"if it's good news, it must be someone else's"

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

823. on the chimp attack

the 911 call was chilling.
and in no way am i diminishing the anguish felt by Sandra Herold, who begged for police to arrive with a gun to shoot her fourteen year old, beloved chimp, travis, who was laying a savage beating on her girlfriend.
the police eventually shot travis, who wandered back to his room to die a solitary primate.

and sandra and the experts are left wondering why.
especially since she had already given him a xanax and cup of green tea earlier in the day (because he seemed on edge).

i may have a simple answer.

look, we can teach a chimp to dress himself, use the toilet, brush his teeth, and even use the remote to watch animal kingdom, as travis did for years.
all for our entertainment.
but at the end of the day, we still have a chimp.
a two hundred pound chimp.
an animal whose nature is not to act human.
an isolated ape in the company of fools.

and just like travis, we dress up this unexpected yet natural encounter with shock and wonderment.
in a strange way, to be entertained once again.
in much the same way we are entertained by a christian bale tirade or paris hilton exploit.

tragic? yes.
surprising? only if you believe monkeys can fly.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to go to the Kleenex box for this post. It kills me when people try to mess with nature. Being the animal lover I am, I believe natural is best.

Expecting a primate to live in our world makes about as much sense as expecting humans to live in the jungle, using tree vines for transportation, and eating grubs and berries for dinner.

Poor Travis. Hopefully he's in jungle heaven.

Robert Crane said...

pam, couldn't agree more. it is a tragic story for all. and it will be repeated again and again as long as we feel like we can train bears to dance, tigers to jumpr through flaming hoops, and chimps to read the new york times op eds, etc.

Anonymous said...

the first mistake we make is bring any animal into our environment.
the second and i think the biggest mistake we make is...
we think animals have the same values as us. there is no 10 commandments in the animal world, there is no fashion or ethics.
you don't put a fir coat on a dog because you think its cold, you don't put a chimp on tv, these are all human traits and you know what a total screwup the human race is.
I think its time we took all these animal activates and animal lovers outside and shoot them, just leave the damn animals alone and let nature take its course.

Anonymous said...

I'm an animal lover and activist. The reason...to be sure our dogs, cats, horses, and other animals in our care are treated humanely...so just shoot me.

Animals have always been an important part of my life. It keeps me centered. And I provide them with a great home.

As far as values...animals have a simple value system. They're dead nuts honest and love us unconditionally.

Bob, I thought chimps ran the NY Times...or maybe they should.

itsmecissy said...

Poor Travis paid the ultimate price for his "owner's irresponsibility: undomesticated animals (aka wild) do not belong in human homes no matter how cute and "humanlike" we think they are. I think the owner should be diapered and put behind bars . . .

Anonymous said...

to all Bob's people a little information about me. I come from a little country in southern africa called Swaziland, I know live in Vancouver canada. My home in swaziland is a farm 15 miles long by 10 miles wide, on this farm there is ducks , geese , chickens, cows, pigs horses , goats and Ostriches , dogs and cats.
All except dogs,cats and horses are breed for eating, the slaughter is done without suffering (humanely I don't think so, there is nothing humanely about killing). I understand and like animals more than humans, i have been bitten, kicked and run over and i understand why these things happened.
there is nothing wrong with an activist wearing a leather jacket but don't stand there crying because a chimp suffered at the end when you were happy to watch him on tv. the activist and animal lover i think need to get shot are those part time one's who always seem to get tv time on nancy grace. and strangely enough these are the majority. I despise animal cruelty on every level from kicking the dog to putting booties on the dog, and yes i think PETA is a big joke and the worse thing that could ever happen to animals

Robert Crane said...

i'm eating in a rush, as keaton has a night time conference call, but i need to answer this.

give me ten minutes.

Anonymous said...

Pam , just so you don't think i have completely lost my mind, I have cats and love them to bits. I would love to get my hands on a british bulldog

Robert Crane said...

okay, so how's everyone?

let's see. where to begin? my instinct is to jump in and calm everyone down. but after a few attempts to write such a comment, i decided, i don't want to anymore. i'm done with that. so have at it.

but i do have to say one thing. "to all bob's people". i have no people. that would make me king. i am a simple court jester, and enjoy my regular court visitors. that's all. sometimes i venture out and visit others. it's all in good fun. or so i'd like to believe.

i gotta run. someone needs tea and a joke.

Anonymous said...

Pam likes horses so she will appreciate this.
My Uncle had this big black horse called Satan (yes the name fits). this horse loved me, at every opportunity it got I would get bitten, it crushed me against the wall more than once. funny thing was I was the only one that he would let ride him, okay so maybe the sugar cubes i kept giving him may have something to do with his behavior.