Above: Keisha is intense about her stick as she romps in the rain. Photo by Francine Orr see more storm photos at the Los Angeles Times.
So the local storm has me in again and shoveling snow like crazy. I moved all appointments to later in the week. Dogs love the snow but this is so fast and deep that I haven’t actually ventured out much past my deck and staircase.
I loved this photograph of the dog in the raincoat playing in the rain. She is a bit intense about it, too. Because it was a great shot I thought I would look up the photographer and this is what I found:
Francine Orr has worked as a photographer for the Los Angeles Times since 1999 and has worked extensively in Asia and the Pacific.
Orr has also spent time in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa, Angola, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Federated States of Micronesia and has has won a variety of awards including a Best of Photojournalism.
You can find more of Francine Orr’s photos at Getty Images.
Chimp Attack: The Travis Travesty
News commentators mistakenly refer to Travis the chimpanzee as a “monkey” (chimpanzees are apes) and reports that Travis was “fully domesticated” are erroneous.
Wild animals are just that–wild animals. They may have been trained but are not tame critters.
Domestic animals have been selectively bred for traits that keep them amiable for life with humans over multiple generations and thousands of years.
Chimpanzees are an endangered species and wild animals in captivity have few captive bred generations.
Because of the media and ads such as those on Career Builder, people think that chimpanzees are amiable and cooperative creatures. (A travesty that suggests they are humanlike and amiable.)
They are not.
Fortunately the chimps got their pinks slips but the ads were very popular.
Chimpanzees have been portrayed as human-like in a variety of situations since the 1930s when Cheeta made appearances in Tarzan.
Ham and Enos, the astrochimps, were famous for their trips into space.
And then of course there are the chimps that communicate such as Washoe (who passed away in 2007 but whose story is found in Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees) or Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human.
But those of us who have worked with such creatures know how dangerous they really are and don’t take such potential lightly.
Chimps: The Dark Side is just one documentary that reveals the other side of chimpanzees.
I also remember one called, Chimp Wars (or something similar) but have not been able to find the reference. (Leave a comment below if you can help me on this).
Anyway, there is speculation that the hair color changes of the victim (or that perhaps the influence of lyme disease) might have influenced the chimps behavior.
Uh let me clear something up here–Travis, even though he was trained, was a large, adult chimpanzee.
The News Times reported:
Excuse me–played?
Somehow people mistakenly think that wild animals can be good pets but this chimp was misbehaving (or behaving like a normal chimpanzee) not “playing innocently.”
In the past it was possible to obtain wild animals and keep them as pets but this practice has been severely curtailed in many states such as California.
Even so, people somehow manage to have wild animals as pets.
From the same article I quoted from before:
Did I read that right? The fine is only one hundred bucks? Plus the dangerous animal list is lacking a few species.
Someone needs a spanking…
USDA requires permits for those holding wild animals but who else monitors private exotic pet ownership in Connecticut? (I am waiting to hear back on this issue.)
Another one of my questions is why did they not have proper holding facilities for this animal?
Clearly they didn’t have good behavioral control over him as evidenced by the previous reported incident.
Need I mention that there did not seem to be any contingency plans for capturing or restraining this animal?
Charla Nash, the friend who Sandra Herold called to help her “coax the chimp” back into the house, is currently in critical condition.
The unfortunate part of this story is that because of owner error a few people were injured and a captive wild animal lost his life.
Most of you know that I do not support the private ownership of wild animal pets.
In this case the woman had no business housing or transporting such an animal–much less asking for help from a friend to contain a large captive chimpanzee.
This is a tragedy but it also shows how irresponsible animal ownership can go bad.
Here is the Sandra Herold 911 call during the chimp attack on Charla Nash:
Wayne Pacelle at HSUS wrote:
There will be more commentary in the days and weeks to come.
Read More:
Want another opinion on this? Watch the video below.