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2006 Animals' Advoc. 1 (2006)

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A NEWSLETTER FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
Suffering Behind the Silver Screen

ALDFfiles suit against Holly-
wood chimpanzee 'trainer
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives,
sharing 98.4% of their DNA with us.
But unlike their human counterparts,
chimpanzees on the silver screen don't
enjoy a VIP lifestyle in the spotlight.
While collecting information about Holly-
wood chimpanzee trainer Sid Yost's practices
for more than a year, primatologist Sarah Baeck-
ler was shocked by the violent manner in which
Yost and some of his colleagues treated the ani-
mals who were hired out as performers. The
chimpanzees that Yost has mistreated have
appeared in numerous movies, commercials, and
TV spots, including That '70s Show, Scrubs,
and The Craig Kilborn Show-but the cruelty
they endure behind the scenes is anything but
funny.
The trainers physically abuse the chim-
panzees for various reasons, but often for no rea-
son at all, explains Baeckler. If the chim-
panzees try to run away from a trainer, they are
beaten. If they bite someone, they are beaten. If
they don't pay attention, they are beaten. Some-
times they are beaten without any provocation or
for things that are completely out of their con-
trol. Baeckler, who holds undergraduate degrees
in primate behavior and anthropology and a mas-
ter's degree in primatology, also described how on
at least one occasion, Yost beat a chimpanzee
named Apollo with a thick, cane-shaped stick;
the beating was so vicious that Yost eventually
broke the stick over Apollo's back. Adds Baeck-
ler, I saw volunteers and trainers hit a chim-

panzee named Cody on the head with a lock,
take a full windup and punch him in the back,
kick him in the head, and hit him with a blunt
instrument known as 'the ugly stick.'
After Baeckler notified the Animal Legal
Defense Fund of the extreme cruelty she wit-
nessed while volunteering with Yost*from June
2002 to July 2003, an ALDF attorney got to
work, spending countless hours putting together
a complaint against him. In November 2005,
ALDF v. Yost was filed in U.S. District Court in

Apollo, one of the
chimpanzees ALDF is
fighting to rescue from
abusive trainer Sid
Ranger Rick Yost

Continued on page 6

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