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When most people think of chimpanzees, they think of Cheetah from the old Tarzan movies. Small, friendly and amusing.
Years ago, I was given a private tour of a local university primate center by the director. We were walking past a row of empty pens where I noticed the heavy bars forming the enclosure were bent and in some places broken. I asked what had been kept there. His response was chimps. He proceeded to tell me a few things that the Tarzan movies omitted, especially how big and strong they can be.
They got rid of all their chimps and he swore that they would never keep any again.

When I was a kid, our family was at an amusement park, maybe Busch Gardens, not sure. But one of the shows that day was J. Fred Muggs. They billed him as the worlds smartest chimp, had met the President, etc, etc, blah, blah.

So the show begins and you could tell right away that J. Fred was feeling a little rebellious that day. He's on stage with the trainer and he's not doing a damn thing. The trainer is laughing it off and everybody is laughing that the monkey's being cantankerous and grumpy. It went on for awhile like this and then they said, with smiles all around, everybody's happy, that J Fred wasn't feeling well, and the show was over.

Filing out of the stands and away from the show area, we started hearing monkey screams like I've never heard before. Greeter of Presidents or not, Mr. J Fred Muggs was backstage learning a valuable lesson about acceptable works standards. He was being beaten to within an inch of his primate existence.

Everybody started laughing like it was extension of the show, and the trainer didn't care that everybody could hear the plight of old J. Fred.

Just a little wall to wall counseling session, thats all.

I bet J Fred gave the performance of his life at the next show!

Davis, 62, who remained in critical condition Friday at Loma Linda University Medical Center, was badly disfigured. According to his wife, he lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek and lips, and part of his buttocks. His foot was mutilated and his heel bone was cracked.

"They don't think he's ever going to be the same," LaDonna Davis said...

Duh.