A Message from a Former Owner of a Chimpanzee

Dear Chimp Friends,

I was like thousands of other people who saw a baby chimp on TV and immediately wanted to own one. They are so cute and cuddly, in many ways more so than a human baby, and so I began my search. I located a dealer who had a baby chimp for sale.  Before my purchase, I asked numerous questions about rearing an infant chimp and the dealer had all the answers that I wanted to hear. They are just like raising a human child, he said, and when they get larger, they are no problem as long as you start when they are babies. For the $25,000 he was about to get for an infant chimp, he reassured me about every doubt that I had. (That was over 20 years ago. Today, the price has doubled.)

When we brought him home he was an 8 lb. infant and in the beginning it was just like caring for a human baby. Bottle feedings, diaper changes, the whole nine yards. He was the most adorable little creature you ever saw. He was able to play in the yard, and we took him places such as fast food restaurants and fairs.

As he grew, things changed rapidly. The first things to come down were the draperies. Next was the removal of the carpeting, putting locks on the cabinet doors, keeping the refrigerator door closed, continually turning off the water faucets, protecting him from turning on the electric range, putting padlocks on the exterior doors to keep him safely inside, etc. Our entire home now had to be chimp-proofed, which wasn’t an easy task, because even at his young age, his strength was amazing.

As he grew bigger and stronger, we realized that he could no longer have the run of the house, and we couldn’t take him out on excursions with us. Vowing never to cage him, we remodeled two large rooms in our house with see-through walls and openings for human contact so he could see everything we did and be next to us at all times. But we were separated from him for the first time in his life, and this was very traumatic for him. He would scream for hours, and each night until he was into his teens, we would have to lay down with him until he fell asleep.

We also rescued an older chimp, as a companion for him, hoping this would be good for both chimps. Our younger boy was scared of the older chimp because he had never seen anything like that and he considered himself human. It took our younger chimp months to adjust to this new member of the family.

Thinking that more room would make him happier, we renovated the entire house for both our chimps and built a large play area outside. But despite the extra space, he was still confined and knew it. The younger chimp would take my husband by the hand and point to the locks and beg him with his eyes to open the door. He couldn’t understand why he now had to spend his days behind locked doors. Every time my husband left the room, he would cry because he said he felt like a jailor for closing the locks.

At some point we realized that our younger chimp was going to outlive us and we had to make a plan for his future. Loving him as much as we did, we knew that something had to be done to find a new home for him. Thanks to Jane Goodall responding to my plea to help me find a safe haven and the compassion of Carole Noon, we found a home for “our boys.” The older chimp adjusted easily—but after 18 years as our “pet” the younger chimp was another story.

Through our tears we watched as he tried to understand why the only family he knew had forsaken him, but he had to make the long transition from pet to learning to be a chimp. We would visit, trying to make the transition easier, but then he would go on hunger strikes when we left. Our presence was hindering his progress, so we had to stop visiting him. We blamed ourselves for making him so miserable. Only if we had never brought him into our home as a pet, only if people weren’t allowed to purchase baby chimps, he would not have had to suffer so much.

After such a long period of time, “our boy” finally adjusted. It was a joy to finally see him running free on an island with a new family. His adjustment took years and no chimp should have to go through such a thing. No matter how much you love chimps, please love them from afar, educate others, and don’t get them as pets. It’s not about what you want, it’s about them.