“Scientists detail dangers of chimps as pets - San Jose Mercury News” |
| Scientists detail dangers of chimps as pets - San Jose Mercury News Posted: 02 Sep 2010 05:54 AM PDT CHICAGO — Dead set against people keeping chimpanzees as pets, Lincoln Park Zoo primatologist Steve Ross flew to Montana last year to face Jeanne Rizzotto, a wealthy Realtor who had declared on national television that somebody would have to step "over my dead body" to take her two pet chimps away. Ross, a soft-spoken Chicago scientist, had just founded Project ChimpCARE to locate every chimpanzee in North America and assess its level of care. He was astonished to see Rizzotto's chimps — Connor and Kramer — living in the lap of luxury, eating pizzas and hot wings and quaffing bottled mineral water. Rizzotto, a direct, hard-charging businesswoman, believed the 7-year-old chimps she bought for $50,000 each were none of Ross' business because what she was doing was legal. "We bumped heads at first," said Rizzotto, 56. But their meeting soon turned into a friendship and a long-running conversation, culminating in June, with Rizzotto very tearfully leaving Connor and Kramer at a Florida chimpanzee sanctuary. Their move is not the only success of ChimpCARE. This year, owners of a California colony of 14 "actor" chimps trained for work in film, television and advertising closed their business. They asked Ross, who also heads the Association of Zoos and Aquarium's chimpanzee Species Survival Program, to find places for their chimps to live. He sent them to three zoos. For Ross, the ChimpCARE project is about protecting chimps and people from a dangerous public misperception that chimps are safe, people-friendly animals, which makes him opposed in particular to using chimps as actors.Chimps seen on screen are babies or prepubescent youngsters, never adults, Ross said. When they reach puberty, they become dangerously unpredictable and aggressive, a tendency that resulted in tragedy last year when one retired chimp attacked and severely injured a woman in Connecticut. Chimpanzees, like other great apes — gorillas, orangutans and bonobos — are endangered species facing extinction in the wild, Ross said. But surveys show the public thinks chimpanzees remain plentiful, with respondents citing their constant presence in films and ads. After a year of traveling and investigating, Ross and his zoo colleague, Vivian Vreeman, believe they have come up with the first accurate census count of chimps in the U.S.: 2,073. That covers 272 living in accredited zoos, 999 in biomedical research labs, 586 in sanctuaries, 84 in unaccredited facilities like roadside zoos, 19 "actor" animals and 113 with private owners and breeders. ChimpCARE, Ross said, is most concerned about the last three categories, which operate without oversight or standards. Private ownership In the U.S., it is illegal to privately own gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. But, to accommodate biomedical laboratories that do invasive research on chimpanzees, it is legal to own captive chimps bred here. Anybody who can afford the going price can have one — $50,000 for a baby boy, $65,000 for a girl. Breeders separate baby chimps soon after birth so that instead of bonding with their mothers, they bond with their trainers and owners. They grow up thinking they are human, Ross said, often eating human diets, dressing in clothes, learning to use toilets, playing video games, enjoying rides in the family car. "You might think: What's wrong with that if the chimp enjoys it?" Ross said. "That is fine when they are babies and tykes, but by the time they reach puberty at 7 or 8 years old, taking them through the drive-through window at a fast-food restaurant might not be such a pleasant experience anymore. "An adolescent or adult chimp is a very dangerous animal that poses serious public safety concerns if they are not properly housed and managed." How dangerous became clear in a widely publicized incident in February 2009, when Travis, a 14-year-old, 200-pound pet chimp, mutilated a Connecticut woman. Travis had gotten free of his cage and was loose in the yard of his owner, who called a friend to ask for help in recaging him. As the friend, a 55-year-old woman, arrived in her car, Travis attacked her, ripping off her face, nose, lips and both hands. She survived, but arriving police shot Travis dead. Because Travis was an older half-brother to Rizzotto's chimps, nationally televised programs — including "Good Morning America," "Entertainment Tonight," the "Today" show and "National Geographic" — descended on her Montana home. Rizzotto, who has two adult sons no longer at home, said she welcomed the TV shows because she wanted people to see Connor and Kramer's life with her, the loving care and "how Connor paints, plays flute and rides a motorcycle." When Steve Ross asked to visit, she welcomed him, too. "I wanted him to see how well I took care of them," she said, but she also wanted to tap into Ross' expertise for ideas to improve her chimps' lives even more. Formed a friendship In their first meeting, Rizzotto stopped Ross after he began asking questions from a form he had prepared. "You have to soften the questions up a bit," she said she told Ross. "You need to care for the feelings of the chimp owners." He not only listened, he asked her for advice, she said, and that impressed her. She, in turn, listened when he evaluated what she was feeding Connor and Kramer, agreeing to feed them more vegetables and formulated zoo primate food and less pizza and spaghetti. From the first meeting, a friendship developed. They kept talking by phone and e-mail, with Rizzotto eventually traveling to Chicago and visiting Ross. Gradually, she began to weigh Ross' warnings that her two chimps were fast approaching puberty. "I never for a moment would fear that either Connor or Kramer would intentionally hurt me," she said. "I am their mother. But they are playful, and Steve began asking me what would happen if I got hurt by accident in their horseplay and I had to call for help. What if they went after somebody who came to help me?" Ultimately, she concluded Connor and Kramer would have better lives if they lived with other chimps. It took awhile, Ross said, to find a place for them. But early this summer, Save the Chimps, a Fort Pierce, Fla., sanctuary with 273 rescued and retired chimps, took them in. Rizzotto spent a couple of weeks at the sanctuary with Connor and Kramer after they arrived. They have a three-acre island to themselves, pending their introduction to other chimps, and "they are loving it," she said. Now, she is torn between joy over thinking that she gave her chimps a much better life by giving them up, and a persistent, sadness that she no longer has her boys. "I just don't think I can bear walking into my house in Montana and seeing the empty cages. It's like losing a child," she said. She said she may move to Florida to be near them after they learn to live with other chimps. But it will be different. "I won't ever be able to go in with them again to hug them," she said. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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