Hi,
Other than animal rights websites, I haven’t found any other websites or books advancing any of the following arguments, in particular
that smiling causes them pain
that they perform elaborate “rain dances” during downpours.".
These arguments made me rather suspicious. I look forward to your feedback.
“That’s right. It pains the chimps to smile, PETA said.”
“We started to understand them, too. Through Jane Goodall’s observations in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in the ’60s and ’70s, we discovered chimpanzees’ profound intelligence, that they make and use tools (such as twigs to extract termites from holes), mourn the loss of dead offspring, and perform elaborate “rain dances” during downpours.”
That’s nonsense. The chimp expression with bared teeth that we interpret as a smile isn’t really one (although it may be related), but I don’t think there’s any reason to think it causes them pain.
What they seem to be doing is taking something out of context from the Jane Goodall Institute and manipulating it to suit their purposes.
Her argument is that chimps shouldn’t be used in advertising and entertainment for a bunch of reasons; being separated from their mothers at early ages, being trained by showbiz animal trainers who often resort to cruelty, being forced to “smile” on command, etc. The argument is not only is it not good for the performing chimps for obvious reasons but it encourages people to make them pets or otherwise diminish the importance of conserving them and their habitats. And as one small side note in that big picture argument, she says:
PETA is twisting that message into a short sound byte. The “suffering and pain” is with regard to the overall process of making the chimps smile for the camera not the smile itself.
Over the years PETA has lost almost all credibility, at least with me and many animal organizations I know, as an animal rights advocate, but Jane Goodall can generally be trusted to give you the straight dope on chimps.