 |
Census isn’t complete until great apes are counted
Sunday, November 5, 2000
By SARAH WHITMAN
This year the U.S. Census Bureau conducted a census. The government's Census 2000 is nearly finished by traditional standards, yet it is far from complete. There are many complex individuals still to be counted, including some 2,000 to 3,000 nonhuman great apes.
Nonhuman great apes -- orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas -- share the qualities that define "people," including intelligence, sensitivity, complex social systems and the ability to suffer. Because of these qualities, nonhuman great apes should be formally recognized, protected and respected.
To move toward this goal, the Great Ape Project (GAP), an organization working to raise the legal and moral status of nonhuman great apes, will go one step beyond Census 2000, with the inception of Census 2001.
Like the government census, GAP's Census 2001 starts with a count of individuals in the United States. But Census 2001 is much more than a head count. It stands as a challenge to currently accepted practices and situations imposed upon our fellow great apes.
With assistance from volunteers across the country, volunteers will document and expose the conditions in which nonhuman great apes live. GAP volunteers, or enumerators, will collect and report information about them in zoos, circuses, laboratories, sanctuaries and under private ownership.
Volunteers submit census forms to GAP through its website (www.greatapeproject.org). After careful review, these reports will be publicly posted on GAP's website, along with pictures of each individual (when available). By providing biographic information and regular updates, volunteers make public the cause of nonhuman great apes, shedding light on harsh realities that often remain hidden from view. As the information becomes available, GAP can determine which individuals need help first and where efforts have the greatest likelihood of improving their lives.
Despite their complexities, the law treats nonhuman great apes as things -- pieces of property. Sentience, family bonds and community-based lifestyles are ignored as they are subjected to pain, isolation and fear. Even in instances where protective laws apply, the laws can be totally ineffective. The bottom line is simple -- in our society these sensitive creatures can be isolated, hidden away and used as medical subjects or as cheap entertainment against their will.
As you read this, thousands of chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans in the United States live in captivity in labs; sit chained alone in backyards; rock sadly in zoo cages; face sale to unfamiliar situations over the Internet and perform ridiculous, unnatural tricks for circuses and films. Only a few have been lucky enough to find homes in decent sanctuaries.
GAP works to expose and eradicate oppressive and abusive situations that nonhuman great apes endure. For example, in the case of nonhuman great apes used in entertainment, it is important to note that film and ad makers usually use very young, dependent babies. This practice not only violates the important mother-child bond, but also creates an image that great apes are small, sweet and gentle animals.
That image, in turn, creates a demand for apes as pets, supporting the notorious exotic pet trade. Unwary viewers who purchase a cute little baby (who was kidnapped from his or her mother) find themselves unprepared to handle grown apes who become larger than humans and can become aggressive and "unmanageable."
At that point, they are often quietly killed or shipped off to laboratories, where they can be subjected to hideous experiments such as toxicity experimentation and drug research. Such experiments forced on nonhuman great apes are ethically reprehensible because they are imposed on unwilling, sentient and aware individuals.
Further, these invasive experiments are biologically invalid because, like other nonhuman animals, nonhuman great apes do not necessarily react to experiments and drugs in the same way humans do. With Census 2001 and help from volunteer census enumerators, GAP will challenge this vicious cycle.
The U.S. Census 2000 fell short. Formal acknowledgement of nonhuman great apes, as well as a commitment to their quality of life, must become a public issue.
Nonhuman great apes must be recognized as the individuals they are, and the injustices they suffer must be made visible. Census 2001 will reveal the extent and nature of captivity in the United States for what it really is, an industry and an injustice that needs to be changed dramatically.
With assistance from watchful volunteers, GAP will tell the stories of those who have suffered silently for too long and challenge those who impose that suffering.
Sarah Whitman is the campaign director for GAP's Census 2001 campaign. For more information, email GAPCensus@aol.com or visit the website at www.greatapeproject.org
Guest columnist
· Seahawks shuttle: Wrong direction
· Air quality: Accept no excuses
· Lobbyist cries foul on blocked donation
· Fuel-efficient tires gaining traction
· An insider's tip sheet to gauge polls
· Iraq's oil is part benefit, part curse
· McCain is no Teddy Roosevelt
· The education of John McCain
· The abomination that is 'The Obama Nation'
· We may yet miss Musharraf
· If you don't like sports, you're wrong
· America's role in the Russo-Georgian war
more
101 Elliott Ave. W.
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
seattlepi.com serves about 1.7 million unique visitors
and 30 million page views each month.
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com
©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Terms of Use/Privacy Policy
