On Why the Great Ape Trust Scares Me
Yesterday, Gail Collins‘ opinion piece in the New York Times called "An Ape Types in Iowa" scared me. She writes of research on bonobos in Des Moines at the Great Ape Trust, whose mission is to:
- Provide sanctuary (200 acres worth) and an honorable life for great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans)
- Study the intelligence of great apes
- Advance the conservation of great apes
- Provide unique educational experiences about great apes
The apes can communicate by pushing symbols on a computer, "the people-ape boundaries . . . are sometimes extremely fluid" (when a researcher says "we," he means humans and bonobos), some can speak some English, and they are very polite. Collins writes:
And what does it say about animal rights if animals can identify bottled water by brand name and have better manners than most American teenagers?
Everyone at the trust is passionately attached to the apes, and seemed horrified at the idea of doing medical research on them or treating them like … animals. But they also feel that apes are unique. No one I talked to was willing to advocate a ban on leather or hunting.
Said Robert Shumaker, the lead scientist at the Great Ape Trust, "There’s no reasonable comparison between great apes and dogs and cats and deer.”
Let’s deconstruct:
- In answer to the question that I have a feeling was more cheeky than serious: What does it say about animal rights if animals can identify bottled water and they have good manners? The answer, as Shumaker more than hints, is that it says nothing about animal rights. But it might say something about rights for great apes.
- We know that apes are sentient, as are dogs and cats and deer. But the great ape project is based on the notion that sentience isn’t the component that should dictate whether we treat a nonhuman with the kind of respect that approaches that reserved for humans. The issue isn’t even intelligence, per se. There’s one deciding factor: how much the nonhuman animal is like us. If they can communicate like we do, now that’s important, impressive, and makes them and their habitat worth saving.
- The researchers are so enamored with the apes (because they’re so much like the researchers, hence it’s not a huge stretch to say that what the researchers are so enamored with is . . . themselves. Humans and the qualities that make them human.) that they wouldn’t do medical research on them. They are, however, doing research. They are, despite their protestations, treating them like . . . animals. The Des Moines campus is like a zoo for apes, where, "all scientific research is . . . non-invasive and voluntary for [our] great ape partners." So the apes can leave? Can they decide they don’t want to work on any given day? Can they decide they want to take a vacation? Are they the property of the trust? Are they really partners? Do they get a cut of the financial compensation for the research they’re "partnering" in?
- There might not be "a reasonable comparison between great apes and dogs and cats and deer" with the attributes or skills the scientists are studying, but what about other attributes? Pit my greyhounds against the bonobos and see who’s faster. Why doesn’t speed count? What about the ability to see in the dark? Is that important? If not, why not? Because we can’t see well in the dark?
- No one wanted a ban on hunting or wearing leather, eh? What about hunting apes and wearing ape skin? Is that okay? I’m guessing no.
Collins needs to say the one thing she’s not saying: We are assigning importance, not really arbitrarily but sort of narcissistically, to attributes and skills we have. And we want to protect nonhumans that are most like us. What we value is not sentience, but humanness. That’s what scares me.
The arrogance of humans, and the lack of "respect" and "justice" for all sentient beings will be our downfall.
Yes…very scary!
In "An Animals Place" by Michael Pollan he states, " Theres a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side". Because Collins happens to be with apes, whom she deems more intelligent and more human like than other animals they ostensibly deserve our respect and consideration. Its okay then to eat, hunt and wear lesser intelligent animals. I saw a video of a man hunting deer with a bow when all of a sudden a buck knocked him down while a doe stood by watching in terror. The buck could have killed the man, but instead brought him to his knees to protect the doe. The mans wife then speaks of how she almost lost her husband to this brutal attack never considering that the buck was defending the doe against the attack by her husband. We are very arrogant when you consider how helpless we are against non-human animals without our weapons. Recently my husband and I were sitting outside with our rabbit who shocked us by transforming herself first to a deer, then hippo, elephant and chimp. No hyperbole here, with each different posture she became a different being, telling us we are all one. Ah the ignorance of humans.
Aren't you the same woman who makes her dogs eat a vegetarian diet? Is that imposing your humanness on them? Are dogs naturally vegetarians? Go out in the wild. I think not.
You know, "lemur," the dog thing is interesting. I have fed my dogs a completely raw diet (composed mostly of turkey necks), and I've also fed them completely vegan. As with humans, I do not consider what is "natural" as a priority at all. I consider what is healthy and I try to minimize my impact on the planet while doing that. (Is it "natural" to cook meat and eat it with utensils?) Unfortunately, domesticated dogs are at our mercy. We do impose our ways on them and control them. Dog feeding isn't a simple issue, and I wouldn't ridicule any vegan who fed their dogs animal products, and I certainly understand feeding cats animals. My cats eat fish (Evanger's seafood and caviar). Again, the "nature" conversation isn't that relevant to me. But that's me.
lemur, Since my dogs aren't in the wild but are domesticated I feel it is much healthier feeding them a vegetarian diet. They are healthy, energetic and happy dogs who hopefully won't be besieged by all of the maladies other dogs are that I know of who are eating the slop from the floors of rendering plants. When given a choice of meat diet or vegetarian my dogs choose veg. They're probably a lot brighter than many humans and instinctively know which food is better for them. When given a choice of feeding my animals other animals or veg I will give them veg as I would do for my children.