Free Republic

Deceptive Chimp Hides Ammo, Blasts Unsuspecting Zoo Visitors - (Santino just 1 second before the throw.) A chimp that creates hiding places for rocks he throws at zoo visitors reveals for the first time that humanity's closest living relatives can plan to deceive, researchers say. These findings could shed light on the evolution of higher mental functions such as planning, investigators added. The chimpanzee known as Santino is the dominant male of his group at Furuvik Zoo in Sweden. Intriguingly, past research showed the ape calmly gathered stones from his enclosure's moat and pieces of concrete he pulled off an...

Cheeta the chimpanzee, who starred in Tarzan movies alongside Olympic swimmer-turned-actor Johnny Weissmuller in the 1930s and ranked #1 on EW.com’s list of the 10 Best Monkeys at the Movies, died of kidney failure Saturday. According to the Suncoast Primary Sanctuary’s outrach director, Cheeta was “roughly 80 years old, loved fingerpainting and football and was soothed by nondenominational Christian music.” Roughly 80?! Way to live, chimp! That’s amazing! (Cheeta was an anomaly; the average zoo chimp dies around age 35-45.) I sure hope my favorite chimp lives that long.

After 20 hours of surgery, more than 20 surgeons, nurses and other medical professionals in a Boston hospital have given Charla Nash the new face she has waited for for more than two years. Nash was mauled by a chimp in February 2009 at her friend’s Stamford home. The pet chimp, named Travis, destroyed Nash’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth. It left her permanently blind. Doctors said it was a miracle Nash even survived. Soon after the attack, Nash was moved from a local hospital to the famed Cleveland Clinic, known for performing the first successful face transplant. At that...

In a grueling, 20-hour operation, a 30-member surgical team under the leadership of Dr. Bohdan Pomahac at Brigham and Women's Hospital performed a full face and double hand transplant....

Who knew the Dilbert guy, Scott Adams, was such a controversial figure? The cartoonist behind the hapless office drone (but not the one who inspired Office Space. That was Mike Judge’s Milton) has found himself in hot water of late, first for comparing women to “children and the mentally handicapped,” and now, for defending Marilyn Davenport, the Republican official who sent emails depicting President Obama as the offspring of chimpanzees. Ironically, Adams’ defense of Davenport is embedded in a lengthy manifesto about the deleterious PR effects of sticky internet rumors:

After Attack GRAPHIC IMAGE! NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut woman who was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee says she repeatedly warned the animal's owner that the primate was dangerous and could hurt someone. In a telephone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Charla Nash said she saw the chimpanzee throw large objects around his cage, flash his teeth and pound the bars so violently his hands would bleed and the cage had to be rewelded. Nash, who appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Wednesday, said she told the owner, Sandra Herold, eight or 10 times he was dangerous.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut police officer who shot and killed a chimpanzee last year after it mauled a woman has been denied a claim for workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder because state law only applies to police shootings of people.

Is This Haunting Picture Proof That Chimps Really DO Grieve? MICHAEL HANLON 27th October 2009 [Pic in URL] United in what appears to be deep and profound grief, a phalanx of more than a dozen chimpanzees stood in silence watching from behind the wire of their enclosure as the body of one of their own was wheeled past. This extraordinary scene took place recently at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon, West Africa. When a chimp called Dorothy, who was in her late 40s, died of heart failure, her fellow apes seemed to be stricken by sorrow. Enlarge Chimpanzees...

New Book Debunks Human-Chimp Similarity by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Evolutionary science repeatedly declares that chimps and humans are 98 percent genetically identical, which is then taken as solid evidence that mankind evolved from an apelike ancestor. But a former BBC producer’s new book has found reasons to emphasize research that is often overlooked by evolutionary advocates—scientific results that reveal the uniqueness of man. In Not a Chimp: The hunt to find the genes that make us human, which was reviewed in New Scientist magazine, evolutionist Jeremy Taylor investigated not only the genetic distinctions between humans and apes, but also the...

Human-Chimp Similarities: Common Ancestry or Flawed Research? by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.* In 2003, the human genome was heralded as a near-complete DNA sequence, except for the repetitive regions that could not be resolved due to the limitations of the prevailing DNA sequencing technologies.[1] The chimpanzee genome was subsequently finished in 2005 with the hope that its completion would provide clear-cut DNA similarity evidence for an ape-human common ancestry.[2] This similarity is frequently cited as proof of man's evolutionary origins, but a more objective explanation tells a different story, one that is more complex than evolutionary scientists seem willing to admit...

Random example:

London, July 2 : Late King of Pop Michael Jackson's old friend Bubbles the chimp will not be attending his funeral. The ape will be kept 3,000 miles away when Jackson is laid to rest in California, and it will spend the day listening to "calming flute music" at the animal sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida, where it presently lives. "It is sad for Bubbles but it is better that he stays here," the Sun quoted a spokesman for the Centre For Great Apes as saying. He revealed that staff at the centre have "not said anything" to Bubbles about Jackson's...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - A former chairman of the South Carolina Election Commission has apologized after his posting on Facebook suggested a gorilla that escaped form a Columbia zoo was an ancestor of first lady Michelle Obama. Minutes after the gorilla’s escape was reported Friday, Rusty DePass posted: "I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless." The comment has since been deleted, but DePass confirmed to WIS-TV that he made it, apologizing and saying it was a joke about statements Obama has made about evolution. DePass is a former chairman of the Richland County Republican Party. He didn’t...

Berlin doctors have refused to give a prognosis on whether Berlin zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz’ index finger had been successfully reattached after a chimpanzee bit it off on Monday. “There is a chance for the very destroyed finger, but it is not big,” head surgeon at Berlin's Marzahn district hospital Andreas Eisenschenk said on Tuesday, adding that though the bite wound is flush, there is a high risk of infection. “With chimpanzees there are some germs in play that we can’t control,” he said. As 55-year-old Blaszkiewitz was giving a tour through the zoo on Monday, he stopped at Pedro...

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut prosecutor says test results show a chimpanzee that mauled a woman had the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in its system. Stamford State's Attorney David Cohen said Wednesday that it's unclear if the drug played a role in the attack. The 200-pound chimp, named Travis, attacked Stamford resident Charla Nash on Feb. 16. Nash lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack. Doctors at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic say she is blind and faces two years of surgical procedures.

Any one watching this clown? He is going absolutely nuts about torture. "WE DON'T TORTURE. WE DON'T TORTURE... NOT IN MY NAME. I WANT OFF TH TRAIN." He sounds like a MoveOn moron.

STAMFORD -- Doctors say a Stamford woman who was nearly killed after being mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee suffered such extensive injuries to her eyes that she will be blind for life. Charla Nash, 55, has made significant improvement since losing her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the Feb. 16 attack, officials from the Cleveland Clinic, where Nash is being treated, said Tuesday. Full cognitive recovery, however, could take up to a year, they said. "She is now awake and is able to communicate with her family and caregivers," the clinic said in a statement. "As we have begun...

Man's best friend serves as model for understanding human social behaviorChimpanzees share many of our genes, but dogs have lived with us for so long and undergone so much domestication that they are now serving as a model for understanding human social behavior, according to a new paper.

Very interesting and very civil discussion about race, Obama, Eric Holder, and the ape cartoon called: "Abominations, Cartoons, and Cowards" Detail: Glenn calls John’s NAACP piece an abomination (03:52) John’s ideas for reforming the NAACP (07:02) Glenn’s memories of attending the Million Man March (02:28) Was that NY Post cartoon racist? (07:45) Prince Harry and the policing of discourse (03:06) Are we really “a nation of cowards” on race? (08:41) ~~~~ John McWhorter, professor, best selling author and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, is the more conservative. He earned his PhD in linguistics from Stanford University in 1993 and...

Cameras have revealed how "armed" chimpanzees raid beehives to gorge on sweet honey. Scientists in the Republic of Congo found that the wild primates crafted large clubs from branches to pound the nests until they broke open. The team said some chimps would also use a "toolkit" of different wooden implements in a bid to access the honey and satisfy their sweet tooth. The study is published in the International Journal of Primatology. Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "The nutritional returns don't seem to be that great.

Recently a photo of Barnes & Noble book display board was circulated widely over the Internet. The photo showed various books about President Obama around a central photo of a monkey book. Barnes & Noble claims some prankster did this intentionally. The photo shown in this site was the catalyst of this controversy. The photos shows a book on monkeys “Monkey: A Captivating Look at These Fascinating Animals” with a number of books around it focusing on President Obama and his wife Michelle. The book chain Barnes & Noble deny someone deliberately placed the monkey book in the display. They...

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers. Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles. Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further projectiles. The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology. There has been scant evidence in previous research that animals can plan for future events.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (March 4) - A Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee two weeks ago lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids and may be blind and suffering brain damage, and hospital officials say it's still unclear if her condition can improve at all.

"People don't have a clue, they just want to condemn me," Herold says while wiping away tears. "My friends told me anyone who wants to look into whether I have a history of abusing animals will come up empty. Travis was my son and if they want to say I'm crazy or nuts for calling him that, go ahead."

STAMFORD -- The 200-pound pet chimpanzee that mauled a Stamford woman nearly to death last week was cremated early Wednesday. Eileen Donofrio, office manager for All Pets Crematory & Remembrances in Stamford, said Travis the chimp was cremated at the request of the family.

"The View's" Joy Behar believes last week's controversial New York Post cartoon which mocked the recently enacted stimulus bill represented an assassination threat on President Barack Obama. She even wonders if the author should be investigated by the FBI.

[video] Any day now, psychiatrists are going to walk right onto the set while they’re taping The View and take Joy Behar away to a nice, padded room. She actually said the infamous chimp cartoon is “an assassination threat” on President Obama. Seriously. She said that. We’re not making it up. “I think you can be investigated by the FBI,” she declared, “if you make an assassination threat.” Coming up next week on The View, Behar suggests that Angelina Jolie should adopt Little Orphan Annie, demands increased unemployment compensation for Dilbert, and congratulates Doonesbury on his enlightened drug policy. Then,...

A third apology may not be enough. Chimpgate continues, though Rupert Murdoch himself has offered a mea culpa..

All the pundits are talking about the recent cartoon by the New York Post’s Sean Delonas, showing a chimp shot by two policemen who say, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The prevailing view among the bloggers and talking-heads is that the cartoon is a racist depiction of Obama as a monkey. Al Sharpton has taken the opportunity to grab the media spotlight by condemning the cartoon. New York Post employees are reportedly “unhappy and ashamed” of the “offensive cartoon.” The media love arguments about race. NAACP wants NY Post editor and cartoonist fired...

Forget the stimulus -- this one moved really fast. From the Humane Society: U.S. House of Representatives Passes Captive Primate Safety Act WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2009) — Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of the New York Post cartoonist whose drawing lampooning the federal stimulus bill has drawn charges that it's racist and encourages violence toward President Obama. Speaking at the civil rights group's annual meeting in New York, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that if Sean Delonas is not fired, the group will call for protests of the paper and Fox television affiliates, which are owned by Post parent company News Corp.

Come to your own conclusions...

No one can tackle the toughest societal quandaries like a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. They don't monkey around ... or chimp around ... or ape around. (I promise, I am not thinking of a black person here).Ladies and Gentlemen, The Captive Primate Safety Act is on its way to becoming law. (Let your cerebral fanfare bellow out across the fruited plane). And while there was no white smoke coming from the Capitol Building chimney to indicate when it was actually passed, a page was said to be seen tossing bananas from the roof.The House of Representatives was clearly not fooling...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight days after a 200-pound chimpanzee critically mauled a woman in Connecticut, the House moved Tuesday to ban the transport of monkeys and apes across state lines for the purpose of selling them as pets. The legislation to prohibit interstate commerce in primates also passed the House last year, but bill sponsor Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the "horrific chimpanzee attack" that stunned the nation last week would bring "renewed urgency" to the need to pass the bill into law.

Forget the stimulus -- this one moved really fast. From the Humane Society: U.S. House of Representatives Passes Captive Primate Safety Act WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2009) — Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass...

STAMFORD, Conn. - The brother of a woman mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee in Connecticut last week has been appointed her conservator, and is taking legal steps to prepare a possible lawsuit on her behalf. Stamford Probate Judge Gerald M. Fox Jr. appointed Michael Nash as temporary conservator to his 55-year-old twin sister, Charla, on Tuesday.

"I would respectfully suggest that having your face ripped off is not the same as just an animal bite, a nip here or scratch there," Blumenauer said. "We are dealing with animals that have the potential of inflicting serious damage and death." He estimated that up to 400 chimpanzees are kept as pets in the United States.

NEW YORK (WPIX) -- Outrage and protests continue to mount over The NY Post's controversial cartoon interpreted by many as comparing President Obama to a chimpanzee that was shot and killed by police in Stamford, Connecticut last week. Reverend Al Sharpton on Sunday called for a special City Council hearing, urging the city to refrain from advertising in The Post. The civil rights leader, along with other local lawmakers, is also asking for the FCC to review the waiver extended to News Corp and Rupert Murdoch, which allows them to own more than one television station and newspaper in the...

Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was in front of a classroom full of black and Latino kids, drawing presidents. He sketched Bush, then Clinton. Next came his favorite, the man he voted for: Obama."Hey, those lips are big," Alcaraz heard a black girl say from the back of the room. Alcaraz was disturbed. "I try to bend over backwards not to make him look like a cartoon stereotype," and certainly not a racial stereotype, he said. Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation's first black president. And when they don't, the result...

I would love to see the NY Post go with this cartoon next. (I already sent it to them)

Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of the New York Post cartoonist whose drawing lampooning the federal stimulus bill has drawn charges that it's racist and encourages violence toward President Obama. Speaking at the civil rights group's annual meeting in New York, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that if Sean Delonas is not fired, the group will call for protests of the paper and Fox television affiliates, which are owned by Post parent company News Corp. "There is consensus that if the Post does not ... get rid of the journalists who are responsible for...

Filmmaker Spike Lee led the call for celebrities to join a boycott of the New York Post Friday during a raucous protest of a racially charged cartoon. Joined by his 11-year-old son, Lee told a crowd of about 300 people that he has bought the tabloid in the past - but no more. And he suggested athletes and entertainers shun the paper's writers because of Wednesday's cartoon, which compared President Obama with a crazed chimp by some interpretations. "This is not the end," Lee told the demonstrators, who marched in front of the Post's offices near Rockefeller Center shouting, "Shut...

It's not over yet. Public interpretation of gunned down chimp cartoon goes into phase 2, Rev. Sharpton included.

Sandra Herold's chimp, Travis, was out of control.

How do you view the New York Post's apology for its chimp cartoon? Not necessary 53% 24512 Not enough 37% 17036 Just right 10% 4546 Total Votes: 46094

[image] Reverend Al Sharpton if offended, horrified, and absolutely disgusted that a New York Post political cartoon compared – in his mind – Barack Obama to a monkey. And that comparison is RACIST. Seemed to us that we’d seen numerous cartoons and PhotoShopped images comparing former President Bush to monkeys. So we did a few Google Image searches. “Bush” and “simian” generated 38,000 images. “Bush” and “baboon” got 46,300. “Bush” and “orangutan” got 48,800. “Bush” and “chimpanzee” got 132,000. “Bush” and “ape” got 170,000. “Bush” and “chimp” got 182,000. “Bush” and “gorilla” got 356,000. “Bush” and “monkey” got 1,220,000. Hard...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Post apologized on Thursday to those offended by an editorial cartoon that critics said was racist because it likened President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee. The newspaper acknowledged that the cartoon published on Wednesday had drawn controversy because African-Americans and others saw it as a depiction of Obama. "This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize," the paper said in an editorial on its website headlined "That Cartoon." "It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill. Period," the paper said. The...

STAMFORD, Connecticut — Travis the chimpanzee's relationship with his owner was closer than those of some married couples. Sandra Herold gave him the finest food, and wine in long-stemmed glasses. They took baths together and cuddled in the bed they shared. Travis brushed the lonely widow's hair each night and pined for her when she was away. If she left the house alone, Travis would give her a kiss. "If I left with someone Travis would get upset," Herold said Wednesday. Experts say the unusually human relationship would have been confusing for any animal. It may have also played a...

NEW YORK (AP) - Some 200 people chanting "Boycott the Post! Shut it down!" marched in front of the New York Post on Thursday to protest a newspaper cartoon that critics say compares President Barack Obama to the chimpanzee that was shot dead by police in Connecticut.