domesticating chimps. why not

[Blarg]

I've seen that one. I've seen several of them hunting and cannibalizing each other, too, including one where a band of them just went out looking for another chimp to kill at random and beat him to death with their fists. "Bonding."

[NLSoldier]

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you know I've been looking for a home. if anyone's willing to share a double, preferably in north kenya, pm me.

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i cant believe no one commented on this yet. i guess i dont have a comment other than "wow." i gotta admit i laughed pretty hard though because at first i just read the post and was confused and then i looked at the name/avatar.

[sublime]

u are still alive!

yay!

[TheMainEvent]

How do you think we ended up with the AIDS pandemic?

[tolbiny]

Male orangutans are very anti social- they are solitary most of the year and are only seen in roups during mating. They can be very territorial.
Domestication only occurs when animals (or palnts) meet many very specific requirements. Aggressive behavior (especially in territoriality) is nearly always a deal breaker and is seen in many of the apes.
If your interested in more info on dometication there is a good chapter in "the third chimpanzee" - which is an excellent book in many respects (written by the the "guns germs and steel" guy.

[slickpoppa]

Primates have already been domesticated, at least to some extent. Remember the episode of the Simpsons where Homer gets a helper monkey? Some old/disabled people do actually have helper monkees. I think the main reason why people dont have them as pets is because it takes a long time to train and domesticate them. As others have said, primates are naturally violaent and it takes a lot of effort to train that out of them.

[lu_hawk]

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I think the issue is that chimps are so intelligent and share so much of our DNA that there are ethical questions with treating them like pack animals or dogs. It's pretty amazing the range of personalities and capability to learn these little critters have shown.

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We do experiments on chimps despite any ethical issues, but keeping them as pets goes too far?

[Blarg]

I agree that this is off the mark.

When I saw this thread, I thought of that attack as well.

Mauled genitals.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

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So why haven't humans ever set about domesticating the larger monkies? Putting aside the animal rights concerns doesn't this seem like a worth while endeavor?

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Because they are so smart and so human-like it would practically be slavery.

edit: yeah, what Uncle Salty said.