|
|
Home >
Behind The Scenes >
Abusive Training
Abusive Training
Chimpanzees and orangutans are Hollywood's newest "it" stars. What sells at the box office and on television, however, doesn't benefit our primate friends at all. Rather than fame and fortune, great apes are "rewarded" with a lifetime of suffering.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Young chimpanzees and orangutans are taken from their mothers as infants, sometimes when they are only days old, before they can care for themselves and before they have been properly socialized. Animal "trainers" use this tactic to get their hands on vulnerable babies who will be easier to train.
Dr. Jane Goodall describes infant chimpanzees as "affectionate, needy, and a delight to interact with. But chimpanzees grow up fast, and their unique intelligence makes it difficult to keep them stimulated and satisfied in a human environment. By age five they are stronger than most human adults."
Removing a chimpanzee infant from his or her mother is disastrous for the baby's social and emotional development. Chimpanzees and orangutans stay close by their mothers until they are at least 8 years old. And chimpanzees, being highly social, live in close-knit communities with 50 other individuals. Forced separation causes these animals lifelong separation anxiety and fear of the unknown. Like human children, according to Jane Goodall, ape children learn in a social context by watching and imitating adults. Chimps who grow up apart from a normal group "fail to learn the nuances of chimp etiquette" and are likely to behave abnormally.
The Breaking Point
It is a common practice at training facilities to introduce young chimpanzees to their new jobs and masters by conducting what the industry calls "breaking the spirit." Normal, healthy young chimpanzees are naturally playful, curious, energetic, and mischievous, but these traits don't make them good "actors." So they are subject to repeated episodes of beating and other painful acts of cruelty. Sarah Baeckler, a chimpanzee expert who volunteered at Malibu's Amazing Animal Actors training compound, expressed horror over the needless violence she witnessed every day. "The trainers physically abuse the chimpanzees for various reasons, but often for no reason at all," she said. "If the chimpanzees try to run away from a trainer, they are beaten. If they bite someone, they are beaten. If they don't pay attention, they are beaten. Sometimes they are beaten without any provocation or for things that are completely out of their control � I was specifically instructed to hit or kick them at the first sign of any aggression or misbehavior."
Some trainers will stop at nothing to force an ape to "behave," beating him or her with fists, wooden sticks, rocks, metal rods, or using electrical shock devices.
A Low-Down Dirty Shame
When apes grow too large and powerful to be dominated, around age 8, they are often sold to seedy roadside zoos, where they endure decades of abysmal living conditions. PETA recently found Chubbs, a chimpanzee used in Planet of the Apes and in the Chimp Channel series, living in squalor at a Texas roadside zoo called Amarillo Wildlife Refuge. For more information, click here.
|
|
|
