Chimps need a retirement plan too
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Think your pension is in peril? It could be worse, says Brenda Scott Royce. You could be a chimpanzee. Writing in the Huffington Post, she ponders the retirement of entertainers who have never voted in a SAG election:
Apes in showbiz have a short shelf life. The average performing chimp begins his career around age 2. By 7 or 8, when he’s no longer the tractable trainee he once was, he’s put out to pasture. Owners tend to not want to keep apes that have outlived their earning potential, and since apes can live into their 50s, that means they’ll require decades of care after their careers end. And that care is expensive -- roughly $10,000 a year for a single ape. And while typically everyone involved with a film -- from cast and crew to producers, studios, distributors, investors and exhibitors -- makes money, nothing is put aside for the animals’ future.
Royce is director of publications for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. and editor of the zoo’s magazine, Zoo View. She is also the author of two novels, ‘Monkey Love’ and ‘Monkey Star.’
--Alice Short
