Sam Mei
11/19/19
Block A
1.)  In the 1970’s, Columbia professor Herbert Terrace, led an experiment to see if chimpanzees can be taught human language. The chimpanzee chosen was called Nim. Nim was born at an Oklahoma laboratory. Two weeks after his birth, Nim was taken from his mother and was placed with a family in New York. Herb asked his former student, Stephanie LeFarge, to take care of Nim and she agreed. Growing up, Nim had good relations with everyone except Wer, Stephanie’s husband. Nim was raised like a human: getting breast-fed by Stephanie, learned 125 signs, potty trained, drank beer and even smoked pot. Herb, however, didn’t like the way Nim was being raised. He thought there was too much freedom. He then hired Laura, another student, to help take care of Nim. She did a good job: actually writing down data, increasing the time for teaching signs, and spending lots of time with Nim. Stephanie felt threatened as she is spending less time with Nim so she cuts the time Nim is allowed to spend with Laura. Herb decided to take Nim back from Stepanie and raise him somewhere else. Stephanie couldn’t stop is as Herb has more authority than her. Herb and Laura took Nim to a mansion in Riverdale to raised him.
When at the mansion, Herb hired Bill, Joyce, and Renee as new teachers for Nim. Life was peaceful there. Nim is older now, as you can see from him humping the cats. Nim also became more aggressive. One day, Laura left. It wasn’t because of Nim, but because of Herb. When she left, Nim jumped out of a window and attacked her. It took four men to get Nim off of her. When he was with Renee, he bit threw her cheeks. `You can almost see through the mouth. She was hospitalized and the wound took months to heal. Renee eventually left, feeling scared for her life. Joyce, however, had a different experience. When Nim got unruly on time, Joyce bit Nim in the ears. From then on, Nim listened to Joyce. When Nim hospitalized Renee, Herb decided to shut down the experiment. There was too much danger and there was not enough funds. He also said that there was ample data that needed to be analyzed and that there was no point in continuing. Nim was sent back to the Oklahoma laboratory.
The place is like a barn. Some of his teachers went with Nim and only left until Nim befriended another chimpanzee called Mac. Nim was desperate when they left and became lonely. Nim lived with another chimpanzee called lily. They both didn’t have many friends and they became friends with each other. There are some speculation that Nim is the father of Lily’s son. Here, the chimpanzees would have jobs to do. Some would rake while others would dig. Nim, Mac, and Lily were part of a group that did jobs. They were smarter than a regular chimpanzee. Nim especially liked doing dishes. A year later, Herb came back to visit Nim. Nim was excited to see him and played and signed with Herb for the whole time. When Herb left though, Herb became depressed and barely ate any of his food. Luckily, Bob Ingersoll, a worker at the Oklahoma research lab, befriended Nim. Bob took Nim out on walks, picked berries, communicated in sign language, and even smoked joints. They became such good friends that Bob wanted to spend more time with Nim than with his other friends. Soon, though, Nim’s life will get worse.
The barn will soon be shut down because it was running out of funds. The owner, Lemmon, decided to sell some of the chimps to the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). Nim was one of the chimps sold. All of the chimps were used as test subjects for medicine and vaccines except for Nim. Nim was the only one sold for signing research. There, Mahoney would choose which chimp would be used as test subjects. Herb, feeling bad for Nim, hired Henry Herrmann, a Boston attorney, who will represent Nim in court. Nim was eventually set free and was returned to Oklahoma. Cleveland Amory, owner of the Black Beauty Ranch, bought Nim.
At the ranch, Nim was placed in a cage. Nim was lonely as he was the only chimp there. When Bob visited Nim, he was appalled at Nim’s isolation. Bob told Amory that chimpanzees need companions to survive. Amory then bought another chimp called Sally. They became close to each other. They often broke out of their cages, but would return when Sally returned. When they did break out, Nim would go to the ranch manager’s house and break things. Nim once killed a dog there too. Later, Stephanie and her daughter, Jenny, visited Nim. Stephanie, against the ranches advice, went into Nim’s cage alone. Nim, once he saw Stephanie, attacked. Nim would drag her around the cage and slam her against the wall. But Stephanie was alive. Nim let her go after venting out his anger.
Years later, Sally died. Nim was inconsolable. He became depressed and refused to eat or move. Amory and Chris, the ranch’s manager, bought three more Chimps for Nim. Two of them (Lulu and Midge) were from Lemsip. Kelly came from Coulston Institution. Nim and Kitty were closest, but not as close as Sally. At the age of 26, Nim finally died.
2.) Humans use animals in many ways. One, we use them in the production of food. We kill over two million animals a day for food. Two, we kill them to make clothes. Over fifty million animals are killed every year for fashion. Three, we kill them for fun. More than one hundred million animals are killed by hunters each year. Four, we keep them as pets. More than seven hundred million animals are kept as pets. Five, we use animals in medicine. Each year, more than twenty five million animals are used for medical purposes. Six, many artworks are based off of animals. The artworks can range from paintings to sculptures. Seven, we dissect animals as part of our education. Millions of animals are dissected at school and universities each year. Eight, we use animals in war. In the past, we would use elephants in armies. We would dump dead animals into wells to poison the enemies. Dogs would be used as their noses can detect things better. Currently, the police would use dogs to find contrabands like drugs and explosives. Nine, we use animals for transportation. We would ride donkeys, horses and camels to get to places and carry luggage. We use dogs to pull our sleds. Ten, we use animals for fun. We watch dog shows on television. We can race with our animals. W can even play games like catch with them. There are many ways to use animals and we’re still finding new uses for them.





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	3.) Ethics in animal research are debated heavily. Some argue that it doesn’t matter what we do to animals as they are not human. Others disagree, saying that animals are living beings and should have some rights. For those that think animals have some rights, three principles are created to make it ethical. First, experiments on animals should be replaced by mathematical models whenever possible. Second, the amount of animals used to be kept at a minimum. Third, the impact on the animals should be minimized. The project Nim experiment was unethical. Nim was forcibly separated from its mother as a child. He was raised in ways unnatural for a chimpanzee. In the project, Nim had many relationships, but most of them were forcibly broken. This negatively impacted the chimps mental state. When Nim was sent back to Oklahoma, it was awful. Nim had no experience communicating with other chimps. It was worse for Nim as he didn’t grow up there. Besides this, locking him up alone in cages was horrible. Chimps are social creatures and need companions to survive. Being alone broke. The project Nim experiment in unethical. Nim was brutally harmed mentally. The experiment should have never happened.