Programs & Campaigns

A Voice for All Animals

April 22, 2003

Boston Magazine
300 Massachusetts Ave.
Boston, MA 02115

To the Editor:

When I agreed to be interviewed by Michael Blanding ("Going Ape for TV") regarding the use of televisions as one source of enrichment for captive primates, I was crystal clear that I was not interested in participating in a silly, fluff piece that treated the topic as laughable. He assured me it would not. For the animals held captive in labs, zoos and sanctuaries, lives of utter confinement are anything but funny.

My shock at the photo (infant chimpanzees taken from their mothers and forced to perform no matter how terrifying or demeaning) created the backdrop for my disbelief. Not only was the tone set (chimpanzees are "silly" and can be laughed at) but the article didn't even get the facts straight: the Fauna Foundation is not a "kind of chimpanzee adoption agency." It is a sanctuary for chimpanzees who suffered dearly as former research victims. The off hand reference to "chips and beer" and your choice of quotes from lengthy, substantive interviews served your agenda to try to get a laugh but added no clarity to the issue.

Though my quote captured something of the real story, Boston Magazine did both its readers and primates spending their entire lives in a cage a major disservice. Billy Jo, one chimp mentioned, suffered 289 "knock downs," 40 punch liver biopsies and chewed off his finger in anxiety and despair -- nothing
funny there.

Boston Magazine should look elsewhere for its laughs and take the job of educating about the plight of animals seriously. It's no laughing matter.

Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D.
President
New England Anti-Vivisection Society
Boston, MA