Randi Kreiss

Chimps face N.Y. court test of 'personhood'

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“When you meet chimps, you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you, it’s just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.”
—Jane Goodall, animal right activist

Chimpanzee stories invite cheap shots, jokes and memories of J. Fredd Muggs (a regular on “The Today Show”), but the true story of these primates in modern times is both shameful and tragic. The continuing abuse of chimpanzees in research, and a New York state lawsuit arguing the “personhood” of chimps, demand our focused attention and action.

A few brief facts: Chimpanzees share 95 to 98 percent of our DNA. They are native to Africa and they are endangered, with only 180,000 to 300,000 remaining. Fifty years ago, there were probably a million chimpanzees roaming Africa. Deforestation, poaching and some people’s taste for bush meat have depleted the population.

Chimpanzees are one of the four great apes, along with gorillas, bonobos and orangutans. But chimps are closer to humans in their DNA than they are to any of their ape brethren. They know how to use tools, have opposable thumbs and can learn sign language. They pass the “mirror” test, recognizing themselves in reflective glass, and they are self-aware; express grief, depression and joy; and have the ability to play jokes on one another.

Yet for decades, these animals have been used for research in the U.S., by the National Institutes of Health and by medical schools and pharmaceutical companies. This research rests on the presumption that humans have the right to subject other living creatures to pain and suffering to improve our own health and longevity.

Anyone who watches or reads about the specific research protocols must surely question that presumption.

Chimps kiss, hug and tickle one another, and adopt orphan babies when their parents die. Highly intelligent, they are social and communicative. They are capable of depression, the irony being that because they are so human-like in their emotions, they are ideal subjects for scientists.

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