Dr. Jane Goodall, the worldwide respected primatologist and bioethicist, has called upon the British Government to continue not to use great apes in research, just as the blockbuster movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes premiered in the UK and the USA. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes' storyline is based on humanity's use of primates for laboratory experiments.
Director Rupert Wyatt insisted on using computer-generated imagery (CGI) for the animals as he explained at a Comic Con interview that we "…wanted to tell our story without using live apes for any number of reasons. It would be a cruel irony to tell the story of the exploited and repressed and use live apes to do so.”
In a PETA article, Rupert Wyatt explained that his movie’s main theme is humanity's mistreatment and abuse of apes. Wyatt has received a PETA Proggy Award which recognizes companies, people, and products for animal-friendly achievements. The movie company 20th Century Fox, backer of the project, received PETA's seal of approval for the film's use of CGI and spotlighting animal rights messages.
The use of CGI to depict animals is to be applauded, and the Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie contrasts greatly with another recent movie, Water For Elephants starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson, that also had a principal theme of human cruelty against animals but opted to use live animals in the film.
In conjunction with the Humane Society International (UK), Dr.Goodall is calling on the British government to not relax the legislation relating to the use of great apes (gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan and bonobo) in lab experiments. Since 1997 great apes have been excluded from experimentation, though a new 2010 European Union legislation may allow their use in exceptional circumstances. January 2013 is the date by which the UK government must decide to include the clause or not.
Dr. Goodall, and the HSI are asking the British government to eliminate all primate experimentation, with Goodall explaining that “Chimps are remarkably sentient animals whose capacity to suffer from the deprivation and trauma of laboratory life, cannot be in question. I have visited chimps in labs and seen firsthand their distress from constant confinement and invasive procedures. I fully support Humane Society International/UK in urging the British government to safeguard its ban and would like to see it take further action to achieve primate-free laboratories worldwide in the future.”
Approximately 4,500 experiments are performed on primates such as macaques and marmosets annually. The UK is Europe's second largest user of animals for research and the highest user of primates. The UK government has pledged a national reduction strategy.
Worldwide, the United States is the only developed country that continues large-scale confinement of chimpanzees in laboratories, with almost 1,000 lab-held chimps, many of whom have been held captive for more than 50 years. The Humane Society of the United States, via its Chimps Deserve Better Campaign, is working to end the use of chimps in U.S research and hopes to retire them to permanent sanctuaries.
written by Nene , August 26, 2011
Show/Hide comment form
written by Anna , August 19, 2011