Death penalty for poaching great apes

[Tristessa]

I just wanted to open this conversation....

Has anyone been in a zoo and looked into the eyes of a gorilla? Or a chimpanzee? It is a sad and eerie feeling as you look into the eyes of an animal who knows it has been imprisoned, and who is keenly aware that he is being gawked at. The animals know they are not supposed to be living like this. But sadly, I can't complain about zoo populations of great apes, because soon they and the ones being tested in labs will be the only ones left.

I believe that the killing of a great ape by man should be treated as a murder charge and should go to trial. Plain and simple. The animals have thoughts, emotions, souls. They are the brother of man.

Sorry I don't have too much more to add, my brain is FRIED right now and I just need to sleep...just wanted to open the discussion so I can see if people agree or think it's totally nutty.

 

[skunkape]

I'm pretty sure if you get caught poaching a protected species in Africa, it is your ass. I've seen video of rangers shooting elephant poachers from a helicopter.
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[Tristessa]

Sweet.

I guess my question was: do you guys consider apes to be persons? I surely do.

 

[skunkape]

I certainly consider many people to be apes.
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[Tristessa]

Please do not insult apes like that.

 

[Jose Collado]

You can't say an animal "knows" it's in captivity and that it appears "sad" from its facial expression. That's simply judging with human ideals. With animal being reared in captivity, you could say they simply don't know any better. Zoos are a great way for people top learn about the world around them. They aren't put into labs to study, they're simply exposed to an environment that closely resembles their natural conditions and studied. Not all zoos mind you. Some I assume lack in many departments.

Anyway...the laws of poaching should be harsh but when people who kill other people aren't given the death penalty, then how can anyone call for such a penalty over an animal? The death penalty doesn't stem the murder rate in society so I doubt it will do much to stop poaching.

 

[Xylo]

I certainly consider many people to be apes.
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As do I.

I think that all vertebrates have some sentience to them. Anyone that's had a dog has probably experienced a dog's sense of humor.

There's an interesting book entitled "When Elephants Weep" by Jeffrey Masson. It's an easy read and it's got some interesting observations in it as well.

In the last few days I have read about the predictive ability of bees and also watched a TV show on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel about Octopi and their ability to detect earthquakes in an area in the Mediterranean Sea. I think it's interesting that humans think that we're the most highly evolved creatures on this planet...yet we dismiss the notion of emotions, the notion of cognitive and self-awareness in the rest of the animal kingdom.

As far as great apes and chimpanzees, I personally feel that they have a greater awareness of their situation than we would suspect. I always think back to Koko and her fondness for her kitten, her ability to communicate through sign language and her general awareness of her situation.

I still don't know how I feel about taking the life of a human being as "Justice" in any case.