Update: May 9
Subsequent to the initial press statements from the JGI and MTPA, an attampt to save the chimps was announced. Read about this here.
NELSPRUIT – The two chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) SA Chimpanzee Eden that attacked and severely injured an American research student in 2012, were involved in another attack on a human. After careful consideration, it has been decided to have them euthanised.
The chimps, Nikki and Amadeus, attacked Mr Andrew Oberle in June 2012. Oberle had apparently ignored protocol and climbed over a safety fence that served as a barrier to the main electrified fence, when he saw a chimp trying to drag a rock through the main fence.
Nikki and Amadeus probably saw this as a challenge to their territory, grabbed his feet and pulled him through the fence. They mauled him and caused serious injuries to his face, arm and groin. He was rushed to Mediclinic Nelspruit and was hospitalised for several months.
The chimps struck again on April 25.
Ms Margi Brocklehurst, managing executive of JGI SA, said a team had been busy inspecting the fence line at the time of the incident. Nikki charged the electric fence and despite being shocked by a 1 200 volt electric current, he managed to scale two fences and attacked Mr Andrew Frances. Amadeus also tried to climb over the fence, but was held back by the electrical current. Both returned to their enclosure after warning shots were fired. Frances sustained minor injuries.
“Every possible option from relocation to a more secure environment, to building a special stainless steel cage to house Nikki and Amadeus were investigated.
“However, keeping primates and other wild animals locked up in small cages is against everything that JGI and the founder Dr Jane Goodall stands for,” Brocklehurst explained.
The JGI SA ethics committee, comprising the Wildlife Protection Unit, Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, a veterinarian, as well as executives and management of JGI SA convened on Tuesday to discuss the chimps’ future.
“The committee unfortunately recommended euthanasia as the only possible solution,” Brocklehurst said.
Goodall added it is tragic when situations such as these arise, but given the trauma that some chimpanzees suffer, there will unfortunately be instances where this outcome is unavoidable.
“The work being done by Chimp Eden is too important to jeopardise.
“There are 34 chimps at the sanctuary and many others that are out there in need of refuge. We need to ensure the sustainability of Chimp Eden so that every rescud chimp will continue to be affored a second chance at life.
Mr Dries Pienaar, head of CITES at the MTPA, agreed they had reviewed the incident very carefully. “The first attack might have been attributed to some error on Oberle’s part, but this time, the victim had done nothing wrong. These chimps are not being deterred by a fence anymore and are not afraid of humans,” Pienaar explained.
“Anything could have triggered the attack. These primates were raised by humans and the employee might have reminded them of someone who had treated them badly in the past.” The option to relocate them to a zoo elsewhere in the country was considered, but none of these establishments were suitable. “These zoos also have to accommodate members of the public and employ humans who take care of the animals. Relocating them would have meant simply transferring the problem,” he further explained.
It is not clear yet when the apes will be put down, but it has been decided to donate their carcasses for research.
Pienaar said it was a very sad moment when the decision was taken to have them euthanised. “Nikki and Amadeus proved that rehabilitation does take place at Chimp Eden. They became wild again, to an extent. That is probably also why they had attacked, in an attempt to protect their territory.”
Amadeus (1991)
Amadeus was kept chained up outside a petrol station in Luanda, Angola to attract customers. When he arrived in South Africa in 1996, he was transferred to the Johannesburg Zoo and lived there for 10 years, some of it with Nikki.
Nikki (1994)
Nikki was kept as a pet and humanised in Liberia. He was totally shaved apart from having a little boys’ hairstyle, learnt to eat at the table with cutlery, wiped his mouth with a serviette, wore specifically designed chimp costumes and a gold watch, was bathed regularly and even slept in a bed. He was transferred to the Johannesburg Zoo in 1996 and lived there for 10 years.
Source: www.chimpeden.com
My heart is breaking. It is such a sad, sad world that we live in, that euthanizing an animal has become ‘the only way’ as an option to protect human beings. Put a human in that enclosure and see how they’d react. After everything these chimps have been through, it is a disaster that their lives would end this way. At the hands of the very same people and institute that is supposed to protect and nurture them. Surely there MUST be another way? Mr Pienaar states that the chimps are not afraid of humans anymore, but the question is, why should they be? They are WILD animals, enclosed or not. They should be treated with the utmost respect, and their lives should be valued. Whatever happened to the first ‘victim’? He climbed over the fence, into THEIR space, yet the chimps are to blame. As I said, it’s a very, very sad world that we live in isn’t it?
Yet again an instance where humans do the damage, and the animal gets punished for doing what comes naturally to it. Funny, when humans attack each other, they don’t get ‘put down,’ maybe that should change!
I hope all those people involved in this can live with themselves from now on, funny that the chimps only attacked the new person and not the keepers. I am disgusted!
It is absolutely disgraceful & outrageous that these chimps are being killed because of the reckless & stupid behavior of a human being. Amadeus & Nikki have suffered far too much because of humans & deserve to live out their lives. What are you doing to the man who is responsible for their imminent murders? He should be arrested & prosecuted for his folly which is now causing these two chimps to have to die. Please don’t do it; let them live!
The chimps level of trauma must be understood,if you tied a human to a chain all those years ,do you think he would be normal.a big no.so more caution and understanding should be practised with traumatised subjects.they will be dangerous.
Victoria, your account about the first attack is totally untrue!!!!!No fence was climbed!!! Why did it take 20 minutes to rescue the first victim!!!
Please please please! Not Nikki & Amadeus. If they cannot stay at Chimp Eden can they not just find a home somewhere else in Africa? Virunga???? We are here to save these guys and give them a chance at a new life, after being treated so badly by humans! Must we humans become their murderers? Why must they be forced to adjust to new keepers whom they obviously have formed no bonds with? Who is to blame here? Humans or chimps? Dr Jane with the utmost respect for you please respond and bring some sanity into this madness.
Surely there is another way to let these two chimps live out their lives instead of simply euthanasing them? I am really saddened by the fact that they are being killed by the very people who whose sole purpose is to rescue and protect them … please reconsider your decision and don’t kill Nikki and Amadeus!
Very sad obviously and the centre must be feeling a little defeated. But it is the humans in th previous lives of these chimps who are responsible. If Nikki and Amadeus had been human children there would be government funds to rehabilitate them and the human owners would be punished. You have obviously discussed and explored all alternatives to this decision. Thank you for your commitment and love for these amazing and persecuted fellow species. Xx
I think this is the best option. I hate the thought of euthanasing healthy animals but these two will go together, in death as they were in life. Putting them into cages would have been unthinkable after they have known relative freedom. R.I.P. Humans make all these problems and the animals are always the ones who suffer. I still believe animals are much nicer than humans. No hidden agendas. God Bless all of the people who have to make sad decisions for animals that they clearly love.
time to send them into Congo, where they its “dog eat dog”, and the locals can eat em as bush meat..Viva Africa Viva,,,,
or we can experiment on them with vaccines!!!!
as they used to trauma
This is sooo wrong!! I watched the show Escape to Chip Eden. Putting these animals down is a disgrace!!! You wanted to make these chimps wild and you did now you need to set them free and put them back out into the wild!! Eugene said over and over again on that show that he always had to remember that he was dealing with wild animals and they could turn in an instant!! So now your going to put these poor precious animals down because they attacked people!!! Well its not their fault!! YOU MADE THEM BACK INTO WILD ANIMALS LIKE YOU WANTED NOW THEY ARE GONNA BE PUNISHED BY IT!!!!
Very beautiful and idealistic going around the world collecting chimps that are illegal. For what purpose ? To give them Freedom ? How do we Know they Want “Freedom” ? Is a sanctuary Freedom ? Although there are “successes” what is the purpose of spending so much money to eventually kill the animals which were apparently quite happy not being “Free”?
This Animal Activism/Rightism that permeates through the “civilized” world will end up destroying all animals (and plants !).The “civilized” world must just carry on Destroying forests for hunger of wood, Fracking, using crude etc etc to feed the great Multinational Companies and then talk of MORALS on what concerns Animals and Conservation!
I hate those Chimps. My daughter worked there with the Oberle attack. Then already those fences didn’t keep them out. It was even a joke everytime Mimi the so called Escape artist came out. She got the young ones to build a ramp to get out. We were once rushed into the Restaurant when she got out and it was like Mimi is out again. Big Joke. Then they got a so called Guard from a private security firm who was supposed to walk with the tour with pepper spray. As if Pepper spray can do anything to a chimp. The guard did not do his job well and when my daughter told him to walk with the tour he attacked her and shouted Don’t you F…n White B…c tell me what to do. More trauma. with no help from the Management and the Security company making it a Racist thing we just dropped the whole case. only now she is over the Trauma and moved on but she is still scaredof Primates and that it is why I say put them down and close down the whole place.
Anne Mari,how can you hate the chimps for that? You had a dispute with management, and issues with how the place was run. Fair enough. But that has no relation at all to animals traumatized by horrendous abuse, and no relation to the current situation. It is sad your daughter was traumatized. But to demand the lives of two living beings for what sounds like ‘retribution’ leaves me wondering whether she/you were the right fit for this line of work.
These chimps need to be put down. They have attacked before and nothing was really done. This attack is a direct result of not dealing with them the first time so why not attack again. For whatever reason these chimps want to maim and destroy whatever person they can get at. Its easy to say the poor things its not there fault. The truth is they are very dangerous and the next step is to close the facility before there is a large escape and the chimps attack village people in the area. They need to be put down and no amount of money changes that. Building them there own enclosure is not the answer. All that does is reward them again for attacking people. This is getting to the point that people are sick of hearing about the poor chimps. They have killed babies and eaten them alive nothing was done. They have grabbed kids off the mothers back and attacked them. Nothing was done I can keep going its not worth my time.
To the people against putting down animals somethings are not meant for this world and must be put out of its misery ex: mice and men George shoots Lenny. Some beings in this world will only suffer. Whether you like it or not Humans will not get rid of their interest in this world and look out for its own kind as necessary no good human being will allow another being to be a constant threat to humans but, I will agree that human and animal relationship is based on respect from one another just like a human
who was wronged is bitter an animal who was wronged will be bitter.
Putting chimps down for simply acting like typical chimps in an institution that professes to protect chimps and detest their being kept like humans is both a disgrace and a hypocritical nightmare!!! Upon building the facility and accepting responsibility for such animals, accommodations should have been made to facilitate chimps of this nature, typical ones!!! Killing them for simply being chimps is simply wrong and lends one to question the true nature of the facility. Is it truly to care for chimps or to keep key people in the public celebrity eye? Those who care for animals in true sanctuaries around the world are forced to accept the good with the bad. They don’t simply destroy the ones that require more work, more security and/or more care than the others! This is without a doubt, wrong and mirrors recent horrifying activities of a zoo that recently euthanized a baby giraffe for overflow reasons! If nothing else, this facility should make Nikki and Amadeus available to the private sector sanctuaries instead of killing them but ideally, they should honor their commitment to the animals and the people who’ve supported their efforts up to now and build a protective contact environment to care for these chimps.
Her highness the queen of apes has laid down a royal proclamation. These chimps shall die because…well…they behave like chimps.
The jgi is no different than most chimp sanctuaries here in the US. Poorly trained staff, inadequate housing and an aboundance of severe attacks on the amateurs that try too care for them.
Jane enjoy your first class flights and 5 star hotels, because chimps are paying a heavy price…
I cannot help but comment on this topic.Does the saviours of these animals now become like the owners they were rescued from.Please keep in mind these are wild animals.If they attack humans,its the run of nature.They are put in camps and stay in groups with leaders, Its not natures plan to have us amongst them.If Humans get attacked why put them down.
Originally the focus of Chimp Eden was to rehab and return to the wild. Now it is a ‘chimp sanctuary’ (chimp warehouse?). These 2 chimps are certainly rehabbed and ready to return to the wild. This facility is nothing more than a swanky chimp zoo and serious fund raiser for certain entities, as described earlier. What a shame. It got off to such a good start. Stop sending money!!!
Isn’t there some way medically to save these 2 chimps? Even a mild tranquilizer each day in their breakfast food or something? My heart hurts to think that after all the abuse from humans, this is the way their life will end.
This must have been a very difficult decision..however I have been watching the show and agree that it seemed the end result was to release these amazing creatures back into the wild. I am very sad to see this is the choicethey have made but if these chimps were returned to the wild what would stop them from attacking another human. Somehow they have decided that humans are a threat and if put back to the wild and they somehow came in ccontact with humans I would be afraid of the end result. The work that tthis organization iis trying to do is wonderful and daunting at the same time. No matter what these aanimalsare certainly better off then where they came from.
While it seems inevitable that the JGI staff know greatly more about the issues involved than I do, the very best that killing Nkki and Amadeus will do is stop just them from ever attacking again. But there are more than a dozen other male chimps there, adults or becoming adult. As they get older and some of them experience moments of violent emotion, the same thing is going to become a risk again. Even if killing Amadeus and Nikki were otherwise acceptable, it will do absolutely nothing to change that. It seems to me that the isolation of the enclosures has to be strengthened a lot. More fence layers? More power in the fences? Greater ability for software to apply a really strong charge to a given section? Different design + materials so even enraged chimps can’t grip it or tear it or bend it? Mounted tranquilizer guns at the fences for remote firing? More research into calming the emotions of a violently angry chimp?
Killing Nikki and Amadeus would be bad enough if it actually solved the problem. Doing it even when it doesn’t is just inconscionable. I’d say the SA governments (national, provincial, any other) should be heavily petitioned to give JGI the time and support it needs to find, design, and install a real solution. They should know that this really matters to people around the world.
How very tragic for all involved. I enjoy watching chimp eden on animal planet and cried like a baby when Abu and gida died from natural causes exacerbate by human influences in their early life. I am curious as to why Nikki and amadeaaus were never relocated to lekede as was discussed in final episodes of there’sseriea. Many blessings to all the animals and staff at chimp eden! Never forget the good fight