FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2008
"SPANISH CONGRESS ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR THE GREAT APE PROJECT AND GREAT APES”
Just in from our colleagues in Spain: Just hours ago, the Spanish Parliament announced its support for the Great Ape Project's mission to attain legal rights for non-human great apes. "This is the first time in the History of Humanity that an important Parliament has announced its approval of rights for Great Primates" announced Dr. Pedro Y. Ynterian, Director of GAP Brazil and incoming GAP International President. This is the central issue the Great Ape Project has focused on for the last 14 years.
This is an important step towards future governmental support for great apes worldwide. Under most government structures, legal rights are the only way to insure that non-human great apes are free from torture, unnecessary death and capture. Simple "animal protection" laws are not enough. We congratulate the hard work and efforts of GAP Spain and its members as well at the political parties that introduced and supported the decision: The Front United Left and Catlunya Party. This is a tremendous accomplishment.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2007
Washoe, the beloved chimpanzee of Central Washington University passed away Tuesday evening, October 30, 2007 of natural causes after a brief illness. At the age of 42, she had lived longer than most females in captivity. She was best known as the first non-human to acquire a human language, American Sign Language. Through her relationship with her caregivers Dr. Roger Fouts and his wife Deborah, Washoe and her extended family have enlightened scientists and researchers around the world about the cognitive workings of a chimpanzee’s mind. She has provided undisputable proof that these great apes possess a level of sentience that deserves legal protection and recognition.
We at the Great Ape Project send our deepest sympathy to the Fouts’ family, CHCI caregivers and Washoe’s extended family around the world. The world has lost an inspiring individual and the people that knew Washoe have lost a dear friend.
A memorial service will be held November 12 at 10 a.m. For more information about the service, Washoe and her family, visit www.friendsofwashoe.org. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made through the Friends of Washoe website, to continue supporting her family.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2007
Beginning a movement that may propel Spain as a leader in animal welfare,
the Balearic Parliament has recently announced its approval of a resolution
to grant legal rights to great apes. The Balearic Islands are located in the
western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula,
and form one of the Autonomous Communities of Spain The Islands are one of
the most popular holiday destinations in all of Europe
Deputy Margalida Rosselló presented the Balearic Parliament with the
resolution early last summer, requesting a declaration of support for the
mission of the Great Ape Project, International - to legally grant great apes
freedom from torture, mistreatment and unnecessary death. This resolution
has also been presented to the Spanish Government and is expected to be considered
this summer after being deferred due to unrelated political issues last year.
According the Pedro Pozas, Executive Director of Great Ape Project, Spain,
“the decision of the Balearic Government to approve this Proposal, makes
it a world-wide leader in the protection of the great apes and their habitat,
as well as in the support of their rights.”
Opponents cite concern over granting “human” rights to animals.
However, supporters are quick to point out that the resolution approved by
the Balearic Parliament and proposed to the Spanish Government does not seek
to grant great apes the same rights available only to humans. The proposition
simply recognizes basic legal protections supported by biological and scientific
evidence that great apes, like human children, experience an emotional and
intellectual conscience similar to that of human children. For years, the
scientific community has widely recognized that great apes experience intense
emotions such as fear, anxiety, happiness; can independently solve puzzles
and create and use tools; recognize the past and plan for their future; and
can learn to communicate in and unilaterally teach a different language to
their children.
By declaring its support of fundamental rights for great apes, the Balearic Parliament has taken scientific evidence to the next level by establishing a legal recognition that these creatures are conscious, self-aware beings that should not be tortured, abused and neglected. The efforts by the Balearic Parliament to stop the oppression of intelligent and self-aware beings who cannot speak for themselves is an important step in the political arena of animal rights.
For more information on this topic, visit www.greatapeproject.org or www.proyectogransimio.org
Michele L. Stumpe, Esq.
President, Great Ape Project International
BIO:
Michele L. Stumpe, Esq. is an attorney and legal consultant who began working
with gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans as a teenager. Early in her career,
Stumpe set out to combine her legal and business talents with her passion
for conservation and great ape rights. She became the legal consultant to
Gorilla Haven, the only gorilla sanctuary in the USA, and also served on the
legal advisory board to the Great Ape Project, International. In 2005, she
became a member of the Gorilla Haven Board of Directors and was appointed
as a Trustee for the organization. She has volunteered at sanctuaries for
great apes in Africa and the US. She currently serves as the President of
Great Ape Project, International.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2006
WHAT WE FIGHT FOR?
A message from GAP Board Member, Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
Between the two of us we could even have a 0.5% difference in our DNA. The difference between a Chimpanzee and us is only 1.23%. Human blood and Chimpanzee blood, with compatible blood groups, can be exchanged through transfusion. Neither our nor the chimps blood can be exchanged with any other species.
We are closer genetically to a chimp than a mouse is to a rat.
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodites), Bonobos (Pan paniscus) and we human beings have had a common ancestral two million years ago. Both species together with us make up the Hominidae family. There is a proposal in the United States Academy of Science to unite all of us in one Genus: Homo paniscus, Homo troglodite and Homo sapiens. In a few years this will be the reality and they, Chimps and Bonobos, will be recognized as our non human brothers in the scientific world.
Taking all of this into consideration, to use them in circuses, shows or performances and put them on display for our entertainment and financial gain would be doing the same mistake we did in the past with some human races. On the other hand giving them the basic rights in our society would be the minimum we could do for them after having reduce their number to a few thousands of survivors in the few forest refugies left in central Africa.
The language limitation reduced the capacity of a fast evolution in both; humans (Australophitecus, Pre-homos, Neandertals) and chimps. When men started to articulate words, due to a possible genetic mutation on gene FOXP2, the evolution speeded up enabling us to create the civilized world we live in today in less than 50,000 years. The possibility of transferring knowledge facilitated the technological development, increasing the gap that separates us from our non human brothers.
The chimpanzee is an intelligent being, sociable, who knows how to live in society, who learns easily, who copies several techniques from others, who loves, hates, feels, and who appreciates advances and civilization, liking human in spite all the tortures and suffering they have been through.
For all of this we fight. To be able to give them a life with some dignity. To be able to rescue a place for them in this world. To be able to maintain a genetic reserve which can help us understand where we came from and which cannot disappear.
This is what we fight for!
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
International GAP Project
www.projetogap.com.br
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2006
Excerpt from commentary of Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian, President-Coordinator - GAP Brazil:
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Memorial to Gil |
A special thanks and recognition
to the volunteers at GAP Brazil When the volunteers at GAP Brazil, led by Dr. Pedro Ynterian, initiated their work, they were up against 120 zoos and 100 circuses, most of whom were not receptive to changing their treatment of the great apes in their care. One of GAP Brazil’s great accomplishments included closing down a circus that was in the business of breeding and selling baby chimpanzees in addition to transporting 27 chimpanzees around the country in 2 small vans for shows. GAP Brazil was also instrumental in requiring the circus (through governmental means) to provide decent enclosures to the chimps that remained in it’s custody. Several of the circus’ chimpanzees are now under the care of the sanctuary. Today, GAP Brazil is working to rescue an additional 27 chimpanzees: 10 from Angola, 13 from Ex-Garcia Circus (who are being cared for by GAP Brazil in the Circus location), and 4 from a closed private Zoo at Fortaleza, Northeastern Brazil. If you would like to contribute to these efforts, please note on your contribution that it is for “GAP Brazil” |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2006
CHIMFUNSHI MOURNS LOSS OF CO-FOUNDER DAVID SIDDLE
David Siddle, whose commitment to injured and unwanted chimpanzees led to the creation of the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, died Friday after a lengthy illness. He was 78.
Siddle and his wife, Sheila, accepted a badly injured chimpanzee from a game ranger in 1983 and nursed it back to health. Today, 112 chimpanzees reside at Chimfunshi, making it one of the largest primate sanctuaries in the world.
Siddle was a successful contractor and cattle rancher approaching retirement age when he and his wife began caring for chimpanzees on their farm along the Kafue River in central Zambia. Although neither had any formal training, they pioneered many of the modern techniques and methods used in sanctuaries around the world and created a model that has been replicated across Africa.
Along the way, Siddle and his wife battled poachers, civil wars, economic strife, political instability, and corruption to give their chimpanzees the best care possible. They pioneered the use of spacious, free-range enclosures, and successfully established ad-hoc family groups comprised of chimpanzees that had been through terrible physical and psychological traumas.
The Siddles were awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001 for their commitment to wildlife, and have received numerous other awards and honors. Their story is told in Sheila Siddle's autobiography, In My Family Tree: A Life with Chimpanzees.
For more information, please visit www.chimfunshi.org.za
or contact ChimfunshiUSA@aol.com.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2006
The Great Ape Debate Unfolds In Europe
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20060522a1.html
By PETER SINGER
PRINCETON, New Jersey -- In his "History of European Morals,"
Published in 1869, the Irish historian and philosopher W.E.H. Lecky wrote:
At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then a nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world.
The expansion of the moral circle could be about to take a significant step forward. Francisco Garrido, a bioethicist and member of Spain's parliament, has moved a resolution exhorting the government "to declare its adhesion to the Great Ape Project and to take any necessary measures in international forums and organizations for the protection of great apes from maltreatment, slavery, torture, death and extinction."
The resolution would not have the force of law, but its approval would mark the first time that a national legislature has recognized the special status of great apes and the need to protect them, not only from extinction, but also from individual abuse. *
I founded the Great Ape Project together with Paola Cavalieri, an Italian philosopher and animal advocate, in 1993. Our aim was to grant some basic rights to the nonhuman great apes: life, liberty and the prohibition of torture. The project has proven controversial. Some opponents argue that, in extending rights beyond our own species, it goes too far, while others claim that, in limiting rights to the great apes, it does not go far enough.
We reject the first criticism entirely. There is no sound moral reason why possession of basic rights should be limited to members of a particular species. If we were to meet intelligent, sympathetic extraterrestrials, would we deny them basic rights because they are not members of our own species? At a minimum, we should recognize basic rights in all beings who show intelligence and awareness (including some level of self-awareness) and who have emotional and social needs.
We are more sympathetic to the second criticism. The Great Ape
Project does not reject the idea of basic rights for other animals. It merely
asserts that the case for such rights is strongest in respect to great apes.
The work of researchers like Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey, Birute Galdikas,
Frans de Waal, and many others amply demonstrates that the great apes are
intelligent beings with strong emotions that in many ways resemble our own.
Chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas have long-term relationships, not only
between mothers and children, but also between unrelated apes.
When a loved one dies, they grieve for a long time. They can solve complex
puzzles that stump most 2-year-old humans. They can learn hundreds of signs,
and put them together in sentences that obey grammatical rules. They display
a sense of justice, resenting others who do not reciprocate a favor.
When we group chimpanzees together with, say, snakes, as "animals,"
we imply that the gap between us and chimpanzees is greater than the gap between
chimpanzees and snakes. But in evolutionary terms this is nonsense. Chimpanzees
and bonobos are our closest relatives, and we humans, not gorillas or orangutans,
are their closest relatives.
Indeed, three years ago, a group of scientists led by Derek Wildman proposed,
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that chimpanzees have
been shown to be so close to humans genetically that they should be included
in the genus Homo.
Like any important and novel idea, Garrido's proposal has aroused considerable debate in Spain. Some are concerned that it will interfere with medical research. But the only European biomedical research that has used great apes recently is the Biomedical Primate Research Center at Rijswijk, in the Netherlands. In 2002, a review by the Dutch Royal Academy of Science found that the chimpanzee colony there was not serving any vital research purposes. The Dutch government subsequently banned biomedical research on chimpanzees. Thus, there is no European medical research currently being conducted on great apes, and one barrier to granting them some basic rights has collapsed.
Some of the opposition stems from misunderstandings. Recognizing the
rights of great apes does not mean that they all must be set free, even those
born and bred in zoos, who would be unable to survive in the wild. Nor does
it rule out euthanasia if that is in the interest of individual apes whose
suffering cannot be relieved. Just as some humans are unable to fend for themselves
and need others to act as their guardians, so, too, will great apes living
in the midst of human communities. What extending basic rights to great apes
does mean is that they will cease to be mere things that can be owned and
used for our amusement or entertainment.
A final group of opponents recognizes the strength of the case for extending rights to great apes, but worries that this may pave the way for the extension of rights to all primates, or all mammals, or all animals. They could be right. Only time will tell. But that is irrelevant to the merits of the case for granting basic rights to the great apes. We should not be deterred from doing right now by the fear that we may later be persuaded that we should do right again.
* To be more precise, the Spanish proposal will, if accepted, be the first time other than in laws specifically relating to animal experimentation that a national legislature recognizes not only the special status of great apes, but also that they have basic rights. In 1999, as a result of the efforts of GAP New Zealand, the New Zealand Parliament recognized the special status of great apes and protected them against experimentation that was not in the interests of the individual apes or their own species.
Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University. His most
recent book, coauthored with Jim Mason, is "The Way We Eat: Why Our Food
Choices Matter." Copyright 2006 Project Syndicate
(www.project-syndicate.org)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2006
There have been recent discussions about the important efforts in Spain to establish legal rights for great apes. There also appears to be some confusion about exactly what the Great Ape Project is seeking to obtain. We are not asking that great apes be granted each and every legal right available to humans, such as the right to vote or drive. Rather, the Great Ape Project seeks recognition of basic legal protections and rights that will guarantee each bonobo, chimpanzee, orangutan, and gorilla the opportunity to live out his or her life according to what is in his or her best interests. These rights would be similar to those currently provided under legal systems around the world for humans of limited capacity, such as children or those who are mentally incompetent and are afforded guardians or caretakers to represent their interests.
Some might question why it's important to grant great apes legal "rights" as "persons" instead of "protections" as "animals". It is helpful to understand the legal status of nonhuman great apes, and how that status allows for their mistreatment. Currently, nonhuman great apes are considered mere property, much as a chair or car or computer. Owners of "property" can do virtually anything they wish to their property without repercussion. Similarly, those who damage such "property" are often only required to pay its fair market value as the penalty for their mistreatment. Only "persons", and not "property", are entitled to "rights" such as the right to freedom from torture. Therefore, it's important to include the great apes within the legal definition of "persons" in order for them to have rights that are necessary for their protection. Some people have difficulty agreeing that nonhuman great apes should fall under the legal definition of "persons". It's important to remember that legal terms often have a different meaning than what is used in everyday language. Recognizing nonhuman great apes as a "legal persons" is not the equivalent of defining them as "humans" - it merely recognizes that they share a sentience that renders it morally important to ensure their protection through legal rights. (It may help to remember that corporations are also considered "legal persons" for the purpose of determining their rights).
By granting nonhuman great apes the fundamental rights we seek, their "owners" will become their guardians or caretakers with a legal responsibility to consider each great ape's best interests at all times. For humans who already conduct themselves in this manner, it is easy to understand why this should be a requirement and not an option. In sum, granting these animals the status of legal persons at law will ensure their entitlement to necessary legal protections, though only with those specific rights described above that are appropriate for them.
We need your help to educate others on the importance of these efforts and
to show your support to the Spanish government.
One way to show support is to go to: http://www.20minutos.es/encuesta/504/
Look for the following question: El Grupo Socialista pide derechos básicos para los grandes simios por su parecido con loshumanos. ¿Los grandes simios deben tener derechos fundamentales? (translation: The Socialistic Group is asking for basic rights to be granted to the great apes similar to those for humans. Should the great apes have fundamental rights?) Answer "Si" (yes)
If anyone is interested in learning more about the mission of the Great Ape
Project, please visit our website at: www.greatapeproject.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2006
Appeal
to protect laboratory primates:
http://www.tierbazar.at/cms/front_content.php?idcat=2
Collaboratory
and ALDF file suit against chimpanzee "trainer":
http://www.chimpcollaboratory.org/news/lawsuit.asp
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2005
Summaries of State Laws Regarding Importation and Possession of Chimpanzees
Text of State Laws and Regulations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2004
GREAT APE PROJECT RELEASES CENSUS BOOK, REVEALS 3,100 CAPTIVE APES IN U.S.
Portland, Oregon – After two years of research, record-keeping and volunteer reports, the Great Ape Project today released the Great Ape Project Census: Recognition for the Uncounted, a book that stands as the first comprehensive tally of the captive chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos in the United States.
The Great Ape Project Census reveals over 3,100 great apes living in captivity, ranging from modern zoos and sanctuaries to squalid carnivals and cruel laboratories. The Census reflects as much personal information as possible about each great ape, including name, age, sex, location and whether he or she was born in captivity or captured in the wild.
The Great Ape Project Census comes a decade after the publication of The Great Ape Project, the ground-breaking book that helped revolutionize mankind’s consideration of great apes. The Great Ape Project Census includes photos and profiles of numerous great apes, along with essays by noted primatologists and experts such as Jane Goodall, Birute Galdikas, Marc Bekoff, Francine Patterson and Roger and Deborah Fouts. Great Ape Project president Peter Singer contributed the foreword.
“There has been a dramatic change in the thinking of many people about great apes,” Singer wrote, “but this has yet to be adequately reflected in changes in the law, in the moral status we recognize them as having, and in the conditions in which they live. Perhaps this book will bring those changes a step closer.”
The inspiration for the Great Ape Project Census came from the human census being conducted in the U.S. at the turn of the century. The Census had four basic goals: 1.) identify all great apes in the U.S.; 2.) report the conditions in which they live; 3.) increase public awareness; and 4.) identify sanctuaries that might be able to provide permanent refuge for those in need.
The Census found great apes in 37 states – including several, such as Connecticut, where they were not previously known to exist – and a staggering 1,280 in biomedical research.
The Great Ape Project Census is priced at $14.95 and available on-line at the Great Ape Project website (www.greatapeproject.org) or at select bookstores in the Portland area.
For more information, please contact GAP.