This time the ARZone team are joined by two guests, Bob Ingersoll of Mindy's Memory Primate Sanctuary, and Kari Bagnall of Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary. We speak about the Jungle Friends Expansion Project, and learn from Bob about the film Project Nim, in which he is featured.
Despite a few small technical problems, this was an informative and interesting conversation between seven people from all over the world.
You may also LISTEN HERE.
3 comments:
Hello,
I'm really enjoying the ARZone podcasts, especially the discussions regarding wild animals. I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but I believe that wild animals aren't discussed enough by animal advocates. It's a really difficult topic and I appreciate ARZone is taking to time to explore these issues, both in podcasts and the chats.
I agree with Roger that people are disturbed by being referred to as animals or apes. When I've brought this point up in conversation, people seem revolted even though, taxonomically, that's what are. I'm never sure how to respond to people who just can't seem to accept that point. It seems self-evident that we're not plants or minerals.
Another point brought up in the podcast that I wanted to mention was the issue of apes not having the same appeal to people as dogs and cats and how that may be an obstacle to sanctuaries in raising funds.
Does anyone think that more support for apes could be generated if people were allowed to see them in the sanctuaries, and learn about the individual animals stories? I know that some sanctuaries (not just for apes) aren't open to the public. There is good reason to have private sanctuaries (e.g. stress on the animals) and we don't want them to become defacto zoos. But could increasing the visibility of these animals exploitation lead to greater understanding of their plight and willingness to help?
Thanks so much,
Matt
Hi Matt!
I know that at Jungle Friends, many of the primates who live there have had traumatic relationships with humans in the past. They don't respond well at all to strangers. At the same time, I think Kari & Bob would probably agree with you about the value of somehow getting people to know these primates as the individuals they are. Jungle Friends posts lots of videos on their website http://www.junglefriends.org/videomenu.shtml - it's the next best thing to being there!!
tim
Hi Matt,
Kari wanted to respond to you, but was unable to post a comment (technical glitch), so asked me to post this on her behalf.
Hi Matt,
Tim is correct, while many of the monkeys are thrilled to visit with humans, well, I say visit, what I mean is to try to steal your phone, your glasses, hat, jewelry, well, whatever you have that they deem valuable. Not that all of them want to steal your stuff, some of them just want to pull your hair out or throw their food at you. Of course, there are also those who just want to gaze into your eyes and tell you stories, others want to play catch with you, but for some, especially those who were used in laboratory research, they really have no use for most humans. These monkeys have had such a tough life, it is our job as a sanctuary to make this a safe haven, a place where they can have peace and a place where they can play with others of their own kind.
Jungle Friends has been on many documentaries about 'pet' monkeys, and still the monkeys are under-represented and ignored. And as Tim mentioned, we do have lots of videos on our website of the monkeys, we really do want people to get to know them, they all have such unique personalities. We have a video that we just put together which will be going out on our Jungle News post in the morning, but I will give you a sneak preview, here is the link
http://youtu.be/U5n3dfK1KjM
this is a video of Goober who is a monkey who was in laboratory research for nearly 20 years and he finally meets a girl monkey for the first time, her name is Fiona - you will love the video! Thank you for your interest in Jungle Friends.
Lots of monkey love,
Kari and the monks
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