The Right to Be an Animal
http://www.veganworldezine.com/articles/129/1/The-Right-to-Be-an-Animal/Page1.html
Anthony Vultaggio
Anthony Vultaggio leads the New Thought Revolution
Saturdays at 9PM Pacific on KRLA 870AM. He’s a sought-after motivational speaker and the author of, “Who Said
That And Why Should You Care?” which will be available in August of
2008. Having suffered for years from epileptic seizures, Anthony made the
change to a plant based diet and transformed his life. He shares his inspirational story with audiences everywhere. By Anthony Vultaggio
Published on 07/14/2008
The
Los Angeles Times ran a story about a “Celebrity Chimp” named Moe who
escaped a wildlife refuge into the San Bernardino Mountains. This
story is sad on many accounts. As the story goes, this chimp was
“rescued” by Tanzanian poachers in 1967 by St. James Davis. It was
raised in civilization for most of its life. Moe, the celebrity chimp,
was loved by the Davis’s, and was treated like one of their very own
children. They took it to ribbon-cutting ceremonies and dressed it as a
“girl scout” to sell cookies and the like.
The Los Angeles Times ran a story about a “Celebrity Chimp” named Moe who escaped a wildlife refuge into the San Bernardino Mountains. This story is sad on many accounts. As the story goes, this chimp was “rescued” by Tanzanian poachers in 1967 by St. James Davis. It was raised in civilization for most of its life. Moe, the celebrity chimp, was loved by the Davis’s, and was treated like one of their very own children. They took it to ribbon-cutting ceremonies and dressed it as a “girl scout” to sell cookies and the like.
While I do not question their love and caring for the animal, even what they saw as compassion, I do question if this is right. Treating animals, especially wild animals that should remain wild, as if they were human, is wrong. This is where the lines become obscured and our reasoning becomes faulty. The chimpanzee should not have been anthropomorphized and dressed up in cute clothes and babied.
Was Moe really rescued? Could more have been done to have gone after the poachers or moved them to another suitable environment, outside of Tanzania? Or did "taking care" of the chimp simply serve a selfish motive? I understand the impulse to try to help, but good deeds that fulfill selfish desires become self gratifying and are no longer good deeds.
Was bringing Moe to Southern California the right thing in the first place? To have true love, human or otherwise is to love to let others be free to be themselves. To let chimpanzees be free to be chimpanzees not celebrity chimps dressed as “girl scouts”.
The next time you try to show love, ask yourself, are you showing love because of the way it makes you feel or are you doing the best for the other? I do hope they find the chimpanzee. For his sake. But ask yourself, what did their actions do to end poaching in Tanzania?
While I do not question their love and caring for the animal, even what they saw as compassion, I do question if this is right. Treating animals, especially wild animals that should remain wild, as if they were human, is wrong. This is where the lines become obscured and our reasoning becomes faulty. The chimpanzee should not have been anthropomorphized and dressed up in cute clothes and babied.
Was Moe really rescued? Could more have been done to have gone after the poachers or moved them to another suitable environment, outside of Tanzania? Or did "taking care" of the chimp simply serve a selfish motive? I understand the impulse to try to help, but good deeds that fulfill selfish desires become self gratifying and are no longer good deeds.
Was bringing Moe to Southern California the right thing in the first place? To have true love, human or otherwise is to love to let others be free to be themselves. To let chimpanzees be free to be chimpanzees not celebrity chimps dressed as “girl scouts”.
The next time you try to show love, ask yourself, are you showing love because of the way it makes you feel or are you doing the best for the other? I do hope they find the chimpanzee. For his sake. But ask yourself, what did their actions do to end poaching in Tanzania?