Chimpanzees Are Suffering in Human Homes and Roadside Zoos

Posted by Calvin on September 13, 2024

HBO’s docuseries Chimp Crazy shows how humans exploit chimpanzees for their own personal gain. In nature, chimpanzees spend the first several years of their lives learning crucial skills from their mom and playing with their siblings. But selfish breeders have torn these primates away from their moms at just months, weeks, or even days old to sell them as “pets” or use them as gimmicks. 😡 Here are some of these chimpanzees’ stories:

Bow

In nature, male chimpanzees are total mama’s boys and never leave the group they were born into. But when Bow was only 1 month old, he was taken from his mom and sent to live in the Missouri home of Aya Katz, where he remains today. He’s never been with another chimpanzee since his abduction.

Ricky

For decades, the Rosaire-Zoppe fam forced chimpanzees to perform in a traveling circus. They were yanked by rope nooses around their necks and forced to do backflips on galloping horses. The Rosaire-Zoppes also exploited young chimpanzees, such as Ricky, for media productions. Instead of enjoying his life in a roomy habitat, Ricky had to do magazine cover shoots, TV shows, commercials, and photo ops—all for humans’ profit. 💰

Limbani

Limbani, one of the last chimpanzees in the U.S. kept in isolation, was taken from his mom as an infant to be exploited by the Zoological Wildlife Foundation in Florida. The facility is next-level sus: It is run by Tiger King villain and felon Mario Tabraue and has been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for not providing primates with what they need.

George

George was born at a Hollywood, California, training compound and was used for photo ops at a casino when he was 16 months old. He was then forced to spend four years filming for a TV show in Germany, and when he was 7 years old, he was dumped at West Coast Game Park Safari in Oregon. Reviews of the shoddy roadside zoo often mention the lonely, depressed-looking chimpanzee at the front. 😢

Sugriva

Another Tiger King opp, Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, runs South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach Safari with his associates. He has been convicted of felony wildlife trafficking and has exploited baby chimpanzees, like Sugriva, for photo ops. Antle, his children, and his partners share content of themselves alongside Sugriva on social media—which misleads others into thinking that chimpanzees make good “pets.”

Magillan

Don’t be fooled—the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary is anything but a legit sanctuary. The Florida facility keeps primates in small concrete cells, isolates them, and breeds them so that more infants will be born into imprisonment. One of the oldest chimpanzees, Magillan, has reportedly never lived with grass beneath his feet in his 50 years at Suncoast. 😰

Petunia

According to records, Hovatter’s Wildlife Zoo in West Virginia got Petunia when she was only 10 days old. The facility has been cited by the USDA for not providing chimpanzees with enough enrichment, including ignoring the special needs of infants and juveniles.

Louie

When Louie was only 6 weeks old, he was shipped to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to be exploited at the DeYoung Family Zoo. Later, he was kept all alone in a small cage. We don’t know whether he has any companionship with others of his kind to this day, and he’s probably forced to live inside all the time during the frigid Upper Peninsula winters.

*****

Wanna watch a docuseries that shows PETA’s work to save exploited chimpanzees? Check out HBO’s Chimp Crazy—you can earn peta2 points in our Rewards Program just by watching!