Ape by John Sorenson

Author:John Sorenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

Clint Eastwood’s orangutan co-star was allegedly beaten to death by his trainers, drawing attention to the abuse of animals in Hollywood.

Project X (1987) was based on actual US Air Force experiments on rhesus monkeys that blasted them with radiation to determine if human pilots could continue bombing missions in a nuclear war. The film replaced monkeys with ASL-using chimpanzees and encouraged audiences to empathize with their plight and question military experiments on animals. While the film depicted apes sympathetically, animals used in making it were allegedly abused by their trainers, who beat the terrified chimpanzees every day on the set. Although an investigation showed that cruelty was involved, no charges were laid. The problem persists: in 2008 PETA protested against the film Speed Racer, claiming that a chimpanzee was beaten on set and had almost bitten an actor.

Apes who entertain us in circuses, films and commercials seem energetic and happy but most perform because they are terrorized into obeying orders. The ‘smile’ on the faces of chimpanzee entertainers is not an expression of enjoyment but a fear grimace they must reproduce on command. To meet demands for performing apes, businesses offer chimpanzees who can skateboard, roller skate, ride other animals, do acrobatic routines, operate appliances and perform other stunts. Most performing chimpanzees are bred or purchased and separated from their mothers at an early age. Since apes normally have prolonged relationships with their mothers and learn important skills during infancy, separation is traumatic for infants and for their mothers, some of whom repeatedly have offspring stolen from them. Breaking this important mother-and-child bond creates serious stress and long-term psychological effects. Infants become fearful, unable to interact with others, and do not learn normal behaviours. Isolation in a cage compounds this stress. Although trainers claim to use positive reinforcement, violent methods ensure that expensive productions are not delayed by animals who become distracted from their duties.

Some trainers punish apes not only for perceived misbehaviour but also beat them regularly with fists, baseball bats, clubs, hammers and shovels to keep them afraid and, thus, compliant. Apes have their teeth removed and jaws wired shut when performing and wear powerful remote-controlled electric shockers. In 2002 primatologist Sarah Baeckler spent fourteen months undercover at Sid Yost’s California training company Amazing Animal Actors and saw violent, abusive training methods. She reported ‘sickening acts of emotional, psychological, and physical abuse every single day on the job’19 and said:

They punch them they kick them . . . They use weapons such as a sawed-off broom handle that they called the ugly stick . . . they used them to threaten the chimps but also to strike them. They throw rocks and locks and other hard things at these, these are baby chimpanzees . . . 20

The Animal Legal Defense Fund and The Chimpanzee Collaboatory sued Yost, who was forced to surrender his chimpanzees to sanctuaries and stop using animals. Essentially, the life of an ape in the entertainment industry is one of confinement, cruelty and forced labour.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.