I've been meaning to write this for several months now, but I've been conflicted about it and thus unable to do so. On the one hand, I greatly admire the efforts of the chimp sanctuary. On the other hand, I must speak out against some aspects of it.
I visited the Canadian Chimp Sanctuary "Fauna Foundation" several months ago. Sadly, the visit left me feeling disheartened.
First off, I must say that the intentions of the founders and supporters of the Fauna Foundation are very noble and worthwhile. They have only the best interests of the chimpanzees at heart. They work very hard at trying to provide a good quality, permanent home to the wonderful chimps that "have been used, neglected, abused or rejected by humans", mostly in U.S. labs for "scientific" research. Even more importantly, chimp sanctuaries do a wonderful job in the campaign to end chimpanzee research.
Chimps in research live horrible lives. They are usually alone in crate like cages. They are forced to endure all sorts of tortuous abuses such as vaginal washes or liver punches-where the "scientists" remove a part of the liver for investigation, other biopsies, stressful knockdowns, and even attempts to infect them with HIV viruses. Coincidentally, I found this quote to be quite revealing: "Scientists would ultimately learn that chimpanzees do not contract AIDS from HIV infection."-Things that make you go hmmm.
At Fauna Foundation, the chimps are spared such torture, but they are not spared from human ignorance. The average lifespan of the chimps at the sanctuary is 35.5 years old-this was the average age of death of the six chimps that have lived at the sanctuary and died there. According to Jane Goodall, wild chimps start to look old when they are about 40 years old, but live many more years longer. Captive chimps have lived as long as 70 years old-the most famous being Cheeta the chimp from the original Tarzan movies or 66 year old Grégoire that Jane Goodall rescued. So what is going on at Fauna Foundation?
Of course, the previous abuse of the chimps before arriving at the Foundation must have been very deleterious to their health and longevity prospects. However, my visit proved to me that it is not just their past catching up to them. Their present conditions are also very unhealthy. The usual causes of death at the sanctuary are heart attack, diabetes and stroke!!! Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are preventable, even reversible and caused by diet and lifestyle-read "The China Study" by Dr. Colin Campbell.
Our guide tearfully told us the story of Billy Jo who at the age of 36, on Valentine's day 2006, while playing with some of the human caretakers, just fell down and died on the spot of an "unforeseeable" (according to the sanctuary's veterinary) heart attack. Common, western society human diseases that are unheard of in wild chimp populations as well as very uncommon in non western human societies are killing the chimps. Just looking at them and comparing them to their wild counterparts, one can see they are obviously obese with potbellies.
Diet is definitely the culprit in this tragedy. The chimps are fed cooked EGGS (the cholesterol, fat and other nasty, artery clogging ingredients in them is not proper food for humans let alone chimps) everyday for their supposed "protein" requirements-when is the darn protein myth finally going to be busted once and for all?!!!
According to the Foundation's calendar, Tommy-a resident chimp, pictured above, loves "Quaker oatmeal, raisin bread, Yves tofu dogs and Sunny Delight, his favorite orange drink". A volunteer comes to cook for the chimps regularly. "Tom's favorite recipe is: Oatmeal with baked apples". The ingredients are apples, cinnamon, cocoa, brown sugar and cooked oatmeal.
During the visit, the chimps were fed colorful candies and two dozen eggs were boiling to be fed later. When my friend questioned if the artificial food colorants affected the chimps behavior as it does in human children, the answer given was that what was important for the Sanctuary was the chimp's quality of life-implying that the candies, in part, gave them a good quality of life. This statement really bothered me because the obvious anthropomorphizing of human desires, culture and addictions onto the chimps does not serve the chimps at all.
Chimps are primarily frugivorous animals. In the wild, at least 80% of chimps' daily calories-ie the vast majority of their calories, come from raw, whole, fresh, ripe and most importantly uncooked FRUIT, not tofu dogs, raisin bread and orange drinks! It is obvious that the caloronutrient ratio of these chimps, probably not even known by the caretakers of the Foundation, is definitely high fat as well as very stimulating with things such as cocoa, grains and salt-I wish they would consult www.nutridiary.com to confirm this. The fruits and veggies I saw were low calorie fare and low quantities to boot-five delicious apples is nothing compared to the quantities of fruit a chimp would eat in the wild. That's barely 400 calories from fruit!
BTW, there's plenty of protein in fruit, nor is there too much protein such as is found in eggs/animal products. Bonobo chimps live almost exclusively on fruit. Yes, Jane Goodall has reported that chimps have been witnessed to eat meat, especially other monkeys that compete for the fruit trees as well as other animal products such as termites. They have also been witnessed to cannibalize their own infants. Does this mean they need to eat meat or cannibalize their infants for their nutritional requirements? NO. This is just a symptom of the excessive environmental pressure they are under from humans who keep cutting down their trees that feed them.
Chimps have taught us so much about ourselves. As Jane Goodall has stated, they are in fact more successful than humans in important ways. They do not over breed. They do not destroy their environment. They deserve better.
Now, how do I get this message across to the Fauna Foundation so that changes can be made? Please, Fauna Foundation, feed the chimps a whole, fresh, ripe, raw, mostly organic, low fat raw vegan diet and you will be able to love and take care of Tommy for many more years. Or will Tommy and the others continue to be victims of human arrogance and ignorance?
Follow up on this blogpost. I received this response from Gloria Grow, the Founder of the Fauna Foundation:
Thank you Gloria and I will print your response on my blog!!! I am really encouraged by what you are saying. I still feel that an exclusively raw diet that is low in fat, even raw fat from nuts and seeds would be much more beneficial to the chimps. Please read "The 80/10/10 Diet" by Dr. Douglas Graham to understand how cooked food, especially grains with their high glycemic index and even raw fats when they exceed 10% of daily calories are very damaging, especially for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
One of my conflicts, regarding the posting on my blog was precisely how to tell you. I wanted the message to be effective, yet not coercive because it is the chimps' lives that are at stake. When I talked about human arrogance and ignorance I was referring specifically to human's cultural biases, especially in favor of protein and cooking.
Again my sincere thanks for your prompt and reassuring response.
Marisa or Via as my web friends call me.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:47:25 -0400
Subject: Website
Dear Marisa,
It has recently come to my attention that you have put some information about the Chimpanzee residents of Fauna on your website. There are a number of inaccuracies on your website, that I feel need to be corrected.
It would be good if you would please contact me to clarify these errors. This way we could at least be sure to help you, or anyone who might read your website, understand, and know exactly what we do, and what is being done for the Chimpanzees living in our care.
Most important I feel, is to let you know, and your readers know, how very ill the Chimps were when they moved into Fauna, and how they have actually exceeded their expected lifetime, here with us.
The lifespan for captive Chimpanzees is nothing at all the same as their wild cousins, and this is a hard reality. We have not contributed to the deaths of the Chimpanzees here at Fauna, but in fact have extended their lives, with an amazing diet, of mostly fruits and vegetables. At Fauna, and other similar sanctuaries, it can cost up to $75.00 per day to care for a Chimpanzee. Our produce bill is approximately $1,200.00 per week, that is an enormous amount of produce, which includes, grapes, melons, mangoes, lemons, oranges, tangerines, bananas, (one chimp can eat up to 30 bananas a day if we let them) pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, starfruit, passion fruit, figs, cherries, strawberries, pears, peaches, plums, and I know I am missing many. The vegetables we serve is as diverse as it can be here in Quebec.
We try to serve at least 20 different fruits and vegetables per day, giving the Chimps a lot of choice, and variety.
Almost all our produce is served raw, with the occasional cooked serving. Cooked food in a day amounts to about one cup, per Chimp. This includes, oatmeal, Basmati Rice, squash bake, etc. The reason we hire someone to cook for the Chimps, is so we can control the content of the ingredients.
Another daily food requirement for the Chimpanzees are the nuts and seeds. Again, our list is extensive. We buy and serve as many varieties as we can, in shell and out of shell. We serve almonds, pecans, filbert, walnut, pinenut, pistachios (one of Toms favourites), and many more, as well as many different seeds from pumpkin, sunflower, etc. Again, you would simply have to look at our budget and see where we spend the money.
The Chimps live a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, as do I. It is very rare an egg or dairy be included in their diet. It is true we do have a little 32 year old Capuchin monkey, and a Long Tailed Crabeating Macaque that do eat a boiled egg per day. When these eggs are prepared they are done in the chimphouse for the week. Our little Sophie, the Capuchin does not eat much at all and weighs 3 pounds, she does like to eat the yolk of the egg, and she drinks Ensure, and prefers her food cooked, she is missing most of her teeth.
The information you give about wild Chimpanzees is completely accurate, but you would need to be much more informed about Research Chimpanzees, and the extreme damage done to their bodies, including their hearts, and organs. We consult with a lot of different people on what to serve the Chimps, for their different health problems.
There are a number of studies we would be very willing to send to you, so you could become more informed, and as you say less ignorant about the issue. Along with that, some of the papers we have worked on, that speak about the emotional problems the Chimpanzees in captivity suffer from, and the things we do here at Fauna to help them heal. These papers would give you a lot of insight and information about caring for and truly helping such destroyed Chimpanzees.
I admit I was ignorant in letting certain information be put in our calendar, not realising how it could be misunderstood, but I can assure you I am not ignorant.
I would have appreciated an opportunity to have an intelligent conversation with you, before you wrote your story. I could have at least helped you with some factual corrections, so you would not look as though you did not know what you were doing.
In the beginning of your story, you say you thought a long time before writing, and you respect the work I am doing, but I feel that you could have shown me a little respect, by at least speaking with me first, and possibly asking me questions, and seeing for yourself what I do inside the chimphouse, and not listening to someone else's opinion.
I am hoping you will take the time to speak with me. I left you a message yesterday, and would like to clarify this as soon as possible. If we do not get this fixed, then you will be doing a great disservice to all Chimpanzees, and I am sure you want to help, and not hurt.
As do I.
Thank you,
Gloria Grow
Founder, Fauna Foundation
P.S. Gloria, if a chimp feels like eating 30 bananas a day, why not let him? Why ignore the chimp's natural instincts? Many humans have been known to eat 30 bananas a day, including myself. In fact, I am a member of a forum called exactly that "30 bananas a day." This is also what I refer to as arrogance and ignorance. Why do you think humans know more what a chimp should eat than a chimp does?
P.P.S. This is the next e-mail I wrote to Gloria the next day:
Dear Gloria,
After receiving your reply, I've given more thought to how I could help you feed the chimps a more natural diet, closely mimicking what they would eat in the wild and I think I can help you save money too! I am completely willing to do this on a volunteer basis and would expect no remuneration whatsoever.
The 80/10/10 diet that I follow is basically a replica of the wild bonobo chimp diet, working under the paradigm that humans are cousins of chimps and other anthropoid apes. Our natural diet closely resembles theirs.
This diet has helped me recuperate from many ailments, as you can read from my first blogpost-How I became a raw vegan. I am very confident that it will help heal your chimp residents and even extend their lifespan further.
Please consider my offer, I am very serious.
Sincerely, Marisa
18 comments:
Send a copy of 80/10/10 to the management of the sanctuary. Hopefully they can extrapolate the ideas to other species. Why not post the email address of the sanctuary so some of your readers can email them and maybe they will get the message.
I think you're doing those animals a great service!
Also, this great comment from Andrew, another raw vegan who's writing style is fantastic.
"There are many different styles of writing appropriate for various purposes. I'd write a letter to my mother one way, an email to a girlfriend another, and an article for my website or newspaper yet two more ways.
If your goal is to become better at diagnosing a problem and explaining your solution in written form, then the key is to study the thinking and writing styles of those who were marvelous at it.
Dr. King was famous for his use of non violence and his thundering speeches, yet he was a man of great education, with powers of deductive reasoning which shock me to this day.
Find a copy of "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail," alternatively titled, "Why We Can’t Wait". You can probably find it online.
It illustrates how one can address critics (or those currently not sharing your mindset) and recruit them to a point of view. King's technique of accepting the validity of emotions and arguments before deconstructing them can be applied to almost all conflicts and causes.
He is also an excellent writer, although reading tastes have, unfortunately, shifted downward since his day.
I would avoid insulting anyone you wish to sway, as you will alienate them from your cause.
You say: "the chimps are spared such torture, but they are not spared from human ignorance."
If you're reading this and you're the chimp sanctuary people, you've been just called ignorant, whether or not you meant to call them ignorant. They'll likely take this from it: I'm being attacked. See how King deals with his critics kindly. He does not call them backboneless, which they were. He gives them the highest degree of respect. They are human beings doing a good deed. Give them that much at least.
As for style, I'd suggest you check out "Element's of Style", a writing classic.
Remember this: less is almost always more.
Let me know if you have more specific questions. This was typed on a miniature keyboard, so there may be typos."
As a loyal supporter and regular volunteer at the Fauna Foundation I was outraged to read this post on your blog. How dare you – you should be ashamed of yourself. I have written up my reaction to what you wrote and have posted it on my blog. I invite you to read it here http://nutsaboutnature.blogspot.com/2009/09/bizarre-fanatic-runs-off-at-mouth.html
Rest assured that when you have the good sense to remove your post that bashes the Fauna Foundation, I will remove my post that bashes you. Simple apologies will not be accepted. If you want my post to be removed you will have to remove yours first.
Dear Nature Nut,
I can understand you and Gloria being upset about my post, but I will not remove it. I was perhaps clumsy in expressing some of my sentiments. I do feel that a public discussion is better than a private one. There is no need to hide anything.
With deforestation and bush-meat hunting putting such enormous strains on the wild populations of the world. It is even more vitally important that captive animals be well fed and that their health and genetic heritage not be compromised.
You might wish to comfort yourselves in the knowledge that you're giving a better life to the chimps than they received in the past or that their past injuries are incurable, but why not explore the possibility that the diet you are feeding the chimps is not optimal?
Aside from a bruised ego, what have you got to lose? Yet, the chimps have everything to gain.
If you are so concerned about the residents of Fauna, you will stop writing your ignorant posts and let Gloria Grow and her staff devote themselves to their care, rather than responding to you.
Dear Ammcomms,
I will continue to post about inappropriate diet as long as I see chimps sick and dying prematurely.
Although I can see that you have good intentions, I really feel like you are misinformed about some of the things mentioned in your post. You say Jane Goodall noted that chimps have been seen to eat meat. On her website it says, "Chimpanzees eat fruits, leaves, blossoms, seeds, pith, bark and stems. They also eat a variety of insects and hunt and kill smaller mammals for meat. Their most common prey is the red colobus monkey." www.chimpanzoo.org , a website that's part of the Jane Goodall foundation, specifies "Fruit and vegetable species make up the bulk of the chimpanzee diet while insects, bird eggs and meat from small and medium sized mammals provide additional sources of food."You go on to say, "Does this mean they need to eat meat?" Just because they eat bananas in the wild, does this mean they need to eat bananas?? it just makes no sense. Do you want them to eat what they would in the wild? because then they would eat meat. Or do you want them to eat what YOU eat? Remember, this is not about you. It's about providing a safe haven for chimps that were brutally mistreated.
Jane Goodall's website also says, "Chimpanzees in the wild seldom live longer than 50 years." Wikipedia says, "Chimpanzees rarely live past the age of 40 in the wild, but have been known to reach the age of more than 60 in captivity". Another website says, "The age of 33 was estimated as the beginning of old age for chimpanzees living in the wild." Annie died at 42 years old, Billy Jo was 37 years old, Donna Rae died at 39, Jean died at 32, Sophie passed at 32 years old, and Pablo died at 31 (but read what was done to him! would you live to 31 after being "darted 220 times and having over 30 punch liver, bone marrow and lymph node biopsies"?? let's not forget, "he was only in his new sanctuary life for a short time"). Their average age at death was 35.5 years, not 34.5 as stated in your post. Yes, this is a small discrepancy, but proves that the information in your post is not correct. Only six chimps passed on at the sanctuary, not the nine quoted in your post.
Let's discuss what was done to these chimps, which you hardly address. Bone marrow biopsies are one of the most painful things you can have done. Billy Jo had three. Today, he has anxiety attacks that leave him "choking, gagging and convulsing". How about Jean? "Following a study in 1995, Jean had a nervous breakdown. For the next 2 years Jean was heavily medicated but the medication still did not prevent her from having aggressive seizures during which she screamed continually, ripping her fingernails off and thrashing out at anyone who came near her. To this day she suffers from the so called “floating hand and foot” where she will begin to attack her own hand or foot as if it were not her own." "Pablo used to scream when the doors to his unit were opened, terrified of what could happen to him or to one of his unit mates." Donna Rae: "Following one intervention, the pain was so intense that it put her into a state of shock. During her years as a research chimp she would endure many days filled with pain from lymph node and bone marrow biopsies, sex skin wounds inflicted during knock-downs, or the constant irritation that must have followed the perpetual vaginal washes. Continually mutilating herself, Donna always looked as though she had given up all hope."
Are you reading this?! THIS is mistreating chimps. THIS is the stuff nightmares are made of. I agree, IF fauna was not feeding the chimps properly, it would be horrible. But they ARE. The chimps are loved, fed, cared for, given toys, a place to sleep, blankets, a big open space to play in (no cages!)...so what if they eat a bit of sugar every once in a while? I even found this quoted from a research website on sugar - "In the 1990s, William McGrew, now at Cambridge University, reported that chimpanzees used sticks to dip into beehives and extract honey. Researchers have also discovered that honey dipping is a multi-cultural chimpanzee behavior; at different sites across Africa, chimps use different sort of tools to pull out the sweet stuff." Nowhere did I find that sugar was bad for chimps in any way. And it's not like they're eating it everyday. The oatmeal Tommy ate has less than 150 calories.
So just to clarify - have you studied chimps? Have you volunteered with them? Have you studied the biology of chimps? Have you ever even touched one? I invite you to look over the list of the members of the Fauna team - their qualifications far exceed anything that you or I could learn on the internet anyway - www.faunafoundation.org/html/team.html . They know what they are doing and have a wayyyyyyyyyy better understanding of chimps than you or I ever will. If you know for a FACT that there is something fauna can do to make the chimps' lives better, you know they will do anything possible to make it happen. Unfortunately your post is filled with speculation and assumptions from someone who is way over her head in something she does not understand.
One more thing...the Goodall Institute donated money toward an outdoor enclosure for the chimps at Fauna. I doubt Jane Goodall would want her name associated with a charity that did not feed chimps the right foods.
Dear Allison's Photography,
Excellent, excellent posts and comments-thank you! This is the kind of discussion I was hoping for. I also appreciate the corrections you've added.
You're absolutely right that I'm not an expert, but I have done a lot of research and will continue to do so and write about it in the hopes that it will help Fauna Foundation as well as other organizations that care for captive primates.
However, does it take an expert to make the observation that no wild animal cooks their food EVER, and especially not on a daily basis? There are products caused by cooking that are very dangerous, especially for a wild physiology that has never been exposed to it.
There is also the problem of excess fat in their diet. Knowing nutrition as I do, this was obvious to me when Gloria talked of daily nut consumption. Depending on the quantities served, it could be as much as 800% more than their wild physiology has ever been exposed to on a daily basis (if they're eating 40% of their calories from fat instead of their usual 5% in the wild). I will expound on this more in later posts.
If some expert has advised Fauna Foundation to serve cooked oatmeal instead of more fruit and 800% more fat than they do in the wild, then they seriously need a second opinion.
Fauna Foundation is not alone in this tragedy either. As more and more captive lowland gorillas are "mysteriously" dying of degenerative heart disease, scientists are finally starting to question if the "perfectly balanced" monkey chow they cooked up and have been feeding the gorillas for years is the culprit.
It is Pottenger's cats all over again, but on a massive, multi-species wide scale. This is the arrogance I'm talking about. Humans thinking they can do better than nature.
Finally, I will address the meat eating once again with regard to the chimps more elaborately in the future. It is not because they occasionally, but very rarely, eat meat, eggs etc. that their nutrition depends on it-quite the opposite-it correlates to parasite problems and other health issues in the wild.
One more thing Allison's Photography.
Fauna Foundation is now caring for quite a few chimps that originated from the Québec City zoo. These chimps have never been exposed to the horrors that the experimental chimps were exposed to. Why are they are obese and starting to suffer from metabolic disorders such as diabetes and cardio vascular diseases at relatively young ages?
Again, these are diseases that are unheard of in wild populations at the same ages.
Hi Via,
I think it's terrific that there are people like Fauna Foundation who are so unselfish that they voluntarily spend their time and money on saving and helping some of the primates that we humans consider commodities. It's a very serious and sad situation for most of the animals that inhabitate this planet as well as for humans to allow this tragedy to occur.
It's really a wonderful thing to have any foundation or group that goes beyond the planning stage but really is doing something about this.
On their methods of caring for these animals, I do believe that the philosophy of most standard populations is very different from ours (i.e. people who have read 80/10/10 and observe it's information). We know and understand natural hygiene and the power of the body to heal and rejuvenate health as long as there is still life force. This is poorly understood by 99.9% of the population so expecting these people to understand these subtle ideas is really unexpected. I hope that someone amongst the foundation would be willing to read books on natural hygiene and maybe even become acquainted with the concepts. This would be a great help to ensure these animals a better life.
I think the idea is to educate the humans and not to call them ignorant but to see them as part of the solution and not the problem. They are devoted and caring people who want to do the right thing.
I wish that we natural hygienists could get together and pool our resources to open a sanctuary for animals like Fauna and then we would be an example of how these precious animals can live the healthiest existence possible under the unfortunate circumstances in which they would come to us. At the moment this is not possible so we need to just try to encourage the people who are doing this to try to experiment with some more natural methods of feeding and lifestyle. Maybe we can invite some of them to health and fitness week or to some of the presentations by Dr. Graham to see what the potential of nature really is.
Since these people seem to want to do what is best for the animals, they would likely be open to seeing the potential of nature on a natural species.
One thing we all agree on is that we all want what is best for these beautiful animals!
Hi Via,
Me again...just in case someone who actually knows mathematics comes to see this I wanted to correct the numbers (my math degree won't be worthless afterall!)
This is from Nature Nut's blog comments:
"Now if we do the math your way, yes, I agree - if you eat 2500 calories worth of bananas (approximately 22 bananas) you will be consuming almost 24 grams of (incomplete) protein. But the USDA recommendation for vegans is .45 grams of complete protein per pound that we weigh. A woman weighing 125 pounds should try to get about 56 grams of (complete) protein each day. So 22 bananas per day is NOT enough to meet the recommendation – you would need to more than double your banana intake as a woman and more than triple it if you were a man. So before accusing me of not doing my math, you should check your own"
First of all the USDA recommends .8 grams of protein per kilo (of ideal body weight) and not .45. The .45 grams (which is per kilo not pound of ideal weight) comes from the world health organization, which by the way produce numbers that make much more sense as we all know the US population is the most obese and sick population in the world so who wants to follow the standards here anyways? If a 125 lb (assuming this is her ideal body weight - which means she is 5'6") woman did eat 22 bananas as was mentioned then she would get 22 X 1.3 grams protein (medium size bananas) which is 28.6 grams. The WHO RDA is .45 grams per kilo, so a 125 pound woman is about 57 kilos or requires 57 X .45 = 25.7 grams. So the 22 bananas will certainly cover the requirements. As far as complete or incomplete protein goes that is another issue but really the body doesn't even use (can't use) protein at all and must break it down into amino acids. Any correct science text book will show that the amino acids from bananas are much superior to those from animal products especially when they have been heated causing the protein to become carcinogenic and mutagenic. Raw, plant based amino acids are much more useable to the human and chimp body. It's not the kind of protein that the food contains but how easily the body can use the protein and absorb it (thus turning them into their base aminos). Pooping them out the way they came in is not absorbing them or getting any value out of them.
In the wild most primates do consume some meat and insects, yes but their diet is highly dominated by fresh ripe raw fruits and some leafy greens, shoots and the odd nut or seed. Nature doesn't make mistakes - the reason why fruits have the mix of micro and macro nutrients (which fit primate's requirements better than any other source of food) is for the usage by the animals which are most attracted to them for food and which have the means to harvest them. Primates (which includes humans) have opposed thumbs so that we can easily pick ready to eat ripe fruit, we have vivid color vision to discern the exact ripeness of fruit so we know when to pick them, we are born with a strong sweet tooth to attract us to the sweetest of the fruits, we have a sense of smell that gives us pleasure when smelling a ripe fruit, the puzzle pieces all fit together, it's a sad shame most of the world ignore this and instead prefer to grab the musket and go hunting for their dinner.
One last thing Allison's Photography and Nature Nut...
The scientific community is giving more and more credibility to the work of volunteer amateur scientists like you and I that diligently, passionately study, research and present their findings. The reason people like you and I can be more credible than scientists, if we work properly, is because we have one less bias working against us-that of financial interest.
Most scientists unfortunately have their own financial interests and survival in mind that skew their conclusions(for example where do I get my funding, which industry will support my work etc., etc.)
We all want what's best for the chimps.
Let's put our differences aside and work together at suggesting an optimal diet to Fauna Foundation for the chimps.
Here's some of my present sources: Dr. Katharine Milton (primatologist), Dr. Takayoshi Kano, Russell Tuttle "Apes of the World", Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. John Coleman, Dr. Dennis McKenna, Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Douglas Graham.
I have the privilege of having a husband who is a scientist and has easy access to scientific papers. I will properly reference these sources as I write more.
Is that so? Well maybe your time would be better spent trying to correct what you consider to be inaccuracies that have been published all around the world in books as well as in cyberspace – here are just two cyberspace examples:
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm
http://www.veganorbit.com/veganprotein.shtml
Unfortunately, when we go to the World Health Organization web site and search for the word protein (and restrict the search to their site only), the search comes up with no matches, so I am not able to support nor argue your claim that it is supposed to be .45 grams per kilo. Every reference I have found concerning protein recommendations for vegans is .45 grams per pound or .8 grams per kilo.
But this is all just a big waste of time. At least 95% of what the Fauna chimps eat all day long is fresh, ripe, raw fruits and vegetables. You have chosen to focus on a very small, insignificant part of their diets on which to base your criticisms. I am realizing now that the reason you insist on discussing this in public is because you actually think you’re going to come off looking like some sort of hero. I think I gave you too much credit when I wrote that you had balls. If your intentions had been sincere you would have made sure that you had accurate information about the chimp’s diets before starting any of this.
You see, what it comes down to Via, is that the Fauna chimps don’t need a hero – they’ve already got one. Her name is Gloria.
I've never disputed the fact that what Gloria is doing is heroic, but your adulation without objectivity does not serve the chimps.
The results could and should be better at Fauna Foundation. If it were true that I'm focusing on an insignificant part of the chimps diet at Fauna, the results would be much better than they are.
Keep the best interests of the chimps in mind and stop making this personal. It's not as if you have to make a choice between Gloria and I.
I realized before posting that telling a Mother Theresa of the chimp world that she is unwittingly poisoning her wards was not going to win me any fans with her admirers, but this really is all beside the point. The point being:
What is the optimal, natural diet for the chimps?
World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on Protein and Diet
The US RDA protein diet standards may be overestimated. The WHO Organization more conservatively puts our dietary protein needs at about half of the U.S. government minimum levels, or 0.45 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight. Although differing weight standards and food sources of protein may apply.
http://www.annecollins.com/protein-diet.htm
Dear Allison's Photography and Nature Nute,
Diabetes and Heart Disease are caused and exacerbated by excessive fat and cooked food in the diet.
Excess fat causes the pancreas to overwork in producing insulin and it eventually fails (type 1 diabetes). In type 2, the pancreas still produces enough insulin, but the fat prevents the insulin from escorting the blood sugar into the cells. Type 2 is reversible with proper diet.
Excess fat also causes heart disease as the thickened fatty blood vessels prevent oxygen from getting to the heart and it eventually fails too. Heart disease is reversible with proper diet too.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR THE CHIMPS.
Everyday they eat inappropriate cooked food and excess fat they will get sicker and die prematurely.
As I crunch out the numbers from the Fauna financial statements and present the data from my study of the wild chimp diet, I want your help. I don't want you to pat me on the back. I want you to seriously, but honestly, challenge every fact and figure I present that you disagree with. If you don't disagree with me, then help me present and promote it to Fauna Foundation.
I don't blame you for doubting my intentions and thinking I just want to steal the spotlight away from Gloria. You don't know me.
I will promise you this, one year after the chimps start eating their preferred, optimal natural diet several things will happen. First, their bodies will slowly but surely clean out the excess fat and cooked food. Secondly, if their condition is not irreversible they will get healthier.
At this point, I will gladly delete any posts that mention Fauna and you can pretend I don't exist and this discussion never occurred. You and Gloria will be able to celebrate in any fashion you choose without any mention of me, be it a press conference or a simple picnic together.
I will happily go about my life, eating my own fruity chimp diet secure in the knowledge that at least Fauna's abused chimps lived out their last days eating THEIR PREFERRED, OPTIMAL, NATURAL DIET.
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