Chimpanzee Testing to Resume?

A chimpanzee at work for NASA Animal testing is a tricky issue. Given my love for animals I’d normally think I’d come down firmly against it, but it’s not that easy. For a while I worked for a medical journal, specifically, an immunology journal. Immunologists are the ones who research and cure diseases. Although it was hard to read over the studies in which they used animals for testing, their findings were always applied to fighting terrible diseases. But none of that is the case here. The Huffington Post published an article on August 23 examining the plight of more … Continue reading →

And I Thought Declawing Was Bad?

Once upon a time in our household, there was the question of whether or not to declaw Tabby. So far the “not to declaw” camp (a.k.a. mine) is winning. But once in a while (like lately when Tab’s paying a little too much attention to the carpet on the stairs) Wayne’s camp raises the issue again. However, Tab need not worry about me doing anything to her claws other than trimming them. (Something I haven’t done in a while and why her paying attention to the carpet is posing a problem.) The whole to declaw or not debate sprung to … Continue reading →

Monkeys Use Brain in New Ways

If you’ve watched the news lately, you might have seen the report where two monkeys controlled a robotic arm with their minds to feed themselves. (It didn’t take two monkeys to control one arm. Each monkey controlled its own robo-arm to feed itself pieces of marshmallow or fruit.) How You Get a Monkey to Control a Robotic Arm with It’s Mind As you might imagine, it was a complicated process. Using “visualization” techniques, the study’s leader, Andrew Schwartz, showed the monkeys what he wanted them to do. Then he “mapped” their neural activity to see what cells reacted in which … Continue reading →

Monkeys Going to Mars

Monkeys from the Sochi Institute of Medical Primatology in Russia are being prepared to boldly go where no one has gone before — Mars. Why monkeys? Humans and monkeys have approximately the same sensitivity to radiation. The macaques from the Sochi Institute will give a more accurate picture of how humans will react to the conditions on a flight to Mars. The Sochi Institute will spend the next few years performing experiments in order to select forty monkeys with the right stuff for space flight. Those forty monkeys will graduate to the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. At the … Continue reading →

How Do Monkeys Keep Their Nails Clipped?

Do they even have nails to keep clipped? These are the type of burning questions that keep me up at night. (Okay, they don’t keep me up at night. But I was thinking about it before I drifted off last night.) So I did some cursory Internet searching today and found that apes and most monkeys do in fact have nails, but some have claws. I could not find any mention of how they keep them trimmed. While clever, I’m fairly certain no ape or monkey colony has come up with a nail salon out in the wild. But if … Continue reading →

Remembering Animals Who Served Our Country: Abel and Baker

Happy Memorial Day! A few months back, my husband and I took a trip down to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One of the exhibits told about two rhesus monkeys, Abel and Baker, who were the first animals to successfully be recovered after a launch into space. I knew when I saw this exhibit that I was going to write about them in the Pets Blog, but I decided to save it for May 28, because it was on May 28, 1959 when they made their historical journey. (An altitude of 300 miles for a distance … Continue reading →

Bringing Up Ziggy: Conclusion

Andrea Campbell with Ziggy, photo courtesy of Ms. Campbell and used with her permission In Part One of my interview with Andrea Campbell, we talked about how it was she came to be a foster monkey-mom to Ziggy, a capuchin monkey. In Part Two she dished about monkeys in the home. We conclude the series with Ms. Campbell answering questions about all the ways Ziggy impacted her life. Courtney Mroch: What was your biggest trial with Ziggy? Andrea Campbell: “Biggest trial” I keep saying to myself. Hmmm . . . there are so many to choose from. Okay, give me … Continue reading →

Bringing Up Ziggy: Part Two

Andrea Campbell with Ziggy, photo courtesy of Ms. Campbell and used with her permission In Part One of my interview with Andrea Campbell, we talked about how it was she came to be a foster monkey-mom to Ziggy, a capuchin monkey. We continue our interview with Ms. Campbell dishing the dirt on what it’s really like to have a monkey in the home: Courtney Mroch: What recommendations/advice would you give to someone who might be interested in bringing a monkey into their home? Andrea Campbell: Do they have a couple days time to listen? I’d say, “Don’t.” Don’t get a … Continue reading →

Interview with Foster Monkey-Mom Andrea Campbell, Author of Bringing Up Ziggy: Part One

Andrea Campbell with Ziggy, photo courtesy of Ms. Campbell and used with her permission. In August of this year, I attended a writing seminar in Nashville, Tennessee, where I mingled with many fabulous authors, but one woman in particular stood out. Her name was Andrea Campbell, and, among other things, she’d written a book called Bringing Up Ziggy: What Raising a Helping Hands Monkey Taught Me About Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice. Her book recounts her experiences foster parenting Ziggy, a capuchin monkey, who ultimately was destined to live elsewhere. (With a quadriplegic who needed her.) I recently contacted Ms. Campbell … Continue reading →