Primatologist Jane Goodall: Michael Jackson's Chimpanzee Was Abused

British primatologist Jane Goodall is one of my heroes, period. She has spent 45 years studying chimpanzees in the wild and has dedicated her life to animal welfare issues as well as environmental and humanitarian causes. I have seen her at two occasions and she has an unique way to approach and talk to humans and animals, she is just great. So when she says something, I listen!

According to NME and TMZ, after leaving an event in Washington D.C., Jane said that Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee was brutalized. While signing autographed in her car, a journalist asked her about chimpanzees as pet – a complete aberration of course – and about Bubble, MJ’s chimp. And she said that the chimp had been beaten while he was in the care of the king of pop. She said she didn’t know who was responsible for the beating but she had even confronted the pop star about it in 2009 and this had ‘ticked off’ Jackson. TMZ also reports that Jack Gordon, La Toya’s ex-husband, reported about the abuse: ‘I saw Michael punch Bubbles, kick him in the stomach.  Michael used to say, ‘He doesn’t feel it.  He’s a chimpanzee.  I have to discipline him’.

I know this guy is not the most reliable person in the world, but if this is true, this declaration says a lot about Michael Jackson’s ignorance and plain stupidity…’I have to discipline him’? This is insane, Chimpanzee are wild animals and should never live with humans. It is already animal abuse to dress up a chimp like yourself and take it from his mother very young as Michael Jackson did –he got him when he was just 8 month-old. As any pet chimpanzee, Bubble became adult and Jackson had to get rid of him because he probably could have ripped his face in a minute, as some pet chimpanzees have done it to other people, and Bubble was sent to a California animal trainer, then to the sanctuary Center for Great Apes in Florida. He is now 30 and I bet he suffered greatly from such changes.

Michael Jackson didn’t want to have a pet, he wanted a child, a toy, a mini-me, and this is a creepy story. People who have them as pet ignore the fact that adult chimpanzees become very dangerous and four times as strong as humans comparable in size. I bet Bubble began to be mistreated as he aged, grew and changed because he began to be out of control. It is reported that Jackson had two other baby chimpanzees after the Bubble episode, and there was an entire menagerie at his Neverland ranch that he abandoned later on… what a shame! Is it possible to read an article without Michael Jackson’s name associated with abuse?