Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of trade

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Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of trade

Post by Koa » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:26 am

Think twice before you like that chimp video on social media
By Madeline Monroe, July 14, 2018
THE JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE


You might check your newsfeed one day and see a cute baby chimpanzee dressed up in human clothing, but the story behind how the chimpanzee wound up in your feed isn’t as cute. In the depths of social media, search engines and other platforms, individuals create services for those looking to profit off the sale of chimpanzees and other apes. As social media use soars and online spaces connect buyers to sellers of these chimpanzees, challenges grow for those wanting to stop illegal wildlife trafficking, but there is hope.
Read the full blog post here: http://news.janegoodall.org/2018/07/14/illegalpettrade/

Just wanted to share some work I did at my internship in observance of the first ever World Chimpanzee Day on Saturday, July 14, almost 60 years after Jane first arrived at Gombe Stream National Park in present day Tanzania to start her research on chimpanzees.

This was difficult for me to write, since it wasn't exactly hard news (and more of a compilation of recent news stories), which is reflected in the style, so I apologize if the writing seems clunky; we have to adhere to a strict word limit because of the website's style and consequently needed to remove some parts out. I also have to adhere to their writing style, which also does not follow a hard news tone.

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Re: Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of tr

Post by alethe » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:40 am

i'm assuming you wrote this? its very good, and a nice message to share. Not just with chimps, but other exotic animals as well. i was looking for a video the other day of coati sounds to send to someone for a reference, but the only ones i could find were of "cute" pet coatis that had been declawed and defanged.

another i saw was one of an owl being licked by a cat. i posted about how the interaction was unsafe, and was attacked because how dare someone point out something that could be harmful! it was in a bird husbandry group, too...

its really disheartening to see those videos posted, and being consumed, by people who don't know better. all this does is make these wild, potentially dangerous animals look like pets. Not to mention the abuse that happens in the pet trade...


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Re: Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of tr

Post by Koa » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:52 am

alethe wrote:i'm assuming you wrote this? its very good, and a nice message to share. Not just with chimps, but other exotic animals as well. i was looking for a video the other day of coati sounds to send to someone for a reference, but the only ones i could find were of "cute" pet coatis that had been declawed and defanged.

another i saw was one of an owl being licked by a cat. i posted about how the interaction was unsafe, and was attacked because how dare someone point out something that could be harmful! it was in a bird husbandry group, too...

its really disheartening to see those videos posted, and being consumed, by people who don't know better. all this does is make these wild, potentially dangerous animals look like pets. Not to mention the abuse that happens in the pet trade...
Yes, I did, and thank you. I'll be posting some more articles that I've done as soon as they are edited and uploaded.

I'm not on Instagram. I frequently view Snapchat and don't see anything that warrants concern, but Snapchat is a different beast of a platform. The most problematic content I run into is often on Facebook, and usually consists of viral videos or posts shared by third parties (whose only goal is to share viral videos or posts). Because the content is acquired and funneled through by these third parties, they often leave out crucial context clues.

A great example is of a video that was shared on Facebook through a third party with the caption, "Nature can be good." It was a video of Damian Aspinall, the son of late British gambler John Aspinall, and his and his wife's interactions with a gorilla that he had bred. The setting appeared to be natural (but was not, either).

So, without knowing that previous information, your average viewer (1 would be tempted to assume that, given the language used in the caption, this gorilla was a wild animal, (2 though this animal was a wild animal in a proposed natural setting, it was friendly and (3 because of its friendliness, all other wild animals have the capacity to be nice to humans, too. And, as a consequence, your average viewer would be very, very wrong. Though the video itself is not depicting wildlife trafficking and trade, because of how the video was handled, it can easily perpetuate the very irresponsible notions that fuel wildlife trafficking and trade.

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Re: Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of tr

Post by Sambhur » Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:06 am

Despite what you said in your little disclaimer, this was still a great article to read Koa! And I know what gorilla video you're talking about there, I get so uncomfortable every time I see it come up again. :/
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Re: Dressy, lipstick-wearing chimpanzees often victims of tr

Post by alethe » Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:11 am

facebook, hands down, is the worst, right up there with tumblr. I have a falconer friend who posted a video with her aplomado falcon when he was still a youngster. The video has him sitting, peeping, generally being friendly to her. i knew exactly what the bird was doing -- he was simply a youngster, and an imprint. she is licensed by the state of florida to keep such a bird.

however, if you go through the notes you will see people replying with "pet falcon!" or "i want one" or "how do you keep this bird?" (along with some other uneducated animal rights activists, but another post for another time). the video has been reposted on twitter, instagram, facebook, you name it, out of context. she has stated that she regrets publishing it due to the amount of unwanted and false attention it got.

its a general rule of thumb to me to always look into the videos if you can, before making a good or bad judgement, but there are definitely some cases where an animal in a good setting could be viewed as a pet and further instigate the notion that wild animals make good pets.

i am really careful about what i post about Revali, my falconry hawk, because of this. even though its unlikely it will come back to bite me license wise, i don't want to be someone who accidentally spreads false info about keeping a raptor in captivity.


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