Sci-Fi & Squeam

8 May 2015

The Second Breakfast : The Story of Cobby

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It’s Second Breakfast time again!! And in the JOY 949 studios Thursday the 7th of May 2015, Sonja Hammer gets an opportunity to talk about Apes, Chimps, awesome primates ,special ones like Cobby the chimp with film maker, co-director Michael Vale who along with fellow film maker Donna McRae, is making a movie doco about :

‘the extraordinary life of “Cobby”, a fifty-six year old chimpanzee whose journey has taken him from the African wild to TV stardom to the San Francisco Zoo, we (researchers Dr. Donna McRae and Dr. Michael Vale) intend to explore the difficult subject of chimps in entertainment through a documentary film. The film will present snapshots of Cobby’s early life with human ‘siblings’, the showbiz world of the 1960’s, and his life in the Zoo. But for every Cobby who has been cared for all of his life, other chimpanzees haven’t fared as well. We will also explore the tragic world many chimps still face – exotic pets, scientific laboratories and other cruel destinies. This project will highlight the future of these animals, which has reached crisis point.

This film follows our journey – from the delight in finding Cobby (it started out as Searching for Sugarman with Chimps) to the realisation that other chimpanzees have not been as lucky as he. ‘