Through a Window (41 page)

Already, in many fields of research and testing, the growing concern for animal suffering has led to major advances in the development of techniques such as tissue culture,
in vitro
testing, computer simulation and so on. The day will eventually come when it will no longer be necessary to use animals at all. It must. But much more pressure should be brought to bear for the speedy development of additional techniques. We should put far more money into the research, and give due acknowledgment and acclaim to those who make new breakthroughs—at the very least a series of Nobel prizes. It is necessary to attract the brightest in the field. Moreover, steps should be taken to insist on the use of techniques already developed and proven. In the meantime, it is imperative that the numbers of animals used be reduced drastically. Unnecessary duplication of research must be avoided. There should be more stringent rules regarding what animals may and may not be used for. They should be used only for the most pressing projects that have clear-cut health benefits for many people, and contribute significantly to the alleviation of human suffering. Other uses of animals in the labs should be stopped
immediately,
including the testing of cosmetics and household products. Finally, so
long as animals are used in our labs, for any reason whatsoever, they should be given the most humane treatment possible, and the best possible living conditions.

Why is it that only relatively few scientists are prepared to back those who are insisting on better, more humane conditions for laboratory animals? The usual answer is that changes of this sort would cost so much that all progress in medical knowledge would come to an end. This is not true. Essential research would continue—the cost of building new cages and instigating better care-giving programmes would be considerable, but negligible, I am assured, when compared with the cost of the sophisticated equipment used by research scientists today. Unfortunate, though, many projects are poorly conceived and often totally unnecessary. They might indeed suffer if the costs of maintaining the research animals are increased. People making their living from them would lose their jobs.

When people complain about the cost of introducing humane living conditions, my response is: "Look at your life-style, your house, your car, your clothes. Think of the administrative buildings in which you work, your salary, your expenses, the holidays you take. And, after thinking about those things,
then
tell me that we should begrudge the extra dollars spent in making a little less grim the lives of the animals used to reduce human suffering."

Surely it should be a matter of moral responsibility that we humans, differing from other animals mainly by virtue of our more highly developed intellect and, with it, our greater capacity for understanding and compassion, ensure that medical progress speedily detaches its roots from the manure of non-human animal suffering and despair. Particularly when this involves the servitude of our closest relatives.

In the United States, federal law still requires that every batch of hepatitis B vaccine be tested on a chimpanzee before it is released for human use. In addition, chimpanzees are still used in some highly inappropriate research—such as the effect on them of certain addictive drugs. There are no chimpanzees in the labs in Britain—British scientists use chimpanzees in the United States, or at the TNO Primate Centre in Holland where EEC funding has recently gone into a new chimpanzee facility. (British scientists do, of course, make massive use
of other non-human primates and thousands of dogs, cats, rodents and so forth.)

The chimpanzee is more like us than is any other living being. Physiological similarities have been enthusiastically described by scientists for many years, and have led to the use of chimpanzees as "models" for the study of certain infectious diseases to which most non-human animals are resistant. There are, of course, equally striking similarities between humans and chimpanzees in the anatomy of the brain and nervous system, and—although many have been reluctant to admit to these—in social behaviour, cognition and emotionality. Because chimpanzees show intellectual abilities once thought unique to our own species, the line between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, once thought to be so clear, has become blurred. Chimpanzees bridge the gap between "us" and "them."

Let us hope that this new understanding of the chimpanzees' place in nature will bring some relief to the hundreds who presently live out their lives as prisoners, in bondage to Man. Let us hope that our knowledge of their capacity for affection and enjoyment and fun, for fear and sadness and suffering, will lead us to treat them with the same compassion that we would show towards fellow humans. Let us hope that while medical science continues to use chimpanzees for painful or psychologically distressing experiments, we shall have the honesty to label such research for what, from the chimpanzees' point of view, it certainly is—the infliction of torture on innocent victims.

And let us hope that our understanding of the chimpanzee will lead also to a better understanding of the nature of other non-human animals, a new attitude towards the other species with which we share this planet. For, as Albert Schweitzer said, "We need a boundless ethic that includes animals too." And at the present time our ethic, where non-human animals are concerned, is limited and confused.

If we, in the western world, see a peasant beating an emaciated old donkey, forcing it to pull an oversize load, almost beyond its strength, we are shocked and outraged. That is cruelty. But taking an infant chimpanzee from his mother's arms, locking him into the bleak world of the laboratory, injecting him with human diseases—this, if done in the name of Science, is not regarded as cruelty. Yet in the final analysis, both donkey and chimpanzee are being exploited and misused for
the benefit of humans. Why is one any more cruel than the other? Only because science has come to be venerated, and because scientists are assumed to be acting for the good of mankind, while the peasant is selfishly punishing a poor animal for his own gain. In fact, much animal research is self-serving too—many experiments are designed in order to keep the grant money coming in.

And let us not forget that we, in the west, incarcerate millions of domestic animals in intensive farm units in order to turn vegetable protein into animal protein for the table. While this is usually excused on grounds of economic necessity, or even regarded by some as sound animal husbandry, it is just as cruel as the beating of the donkey, the imprisonment of the chimpanzee. So are the fur farms. So is the abandonment of pets. And the illegal puppy farms. And fox hunting. And much that goes on behind the scenes when animals are trained to perform for our entertainment. The list could get very long.

Often I am asked whether I do not feel that it is unethical to devote time to the welfare of "animals" when so many human beings are suffering. Would it not be more appropriate to help starving children, battered wives, the homeless? Fortunately, there are hundreds of people addressing their considerable talents, humanitarian principles and fund-raising abilities to such causes. My own particular energies are not needed there. Cruelty is surely the very worst of human sins. To fight cruelty, in any shape or form—whether it be towards other human beings or non-human beings—brings us into direct conflict with that unfortunate streak of
inhumanity
that lurks in all of us. If only we could overcome cruelty with compassion we should be well on the way to creating a new and boundless ethic—one that would respect all living beings. We should stand at the threshold of a new era in human evolution—the realization, at last, of our most unique quality: humanity.

T
HROUGHOUT THE WESTERN WORLD,
and in many Third World countries, attitudes towards animals and the environment are changing. There is more awareness of the plight of chimpanzees than there was a few years ago, and with it a growing concern and desire to help. In answer to special needs, individuals emerge when they are most wanted.

Deeply involved in trying to instigate and assist conservation strategies in Africa is the Committee for Conservation and Care of Chimpanzees—"The Four C's." This is a body of scientists, all of whom are concerned with chimpanzee conservation and welfare. Its chairman is Dr. Geza Teleki, who is working with Dr. Toshisada Nishida and others to put together an action plan designed to help as quickly as possible the beleaguered chimpanzees across the African continent. The map on the next page shows the places where chimpanzees are still found, and the research projects, some of which (such as those at Gombe and Mahale Mountains in Tanzania, Tai Forest in Ivory Coast, and Lope in the Gabon) have been in progress for a good many years. In all cases these projects are highly beneficial to chimpanzee conservation in the immediate vicinity.

Surveys are needed desperately in many countries, to find out more about the actual range of chimpanzees today. And, in certain key areas, it is important to set up research projects as quickly as possible. Without such projects, carried out in conjunction with conservation education, tourism and agro-forestry, chimpanzees will disappear rapidly from a number of other countries. Of course, the studies
will be important in their own right, too. They will enable us to learn more about one of the most fascinating aspects of chimpanzee behaviour—that about which we know least—behavioural differences between populations in different parts of Africa. As it is, not only are hundreds of individual chimpanzees perishing but, in addition, whole cultures are vanishing before we have had time to study them.

During 1989 I became involved in chimpanzee conservation and protection in Burundi, one hundred miles or so north of Gombe along Lake Tanganyika. This was a direct result of the conservation interests of Ambassador James D. Phillips (Dan) and his wife, Lucie. I first visited Burundi at their invitation, met with President Buyoya and a number of his ministers and other members of government, including the Secretary General, Venant Bambonehoyo, and was sincerely impressed by the efforts being made by this regime to save the remaining forested areas of their beautiful country. I was impressed, too, by the steps towards chimpanzee conservation that had already been taken. I met with Peter Trenchard, coordinator of the Biological Diversity Project, who had spent several months observing the chimpanzees of the Kibira National Park, a lovely mountain rain forest in the north of the country. I was taken by Paul Cowles and Wendy Bromley to visit a small group of chimpanzees in the south of the country. There a number of local people had been employed as "Chimp Guards" to monitor the movements of the chimpanzees as they travel from one strip of gallery forest to another, crossing cultivated areas and bypassing native villages. The close juxtaposition of chimpanzees and villagers is not unusual; the steps being taken to preserve the chimpanzees—initially set up by a conservationist of great foresight, Robert Clausen—I found unique. But the situation was potentially explosive since the farmers living nearby need land badly. Paul (who had worked first as a Peace Corps Volunteer and was then the Catholic Relief Services technical consultant to the National Institute for the Environment and Nature Conservation (INECN)) explained the agro-forestry project with which he was involved. First nurseries are developed for fast-growing tree species. The seedlings are then planted around villages. Many of the trees can be used within two years—for building poles, charcoal, firewood, as shade trees, and for enriching the soil with nitrogen. Each tree species has its own special function. The application
of this project for the protection of the remaining indigenous forested areas is obvious. Wendy was working with Paul, explaining this new concept to the villagers. Burundi is to be congratulated on this programme, without which it might be impossible to conserve wild chimpanzees in this very small country that has such a high human population density.

In order to provide additional income and incentive to local people, it is clearly necessary to develop controlled tourism. As a first step, Charlotte Uhlenbroek, funded by the Jane Goodall Institute (UK), began to habituate a group of chimpanzees in the south of the country to the presence of humans. As an integral part of this programme (which is, of course, aimed at collecting as much data on the behaviour of the chimpanzees as possible) a number of the Chimp Guards have already visited Gombe for training in observational methods by the Tanzanian field staff.

A new awareness and interest in chimpanzees in the country brought to light the fact that there were a number of pet chimpanzees in the capital, Bujumbura, and in other places throughout the country. Most of these youngsters have almost certainly been smuggled across the border from neighbouring Zaire. Thanks to the support of the government and the help of many individuals, JGI (UK), in close cooperation with INECN, is now able to go ahead with the building of a sanctuary near Bujumbura where ex-pets, and any confiscated youngsters, can be released. This sanctuary has been planned, a site has been allocated and, with the help of Steve Matthews, the initial construction will commence during 1990. The first two orphans, Poco and Socrates, are in a temporary cage in the garden of Melinda (Mimi) Brian. An education centre, where local people and visitors can learn about chimpanzees and their behaviour, will be an important and central part of the sanctuary.

In the same year Karen Pack set out for Pointe Noire in Congo-Brazzaville to try to set up a sanctuary for ex-pet chimpanzees and those confiscated from hunters by the government. Karen is currently working for JGI (UK) at the zoo in Pointe Noire to enrich the environment of eight chimpanzees there. These eight will, it is hoped, join a number of ex-pets and confiscated youngsters in a sanctuary to be constructed by JGI. An education centre is planned, along
the same lines as the one in Burundi. This will be with the full support and approval of the Congolese government. Once again, Steve Matthews will mastermind the construction, with the generous support of Conoco Inc.—an oil company that is showing genuine care for the environment. We are especially grateful to Roger Simpson. Until the sanctuary is built, Madame Jamart is caring for the young chimpanzees confiscated by the government. She and her husband are remarkable.