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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chimps22mar22,1,348381.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

When the Show's Over for Hollywood Chimps

The demand for primate performers has declined as computers generate their 
screen
likenesses.

By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer

March 22, 2005

Ollie and Buddy, the chimpanzees shot dead earlier this month after they 
viciously
attacked a couple at a Kern County animal sanctuary, had been retired from 
show business
after having spent their early years working for one of Hollywood's top 
animal trainers.

Their background underscores how tough a business Hollywood can be for chimps 
these days
and how hard it is to find a place for them to live once their performing 
days are over.

The 11-year-old male chimps had been sent to Animal Haven Ranch in Havilah 
seven years
ago after they grew too strong and unpredictable to work with humans. Chimps 
are used in
the entertainment industry only for the first few years of their lives 
because they
become too difficult to handle, animal experts said.

Many end up spending the rest of their lives — which can be another 50 years 
— in
sanctuaries similar to the one in Kern County. Others, animal rights 
activists fear, end
up being used for medical research.

"By around [age] 7 or 8, they start changing," said trainer Steve Earl 
Martin, owner of
Steve Martin's Working Wildlife in Frazier Park, which provides tigers, 
monkeys, birds
and other creatures for movie and TV productions. "That's just the way they 
are. It's
part of their mind-sets."

Chimps have long been one of the most popular animals in show business, 
lending comic
relief to TV shows, movies and commercials, as well as circuses and other 
live acts.
Producers turn to them because of their human-like qualities. They can smile 
on cue,
perform basic tasks and look sharp in human outfits. 

But in recent years, the demand for live chimps and other simians has 
declined as digital
animation allows filmmakers and TV producers to create their likenesses on 
computers. The
chimps and other animals in Eddie Murphy's remake of "Dr. Dolittle," for 
example, were
computer-generated.

"With computers and animatronics and such, there's not as much demand for 
chimps and live
animals anymore," said Martin, who still provides chimpanzees to Hollywood.

Endla Burrows, director of Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Los Angeles, said 
studios tend
to prefer computer-generated and animatronic creatures because they provide 
complete
control over the performance.

"One of the biggest things is you're spending thousands of dollars per minute 
of time,"
Burrows said. "Even if a real animal could be trained to do it, there's no 
guarantee
you'll get the performance you're looking for. With animatronics or computer 
graphics,
you're getting the exact performance you want, exactly when you want it."

Creature Shop did the animals for "Dr. Dolittle" as well as "George of the 
Jungle," and
its staff just finished creating pigeons for a new film version of "The 
Producers."

It's unclear exactly what Ollie and Buddy did during their time in Hollywood. 
They
trained with chimpanzee specialist Bob Dunn at his Sylmar compound, the place 
where
Bubbles, the chimp that Michael Jackson once owned, came from. More recently, 
Dunn
trained Sammy, the orangutan who starred in the film "Dunston Checks In."

Dunn is a legend in the Hollywood animal world, known for his skilled and 
patient
training of chimps for specific roles. About a year and half after a chimp 
was born in
his compound, he would start basic acting training, teaching the words "no," 
"sit" and
"stand." In a couple of years, they were ready to take on film and TV roles.

While some animal rights activists said he exploited the animals, Dunn always 
insisted he
treated them with great care and respect. A spokeswoman for the Humane 
Society of the
United States, which regulates the care of animals on movie sets, said Dunn 
treated his
animals well.

"I think he knows chimpanzees better than anyone I've ever met," said Patti 
Ragan,
founder of the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla., which took Dunn's 11 
chimps and
six orangutans when he shut down his ape operation this year.

Ragan said she visited Dunn at the Sylmar compound a few years ago and was 
impressed with
how well he managed his animals. She said she didn't know why Dunn decided to 
quit
handling chimps but that he had told her he was tired of the periodic 
protests by
activists. 

One of the biggest concerns of activists is what happens to primates after 
their
show-business careers end. Some rights groups have speculated that chimps and 
other
animal performers are sold to medical research or euthanized. Dunn vowed in a 
1988
interview with The Times that he would never sell his chimps to research.

Had Ollie and Buddy had been born seven years later, they might have ended up 
at Ragan's
compound. But they had retired several years earlier and landed at Animal 
Haven Ranch. It
was there March 3 that Ollie and Buddy somehow escaped from their cages and 
mauled St.
James and LaDonna Davis. A ranch worker ended the attack by shooting the two 
chimps with
a rifle. 

St. James Davis, who along with his wife was there to celebrate the birthday 
of another
chimp, Moe, suffered severe wounds to his face, hands, feet and buttocks and 
was in
critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

The state Department of Fish and Game is investigating the incident. 
Spokesman Steve
Martarano said the focus will be on what happened at the ranch that day. 
Investigators
don't plan to look into Ollie's and Buddy's past.

Ragan said she is glad Dunn closed his ape operation and that computers are 
making chimp
performances less common.

"The closing of this primary supply of great apes in the entertainment 
business is a
major step toward ending the use of apes in entertainment," Ragan said.

"These are sentient, intelligent animals, not just little pseudo-humans and 
clowns. It's
becoming more and more politically correct not to use chimp acts anymore. 
Ringling Bros.
hasn't used them since 1993."

Burrows, with Jim Henson's Creature Shop, said high technology offers another 
benefit.

The only time she hears from animal rights groups, she said, is "when we've 
done really
good animal work and they see the movie and say, 'I can't believe you let 
that happen to
an animal!' But that's a compliment on several levels."