Bear with me while I stroll down memory lane for awhile. When I was a very young child, Zippy the Chimp was all the rage. I had my own stuffed Zippy, whom I dearly loved and toted with me everywhere. I also had the Zippy the Chimp Golden Book, well loved, well worn and well read. I don’t remember if the Cowboy Zippy pictured above was in the Golden Book, but I do remember seeing that picture a lot.
Fast forward a couple of decades. I was in Missouri visiting the St. Louis Zoo. I happened to be in The Monkey House (or whatever it was called at that time) and witnessed a baby chimp in diapers in his glass cage playing peek-a-boo with a human toddler. This game went on for quite awhile, much to the entertainment of all the human folks in the area.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was watching the news when a story came on, complete with video, of an elderly lady whose pet chimp attacked a friend. The chimp blew up, attacked the friend, sending her to the hospital. His human companion was stabbing him with a butcher knife and attacking him with a shovel before calling 911. The 14 year old chimp, Travis, was eventually shot and killed.
Not a pretty story. Certainly this was not MY beloved Zippy the Chimp I grew up with.
Later I read a commentary in the local StarTribune Paper written by British anthropologist Jane Goodall. The title? “Sorry – Not A Pet.” The New York Times also did a piece about this. It was in the Home and Garden section of the paper, Living Together, and entitled “My Monkey, My Self.”
My question for you: how the heck did we get to the point where The New York Times writes a piece entitled “My Monkey, My Self?” Or that a grown chimp lived with a widow, wore human clothes, ate ice cream and lobster at the dinner table, played with a computer and watched TV?
Did my beloved Zippy the Chimp have something to do in bringing us to this place of being?
I find it quite interesting that in the opening paragraph of this post I used the term “all the rage.” I never use that phrase. Could it be that the chimps/primates/animals are enraged that we humans think we are connecting with them when we take them from their natural state and attempt to turn them into human clones? What does that say about our own humanity when incidents like this occur?
I’m an animal communicator. I Talk2theAnimals. They are animals, not humans. They are animals who have their own code of existence, their own way of being, their own law of nature, their own Circle of Life. I respect that and honor that as much as I can. They are animals.
Perhaps the world would be a different place if we humans met the animals where they are in their existence, instead of expecting them to become “civilized” into our existence. Perhaps the world would be a different place if we humans began to learn from the animals, instead of expecting them to always “learn” from us. Perhaps the world would be a different place if we humans had the courage to look deep inside ourselves, get to know ourselves and be willing to grow and change ourselves for the better, instead of expecting Zippy the Chimp to make us better.
Harmony,
Janet Roper
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Brilliant, never a truer word spoken. Maybe if we began to stop, look and listen we would learn so much about ourselves from our animals.
‘What is this life if full of care’
‘We have no time to stand and stare’.
Much love
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment. This is such a tragic situation, all the way around. My heartfelt emotions go out to the woman who lived with the chimp, the woman who suffered the attack, and the chimp. I agree with you, we have the opportunity to learn from the animals, if only we take it.
Wouldn’t it be terrific if nothing like this ever happened again?
Harmony,
Janet