Wednesday September 1, 2010

THE GREAT APE PROJECT PUBLICLY APPEALS FOR ‘SILVESTRE’, THE NINE-MONTH-OLD ORANGUTAN NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM FAMILY TIES IN SANTILLANA DEL MAR ZOO IN CANTABRIA TO BE TRANSFERRED TO A ZOO IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The Great Ape Project criticizes the widespread practice of zoos, which, through a series of captive breeding programs, under the pretext of bringing in species to avoid extinction, move the great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) away from their families, breaking these established family ties, for the purpose of procreation. The apes are treated more like mere objects of trade, rather than individuals with feelings, like humans who love being with their own and with their family.

For our organization, this practice is cruel and unnecessary. The only way to perpetuate the species is to protect their natural habitat. Captive breeding is a quick fix that does not help to preserve the presence of a species or biodiversity. In the case of orangutans, the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo are their home and all the conservation efforts should be targeted to protect those rainforests.

For ‘The Great Ape Project’, the responsibility for the extinction of this species rests precisely in those countries where such non-human shipments are being made. By allowing multinationals to destroy the forests whilst the European Union bids on the Biofuel, whose raw material is palm oil. The same issues of doing away with the orangutans’ environment are also causing the killing or expulsion of indigenous people and farmers in Indonesia and Thailand.

In a press release, our Association denounces the practice of many zoos in Spain for making shipments of the great apes, particularly chimpanzees and gorillas, from one centre to another. They do these for a variety of reasons, not just to breed, but also because of problems within a Zoo’s own captive group; to increase the size of a Zoo’s population; lack of space to house the apes or lack of newborns.

"In 2005 the publication of the chimp genome proved our closeness to these species. The scientists who participated of the study, published at journal Nature, concluded that the status of the great apes should be reviewed, and especially of those in captivity, improving their treatment, respecting their social ties, offering the opportunity to develop physical, intellectual and social activity, providing a safe, healthy and humane environment, calling for scientists and states to improve the care of those in captivity and their respect. These were the scientific conclusions that were reached and to this point nothing is being met, and much less in a zoo. It is unacceptable that they remove the babies from their mothers with fake arguments such us mothers not being able to care for them properly. The mothers know very well how to care for their babies. They are removed from their hands for other unorthodox purposes. It is cruel to separate the bonds of friendship and blood of the great apes by putting economic interests first. We must protect the forests where they live. This is their only hope. Keeping them in zoos only make them suffer unnecessarily”, said Pedro Pozas Terrados, Executive Director of the Great Ape Project (GAP / GAP-Spain).

Pozas asks the Zoo in Santillana del Mar to cancel their decision of moving little ‘Silvestre’ to Monkey World in the United Kingdom and not to break the family ties that currently exist in Santillana del mar. We must remember that the great apes, including orangutans, suffer when separated from their friends and family, the same way as humans suffer. It would be a cruel act masked by a conservation program that is only intended to increase captivity, rather than provide a place of freedom through the conservation of its habitat.

The Great Ape Project calls on all citizens both in Spain and the UK to send letters to the zoos involved pleading for the nine-month-old orangutan ‘Silvestre’ not to be separated from his family. It is a call to all to take responsibility, according to the head of this organization, to stop treating the great apes as mere objects of fickle interest and instead for them to become a subject, with individual lives and feelings.

Great Ape Project – PRESS
END OF PRESS.

For more information please contact:

Pedro Pozas Terrados
Secretary General
The Great Ape Project / Spain
http://www.facebook.com/l/38a90E9Nu5qL2Iltw60zOO-I9_Q;www.proyectogransimio.org
nautilusmar@yahoo.es
Phone: 678 708 832