Chimpanzee Blackie does not deserve what life has been offering him. Lonely in a small enclosure in Sorocaba Zoo, he has to endure day after day the astral hell that means the presence of hundreds of people, especially on holidays and weekends, who harass him with their cries, mess and provocations. Days ago someone showed us a video, filmed from a mobile, of how the public mistreated him, thinking, ignorantly, that were pleasing him.

Those in Sorocaba Zoo who are raising difficulties to his transfer, only by personal and institutional vanity, should reflect. A gesture of magnitude of the officers of this Zoo, which is a public property, not a private property, would be to agree to his release and transfer to the City of Chimpanzees, which is a little more than 20 km far away and where 54 of his peers live in large open spaces, free within their territory, without having to endure the absurdity harassment of a public that does not respect the minimum rights they possess.

Ten years ago, Sorocaba Zoo, on its own initiative, when we shared the same veterinarian, offered us the delivery of a male chimpanzee, Caco, similar to Blackie. Caco suffered from hallucinations, self-mutilation and lived doped with tranquilizers to support the public harassment in a tiny cage.

Back then we were starting with our Sanctuary; just had babies, and 3 or 4 adults. Friends advised us not to take Caco, since it was an unrecoverable case, after more than six years exposed to the public and all those disturbances of his personality.

Caco came into our lives like a hurricane. He was an awfully sick being, for what his last years in Sorocaba Zoo had caused him. Mutilation in his legs, which he tore pieces, made it difficult to treat infections. It was an obsession that persecuted us. When we heard his desperate cries, we knew that a new crisis crashed him, and us.

We consulted psychiatrists and a treatment based on Prozac prescriptions, maximum isolation for a while and the process of adapting with a mate changed his life. Caco stopped with the self-mutilation and with the crises in which he introduced objects into his ears in an attempt to erase the headaches he felt.

Few of us visited him, only those in whom he trusted; we never took the press or sporadic or medical visitors to see him. Little by little we were reducing Prozac and Caco did not self assaulted anymore or had outbreaks of violence against anyone. He will NEVER be normal, will always live in his little world, will remain impotent and his companion, July – who sacrificed her life to save him and loves him – will be with him and will help him to forget his past, and hers, which was also dark in Piracicaba Zoo.

There is no struggle between humans. There is no vanity struggle. There is no fight of Zoo versus Sanctuary. These lines have only one goal: to save Blackie’s life, since we could not save his companion, Rita, who died, as we predicted, two years ago.

The Mayor of Sorocaba, Antonio Carlos Pannunzio, has in his hands our request, supported by Australian philosopher Peter Singer – founder of the GAP project, who wrote a letter about Blackie’s need to be in the sanctuary when he visited the Great Primates Sanctuary of Sorocaba in 2013. Blackie deserves no longer be exposed to the public in the solitude of his room, when we know that several of his peers live together in a community where his species is respected and not used for human entertainment.  Several environmentalists and local politicians who already know Blackie’s have supported his transfer and had taken their opinion to the Mayor.

However, on this occasion, I address to the Zoo leaders to not block the transfer, as they are starting to try to do. The leaders of that Zoo know exactly where Blackie will be better; do not take it personal and have mercy with a being that has been explored all his life to the limit, for the entertainment of those who still think that showing animals is something that people want.

A decade ago, we repeat, Caco, who lived alone, was sent to the sanctuary when there were not yet all the infrastructure built in recent years, and we managed to give him a life free ot hallucinations and phobias. Blackie had been with us temporarily 6 years ago, along with his dead partner, and at that time we tried that they stayed with us. However, the Zoo did not agree with the proposal, even though there was a risk he lived alone, as it happened.

The proposal is opened and we are giving the opportunity to Blackie to live the last years of his life together with their peers, not humans.  It’s the least that those who scored delivering Caco should do now: save Blackie and give him a life with a future.

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President, GAP Project International

ATTENTION TO THIS CALL:

All those who agree with our request can present their support to the Mayor of Sorocaba, Antonio Carlos Pannunzio, since the fate of an innocent chimpanzee is in his hands, and depends ONLY on him. His email is acpannunzio@sorocaba.sp.gov.br