Re: TV ALERT: Michael & Bubbles -Animal Planet Documentary
FYI:
This is what they had to say last year...
The King of Pop’s Animals
07/01/2009
Bubbles, the chimp formerly owned by Michael Jackson, now lives at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida/Credit: Center for Great Apes
With the tragic and premature death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, on June 25th, many people have asked where his famous animals will end up? Turns out, most of them have long since passed beyond Michael’s care, but where they’ve gone, and why, tells an interesting story as well as an important lesson.
Jackson loved animals from a young age. His first number-one hit, “Ben,” which came out when Jackson was merely 14, was a tribute to his pet rat. The most famous of Jackson’s pets was arguably Bubbles the chimp. Jackson acquired him in 1983 as a young animal born into a biomedical research facility, and treated him almost as his own child.
Jackson dressed Bubbles in diapers and clothes, communicated with him with sign language, brought him to the recording studio and press junkets, and reportedly even shared the same toilet with him. Jackson also had several favorite pets including a gigantic python named Muscles and a yellow-naped Amazon parrot named Rikki. When Jackson opened the Neverland Ranch in 1988, where he built an amusement park and private zoo at the 2,800-acre property where he also lived, he housed many more animals including two tigers named Thriller and Sabu, giraffes named Annie Sue, Rambo, Princess and Jabar, multiple macaws and parrots, and several other animals.
Despite all the controversy and hullabaloo the media made about Jackson’s chimp pet and Neverland Ranch, it seems clear he dearly loved his animals. Despite opposition to his wild animal ownership by PETA, which filed a formal complaint against Jackson for neglect at his ranch, officials that investigated found no evidence of neglect on the ranch. Freddie Hancock, who took over several of Jackson’s animals at her
Voices of the Wild Foundation’s Banjoko Preserve in Page, Arizona, after Jackson moved from the Neverland Ranch in 2005, has said the animals were well cared for. Thriller and Sabu the tigers now reside at
Shambala, a big cat sanctuary in Acton, California run by Tippi Hedren, mother of actress Melanie Griffith. In a tribute statement on Shambala's website, Hedren says, "They, as did 98% of the animals requiring sanctuary at the Shambala Preserve, came with no bank account or dowry." She also said that despite Jackson's deep love for animals, "It is a grave human error to acquire a wild animal as a pet" and made a plea to Jackson fans that if interested, perhaps they could pay homage by donating to help care for the tigers and other animals she and her staff care for. The sanctuary opens to the public once a month for safaris.
As far as Bubbles, the chimp split time between Jackson’s private residence and his trainer Bob Dunn’s place during the years that Jackson kept him as a personal pet. At one point, though, like all wild animals taken as personal pets, Bubbles became too strong and unpredictable for Jackson to handle, and he started to reside with Dunn full time. In 2005, Dunn retired from his work, and donated Bubbles and several other apes to the
Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, where he still resides along with other chimps and orangutans.
The Center for Great Apes houses several apes previously used in show biz. Ragan actively campaigns against any use of apes in Hollywood movies or even print ads, and Jane Goodall also disagrees with the practice according to statements on the Goodall Institute’s website. For apes used in showbiz, not only do they separate the infant chimps from their mothers at very young ages, the animals only get used for a few years before they’re too old to be easily handled even with trainers, but they can live to be over 50 years of age. A study published in the journal
Science suggested that when people see the extensive use of chimps in TV, movies, and ads – often dressed up and acting like humans – they assume they must be thriving in the wild, a dangerous misconception since they are endangered, with their habitats severely threatened in the wild. In the study, nearly 40% of people did not think chimpanzees were endangered, while 96% correctly identified gorillas as endangered and 91% with orangutans. The reason most people chose was, “because chimpanzees were commonly seen on television, advertisements, and movies and, therefore, must not be in jeopardy.”
Ragan also believes great apes should never be pets. The reality is, even though they seem cute, fun and intelligent when they are young, they inevitably become too much to handle. If someone with the wealth and resources and love of animals that Jackson had could not handle a chimp for the duration of its life, that speaks volumes. Typically, after the owner can no longer handle the animal, usually after only a few years, they have to find the animal a new home. But zoos don’t want animals raised as pets, and the reality is facilities like the
Center for Great Apes, and the
Save the Chimps founded by the late Carole Noon (which I blogged about recently -
Chimps Lose an Unsung Hero), are at maximum capacity. All of these organizations seek donations to help pay for housing, food, and care for their animals, and the recession has hit their donations hard, like everyone else.
Those interested in helping support Michael's animals or their animal friends, can sponsor one of Michael’s animals previously housed at Neverland Ranch at the
Banjoko Preserve website, or can adopt a chimp through the Center for Great Apes. The Center’s home page currently features some
fascinating info about Bubbles personality. Also please remember Sabu, Thriller and other wild cats at
Shambala.
http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news/2009/07/the-king-of-pops-animals.html#comments
