===================================================================== Bridging the Gap - Great Ape Project - International - Issue 2 ===================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL ROUNDUP GAP Around The Globe --------------------------------------------------------------------- UK: PARLIAMENTARY BILL In February, Tony Banks MP (now Minister for Sport) presented the Great Apes (Prohibition of Experiments) Bill 1997 to the UK Parliament. This Private Member's Bill, based on a draft by GAP-UK, would have prohibited all harmful, distressing, painful or lethal experiments on great apes in the UK. The Bill was supported by prominent MPs from all three main political parties. This 'presentation from behind the Speaker's Chair' could be blocked from becoming law by just one MP shouting "Object!", which is what happened. Nevertheless, this represents a very promising start. The presentation of the Bill was greatly assisted by the supporting MPs, and by the many people who wrote to their MPs in favour of GAP's campaign. GAP-UK is continuing to press for changes in the legal status of the other great apes. The need for rights for the great apes was given prominence by a letter to The Daily Telegraph, signed by Richard Dawkins, Jane Goodall, David Martin MEP, Desmond Morris, David Pearson of GAP-UK, Janey Reynolds of People Against Chimpanzee Experiments, and Peter Singer. The letter protested against suggestions that BSE experiments be carried out on chimpanzees. --------------------------------------------------------------------- AUSTRALIA: DONATIONS GAP Australia has donated US$ 2000 to the Primarily Primates sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas, to help build housing for up to eight chimpanzees, now at the LEMSIP laboratories, who will otherwise be sent to the Coulston Foundation to be used in experiments that could make them ill or kill them. These funds came from Australian supporters who had indicated that they want their donations used to provide sanctuaries for chimpanzees. Primarily Primates still need more funds for this purpose. --------------------------------------------------------------------- USA: CONFERENCES GAP-USA has gained many new volunteers and supporters recently. US coordinator Paul Waldau has talked about the GAP to a variety of audiences, and GAP has been prominent at several important conferences: 15th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference Hosted by Land Air Water, the environmental law society of the University of Oregon, the PIELC is one of the largest gatherings of environmentalists in the world. In a panel discussion of the GAP, Roger Fouts led off with an overview of human relationships with the other great apes. Deborah Fouts then showed the ABC 20/20 segment about Booee the chimpanzee, and Sheri Speede ended with an impassioned plea for orphans of the African bushmeat trade. This was followed by questions and a lively discussion. Angel Gambino of GAP-USA received an award for integrating animal rights issues into the Conference. Animal Rights '97 Over 500 activists attended this conference in June. There were speeches by prominent figures, workshops on grassroots organizing and community outreach, with 'rap' sessions on controversial issues. GAP-USA volunteers spoke to hundreds of people, collected signatures to the Declaration on Great Apes, and sold copies of The Great Ape Project book and GAP T-shirts. USA Summit for Animals Paul Waldau and Debra Erenberg (GAP-USA) joined the annual Summit for Animals in Washington, DC, in April. Some 40 groups attended. Five sub-groups were charged with identifying movement-wide goals that everyone could work towards. In the 'animals in science and education' discussion, the goal that received most votes as "achievable and of movement-wide importance" was the GAP. The group saw GAP as a way of opening doors for all species. Animals And The Law In April, Steve Ann Chambers of ALDF and Paul Waldau presented GALP (see page 6) at this year's Animals and The Law Conference at Pace University, NY. The conference title was Whose Wildlife is it Anyway? - The Quest for Legal Rights for Nonhuman Animals. --------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW ZEALAND: LEGISLATION PLANNED The primary focus of the newly incorporated GAP NZ Inc. is work on legislation for New Zealand. A new Animal Welfare Bill (replacing the current Animal Protection Act) is likely to be introduced next year. GAP-NZ will propose an Amendment Bill at the Select Committee hearing. This would provide nonhuman great apes with Entitlements to Life and Freedom from Torture. GAP NZ is also proposing penalties for violating these rights consistent with the personhood of nonhuman great apes. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SANCTUARY Monkey World Karin Karcher (GAP-International) In April, I accompanied a SPIEGEL TV team to the Monkey World - Ape Rescue Centre in Dorset, UK. Monkey World (MW) is a highly practical response to the immediate problems of individual great apes. MW was started ten years ago by an American, Jim Cronin. At that time, an estimated 200 chimpanzees were being forced by photographers to pose with tourists on the beaches of Southern Spain. Today, Jim and his wife Alison know of only one. MW and the Spanish Government, along with the Templers, a British couple who run a half-way house for confiscated chimps in Spain, worked together to stop this illegal trade. They stress that without this cooperation it would have been almost impossible to prevent the illegal import of chimpanzees into Spain and to rescue the chimpanzees. Today, the Cronins help several governments stop animal smuggling by confiscating and rehabilitating great apes and other primates. There are now 44 chimpanzees and two orang-utans - over 100 primates altogether. The chimpanzees live in four groups of five to 23 members. MW is continually expanding, and has recently been asked to rescue 15 more chimpanzees in five different countries. Jim had previously worked at a zoo, especially with primates. Alison is a specialist in ape and bear behaviour. She has a Masters degree in biological anthropology and will soon complete a PhD in behavioural anthropology. The Cronins and two of the nine keepers live at MW. Other members of the staff of 20 run the office and facilities. MW operates on a commercial basis, and is open to the public. It has a restaurant and shop, plus a children's playground and other attractions. It is financed by entrance fees and donations, and by contributions from people who 'adopt' individual chimpanzees or other residents. There are about 180,000 visitors a year. Annual running costs for the whole facility are over £300,000. "You have to take them on their own terms" Jim and Alison have been very successful in establishing stable groups of chimpanzees, who have come from various parts of the world and have completely different backgrounds and personal histories. It is often said to be impossible to bring together so many victims of years of neglect and abuse. The Cronins have shown that, with the necessary commitment and knowledge, and by treating the chimpanzees as individuals, this can be done. They put a lot of energy into trying to find out what newcomers are like, and seeing which group might suit them best. Having five groups gives them a chance to try out various options. Jim puts it this way: "You can't expect them to like each other just because they are all chimpanzees. You have to take them on their own terms." One of the Cronins' goals is to make the chimpanzees as independent of humans as possible. The only extensive personal contact is between babies in the Nursery and Jeremy Keeling, MW's Animal Manager. He enters their enclosure to feed and play with them, but withdraws as soon as one of the baby chimps or their surrogate chimpanzee mother, Sally, tries to make him an ally in conflicts. It is MW policy that no keeper should become important to the chimpanzees. The keepers do not live with them, and thus should not acquire a role within the group. The groups' social life should remain within their own community. The Cronins and their staff are constantly looking for ways of pleasing the chimpanzees, and of keeping them occupied. During the winter, the chimpanzees were obviously fascinated by the ice covering the pond in one of the enclosures. They took it out of the pond, carried it around, licked it and played with it. Now the keepers make huge 2-3 litre ice cubes for them throughout the year. Locked inside the ice may be an orange, or seeds or vegetable leaves; whatever the chimpanzees would like to find there. Many chimpanzees who arrive at MW have been socialized by humans, and obviously do not see themselves as chimpanzees. This creates great difficulties in the integration of newcomers into existing groups. Sometimes they do not understand other chimpanzees' behaviour, or make sense of the social hierarchy. Frequent fights, and occasionally even serious injuries (especially to the newcomer) can result from these 'misunderstandings'. Individual solutions are needed to help them join a group, and not be kept in isolation. My impression was that MW staff showed great devotion in finding ways of meeting the individual needs of each chimpanzee. The Residents On arrival at MW, the chimpanzees were mostly in poor condition. Once they were no longer babies, they became strong and aggressive, so the beach photographers pulled out their teeth, beat them and gave them tranquilliser drugs. Most arrived malnourished and drug-addicted. They came from Spanish beaches, a French laboratory, a Greek circus, and the illegal pet trade in Israel and Austria. One orang-utan, Amy, was privately owned by a wealthy individual, who gave her to Jeremy when she was an infant. The male orang, Banghi, came from Chester Zoo as a mate for Amy, who is currently pregnant. The chimpanzees now seem to display a surprisingly wide variety of 'natural' chimpanzee behaviour. They appear inquisitive and relaxed. They are never alone if they don't want to be. They play together, sleep together, groom each other, and of course argue. It is difficult to say after a brief visit what stresses are caused by the presence of visitors. But at first sight neither the chimpanzees nor the orang-utans seem to be disturbed by them. Jim Cronin says the visitors are there for the apes' entertainment, and they get bored in winter when there are fewer visitors. The Facilities Each group has a large, indoor play area like a gymnasium, plus back bedrooms available at all times; day and night, summer and winter. The bedrooms have separate niches for the chimpanzees to build sleeping nests. This is completely hidden from the public. The rest of the indoor area is shared by the whole group. The chimpanzees can choose to sleep alone in their niche, or with the others in the communal room. They mostly prefer to be together at night, building sleeping nests out of the wood shavings. Indoors, visitors and chimpanzees are able to look at each other through big windows. The chimpanzees can choose whether to be inside or out. The dividing gates are left open. The indoor temperature is kept at 20°C, winter and summer. Each group has its own outdoor enclosure of approximately two acres, the largest being 2.5 acres. There are climbing frames, ropes, slides and a watchtower. One or two sides of each enclosure are open to the public. The grassy, hilly terrain allows the chimpanzees to withdraw if they want to. As they are confined to a relatively small area, the chimpanzees destroyed the trees that were in one of the enclosures. The others never had any. This makes the outside areas seem a bit too exposed, and too easily observable by visitors. The enclosures are surrounded by low-amplitude electrified fences, which Jim says are effective but not dangerous. Moats would be far more expensive and hazardous. Chimps, who cannot swim, might drown if chased into the water. Baby chimps who arrive at MW spend their first years in the Nursery, where they are cared for by Sally. She is currently fostering eight babies, who will each be introduced into one of the adult groups later. The Nursery has indoor and outdoor spaces, with a watchtower, the only place the babies are out of the public eye. MW is building a tunnel connecting all the chimpanzee enclosures. This is a major experiment, and it is unclear whether it will work or how the groups will get along. But it will give them another choice, and thus more variety. The two orang-utans have about half an acre outdoors, plus an indoor enclosure that is not open to the public. Although they have high climbing frames, it is especially sad to see these arboreal apes living without trees. Space is available in the bordering forested area, but Jim says the trees would quickly be destroyed if they were allowed access to them. The Visitors I found the visitors, especially the children, surprisingly well-behaved. There was no screaming or making of faces. They seemed to regard the inhabitants with a degree of respect. This may be because large displays outside the enclosures describe each of the residents as unique individuals. Here, we can read their mostly sad histories, alongside their pictures. Visitors who give food to the inhabitants are asked to leave. Breeding The Cronins see no sense in allowing offspring when there are still chimpanzees to be rescued, so they give the chimpanzees birth control implants. They do not want to turn away any chimpanzee (unless he/she carries a contagious disease), and so far MW has taken everyone it has been asked to take. There is no general policy on breeding. This is decided case by case. The Cronins are allowing the orang-utans to have offspring. They believe it will be good for Amy and Banghi's welfare to interact with a younger orang; especially if MW is to rescue others. Also, there will be space in the planned new house and enclosure for a young one. In this case, they think that the advantages of allowing offspring outweigh the disadvantages. No further orangs are due to arrive in the very near future, although they have agreed to take 30 from Taiwan, if the government permits. They also say that even if these 30 arrive, one additional infant would make no real difference to the space available. But, from then on, offspring would no longer be allowed. The Cronins' pessimistic view is that most great-ape natural habitats will disappear in the near future, so that places like MW will be their only homes. They expect the remnants of their current habitats to be turned into wildlife reserves that are managed like zoos. Jim Cronin distinguishes between 'zoos' and 'menageries'. He thinks zoos may soon be safer for great apes than their home forests, and, for him, it is better to keep some members of a species in captivity than to let it go extinct. Monkey World - Ape Rescue Longhorns Wareham Dorset BH20 6HH UK. Fax: +44-1929-405-414 E-mail: alison@ape-rescue.com BUSHMEAT CRISIS The Story of a Chimp Confiscation This is a highly abbreviated version of a much longer report of the confiscation of an illegally held baby chimpanzee. The full story is also on the GAP website - please see the GAP FILES section. On our return from Mouloundou to Yokadouma in South-East Cameroon, we stopped at a log-storage site where workers were having a meal - of primates. We were told that a baby chimp and gorilla were being held somewhere locally. It was not difficult to find. The house was also a bar, with beer adverts outside. The Israeli owner was apparently on a prospecting trip to Central Africa. We later heard that he deals in gold, diamonds and ivory, and it seems that his Cameroonian wife has a sideline in ape orphans. We were introduced to his wife, and ordered beer. We asked about the gorilla and chimp. She said the gorilla had died two days earlier and the chimp was in the back. She led us around the house to take a look. The chimp was the most miserable creature I have ever seen. Very dehydrated - she said he had diarrhoea. He was also very depressed, holding onto himself with his arms clasped across his chest. The lady was watching us through the window. I offered to give the chimp some medication and a meal of Cerelac. She resented the advice, saying she knew all about chimp and gorilla babies. She said she had had many, and that only last week she had refused a gorilla baby, who had severe injuries from shotgun pellets. We set up our cameras and started taking pictures. As the first flash went off, the woman began to shout, saying we had to pay to photograph. A heated discussion ensued. The situation rapidly deteriorated, with a group of people gathering, and a drunken man shouting that we had better pay up or he would kill us right there and then. We eventually drove off with a lot of shouting behind us. In Yokadouma, we decided to establish the legal status of the chimp. At the home of the local Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF) Chief, they already knew about us. The reception was frosty. They said they knew nothing of the chimp or the lady, and did not think anyone had a legal licence to keep such an animal. The Ministry has ordered that no individual can hold a great ape without a licence. At some US$ 400, no local person could afford this or would pay. At our hotel, we faced an angry scene with the lady from the bar, a gendarme, some civilian officials and several onlookers. We went to the Police Station to record statements. The lady's argument was that we had taken pictures without permission in a private home, and had disregarded the dignity of the local people and treated them like animals. As our interrogation went on, I decided to file counterclaims. One was against the lady for illegally holding the animal, requesting that MINEF register a complaint. Our difficulties continued, and next morning we met the local Gendarme Commandant. I asked to officially file my complaints by recording a statement. When he realised I was serious, he suddenly did a 180-degree turn, offering to confiscate the chimp. He sent a man with our driver to establish the location. Upon the man's return, he said he would need a MINEF official to help, and to confirm that the lady had no permit. This was to be done at 7 a.m. the next day, so that we could leave for Bertoua. The next morning, the MINEF official and a Gendarme went off in our car, only to return saying they had not found the chimp. I then insisted that I wanted to file my complaint, and if necessary we would fly in a lawyer from Yaounde to help. They went back, en route obtaining an order from the Chief Magistrate to break in if necessary. According to our driver, everything was locked when they got there. The doors were only opened when they started to use force. They brought the chimp back to the Police Station. He was now in a soiled cardboard box, no longer able to stand up or even sit. We took him to the MINEF office to obtain a Transport Permit to take him to a sanctuary, should he live, which was very unlikely. We got the permit, with a P.S. saying that the chimp was indeed in a deplorable condition. I climbed in the back of the car holding the chimp, ready to leave. But I was summoned back. A minor MINEF Official informed me that his bosses were very unhappy, that they had done a lot of 'extra' work and had got nothing out of it. We were now desperate to leave Yokadouma, and paid CFA 10,000 as a tip. The lady had bought the baby chimp for CFA 5,000. If we had offered her double that to start off with, she would have likely been happy to get rid of this very sick infant. The infant chimp looked like he would die on our trip to Bertoua. I gave him to Niklas, a journalist who was travelling with us, to hold. I did not want to go through the experience of the orphan dying in my arms. However, the little guy recovered a bit, starting to eat and getting some strength back, with his fingers grasping ours. In Bertoua I took him back, and he slept with me. We spent the second night in the bush, and Niklas agreed to take the chimp. Then the little fellow threw up several times, his body rejecting all the liquid and food we had got into him the previous day. He died the next morning at around 8 am. We buried him behind the commercial hunting camp that we were staying in. Karl Ammann Call for Action The elephant crisis of the 1980s sparked off an international response, with world-wide campaigns against the ivory trade, and prevention schemes funded by foreign governments, banks and aid agencies. For a while, it seemed that the tide had turned, and individual elephants were being treated with respect. The current widespread slaughter of thousands of great apes and other forest dwellers, along with destruction of the forests themselves, as well as a return to killing of elephants, has failed to provoke anything like the same outcry. In Cameroon, some government officials accuse the army and police of being heavily involved in the illegal bushmeat trade, while they themselves rent out guns to commercial hunters. Ministers eat bushmeat at official functions. Loggers continue to move in, and the forests are being lost at a frightening rate. Few loggers try to control the bushmeat trade, and many actively assist it. There is local goodwill and a desire to protect and preserve, but without large-scale outside help there is little that can be done. Who is willing to provide that help? US CHIMPANZEE SANCTUARIES 'Retirement' for Lab Chimpanzees There are plans in the USA for congressional legislation to create a national 'research-retirement system' for lab chimpanzees freed from their forced labour in the service of 'humanity' - or at least of the biomedical industry. A scientific advisory committee is drafting national sanctuary standards for chimpanzees released from medical and scientific research. 'Retirement' is an odd term for release from slavery, but we wish this effort well, and we hope it brings a far better life to chimpanzees who have endured so much for so long. Permanent 'Retirement' This 'retirement' should happen soon, and it should be permanent. There should be a law preventing chimpanzees from sanctuaries being subjected to invasive experiments, or any research that is not purely observational. They have already sacrificed more than anyone has a right to ask, or in their case force them to give. Sanctuaries should not be breeding colonies to supply the biomedical industry. These chimps have suffered too much, without their babies being stolen for a new generation of lab chimpanzees. Sanctuaries should be designed to meet the needs of the individual chimpanzees. Every effort should be made to allow them, finally, to live on their own terms. It must be recognised that humans were never justified in imprisoning them in the first place. Sadly, most sanctuaries - unless they are created to protect free-living chimpanzees - will be a form of captivity. Although sanctuaries can offer laboratory chimpanzees a much richer existence, they can rarely give residents a life that is as full and independent from humans as it could be in safe, 'natural' habitats. Breeding: Who Benefits? One complex question facing human caretakers is whether or not to allow chimpanzees in their care to breed. We need to ask: Is this in the interests of the prospective parents or of their babies? Ideally, there would be no need to interfere further in their lives. There are potential advantages of having offspring. Individual adult chimpanzees could enjoy the experience; it could make their lives richer. And having young ones around can allow a more natural community to develop. But the artificiality of the sanctuary situation raises problems. Space is likely to be restricted, and the chimpanzees will be reliant on their human carers for food and protection. They will probably never be autonomous. By-laws are not rights At minimum, sanctuaries should have by-laws prohibiting actions that are not in the chimps' own best interests. This will provide some protection. But chimpanzees can live for over 50 years, and by-laws can be changed. Without legislated basic rights and the status of persons, there are no firm guarantees for their future. Legally, they will still be 'property', or at least lack the legal standing to prevent their being used for human ends. A question of space Sanctuaries are expensive. Any free space will almost certainly be needed by chimpanzees who are already alive. Babies should not be born into sanctuaries where the space is already inadequate. Further, sanctuaries designed for the survivors of biomedical experiments may be unsuited to housing vital, expanding communities for many generations to come. Even if it later proves possible to introduce new-borns into habitats where they can live freely, this will still involve separating them from their mothers, and destroying social bonds. Moreover, it is doubtful whether chimpanzees who may have been psychologically damaged by their laboratory confinement will be able to care for infants at all adequately, or teach them how to survive independent of humans. It does seem likely that some adult chimpanzees suffer from not having offspring, but this must be weighed against the potential suffering of generations of new-borns entering a life of captivity, or at least of uncertain security. Species conservation That leaves the question of breeding for species conservation. 'Species' is basically an abstract, human concept, not directly linked to the lives of individuals. While being an understandable human concern, species conservation is not a direct interest of chimpanzees themselves. But it may affect them in the long term. The GAP argues that chimpanzees should have basic rights, and be recognised as persons and as individuals. Their status and treatment - in particular, whether or not they are left to breed - cannot be dependent on population numbers of free-living chimps. It would be wrong to sacrifice the wellbeing of individual chimpanzees for a numerical notion of species. Condemning new-borns to an impoverished existence or one of complete dependence on human benevolence would represent such a sacrifice. It is worth saying here that protecting free-living great apes as individuals will also lead to preservation of their species, but for reasons that stem from their own needs and interests, and not from those of humans. Conservation of species must not be used as an excuse for imposing inadequate conditions on individual, captive great apes. Some tentative conclusions Putting all this together, one scenario where allowing breeding in sanctuaries might be justified is: (1) The chimpanzees have rights enforceable at law through qualified guardians, whose task it is solely to represent their individual interests in all matters that affect them. (This is similar to the arrangement for orphaned humans); (2) Sanctuaries are a kind of halfway house, allowing new generations to stay or leave as they choose, and according to their ability to live independently. Such a design would allow offspring to live largely independent of human support, but still be protected from poachers and bushmeat killers, and - if not taught by their parents to gather their own food - provided with a proper food supply; (3) Enough sanctuary space is available to take all existing captive chimpanzees, and to allow them a rich life of their own. We welcome your comments and ideas on this subject. GREAT APE TALES Readers' Stories Perry Beliz worked at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in the early 1990s. He helped hand-raise two gorillas - Asha (Swahili for 'she is life'), and her brother, Jasiri (Swahili for 'courage'), whose mother was unable to nurse them. He has written a children's book about his experiences. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Key One day when Asha was in the service area between the exhibits, I climbed to the top of a ladder. I was on the level of the upper den where Asha's mother was. Her mother came over to the mesh at the front of the den where I was sitting. She was very curious about Asha. She looked very intently at her. Then she looked at me. Then she did something quite surprising. She stuck one of her fingers through the mesh and touched the lock that held the den door closed. She pushed the lock up sideways so that I could see the keyhole. Then with her other hand she stuck her finger through the mesh and tapped the keyhole with her fingernail. It was clear that Asha's mother was asking me to open the door so she could touch her baby, because she knows how locks and keys work. I carefully explained that I could not open it and that I had no keys anyway. I felt terrible that I couldn't open the door to let her touch Asha. She must have been very disappointed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Quite a Wrench! One day when I was returning from lunch, I noticed that one of the young orang-utans in the next enclosure was holding a wrench. I knew that before lunch the keepers had been working in that empty exhibit, hanging new ropes for the orang-utans. I realized one of the tools must have fallen into the hay, and the keepers did not know it was missing when they left. Talukan is a half Sumatran and half Bornean 'hybrid'. He has to be the ultimate personality among ape species, including humans. As I went over to the viewing area in front of his enclosure, I watched him not only using this tool appropriately, but using the proper end - one end was a wrench and the other a socket wrench - to remove a nut from a clasp holding a rope to the ceiling. He was hanging from this rope. When the supervisor came in minutes later, I told him of Talukan's efforts to remove the nut, clamp, and rope. The supervisor entered the service area and asked Talukan to give him the tool. Talukan responded by going over to the supervisor at the food-port and teasing him, offering the tool and then pulling it back before he could grasp it. The supervisor brought half an apple to trade Talukan for the tool. On seeing this, the two female orang-utans, mother Sandra and daughter Sumagu, with whom he shared the exhibit realized that the supervisor had something they wanted. The two females then not only tried to get there before him, but tried to take his bartering tool away to use for their own bartering purposes. Needless to say, the tool was given back and Talukan got the apple half, as well as a wrestling match with his fellow orangs. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Circle of Friends For a period of time, Lash, the silverback, was being held in a separate exhibit from the two adult females, Roxie and Juju, with whom he had lived for some years. This was done in order to prepare him to be moved to Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. At this same time, another silverback, Barney, who had just been brought in from the Bronx Zoo, was living in the exhibit next to Lash's. Although Barney had not yet been introduced to Roxie and Juju, he did occupy the same exhibit space when the two female gorillas were not present. A keeper friend told me that one day a shift door was inadvertently left open. This allowed Roxie and Juju access to Lash's exhibit. For a time these three gorillas had been denied even visual contact, and now suddenly they were together again. What was unexpected was that the three gorillas all hugged each other, as a group, while standing and walking bipedally all over the enclosure, with their arms around each other. It was apparent to the keeper that the three gorillas were genuinely happy to see and be with each other. All stories (c) Perry Beliz THE GREAT APE LEGAL PROJECT As part of its efforts to advance the moral and legal status of nonhuman great apes, GAP-International has joined forces with the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) to form the Great Ape Legal Project (GALP). GALP is dedicated to pursuing legal action within the American court system to achieve specific legal rights for nonhuman great apes, including the rights to life, liberty and protection from torture. These rights will directly benefit nonhuman great apes, while advancing GALP's ultimate objectives. ALDF's mission is to expand American common law to address the interests of nonhuman animals generally. It is a pioneer in using legal systems to gain recognition of the many abuses of other animals. It has funded research into the jurisprudential history of animals' legal status as 'things,' and is actively developing legal theories for the realization of its goals. These aims complement well GAP's commitment to extending to nonhuman great apes the privileges and protections afforded the moral community of equals previously inhabited solely by humans. GALP will challenge legal systems throughout the world on their use of a paradigm that views all nonhuman animals as 'things.' This viewpoint has presented formidable obstacles to the recognition of the personhood of nonhuman animals under modern legal systems. It derives from ancient laws based on the narrow assumption that only members of the human species can be persons. The continued mechanical application of this outdated doctrine violates modern notions of justice. GALP will use modern ethical sensibilities, recent scientific findings, and the commitment of legal systems to a fair and open airing of issues, to challenge the current treatment of other great apes as mere things. GALP is overseen by a steering committee, initially with two members from each organization: Peter Singer and Paul Waldau of GAP-International, and Stephanie Nichols-Young and Steve Ann Chambers of ALDF. BOOK REVIEWS Wish - A Biologically Engineered Love Story Peter Goldsworthy, 1995 Angus and Robertson, Sydney The Woman and the Ape Peter Høeg, 1996 Various publishers and languages "What do you call yourselves?" she asked. "I mean you don't say 'apes', do you?" The ape thought this over, trying vainly to reconcile two incompatible languages before coming up with an acceptable compromise. "'People'," it said. "We call ourselves 'people'." "And us? What do you call us?" "'Animals'" said the ape, "is what we call you." The Woman and the Ape, III, 6 The possibility of verbal communication between the various species of great apes is beginning to inspire writers of fiction. Both of these novels focus on the relationship between a human and a nonhuman great ape, the latter 'humanised' to allow their contact to extend to what we might call 'love beyond the species barrier'. Wish, beautifully illustrated with pictures of hand signs, tells the story of a teacher of sign-language, J.J., who is called to instruct a very unusual gorilla - Wish. It makes an eloquent case for the superior expressivity of Auslan - the sign language of the Australian deaf community - over spoken English. Peter Goldsworthy systematically and entertainingly raises many of the issues involved in human treatment of our fellow great apes, while taking us on an astonishing and tragic journey of the imagination. He includes the GAP book in his reading list, while Peter Høeg makes the GAP part of his story. Høeg sets his cautionary fable in present-day London, where his Danish anti-heroine, Madelene - an alcoholic of prodigious capacities - has close ties with important sectors of the animal-welfare community. "The ape" in the story is Erasmus, a member of an unidentified species who are native to a temperate climate. Erasmus proves to be far more 'sophisticated' and intelligent than the average human - he is the ultimate urbane gorilla - and soon combines the measured tones of diplomatic English with the clear-sightedness of someone who lives from day to day on his senses and his wits. The difficulties of portraying realistic nonhuman characters in a novel are considerable, so it is not surprising that Wish and Erasmus are not delineated as well as the other figures. Neither of them become quite as real as individuals as their human counterparts, and their behaviour is sometimes interpreted too simply in terms of ape 'instincts'. Their role is partly one of saviour. Neither J.J. nor Madelene have much chance of happiness in a world where human 'inhumanity' and power-seeking, plus the instrumentalisation of nature, override ordinary human needs. Their chance to step beyond their limitations and to find unsuspected depths within themselves is provided by an Other who is both more powerful and also more vulnerable than they are. Both authors are firmly on the side of their nonhuman heroine/hero, while accentuating the dangers for animal activists of putting ideological progress or organisational success above the interests of the individual animals they are supposed to be helping. Both are pessimistic about human capacities for empathy and honesty, but perhaps not for love, which is depicted as an unpredictable and involuntary liberating force. Wish and Erasmus represent an authenticity that most of the human actors lack. In a tale strewn with loose biblical allusions, Erasmus, in particular, is a kind of emissary from nature, reminding us of our dependence on the other animals and on the rest of nature as whole. Oh. And, in case anyone gets the wrong idea about the kinds of non-human/human great-ape relationships we are advocating: As they say on TV, we advise readers not to try any of this at home! Mike Garner (GAP-International) --------------------------------------------------------------------- IN MEMORY - Carl Sagan Professor Carl Sagan (1934-1996), the pioneering American astronomer, died last December. He was best known to the public for his TV series Cosmos, written with his wife, Anne Druyan. He advised NASA on projects including the Mariner, Viking, Pioneer and Voyager missions. Sagan and Druyan were early signatories to GAP's Declaration on Great Apes. Sagan was to speak on The Great Ape Project at the 1996 World Congress for Animals, but ill health forced him to cancel. In their book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Sagan and Druyan challenge the idea of human superiority: "A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them - without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret." Sagan also asked: "If chimpanzees have consciousness, do they not have what until now has been described as 'human rights'? How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?" IN MEMORY - Senta Jerabek Senta Jerabek (1923-97) was a member of GAP-Australia. She was born in Prague, to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. Her father died in Treblinka. She herself survived two years in camps - including Auschwitz. On her release, she joined her mother in Prague, but fled from Czechoslovakia when the Communists took over. She found work as an X-ray assistant at a hospital in a Displaced Persons camp in Italy. In 1949, she emigrated to Australia, where she took up animal welfare work, becoming a councillor and magazine editor for the RSPCA. She believed her compassion for animals came from knowing how it feels to be very hungry, cold and exploited. On seeing the TV film about Booee, she said the treatment of chimps there reminded her of her own experiences as a prisoner classified as 'sub-human'. In response, she sold some of her jewellery, raising AUS$5000, which GAP passed on to Booee's new home, the Wildlife Waystation. §§§ Bridging the GAP is the newsletter of: The Great Ape Project-International PO Box 19492 Portland, OR 97280-0492 Oregon, USA E-mail: GAP@envirolink.org Messages will be passed on to local coordinators. Newsletters are also posted on GAP-International's Web site: www.envirolink.org/orgs/gap/ Editor: Mike Garner (c) Great Ape Project-International Material from this newsletter can be copied and distributed for non-profit purposes as long as it is attributed to Great Ape Project-International. DONATIONS Please send donations to your national GAP or to GAP-International. Visa payments should be in Australian dollars. (AUS$ 1 = US$ 0.74 approx.) A facility for credit card payments in US dollars will be available soon. GAP NEWS BY E-MAIL If you prefer your GAP news by eco-friendly e-mail, send a message to: GAP@envirolink.org --------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL ROUNDUP Continued from Page 1 Peter Singer Visits NZ During a month as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, earlier this year, Peter Singer took the opportunity to speak about the GAP. He gave a well-attended public lecture, titled Bridging the Gap, and a talk on The Concept of a Person in Ethics and Law to staff and students from the law faculty. He urged that the law recognise that there can be persons who are not human beings, the other great apes being the most obvious examples. --------------------------------------------------------------------- EXPO2000 Bid GAP-International put in a bid for an exhibit at the Hanover EXPO 2000 world exhibition. The idea was to use video-projection technology to give visitors the 'experience' of eye-to-eye contact with life-size orangutans, gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees. Our first application was unsuccessful, but we intend to try for another category. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada: Sci-Fi Prize Great Apes Canada, in cooperation with The Orangutan Foundation and Seem Real Theatre produced three radio plays for the Vancouver station CFRO-FM, collectively titled: An Infinite Trilogy. INSIDE, a 10-minute drama about aliens collecting a 'great ape set', was broadcast on Halloween, 1996. BIG TIME, the 12-minute second play about Big Foot replacing the Great Apes, was broadcast in May. UN FAIR, the third part of the trilogy, 16 minutes of fun and terror at a theme park in an apeless world, will be broadcast later this year. An Infinite Trilogy took third prize in the American Society for Science Fiction Audio's 1997 Mark Time Award contest and has been broadcast on various US radio stations. To hear An Infinite Trilogy, e-mail us, or contact Great Apes Canada, 849 East 4th Street, North Vancouver, British Columbia, V7L 1K3, Canada. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Taiwan: Lobby Against Chimpanzee Lab The Life Conservationist Association (LCA) is promoting GAP's aims in Taiwan. Last year, the LCA campaigned against plans to set up a chimpanzee research laboratory in Taiwan. Those plans have now been dropped. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Germany: In The Media GAP has been discussed in various forums in Germany. Last October, the national TV network ZDF's children's programme, PUR, had a report on great-ape intelligence, a presentation of the GAP, and an interview with Jane Goodall, all accompanied by a brochure with contact addresses, further information, and a reading list. In May, SPIEGEL TV's Reportage dealt with great-ape intelligence, including a visit to Monkey World (see pages 2-3), and a short interview with GAP's Karin Karcher. In June, Mephisto-Radio in Leipzig broadcast an hour-long interview on GAP with Theo Baumgärtner, GAP's other German coordinator. In May, SFB radio in Berlin had a 30-minute interview with Karin Karcher. Seminars In October, 1996, GAP's Austrian coordinator, Helmut Kaplan, spoke in Hamburg at a weekend seminar on animal rights. In December, 1996, Karin Karcher gave a talk on GAP at the Law faculty of the University of Hamburg. In May, Karin Karcher gave a talk on GAP as part of a two-semester seminar on speciesism and the GAP at the University of Leipzig. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Third International Conference on Great Apes of the World, Sarawak, 1998 Will any GAP supporters wanting to attend and perhaps speak at a session on ethics and apes please e-mail Peter Singer at GAP@envirolink.org. New Encyclopedia GAP members contributed articles to the Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, edited by Marc Bekoff and Carron A. Meaney, to be published by Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, early in 1998. --------------------------------------------------------------------- GAP: the Book The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity, edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer. The UK Edition is sold out! US Edition, 1994. Publisher: St Martin's Press, New York, US$ 14.50 inc. P&P in North America US$ 16.50 inc. P&P elsewhere Send cheque or international money order to: The Great Ape Project-USA, PO Box 19492, Portland, OR 97280-0492, Oregon, USA German Edition, 1994. Published by Goldmann. Menschenrechte für die Großen Menschenaffen "The Great Ape Project" Hardback/paperback 40/18 DM inc P&P within Germany 42/20 DM inc P&P within Europe Other destinations - please write. Send a Eurocheque to: Great Ape Project, Postfach 616234, D-22450 Hamburg, Germany "GAP is the Key" T-shirts T-shirts with Tom Weatherhead's design are available from GAP-International. Contact us for details now! LAST-MINUTE INTERNATIONAL NEWS! UK Bans Experiments on Great Apes! "A matter of morality" The British government has announced "a ban on the use of Great Apes". The announcement was part of the Home Secretary's response to an interim report from the government's Animal Procedures Committee, which is reviewing the operation of the law regulating animal experiments. The ban is now government policy, although no legislation is planned. "Great Apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, pygmy gorillas [sic - they mean pygmy chimpanzees], and orang-utans) have never been used under the 1986 Act as laboratory animals. But this has not previously been banned. The Government will not allow their use in future. "This is a matter of morality. The cognitive and behavioural characteristics and qualities of these animals mean it is unethical to treat them as expendable for research." Lord Williams of Mostyn announced a range of proposals, including: "A ban on the use of Great Apes (chimpanzees, pygmy chimpanzees [bonobos], gorillas and orang-utans) - Great Apes have never been used under the current legislation and the Government will not allow their use in scientific procedures." Lord Williams added: "Although these proposed bans cannot be statutory under current legislation, I do not foresee any circumstances in which the Home Office would issue licences in such cases." One Small Step for the UK... This historic move indicates the success of the Great Ape Project in persuading the British public and its political leaders of the key idea that it is fundamentally wrong to treat great apes as laboratory tools. GAP has made the case for special rights and protections for great apes. This idea has had a lot of publicity in Britain since the release of the book The Great Ape Project in 1993. And GAP's cause has attracted attention internationally. A Private Member's bill inspired by GAP-UK was presented by Member of Parliament Tony Banks in February 1997. This sought to ban invasive experiments on nonhuman great apes as unethical. It was blocked by a single, formal objection, despite the support of several prominent MPs. Of course, GAP's efforts rely on thirty years of scientific and campaigning work by people such as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas, and the organisations that they established. And several organisations in the UK have campaigned against experiments on chimpanzees. The ban marks an important change in the status of nonhuman great apes in the UK. Purely ethical reasons are being used to decide that they should not be subjected to invasive experiments. The focus is on the complex mental, emotional and social lives of our fellow great apes, rather than on their supposed utility value. Invasive experiments are not being banned because they have no scientific value for humans, but because, as GAP has repeatedly pointed out, they are an injustice towards our great-ape peers. This is the first time that any government has made such a statement. This may seem a small step, given that no apes have been used in experiments in the UK for a decade, but it is a giant stride for our great ape kin. It recognises, for the first time, that their nature and capacities mean we are not entitled to treat them as property. If this view spreads to the rest of Europe, and ultimately worldwide, GAP will be much closer to achieving its aim of including all the great apes, human and nonhuman, in the community of equals... Peter Singer