Among the most nefarious things that men have done with the animal kingdom, the greatest sin is the destruction of family ties . In circuses, zoos, breeding and pet shop centers, they care little for the emotional bond between mothers, fathers and children of any kind.

Perhaps the most dramatic cases are among the apes, who suffer terribly from sudden and irreparable separation. When we begin to understand the world of the great apes,12 years ago, we saw how zoos and circuses manipulated couples ,births and reproduction .

For example, a zoo had a male chimpanzee and another, a female. For a period of time, they allow they to join and reproduce. The babies were ripped from the mother a few days after birth and were sent to the zoo that” borrowed ” the male specimen .They created contracts and agreements for those individuals, to specify whom the babies belonged to. Thus, it was created an industry of production of babies who were never with the mother, even when they were kept in their birth place. And when the mother did not nurse her son, in a few months she was ready for a new pregnancy .

How and when this separation mentally affected both parents and babies is a topic that no one cared to examine .Apart this nasty practice of stealing babies, they also divided families after a few years of living together.

Belo Horizonte Zoo, which received two young gorillas from England – shortly before the death of the lone male Idi Amin, who lived there – now, after the death of one of the exported young gorilla, is planning to destroy another families ties,, bringing two gorillas from Loro Park, who have a stable family life .

We have a terrible example of how a large primate may be mentally disturbed when it is separated from his mother, after a few years of living with her. Chimpanzee Pongo is one of the most disturbed at GAP Sanctuary of Sorocaba . He does not gets on well neither withother chimpanzees nor with any human . He has hallucinations, repetitive movements, claustrophobia and other disorders, because, in addition to having been separated from his mother after a few years living together, he was placed in a cage of a zoo for two years, which was still under construction in Fortaleza (northeast of Brazil).

Chimpanzees and gorillas, in particular, have a strong family life, permanent, rich in community activities and feel totally abandoned when they are taken out this environment.

Zoos of the European Community did not respect this family life. If an individual is lacking in any kind of a zoo, they take one of some other zoo and send to the destination where there was a gap.  An intense movement of species and families destruction is the result of this cruel policy, which considers the animals as objects of man, who can make ot their destination whatever they want .

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President , GAP Project International