Harambe to Homo Sapiens: 2 Degrees of Separation

Here's another irony. Only one week ago, we might have not heard of Harambe while he was still alive but now that he is dead, his Swahili name full of fortitude and noble grace has come booming centrestage as a rallying cry from behind the locked Gorilla World enclosure of Cincinnati Zoo - the second oldest zoo in the US - as a painful reminder of our human failings. Such a tragedy is imputable to us in our tampering with the natural order, with the laws of nature.

Harambe the Western lowland gorilla

It's all about control with us. Yet animals do not belong in zoos or circuses. As the manipulators and controllers of nature - that we never leave alone to sort itself out - we humans have thrown it out of whack. Today we are faced with a shrinking wildlife count, the looting of our natural resources by Big Corporate (TransCanada anyone?), pollution at every corner of the globe and a galoping worldwide population whose consumerist needs and fads cannot be sustained.

Here the laws of nature had been flawed from before Harambe had even been conceived. The magnificent Western lowland silverback male gorilla, part of a critically-endangered species (traditionally found in the dense Central African rainforests), was born in captivity (at the Gladys Porter Zoo) on 27th May 1999 and relocated to Cincinnati Zoo in September 2014 in order to fulfill the gene pool and as a star attraction in his own right that got the zoo a bang for its buck in the entertainment stakes. Then last Saturday, an unsupervised 4-year-old kid intent on getting close and personal with the young primate, fell into the exhibit moat at Gorilla World. By that point, the writing was on the wall, bearing Harambe's name.

"Despite its massive size and ferocious reputation, the gorilla is actually a peaceful and social animal. Gorillas and humans are close relatives, and share many things in common. They are very intelligent, have emotions and personalities, and live in family groups." - Cincinnati Zoo, Western Lowland Gorilla

The inquisitive gentle gorilla, described as 'very intelligent and curious' by the zoo itself, dragged the kid out of harm's way (see video footage). Harambe wasn't acting out of sorts or displaying any animosity towards him. Yet the keepers didn't take any chances, because as much as zoos are artificial environments, we are still dealing with wild animals forcefully confined into unnatural habitats. And in a country where litigation and media are trigger-happy, so had to be the next course of action. Except this was anything but happy. Taking a chance with an inquisitive wild animal was not on the agenda, so the zoo’s own SWAT Team, the Dangerous Animal Response Team, was dispatched over and put control back into the controlled environment of the zoo: they shot Harambe dead.

It was, as The Conversation noted, a lose-lose situation that claimed the life of a gorilla pottering about minding his own business, a curious kid who soon enough will realise the consequences of his decision, and the keeper who ruled out tranquilizer shots, and instead took the great ape's life. No doubt will that guy be forever haunted by his decision, despite it being for the kid's best interest.

There is no happy ending to the story and no winner. Just one hapless chain of events triggered by an unsupervised kid (where were the parents?!) that spelt disaster along the way, not only to Harambe, but to the other gorillas, his former caretaker, the zoo staff, the kid's family, the local community, conservationists (Dr. Jane Goodall), animal lovers, and the animal kingdom at large. Hereby we have witnessed yet another failed experiment of human foray into wildlife, snatching it from the wild, parking it into zoos for breeding programmes and boosting the balance sheets, and making spectacles out of jailed animals plucked out of their natural habitats for our eyes only.

King Kong (1933), movie poster revisited by graphic artist Laurent Durieux, commissioned by Mondo.

And you know what? I cannot help but think of King Kong as I am penning this. Do you remember how the story goes? A magnificent gorilla plucked out of the jungle and brought back to New York City, which he then tries to escape, cradling in his hand a young American woman he had saved earlier on from an unchartered faraway island. No happy ending for this guy either. Before I bow out to honour Harambe's memory and legacy, I shall leave you with a ponder:

"Surely we can begin to agree that animals which share 98 per cent of our DNA should not be kept as entertainment for us to gawk at in a zoo." - Mimi Bekhechi, PETA UK Director, via The Independent.

Please join me in signing the Justice for Harambe petition.

Harambe

No Monkeying Around the Year of the Monkey!

PETA UK emailed me a bulletin last week that highlights the irony of 2016 as The Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Astrological Calendar. This is no reason for celebration because the assumption that monkeys will be more respected this year is only... an assumption.

Female macaque and her baby. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, from her book We Animals.

As far as honouring our primate friends, take a closer look. Irrespective of the Chinese New Year, monkeys will be disrespected every step of the way. Expect them to pay for their ultimate 'sin' of being the closest representative within the animal kingdom to our gene pool. For sure, monkeys will look fine and dandy (but will they be feeling this way?), paraded around in ceremonial attire and fancy finery in celebration of the Chinese New Year, but this is as far as lauding the monkey will go.

This year, like every year, monkeys will still end up as delicacies on the tables of the Far East, or feed the sordid domestic and commercial pet trade across the globe, or end up as tasteless trophies on some hunter's wall. But the Gallery of Shame doesn't end there. They will still be snatched off the wild in paradisiacal hotspots like Mauritius and stowed away in sinister breeding farms before being lucratively traded like mere commodities to the notorious cages of Primate Products, Inc., and on to the death labs of the National Institutes of Health (USA) and the unsuspected science departments of seemingly 'friendly' universities out there.

Injured macaque. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

This year, like every year, monkeys will still be tampered with, tested upon, and submitted to the unspeakable: the immoral, unethical and utterly dispensable cruelty of vivisection: animal experimentation that gives a bad name to science and those who make a living out of it, in their despicable justification that pain to animal is gain to science, and to humanity at large, and all performed in the name of medical advancement and clinical progress and the beautification process of our made-up environments and any item thereof that demands a little animal intervention.

I could keep on painting a dark picture of monkey life in 2016. Yet by taking action - rather than turning a blind eye and looking away from these disturbing vignettes - will we be able to lift off the darkness that shrouds monkey life. There are good people out there. Individuals like you and me, ordinary folks, unsung heroes who lead decent lives and try their bit to make this crazy world a tad more sane and humane! There are high-profile defenders of the noble animal cause, and those who have specifically dedicated their lives to primates, like Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, while some like Dian Fossey tragically paid with their lives the price for their dedication! There are photographers like Jo-Anne McArthur who through her compelling project We Animals has made it her goal to document what is really going on out of sight, out of mind, behind close doors, and beyond official PR.

Scared macaque. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

It is a moral duty of mine to expose the flip sides, so that you do not get yourself fooled. What you are shown and told by the (mainstream) media and the globalist political agenda, do not take at face value! Go scratch the surface, do a little dig and see for yourself and think about it and make up an opinion that is yours. Meanwhile the Year of the Monkey will truly be a cause for celebration for me the moment monkeys are restored their dignity by those who stole it from them in the first place: their cousins, We Humans.

Female macaque with her young. Photography by Jo-Anne McArthur, ibid.

P.S: All photography in this article by Jo-Anne McArthur, taken at a Macaque Breeding Farm in Laos. Her awesome book We Animals - which I recommend you purchase - features arresting text and photography that will shake you to the core!

P.P.S: Act your bit now by signing those two important petitions: (1) Cruelty Free International's petition to urge Mauritius to stop exporting its monkeys to the USA and Europe for lab experiments! (2) Dr Ruth A. Decker's petition to University of Wisconsin against the unethical torture and killing of baby monkeys!