22 July 2008
I came across an interesting, thought provoking article yesterday. Writing about it gives me a breather from all my political haranguing. What caught my attention? The plight of the chimpanzee. Now who gives much thought to chimps? Believe it or not chimpanzees are an endangered species. Their habitat in equatorial Africa is deforested and they are hunted as bushmeat. Chimpanzees share as much as 98 percent of our genetic makeup, but nobody is bothered by seeing them used like clowns in advertising and cartoons.
For generations we have been amused by their antics on greeting cards and in TV programs and commercials without realizing that chimpanzees do not have a safe and comfortable existence. We condone putting funny clothes on them so that we can laugh at the way they look like subhuman buffoons. To me this becomes a moral question. “The way we view chimps may not be as repugnant as racism, bigotry or sexism but is does serve as a benchmark for society’s moral progress”. Food for thought.
In reality, chimpanzees face a severe threat in the wild: their numbers have dropped to about 20 percent of what they were a century ago, as their habitat in equatorial Africa is deforested and they are hunted as bushmeat. And once you know this, it can become more difficult to view chimpanzees as silly subhuman caricatures. Consider that chimpanzees share as much as 98 percent of our genetic makeup. They make and use tools, recognize and identify hundreds of individuals in their groups and learn from others skills like termite fishing. Of course, the reverse is also true: we are 98 percent chimpanzee. Would we condone putting funny clothes on human children so that we could laugh at the way they look like subhuman buffoons? The way we view chimps may not be as repugnant as racism, bigotry or sexism but is does serve as a benchmark for our society’s moral progress.
A progressive society should weigh the moral costs and benefits of practices like these. Misrepresentations of chimpanzees may not be as repugnant as racism, bigotry or sexism. But they can still serve as a benchmark for our society’s moral progress.
The good news is that a growing number of companies, including Honda, Puma and Subaru, have pledged to stop the use of primates in advertisements. The journal Science recently stopped its promotional campaign featuring chimpanzees in hats reading the magazine. That two consecutive Super Bowls have gone by without a major ad campaign featuring a chimpanzee is reason for optimism. Sometimes, success has to be measured in small increments.
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