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["carrie mclaren" <brooklynite282 AT gmail.com>]

Great apes should not be exploited for photo ops
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071130/OPINION04/711300362/1038/Opinion

November 30, 2007

It was saddening to see Kanzi, a language-competent bonobo, displayed
like a drunken show-off with a plastic guitar hanging from his neck
and an expression on his face that was certainly not a "play face"
("No Monkey Business Here: Students, Apes Share Gifts," Nov. 8).

Indeed, the accompanying text, which twice erroneously labeled him an
orangutan, stated that as the middle-school student played his violin,
"Kanzi chose against playing the new toy guitar the students took
him."
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I have known Kanzi since his toddlerhood. I cannot imagine that the
two research scientists that I have known for decades, Dr. Sue
Savage-Rumbaugh, who raised and mentored Kanzi, and Dr. Benjamin B.
Beck, director of conservation at the Great Ape Trust, would condone
this outrage.

They and other scientists who work with apes and other endangered
species know that bonobos should not be dressed up with human
paraphernalia and depicted like dancing fools. Such attempts to use
apes for this sort of public amusement was trashed toward the end of
the 20th century as we came to know that they have other capacities
that should be the focus of educational projects.

The persons at the Trust who allowed the offensive picture should
receive some education on these matters. Informed scientists need to
make sure that no other depictions of this sort come out of the Trust.

- Russell H. Tuttle,
former member of the scientific advisory board
of the Great Ape Trust of Iowa,
professor of anthropology,
The University of Chicago,
Chicago, Ill.