|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yerkes' sale of orangutans to night club performer Bobby Berosini and the subsquent abuse
Emory University and Yerkes Primate Research Center
sold orangutans to night c Following the "ET" story, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed a lawsuit against Berosini, seeking custody of the orangutans. Numerous affidavits were filed in support of the lawsuit, including one by world-renowned scientist Jane Goodall, alleging that the Berosini tape shows the orangutans to be the victims of serious psychological and physical abuse. "The treatment I saw meted out to the orangs in that film involves severe psychological cruelty as well as physical abuse...Those responsible for the treatment of the orangutans in the video should never be allowed to own, train or handle animals again." Goodall said in the affidavit. Other experts agreed the orangutans were victims of abuse. Two highly-respected veterinarians, Michael Wolff and Robert Stone, along with Rob Shumaker, a primate caretaker from the National Zoo in Washington, examined Berosini's orangutans. The physical examinations and behavioral observations supported charges of animal abuse and are consistent with the events depicted on the videotape. Yerkes, however, continued to defend Berosini's treatment of the animals despite the videotape evidence. Kenneth Gould examined the animals after the tape was released and denied seeing any signs of abuse. Before retiring from Yerkes in 2000, Gould made a career of submitting male chimpanzees to 'rectal probe-ejaculators', a device designed to force ejaculation via electric current. He also forced female chimps to undergo electric rectal probe after being artificially inseminated, although there has been no scientific evidence to support the usefulness of this stimulation.
Home Page | Our Mission | News |
lub
performer, Bobby Berosini from 1973 to 1987. The television program,
"Entertainment Tonight" aired a secretly-made video that
showed Berosini beating the orangutans, night after night, about
the head, neck and shoulders.
