Chimpanzee's Grieve Like We Do

Just imagine how Chimpanzee Mums feel when their babes are taken away from them as soon as they are born, which is what Chimpanzee Breeders do. To read more about Chimpanzees Breeders, follow the categories on the right side of this Library.

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If you thought people were the only beings capable of grieving for their loved ones, take a look at the Daily Mail photo of chimpanzees mourning Dorothy, who died last year at the In Defense of Animals chimpanzee rehab center in Cameroon. The photo says it all. Notice how some of the chimpanzees are holding on to each
other, providing emotional and physical support. Such concern, such grief, such a sense of loss worn on every face in the group.

Chimpanzees aren’t the only animals who mourn their dead. As the Daily Mail article reminds us, elephants stage prolonged vigils over dead loved ones and revisit the burial site to handle the remaining bones with their trunks long afterwards. Magpies have been observed keeping vigil and delivering blades of grass over dead companions. It is clear that these members of the crow family, as well as other birds, perform social rituals and miss their loved ones when they depart. I have seen house finches show similar concern over the loss of their mates.

We are not alone on this earth in missing those who are no longer with us. Chimpanzees show their grief in much the same way we do. Many of us have also seen dogs and cats mourn the disappearance of companions in their home. Not with such ritual, perhaps, but with visible signs of longing and depression as they wait for that special someone to return.

This should be enough proof for all of us that all animals are sentient beings and often have feelings like ours. When we realize this, how then do we continue to participate in activities or rhetoric that ignore the feelings of animals? This is a question I ask myself and others. I ask myself so that I can be reminded of why I am doing what I am, and I ask others to try to help elicit a realization that should be obvious. Animals have rights.