Computer1240
長島生活網 , 豐富你的生活
讀完"珍古得為猴子請願"
"Jane Goodall - A Plea for the Chimps"
(by Vincent Lin)
Jane Goodall – the most famous animal rights activist in the world. She is the president
of Advocates for Animals which is an animal rights organization based in Edinburgh,Scotland. She has been arguing for the use of animals in medical
research, zoos, farming and sport for years. The article “A Plea for the Chimps” was
written by Goodall was for the purpose of asking human beings to give back the basic
right of being a living creature in the world to the chimpanzees who are not able to
talk in a biomedical research center.
First, Goodall teaches us that every nonhuman animal has emotion and senses as
human do. She was seriously shocked, angry and distressed after her visit to the
subject biomedical research center. She, of course, understands that all the monkeys
were raised for the use of scientific experiments of vaccines developed for human
diseases. She never realized that the dwelling places of the chimps were so miserable.
There were bare cages with very limited space, stacked one above the other, lined in
small rooms. Most of the chimpanzees here were looking with hopelessness and
dullness in their eyes to be imprisoned for all their lives.
The chimpanzees live naturally in a wilderness. They are active with social
relationships. A community of chimpanzees can include about fifty individuals.
They have their own territory for domain. They share food, play with each other and
build comfortable beds with a little pillow for sleep. In modern world, they are very
easily taught with excellent memory. They are as well capable of understanding the
emotions of human beings.
There is another nature of chimpanzees, called “hunting crazes”, which Goodall
didn’t notice until her first reporting in 1986 which is one year early than the time this
article was published. I learnt this “secret” from a documentary film which was made
by other scientists on Discovery Channel. Some scientists had been observing a
phenomenon that chimps would sometimes hunt almost daily and kill large numbers
of monkeys and other prey (Goodall 1986). The explanation for such binges has
always been unclear. However, this is merely a nature of a species that we need to
know. It should have no impact on the plea for them.
As an activist of animal rights defense, Goodal then made some helpful suggestions
to improve the life conditions for chimpanzees. It is described as following, the
number of carefully well-trained caretakers should be increased, the law of
animal-protection regulations for cage size for a pair of chimpanzees should be
legislated in the U.S., the proper scientific management of the chimps and the
improvement of their housing has to be implemented as well. She surely was aware
that the execution of her recommendations requires much cost and people’s support.
So she said that her door was opened for any dialogues. She wanted to speak for
chimpanzees.
It has been two decades since Ms. Goodall began to advocate for animal rights.
Many laws about respect and protection of animals have been legislated. In 2007, the
notorious news about Michael Vick, the star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, his
charge of dogfight case involved him in the guilt of animal killing and animal
maltreatment. The things we have been doing for animal rights with human morals
has almost reached its maximum.
The last question is, “How can we collect enough money to improve the life
conditions as Goodall expects for the animals in biomedical research centers?”.
Sarcastically, all these centers are owned and operated legally by business enterprises
or government organizations. So we have to urge the law to be legislated as soon as
possible – Any enterprise or organization that may use animals for test in any
research project must appropriate 5 percent of funds in the project budget, to be
applied to the betterment of lives of the animals.
There is only one earth we live. We share with other creatures and using it. We are
actually dependent on every other. Learning to respect other lives is the way to live
forever.
click pics for larger
    |