Last Saturday Night (11 March 2006) I was watching an Animal Planet Special about researching Chimpanzee's ability to learn our language. I was struck by the behaviour of one of the chimps and so googled the topic and sent an email to the research professor, Sally Boysen.... below is that dialogue.....
Dear Sally
I was watching a replay of the discoverychannel doco of your awesome work with Keeli and Ivy.
I'm fascinated with language myself as I have taught English in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and to my Chinese friends here in New Zealand as well. During the last ten years of this I have also picked up fluent spoken Chinese Mandarin.
During lesson two I was particularly struck by Ivy's reaction when you asked her to show you something blue after you showed her the blue card. One could see that she obviously adores you, and to her, I imagine eye contact is major in her relationship with you.... when you asked her to show you something blue, the first thing she did was to swing round and look you straight in the eye.... so me (being colourblind) had to get up real close to the TV screen and try and see what colour your eyes are.... I believe them to be blue - like mine.
I get endless compliments from my Chinese students and friends about my eyes, and I would think that chimpanzees being usually black-eyed, would also be enchanted by your eyes as well! It might just be a coincidence, have you ever asked her what colour your eyes are? I was so struck by her reaction I felt compelled to google you all and send you this email!
kind regards and best wishes for future research!
yours sincerely
Andrew Boyd
click on pics for a better view
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for such an interesting message. It was my understanding
that our newer documentary that followed two other younger chimps,
Emma & Harper, premiered internationally on Sat., Feb. 25th, including
(I believe) New Zealand and Australia. I am curious if that is the film
you saw, or if indeed, it was a re-run of the 2002 film with Keeli & Ivy.
Our newer film is entitled, "Chimps: A Whisper Away from Us".
Tragically, I have terrible news to convey. Merely two days after
the Emma & Harper special aired, the University administration,
in planning with our University Lab Animal Resources director,
staged a military-type action at the Chimp Center, and had them
anesthetized & put into transport cages for a 3-day trip to a cesspool
of a so-called sanctuary outside San Antonio, Texas. So, only 48 hours
after our documentary aired on Animal Planet, the chimps were gone.
Even more horrific is that when they arrived at the facilities in Texas,
the truck drivers discovered that they didn't have the proper equipment
to unload our big adult male chimps, so they enlisted a local dog & cat
veterinarian to come and anesthetize them AGAIN. In so doing, they
overdosed my dearest Kermit, one of the two original chimpanzees
that I began the project with in 1983. He had been with me since
he was 3 years old, and was an incredible individual.
Prior to the chimps' abduction (that's what I would call it), on the
previous Tuesday (Feb. 21), the University conducted a planned
commando-type raid on the Chimp Center, coordinated with an
appointment that the Sr. VP for Research had scheduled with me
on the OSU campus. A hoard of people arrived and spread quickly
through the Center (the Chimp Center is located about 15 minutes
away in an area that was once quite rural), changed all the locks,
told my staff that they now worked for them, and locked me out of
my own laboratory of 23 years.
Even as I write this, it is still all very surreal. We tried to get
a temporary restraining order that day (Feb. 27), but literally
representatives for the University gave false testimony,
particularly MY OWN Psychology Department chairperson.
I am totally serious; you couldn't make this up. We have
filed another motion with the courts, with sworn affidavits
contradicting what the judge had been told in our initial
complaint to him (this is a FEDERAL judge -- can you imagine?
Ohio State University -- this huge, huge research institution,
perjured themselves in a FEDERAL court room, in front of
a FEDERAL JUDGE! This is sounding more and more like
a movie-of-the-week, even to me.
At this moment on Saturday night, March 11, I do not know
how the remaining chimps are doing. If you GOOGLE me,
you should be able to find some of the newspaper articles
and maybe even some video footage from last week. I
actually chained myself to the security gate of Ohio State
Lab Animal Center, where the chimp building is located,
and the media had a hey-day.
The saddest thing is that there are many other more
profound issues, and undercurrents to this story that
will eventually find their way to the national (and international)
press, including issues of academic freedom, the right to
due process (our 14th Amendment to the American constitution),
the kind of "Big Brother" mentality that went into the planning of
the raids on my lab. How bizarre -- universities quake in their
boots at the possiblity of animal rights terrorists coming in, and
in this case, it's the reverse. It's the University administration who
are the terrorists! It is truly, truly difficult to grasp.
Andrew, I have no idea if you are 16 or 66, although your articulate
message suggests you are not likely 16. We could use your help
in our newly-emerging movement, so we can spread the message
around the world. Why are we fighting in Iraq nominally for
"freedom" when a University can somehow justify this type
of police action?
If you know of any reporters or any kind of media/press people, pass
on this information to them, and have them get in touch with me.
This is going to be a HUGE story as the litigation and media coverage
proceeds -- and I intend to keep the story alive until I am given
control of my chimpanzees once more. If you know anyone in the
zoo community or any animal-related organization, have them help
us spread the word.
Please help in any way you can. You can also send this email out to
as many lists as you want or are able. I understand there is another
website (my website was taken down by the University last week,
but thankfully, someone was able to recover the content. I hope to
have it back up in a couple of days) that was posted by a former
student called something like:
Kermitcommunity.com. (www.kermitscommunity.com)
Well, I would put good money on a bet that you would have never
expected to get such a reply from a complete stranger, eh? desperate
times call for desperate measures, as they say, so you have been officially
knighted as a representative of the injustices I have described.
Andrew, do whatever you can.
With warm regards,
Further links on the case:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chimpspics.htm
Primarily Primates (this is where they've ended up atthis stage)
|
OH well
all the best Sally, you have my greatest sympathy, thanks for taking
the time to write back I
am really becoming intrigued by this, Sally Andrew
I
had a look at the new venue From what I saw on my visit a few years ago, as well as recent reports, cesspool may be a gracious term. No enrichment. No fruit. No vegetables. Only monkey chow. Nice, huh? And yeah, no trees, little care staff, drunk founder/director, all that
good stuff. STB It
would seem to me, Sally, that you will be sorely missed by the Chimps,
and you them! stay
strong! Andrew I don't think it matters much what I say about PPI, anyway -- there is
so much very bad and very public information and observations about
its decrepit conditions that what I may contribute shouldn't cause
anyone to blink. I'm not saying any of this to the media or
reporters; I don't have to, since PETA and several other animal rights
organizations already have. I'll fill you in as time permits. of the weekend with our PR firm (they "adopted" us and are
doing most of their work for free -- new website on their server, printing
t-shirts at cost, etc. -- awesome! -- I'll send you a shirt when we get them finished. What size, anyway? We will likely do Small, Med., Large, and X-Large
for now, plus kids' sizes. Also, send me a regular snail mail address for shipping the shirt, while
you're at it. We are still waiting for the federal judge to rule on the motion we filed on Friday, March 3. The other side (OSU) has 20 days to respond,
and hasn't done so yet. I suppose the judge will likely wait the whole
20 days before making a decision; I heard that this is a particularly busy time for him, anyway, so the 20 days is a welcome time window, I'm sure. We, in the meantime, are going nutso worrying about the chimps, as it is very difficult to get any current information about how they're doing. Ugh. More later as things unfold. The story is going to be getting out
to some major national American publications soon, and so should be hitting the international media shortly thereafter. Watch for me on a TV near
you!! Best wishes, Sally ----- Original Message ----- New stories should begin to come out again soon, now that the latest motion to the courts has become public record. I wonder how the OSU spokesman is going
to "spin": "...OSU gave false statements that impacted on your honor's decision concerning our request for a temporary restraining order..." If I was that judge, I would be really ticked off, indeed! Sally |
