incredibly cruel. It is cruel for the mother as well, chimpanzees have been shown to grieve for others, especially mothers for their infants. Whether or not the actual training was using force or positive reinforcement, all chimpanzee 'actors' have suffered at human hands.
Bearing in mind that chimpanzees can live to up to sixty years in captivity, their time in the 'spotlight' is very brief. What then? If they are extremely lucky, they will retire to one of the few chimpanzee sanctuaries in the United States, where they will be cared for at the sanctuary's expense for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, they may find themselves in deplorable conditions in roadside zoos, biomedical research laboratories or in breeding compounds, where they will bring forth another generation that will suffer for our amusement. Even if the retirees do make it to a sanctuary, they will likely have poor social skills after growing up with humans rather than chimpanzees.
Recently, a company infamous for its inappropriate use of young chimps, CareerBuilder, has announced that following pressure from concerned people and organizations they will not be airing a commercial as part of the Super Bowl this year. Previous commercials have included young chimp 'actors' wearing clothes. Hopefully, this will be one of many steps forward for chimpanzees in the near future.
I have heard people say; 'why does this matter so much when there are human beings suffering out there?'.
It matters because it is completely unnecessary for us to use chimpanzees in this way. Do we need to laugh at a chimp wearing clothes and fear-grinning to live fulfilled lives? I don't think so. There is no reason why this should continue, and so many more reasons why this must end.
I would recommend looking at the website of the Center for Great Apes, a sanctuary in Florida home to many chimpanzees and orangutans previously used in the entertainment industry. http://www.centerforgreatapes.org/apes-in-entertainment.aspx
The sanctuary also has a Facebook page where photos of the apes are regularly posted.
https://www.facebook.com/CenterForGreatApes?fref=ts
Just wrapping up with a few photos of Zombi and her infant daughter Zuri at Monarto Zoo. If you could see the tenderness with which Zombi cares for her baby, you would understand why it is so wrong to deprive chimpanzees of this relationship just so we can get a cheap laugh.
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