human and animal beings

on september 25, 2006, josh and i met dr. jane goodall at the caboto club in windsor, ontario.

she is inspiring. she spoke, we listened.

one of the stories that she shared is also told in her book, the ten trusts: what we must do to care for the animals we love. here is the story for you to read:

it is about a chimpanzee called jojo, who was born in africa. when he was about two ears old, his mother was shot and he was taken from her bleeding body and shipped to america. for many years he lived alone in a small, barren cage. eventually money was raised to build a large enclosure surrounded by a moat (since chimps cannot swim). nineteen other chimpanzees were purchased, introduced to each other, then released into the enclosure.

one day one of the other males challenged jojo, who ran into the water. he managed to scramble over the fence intended to stop the chimps from drowning in the deep water beyond. three times jojo surfaced, gasping for air, then he was gone. on the other side of the moat was a small group of people. a keeper ran to get a long pole. lucky for jojo, a zoo visitor named rick swope was there with his family. he takes them one day each year. rick jumped in and swam, feeling under the water, until he touched jojo's inert body. heaving the dead weight over his shoulder, he scrambled over the fence, pushed jojo onto the shore of the exhibit, and started back toward his family.

suddenly the human onlookers began screaming at rick to hurry. from their elevated position they could see three big males, hair bristling, moving toward the scene. at the same time jojo was sliding back into the water--the bank was too steep. a woman happened to capture the scene on video. we see rick standing by the fence. he looks up toward his family, then to where three males are approaching, then down at jojo who is just vanishing into the water again. for a moment, rick is motionless. then he goes back, again pushes jojo up onto the land, and waits there, ignoring his frantic family, until-- just in time-- jojo manages to seize a clump of grass and pull himself up to where the ground is level. and --just in time-- rick gets back over the fence.

that evening the video was beamed across north american television channels. the director of jgi saw it. he called rick. "that was a very brave thing you did. what made you do it?"

"well you see," replied rick, "i happened to look into his eyes, and it was like looking into the eyes of a man. and the message was 'won't anybody help me?'"