PETA Statement: ‘Pet’ Chimpanzees Are Ticking Time Bombs

For Immediate Release:
June 21, 2021

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office has shot and killed a chimpanzee named Buck after he severely attacked the daughter of a local woman, Tamara Brogoitti, who had long deprived the highly social animal of the companionship of other chimpanzees and kept him as a “pet” for years. Below, please see a statement from PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet:

PETA warned state authorities that Tamara Brogoitti had created a ticking time bomb by engaging in direct contact with a dangerous ape, and now, he is dead and a woman has been mauled because of Brogoitti’s refusal to follow experts’ advice and transfer Buck to an accredited sanctuary. Since long before the chimpanzee Travis ripped a woman’s face off in 2009, it has been clear that attacks are inevitable so long as people continue to treat chimpanzees like Chihuahuas.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.