THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260427
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLES SEABROOK, COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
After years of intensive studies with pygmy chimpanzees and other apes, a scientist says their human-like emotions, intellect and ability to acquire language should make the apes eligible for ``semi-human'' legal status.
Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, whose language research with apes has garnered international acclaim, acknowledges that such status would raise immense moral and legal issues concerning their use in medical experiments and keeping them in zoos.
In a new book, she says that after nearly two decades of working with chimpanzees and pygmy chimps, also known as bonobos, she is convinced that their emotions, intellect and consciousness are at least ``morally equivalent'' to those of profoundly retarded children.
``We certainly would not put these children in a zoo to be gawked at as examples of nature,'' the Georgia State University researcher says, ``nor would we permit medical experimentation to be conducted on them.''
She says the same respect, dignity and legal protection should be granted to the great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas.
``The moral boundary, artificially erected by us (between the apes), is no longer defensible,'' she says.
The debate over animals' moral rights is centuries old. Many of the great philosophers, including Rene Descartes in the 17th century, said animals cannot think and therefore have no moral rights.
In recent years, however, animal rights groups have staged strident demonstrations and campaigns to halt the use of apes and other animals in scientific experiments.
Savage-Rumbaugh, herself a target of some of those protests, says she supports an effort in Britain mounted by a group known as the Great Ape Movement to grant the apes semi-human legal status.
She says, however, that she is not advocating ``mainstreaming'' apes into society. One answer, she says, is to leave them alone on preserves in the wild. That view, however, also is fraught with problems, such as where to move the apes once the reserves become overpopulated.
Savage-Rumbaugh says her studies, many of which have been done in conjunction with her husband, Duane Rumbaugh, shattered the notion that only humans can acquire language.
The research was done at Emory University's Yerkes Primate Center at GSU's Language Research Center.
Her new book, ``Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind,'' written with science writer Roger Lewin, focuses on a bonobo by that name. Born at Yerkes, Kanzi has shown an amazing ability to acquire language, communicate with humans by punching symbols on a special keyboard, express sadness, joy, anger and other emotions and even make jokes and tell little white lies.
He also has shown tool-making ability - hitting two stones together to make primitive tools the way early human ancestors did, Savage-Rumbaugh says.
Now, at age 14, Kanzi appears ``to be making his first efforts to speak,'' she says. That feat, however, may be impossible because of the shape of the ape jaw, vocal cords and other structures.
Bonobos, similar to chimpanzees but smaller, are regarded as highly intelligent. ``In their anatomy, social behavior, vocalizations, sexual exploits, infant care and mental abilities, bonobos possess an eerie human quality,'' Savage-Rumbaugh says.
In recent years, researchers Alice and Beatrice Gardner taught a chimp named Washoe to converse with humans through sign language, and researcher Francine Patterson at the University of Oklahoma suggested that she could converse with a gorilla named Koko through sign language. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
by CNB