One chimpanzee–they call him Tommy–spends every day in a cage in a shed on a used trailer lot. Just outside the cage is a small, old TV playing children’s cartoons. The cement walls are painted with faded jungle scenes like you’d see in an elementary school classroom. The person who “owns” Tommy claims Tommy likes being alone in this cage. Like many people in his position, this person defends his treatment of Tommy by saying he saved him from a worse fate. Tommy used to be used for human entertainment, and it’s believed he’s one of several chimpanzees who were beaten on the set of the movie Project X. When his previous owner died, he wound up here.
The other chimpanzee is named Kiko. He too lives in a cage, but his owner appears to regularly bring him into the house or outside using a makeshift leash, which consists of a thick metal chain tightened around his neck and secured with a padlock. He too was beaten on a movie set (Tarzan in Manhattan) but not by his current owner, who, like Tommy’s owner, believes he’s given him a better life.
Tommy and Kiko were the NhRP’s first clients. Tommy died in 2022, “curled up in his sleeping spot” inside a building at a roadside zoo in another state, according to public records. For years, in response to questions from reporters who joined the NhRP in trying to track down Tommy, his owner in New York claimed not to remember where he sent him. Kiko died in 2016. His owner never announced his death and appeared content to allow activists concerned about his well-being to believe he was still alive.
When self-aware, autonomous nonhuman animals like chimpanzees have the right to liberty, it will no longer be possible to deprive them of their freedom. The NhRP’s court cases to free Tommy and Kiko made legal history for all nonhuman animals seven years ago this month when a New York US state high court judge wrote that the failure of the New York courts to grapple with Tommy and Kiko’s lack of freedom and lack of legal rights “amounts to a refusal to confront a manifest injustice.” We’ll share our Executive Director’s take on the importance of this historic judicial opinion next week.
Our fight for chimpanzees’ right to liberty continues with our court case to free seven chimpanzees from a roadside zoo in Michigan–the same zoo where Tommy died. Donate today to help us continue to fight for fundamental legal change for nonhuman animals, and your contribution will be matched up to $10,000 thanks to a generous donor.
