As new documentary Chimp Crazy airs, featuring stories of chimpanzees kept privately as pets and entertainers, we share our related concerns and guidance.
Apes should never be kept as pets or for entertainment. Our guidance improves the standards of captive chimpanzee welfare and exposes the problems inherent in many representations of chimpanzees, explaining how instead to share positive imagery which protects individuals from harm and advances conservation.
Dr Jane Goodall’s pioneering, lifetime research has demonstrated that sentience, intelligence and compassion are qualities which we share with non-human animals. Her chimpanzee studies in Gombe led to extensive evidence of the complex minds and rich emotional and social lives of great apes.
At the Jane Goodall Institute, respect for each and every individual being is at the heart of welfare interests and the conservation of the species to which they belong. Our statement on ape rights and zoos explains this.
Ape rights and welfare
Apes have the right to live free from pain, neglect and suffering. They should reside in an environment that provides sufficient space, enrichment, and structure to develop healthy and natural behaviour, including an appropriate social group of compatible individuals. Individuals should have freedom of choice within the environment where they live and within reasonable boundaries, such as not harming the interests of others.
Apes born in captivity should live in social groups that resemble how they live in the wild, including spacious naturalistic enclosures with plenty of enrichment opportunities and the option to make choices within limits. Living conditions for apes should always include access to indoor and outdoor space, and the ability to retreat from visitors and conspecifics. Such a life may be meaningful for an individual ape who lives in captivity.
Dr. Rebeca Atencia of the JGI’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center in the Republic of Congo has pioneered the Chimpanzee Welfare Index for captive chimpanzees and we work collaboratively and through constructive dialogue, to promote the highest standards and best practices in captive care.
Chimpanzees are wild animals. They cannot and should not be humanized. The Jane Goodall Institute works with other organisations to ban the use of apes for entertainment (i.e., circuses, roadside attractions, in films or television, advertisements) and as pets.
Threats
It is not safe or ethical to keep primates as pets and they should also never be used in the entertainment industry. In addition to being unecessary, unsafe and harmful to animal welfare, it boosts false impressions of the species amongst the public and contributes to demand for captive chimpanzees which drives illegal hunting and trafficking from the wild. This leads to appalling suffering for the individuals and ape groups affected and threatens the conservation of these endangered species.
Whilst in some locations such as the USA, the use of chimpanzees in the entertainment industry and as pets has decreased substantially, this is not the case for other primates and in many locations, chimpanzees are still kept as high-status pets, attractions and entertainers.
The sad truth is that great apes – all now endangered – are actively – and illegally – being hunted, captured and trafficked to meet demand for their meat and for live infants to be exported around the world for human entertainment and greed. Some will be hidden away in private collections, whilst others are brazenly displayed in disreputable zoos, wildlife parks, tourism and leisure venues, as well as becoming commodities as the ‘stars’ of social media videos.
Their needs are cruelly neglected in these environments, with infants deprived of the essential maternal care they need until around six years of age and maturing apes restrained, mutilated and more to keep them manageable. Many will experience harsh training regimes and painful and terrifying experiences.
You can help
Everyone can help by refusing to support the commercial exploitation of primates. Only engage with reputable sanctuaries and zoos who put the needs of animals first. Take care with the imagery you watch and share online to ensure you are not inadvertently supporting the exploitation, suffering and criminal trafficking of these precious beings.
See our Chimpanzee Imagery Guidelines here
Thank you for protecting chimpanzees!
Enquiries may be addressed to communications@janegoodall.org
Photo credits: JGI/Fernando Turmo
