Most of them had gotten so large and strong they could no longer be safely “worked.” The caging they were being housed in was adequate but hardly engaging. Because of the fact that many of them could no longer “earn their keep” keeping them was becoming costly, especially since it was getting harder to sell the offspring if the trainer didn’t want to keep them and train them himself since he was looking to retire from the business.

The catch? Chimpanzees in captivity can live to be into their 60s. The orangutans he had can live to be into their mid-50s. Kind of expensive to care for such animals long term if they are no longer viable for work.

THIS is the plight of chimpanzees in “acting” roles. They are worked feverishly for as long as it is safe and then they become liabilities that cost more and more money the older and larger they get. Many of them get sold into roadside zoos that have no business trying to house such animals, or they end up in research laboratories.

Not using chimps in entertainment doesn’t many anything has to be “done” with them. Get them out of entertainment and private ownership, let that route of existence go the way of the dodo. Let them live out their lives in zoos participating in SSP (if the zoo will take them being that they are overly humanized, or even let them participate since it has been in my experience many actor animals are rather inbred) or to sanctuaries whose only purpose is to try and maintain a happy, fun lifestyle for them the rest of their days.

Let me tell you, David O, I am less than impressed with some of the things chimps in entertainment are taught. To “smile” they are taught to fear grimace on cue. Try to introduce a chimp that has been taught to “smile” to a chimp that has not. There is an instant disconnect in the communication because one is doing something unnatural. It makes integration with other “normal” chimps much more difficult. Even when they are with other actor chimps, there is a very large learning curve to understand concepts like social hierarchy and appropriate communication since most actor apes are seldom group housed.

I loved my job working with those apes. I miss them dearly, but I also know that the mental state of many of them could have been avoided had they never been forced to work in entertainment. With today’s age of computer generated animation, we’ve already seen several advertisements that didn’t use a real chimp but CGI. Even then, I’d rather they have more natural behaviors rather than be dressed up like cute little dolls and add to people thinking that they are just like little kids.

And to the Chandra Nash situation, the only person to blame in that is Sandra Herald who had been told numerous times by numerous people and experts, including my own former boss, that Travis was getting too large and dangerous for her to keep. She should put him in a sanctuary where she could visit and he could be with other chimps. She refused. Travis was her surrogate child. Her own arrogance is what maimed Chandra Nash and led to Travis being killed. It never had to happen.

It’s a human’s world now. We’re post-Africa. Chimps as pets and entertainers are where they’re valued most. I’m thinking long-term, about eventual full domestication.