Robby (chimpanzee)

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The chimpanzee Robby (* May 1971 ) is considered the last in a German circus held Ape .

biography

According to its owner, Robby was born in a zoo in 1971, abandoned by his mother and raised by hand . The district court of Celle , however, assumes that Robby is about four years younger.

With about three years Robby came into the possession of Klaus Kohler, director of the district of Celle -based Circus Belly , who bought from the monkey another circus. After a dressage, Koehler exhibited the monkey for years with tricks as part of the circus program. For example, the animal had to wear a black suit with gold trimmings and ride on a scooter at the circus performances. After the district veterinary office had banned the display of the monkey, it was no longer allowed to be shown in the circus show program.

As early as 1990, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture issued a guideline on keeping animals in circuses for reasons of animal welfare that the keeping of great apes in circuses should not be allowed. With the revision of the guideline in 1999, it was recommended to the veterinary offices, which are responsible for monitoring compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, not to issue any new animal welfare permits for keeping great apes in circuses. Since a permit was already available for keeping the chimpanzee in the Belly circus before the publication of this guideline, the responsible veterinary office of the Celle district initially tolerated the animal in the circus and repeatedly issued temporary special permits for keeping it.

In the Circus Belly , the monkey lived in a truck trailer that had been converted into a stable and had an area of ​​around 25 square meters, and an outdoor enclosure of the same size was available to him. According to experts, 200 square meters would be adequate for a chimpanzee.

During guest performances by the circus, animal rights activists demonstrate again and again in front of the circus entrance against alleged cruelty to animals .

Rehabilitation process

In 2011 the animal rights organization PETA approached the Veterinary Office in Celle to seek rehabilitation because of Robby's severe behavioral disorders . Several expert reports were obtained, some of which came to contradicting results. The main question was whether Robby, at his advanced age and with his long-standing influence on humans, could even be socialized with other chimpanzees without being harmed himself.

The Veterinary Office in Celle issued a notice dated September 30, 2015, which was declared immediately enforceable , that the monkey was to be kept among conspecifics and therefore by December 31, 2015 at the latest in a rescue center of the AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection Foundation in Almere ( Netherlands) to get him used to dealing with conspecifics. The circus applied to the administrative court of Lüneburg for interim legal protection against the ordered immediate execution of the order and at the same time brought an action against the decision.

The administrative court then restored the suspensive effect of the lawsuit in the form of temporary legal protection , so that the monkey stayed in its familiar surroundings for the duration of the lawsuit. In its ruling, the court found that keeping chimpanzees individually was against animal welfare and did not meet the requirements of the “Report on the Minimum Requirements for Mammals” of May 7, 2014 and the “Guidelines for the keeping, training and use of Animals in circuses or similar institutions ”from October 25, 2005 is sufficient. In the opinion of the court, however, it was not sufficiently clarified at the time whether the animal was suffering from significant neglect or a significant behavioral disorder that would justify removal from the circus. A primatologist commissioned by the veterinary office to examine the monkey had previously diagnosed a behavioral disorder, but it could not be clarified in the urgent procedure whether the monkey was castrated or suffered from a defective testicle . In the opinion of the court, this information was important for assessing the extent of the behavioral disorder, in which sexual behavior also plays a role.

In the course of the lawsuit, a court-appointed expert examined the animal and confirmed that it was in good physical condition, but found it had a serious behavioral disorder. Although the life story of the monkey, which had been denied contact with conspecifics for four decades, was problematic, the expert assessed the chances of an attempt at rehabilitation as good. The head of the Dutch rescue center AAP shared this opinion.

In 2017, the Lüneburg Administrative Court dismissed the circus director's action against the decision of the District Veterinary Office dated September 30, 2015. The Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court allowed Köhler's appeal and decided on November 8, 2018 that Robby would stay with his owner. In its judgment, the court found that the chimpanzee was not being kept in a species-appropriate manner and that keeping it would violate the Animal Welfare Act in individual cases. However, the court came to the conclusion that the misprinting could not be reversed to humans. The veterinary office did not adequately consider the risks of moving to a chimpanzee facility and the stress that rehabilitation means for the old animal, which has only a short life expectancy.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Jochen-Martin Gutsch: Affenliebe. Der Spiegel No. 45, November 3, 2018
  2. ↑ a b Reinhard Bingener: Circus director may keep his "child" . faz.net , November 8, 2018
  3. ^ A b c Peter Burghardt: Judgment in the monkey circus . Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 8, 2018
  4. ^ A b c Jean-Pierre Ziegler: "I am happy that I can keep my child" . Spiegel Online, November 8, 2018
  5. ↑ Animal welfare: “ We are his family ” in Der Spiegel, November 19, 2015, accessed on November 12, 2018
  6. ↑ Federal Ministry of Agriculture: Guidelines for the keeping, training and use of animals in circuses or similar facilities from October 15, 1990
  7. ^ C. Kröplin, S. Orban, W. Rietschel, T. Schmidt, G. Siemoneit-Barum, K. Zeeb, B. Busch, U. Pollmann, I. Birmelin: Guidelines for the keeping, training and use of animals in Circuses or similar establishments . , August 4, 2000, p. 4
  8. ↑ Markus Brauer: Dispute about circus monkeys in court: Robby, Germany's last circus chimpanzee. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten. 7th November 2018
  9. ↑ a b c d Peter Carstens: " Dispute over circus chimpanzees - Robby remains: Why we now need a ban on wild animals in the circus. " Geo-online, November 8, 2018, accessed on November 13, 2018
  10. ↑ Court: Chimpanzee "Robby" has behavioral disorders at ndr.de on April 27, 2017
  11. ↑ a b c d Decision of the Administrative Court of Lüneburg December 3, 2015, file number 6 B 146/15
  12. ↑ "Robby" judgment: Owner appeals to ndr.de on May 11, 2017
  13. ^ "Robby" judgment: Court allows appeal to ndr.de from January 24, 2018