I really enjoyed the movie Koko: A Talking Gorilla. I thought it was very interesting how she learned so much sign language. I first thought that she would only be able to sign what she wanted to say and that would be it. After seeing the movie, I was amazed at how much we are like gorillas.
Throughout the whole movie, she seemed to be just like a little child. When she was riding in the car and playing on the jungle gym, she acted just as a small child would act except for having the long leash. Even some humans put their small children on leashes. I am not sure what they are called, but I have seen them. She was also potty trained just like a child. I thought it was funny when she always wanted to be tickled. When my sister was little, she always wanted to be tickled. Also, she plays with a baby doll. All of these similarities in behavior are amazing.
I think the opinions of the zoo keeper were ignorant. He knows nothing about what she has done or learned and is forming his opinion. He said that gorillas are only safe in zoo, but I thought Koko looked pretty safe with Penny. He also said that gorillas don’t know good from bad, but I also thought that the movie showed that she knew she was bad after ripping up the book.
As far as the question of does Koko have rights, I think she does. I think gorillas have their natural rights like not to be killed for no reason and be allowed to live their own life, but Koko is different. Koko has been taught how to communicate with people, and is almost the equivalent of a human child of the same age. She has been raised like a human and knows sign language so she can communicate just like humans. The last difference between humans and chimps is that humans had a language. Now that Koko can communicate with humans using our sign language, I think she has a slightly higher rank than normal gorillas. This may be a kind of noble being view of it, but I think many people would agree with me.
Koko should not just be considered a gorilla who is merely copying what we do. As we saw in the video, she knows what she wants and can communicate that to humans. She even understands what people are saying to her. She is basically just like a person. If she couldn’t communicate and didn’t know right from wrong, then I wouldn’t think that she would have more rights than a regular gorilla. Even though I think she should have more rights than a wild gorilla, I don’t think that she should have as many rights at humans do. She is still a wild animal at heart, and she can go back to behaving like one because it is her natural instinct.
Thinking about these captive gorillas and their more “wild” relatives, I am reminded of the images of the gorilla areas in the zoo. I was shocked and slightly horrified by the conditions in which Koko’s mother and the other gorillas lived in. Now, I understand that this film was made several decades ago and we have learned much more about what these animals require and deserve in the way of habitat, but I was still surprised by the facility. This was not a small zoo, so I know it was not because of budget issues or something like that that would force these animals who come from areas with lush vegetation to live in cages and on a concrete hill topped with dead, sawed-off, possibly fake tree limbs. I also understand that the zoo keepers would keep the gorillas healthy to the best of their knowledge, but leaving them no greenery and plants to eat out in the open seems cruel. As I continued to watch the film, I wanted to laugh in a kind of sick humor at the fact that the representative of the zoo, standing in front of this enclosure, talked about how they believed that these animals should be allowed to “be as wild as they like.” Given their care for these “wild” animals, I thought this statement sounded like a sick joke. I agree with you Leslie when you use the tern "ignorant." That is exactly how that representative of the zoo sounded.
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