Lucy Temerlin
Lucy was a chimpanzee who was the subject of a very extreme and radical science experiment. She was taken away from her mother at two days old, and brought into the home of scientist's Maurice and Jane Temerlin. The point of bringing Lucy in was to see if it was possible for monkeys to grow up, living like humans. Since the first day she was brought home, Lucy had been treated like a human child. She was taught to use silverware, dress herself, flip through magazines and eat at the dinner table. But out of everything she learned, one of the most amazing discoveries was that the chimpanzee had the ability to communicate through sign language. Lucy was taught American sign language by primatologist Robert Fouts, and eventually memorized 140 signs. Incredibly enough though, learning to communicate was not what Lucy became famous for, instead it was that the chimp had "sexual longing", just like humans. Her actions of masturbation included drinking straight gin, rearing a cat, and using Playgirl and a vacuum cleaner for that "sexual gratification".Though the scientist's had made major headway in primate studies, by the time Lucy was 12, she was very strong and very destructive. Because they did not have the resources required to accommodate Lucy's needs, the Temerlin's were forced to take the drastic measures of releasing Lucy back into the wild. She and eight other abused chimps were placed under the care of Janis Carter. Out of the nine primates released into Janis's care, not one had ever been on their own, or lived outdoors. Janis was forced to try to get them used to life in the wild, a process that ended up taking about three years.
After a while, all of the chimpanzees became comfortable with each other and the wild and began to wonder their own ways, but Lucy had always stayed with Janis. The chimp and the human grew to have a very deep connection with one another, and after Janis left the island that the chimps were on, she always made sure she came back to visit Lucy.
Tragically, during Janis's third visit back to the island, Lucy was nowhere to be found. After a couple of hours of searching, the came across a skeleton... Lucy's skeleton. The strange part was that she had no fur remaining, which led Janis to believe that Lucy had been caught by poachers and skinned for her fur.
My reaction to this story was a very heart broken and shocked emotion. It makes me sick to think that humans will take this kind of responsibility into their hands without having the accommodations to do so. If the Temerlins had known what they were getting themselves into, an innocent and precious animal would not have lost their life to greed, and need of money. It also made me wonder if the Termerlins regretted taking Lucy away from her mother, and putting her in a unnatural situation. Even though the story is terrible, it is still incredibly well written and informative about the ways animals are treated every day.
