MEDIA ADVISORY
March 19, 2002

Media Access to PLANET WITHOUT THE APES?
Town Hall Forum
Friday, March 22
7:00 pm

Contacts: David Messerschmdt, The Forum at the Evans School, 206-221-7642
Mitchell Fox, The Glaser Progress Foundation, 206-728-1050

Planet without the apes? That's the very question that a high-caliber group of scientists, philosophers, lawyers and public policy experts dubbed the Chimpanzee Collaboratory will address at a public forum at Town Hall this Friday, March 22nd at 7:00pm.

According to the group, which includes primatologist Jane Goodall, Harvard University's Richard Wrangham, and Dr. Roger Fouts of the Chimpanzee & Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University, chimpanzees and other great apes are under siege. Stating that just 100 years ago, two million chimpanzees lived in Africa, the group estimates that fewer than 150,00 survive in the wild today. Captive chimpanzees in this country fare no better, with some 3,000 confined to laboratory cages, roadside zoos or used in the circus, movies and other forms of entertainment.

Drs. Goodall, Wrangham and Fouts will be joined by fellow Collaboratory member Steven Wise, J.D., author of Rattling the Cage - Towards Legal Rights for Animals, and by Carole Noon, Ph.D., a biological anthropologist who operates a sanctuary in Florida where 21 chimpanzees previously owned by the United States Air Force now reside. Other Collaboratory members representing the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Doris Day Animal League, and the Great Ape Project will also participate in the forum.

Sponsored by The Glaser Progress Foundation, The Forum at the Evans School of Public Affairs and the University Book Store, the forum will offer a compelling overview of the risks chimpanzees and other great apes face today and actions being taken to prevent their further demise.

Town Hall is located at 8th and Seneca in downtown Seattle.