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Book Review: The Great Ape Project: Equality beyond Humanity

Book Review: The Great Ape Project: Equality beyond Humanity ATLA 22 385-391 1994 Book Reviews--- could have luxurious yachts to moor in the THE GREAT APE PROJECT: Mediterranean. As in many other contemporary EQUALITY BEYOND HUMANITY situations, the United Nations appears unable to Edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer offer a solution to a problem which it failed to Fourth Estate, London, 1993 foresee or to prevent. 312 pp., £9.99 It seems pointless to demand an "extension of ISBN 1-85702-126-6 the community of equals" to other great apes, when we cannot guarantee the right to life, the protection The Declaration on the Great Apes demands the of individual liberty or the prohibition of torture to extension of the community of equals. to include all the vast majority of the great apes of our own great apes- human beings, chimpanzees, gorillas species, for whom their "precious moral status: and orang-utans- and to extend to them the right inclusion within the sphere of moral equality", to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the described in the first paragraph of the Preface, prohibition of torture. would only be a pipe-dream, even if they knew To mark this declaration, 34 authors from nine about it. In view of what is really going on in the different countries have written from the world, I found Richard Dawkins' reference to perspective of their own experience with great apes. admitting other "great apes to the charmed circle Some of them are very well known: Jane Goodall, of human privilege", written, no doubt, from the Douglas Adams, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Clark, cloistered comfort of New College, Oxford, to be Tom Regan, Richard Ryder, Gary Francione and naive and distasteful in the extreme. I have just Geza Teleki. They tell of the joy of encountering heard a BBC World Service reporter describe the our fellow great apes in the wild and of conversing Rwandan refugees as "expendable pawns in with them, and they discuss our relationships with somebody else's power game" - so much for them from many points of view- anthropological, privilege! educational, ethical, ethological, legal, The case for extending the basic ideal of equality philosophical, psychological, sociological and to all great apes having been made, we must now zoological. face up to the problem of what we do about it. As For those who were not already convinced, and far as I am concerned, the solution that is sought, I definitely was, there is a wealth of opinion and especially in a continent such as Africa, must also sound evidence to support and justify the Great take account of what is happening to human Ape Project. However, I must admit that two populations there and of our failure to meet our aspects of this book deeply disturb me. Firstly, obligations to them. chapters by David Cantor of People for the Ethical Thus, what is needed is a sound and coherent Treatment of Animals, by Betsy Swart of Friends strategy which embraces all the great apes. That of Animals, and Geza Teleki of the Committee for would be a far more laudable ambition than seeing the Conservation and Care of Chimpanzees, the most significant aspect of the Great Ape Project describe how appallingly bad the real situation is as being "its symbolic value as a concrete - our fellow great apes are being kept in small representation of the first breach in the species cages and subjected to painful experimental barrier", as the final sentence of this book puts it. procedures in laboratories, they are being imprisoned and humiliated in low-quality zoos, and Michael Balls their numbers in their natural habitats are dwindling, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the activities of human beings. The final chapter, The Great Ape Project- and Beyond, by PERSPECTIVES ON MEDICAL the Editors, is singularly weak on what should actually be done. All they can suggest is that an RESEARCH, Volume 4 international body should be formed under the Edited by Stephen R. Kaufman & Kathryn Hahner auspicies of the United Nations. MRMC, New York, 1993 That brings me to my second concern. I do not 78pp., Soft US$10.00 Hard US$15.00 believe that such a body would have "an immediate ISBN Soft 0-9623858-9-1 Hard 0-9623858-8-3 practical value for chimpanzees, gorillas and orang­ utans from all over the world". I write this at the This small book, the fourth in the series produced height of international dismay and paralysis at the by the Medical Research Modernization Comm­ plight of Rwandan refugees fleeing helplessly from ittee, is packed with dynamite. It could blow into a civil war, which, no doubt, involved the use of oblivion the feeble defences placed in the path of weapons manufactured in the so-called developed progress by those who so unwisely seek to defend countries, so that workers there could have all use of animal models, irrespective of the intell­ employment and a few international arms dealers ectual cost to their own reputations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Alternatives to Laboratory Animals SAGE

Book Review: The Great Ape Project: Equality beyond Humanity

Alternatives to Laboratory Animals , Volume 22 (5): 1 – Sep 1, 1994

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Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 1994 Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments
ISSN
0261-1929
eISSN
2632-3559
DOI
10.1177/026119299402200510
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ATLA 22 385-391 1994 Book Reviews--- could have luxurious yachts to moor in the THE GREAT APE PROJECT: Mediterranean. As in many other contemporary EQUALITY BEYOND HUMANITY situations, the United Nations appears unable to Edited by Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer offer a solution to a problem which it failed to Fourth Estate, London, 1993 foresee or to prevent. 312 pp., £9.99 It seems pointless to demand an "extension of ISBN 1-85702-126-6 the community of equals" to other great apes, when we cannot guarantee the right to life, the protection The Declaration on the Great Apes demands the of individual liberty or the prohibition of torture to extension of the community of equals. to include all the vast majority of the great apes of our own great apes- human beings, chimpanzees, gorillas species, for whom their "precious moral status: and orang-utans- and to extend to them the right inclusion within the sphere of moral equality", to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the described in the first paragraph of the Preface, prohibition of torture. would only be a pipe-dream, even if they knew To mark this declaration, 34 authors from nine about it. In view of what is really going on in the different countries have written from the world, I found Richard Dawkins' reference to perspective of their own experience with great apes. admitting other "great apes to the charmed circle Some of them are very well known: Jane Goodall, of human privilege", written, no doubt, from the Douglas Adams, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Clark, cloistered comfort of New College, Oxford, to be Tom Regan, Richard Ryder, Gary Francione and naive and distasteful in the extreme. I have just Geza Teleki. They tell of the joy of encountering heard a BBC World Service reporter describe the our fellow great apes in the wild and of conversing Rwandan refugees as "expendable pawns in with them, and they discuss our relationships with somebody else's power game" - so much for them from many points of view- anthropological, privilege! educational, ethical, ethological, legal, The case for extending the basic ideal of equality philosophical, psychological, sociological and to all great apes having been made, we must now zoological. face up to the problem of what we do about it. As For those who were not already convinced, and far as I am concerned, the solution that is sought, I definitely was, there is a wealth of opinion and especially in a continent such as Africa, must also sound evidence to support and justify the Great take account of what is happening to human Ape Project. However, I must admit that two populations there and of our failure to meet our aspects of this book deeply disturb me. Firstly, obligations to them. chapters by David Cantor of People for the Ethical Thus, what is needed is a sound and coherent Treatment of Animals, by Betsy Swart of Friends strategy which embraces all the great apes. That of Animals, and Geza Teleki of the Committee for would be a far more laudable ambition than seeing the Conservation and Care of Chimpanzees, the most significant aspect of the Great Ape Project describe how appallingly bad the real situation is as being "its symbolic value as a concrete - our fellow great apes are being kept in small representation of the first breach in the species cages and subjected to painful experimental barrier", as the final sentence of this book puts it. procedures in laboratories, they are being imprisoned and humiliated in low-quality zoos, and Michael Balls their numbers in their natural habitats are dwindling, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the activities of human beings. The final chapter, The Great Ape Project- and Beyond, by PERSPECTIVES ON MEDICAL the Editors, is singularly weak on what should actually be done. All they can suggest is that an RESEARCH, Volume 4 international body should be formed under the Edited by Stephen R. Kaufman & Kathryn Hahner auspicies of the United Nations. MRMC, New York, 1993 That brings me to my second concern. I do not 78pp., Soft US$10.00 Hard US$15.00 believe that such a body would have "an immediate ISBN Soft 0-9623858-9-1 Hard 0-9623858-8-3 practical value for chimpanzees, gorillas and orang­ utans from all over the world". I write this at the This small book, the fourth in the series produced height of international dismay and paralysis at the by the Medical Research Modernization Comm­ plight of Rwandan refugees fleeing helplessly from ittee, is packed with dynamite. It could blow into a civil war, which, no doubt, involved the use of oblivion the feeble defences placed in the path of weapons manufactured in the so-called developed progress by those who so unwisely seek to defend countries, so that workers there could have all use of animal models, irrespective of the intell­ employment and a few international arms dealers ectual cost to their own reputations.

Journal

Alternatives to Laboratory AnimalsSAGE

Published: Sep 1, 1994

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