Diana was a chimpanzee who lived with humans as part of a family for 16 years. Andres, a human child of same age, was raised together with her. They shared their games, adventures, desires and anxieties. The human society ended up locking her in a zoo and did not allow her to visit her human family. Here, she summarizes her story behind the bars of her cage. Diana speaks for her and all her equals:

"This report begins with my departure from Africa, marked for no compassion. By the way, does compassion have place in the natural world order? Where were and where is my place in this world? In which world? In that jungle? The one of the diamonds? The one that swallos the wetlands? The one wich restrains? What Which expels? Infected by mosquitos, premonitions? The one with the cages and glasses?

I was in Dakar airport, Madrid, Ezeiza, begging for my master not to leave me, otherwise I e would be two times orphan and would not be saved. I had the privilege of knowing human love and returned that love as men, with tenderness and jealousy, suspicion and with faith. We share 99% of our DNA, but this difference is the tiny border that I could not overcome. In both worlds I was a pathetic character, divided, a kind of animal Don Quixote. The price of civilization was to convert me into a neurotic citizen, as it happens to all who can not enjoy their rights. No matter I was not able to enjoy my rights, but I have them. Right to freedom. Right to life without torture. Property right. And I voted. I voted for my human family. The family soul guides me and nobody can say for sure if I was closer to silence than words.

Andres, my child, has grown up. Now  he is a prince. He comes to visit me in secret because of my process of adaptation. They say it. Should I adapt myself to grief?

When they splited us, they hurt our precious connection of childhood. However, the interstices are still open. We look each other with the silent and urgent message of the irreparable. We grab the rafters of the cage, my hands covering his. Our silence has the power of a ray that goes through and outlines in a new light that the rest can not see. He is always with me, his slender figure, hir pale skin of fine porcelain, his gestures of a nervous man. Both of us close to 20 years old. The age of glory. The sadness tooks place for only a few months, but the inexorable process of desolation has already begun. And will never go away.

It is recorded this kind of animal report of my life. I press the control of the recorder: Click. Perhaps this is the one and only audible sound, because my unbearable din looks like the cry of a lost child in a world where nobody listen to them. "

This happened in Cordoba, Argentina. Diana died months after being locked inside the zoo, when the authorities banned  her to live with his human family. Andres, his human brother, died four months later, in the prime of his life. Sadness struck  them both.

The book "LA SELVA PERDIDA, One Animal Autobiography," by Neli Torres, published in 2011 in Argentina, tells the story of Diana and her human family. Everyone should dedicate some time to read it.