SPAIN: CHIMPANZEES & CRUELTY
TAPE_NUMBER: EF01/0238
IN_TIME: 13:04:46 // 16:27:54 // 20:44:46 - 22:07:59
LENGTH: 02:43
SOURCES: VNR
RESTRICTIONS:
FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY)
SCRIPT: Natural Sound
XFA
In Western Europe, animals are still being subjected to cruelty and extremely poor living conditions as the lack of E-C-wide legislation fails to provide adequate protection for them.
In a derelict cow shed on the outskirts of Valencia, an old truck stands slowly rotting in the dry heat.
Since it was parked there eight years ago, it has been home to an extended family of nine chimpanzees.
Inside the truck, crammed into four cages, they languish in near darkness, wasting away like the vehicle that is their prison.
The chimps belong to Rafael Rojas, a circus trainer, who has owned and trained chimps for over 25 years.
Each cage, a box measuring around 1.5 metres square, had fresh straw but appeared not to have been cleaned for years.
The bars were encrusted with years of dirt and grime and the floors were deep with rotting food, old rags and excrement.
Two of the chimps were even chained by the neck to the bars.
Rojas appeared to feed them well but he gave them no exercise - there was nowhere in the ruined farm where he could let them roam.
When he isn't around, all the doors to the trailer are locked shut when a hole, the size of a dinner plate, is all that allows light or air inside.
Rojas said he loved this family of apes.
He certainly seemed to - he played with them, kissed them and called them all by their names but appeared unmoved by the pitiful conditions in which they lived.
Some six months ago, when Olga Feliu, a vet, first came to this site, she tried to persuade Rojas to give up his animals so they could be relocated at a sanctuary she was trying to set up near Barcelona.
She showed him a video of chimps living free at a primate sanctuary and she says he cried when he saw the images of chimps swinging free and playing in family groups.
But Rojas had relied on the chimps to earn him a living for more than twenty years and although he wanted them to live in better conditions he wouldn't agree to let them all go.
Eventually he agreed to let six of the chimps go to the sanctuary
Santi, Pepito, Charlie, Pancho, and Marco, all born here - Paquito, Rosi, Romi and Tony were bought from zoos when they became surplus to requirements.
Together they have spent most of their lives incarcerated in this steel prison, venturing out only when they were needed for a job.
Inside the house, Rojas's wife Lydia changes the nappy of Frauline, the two-month-old daughter of Romie.
While Romie languished in her darkened cage, Frauline was treated like a newborn child.
Rojas proudly shows photos of the projects he had undertaken with the chimps - stunts like beach photographs for tourists, opening supermarkets and circus performances.
He had even taken several to Africa with a touring show.
He was particularly proud of Marco, who had been used to make adverts for Estrella beer and Telefonica, Spain's biggest telephone company.
And he explained how last year, Pancho and Tony were dressed as ambulance drivers to film a T-V advert for MacDonald's hamburgers, a job that made him 2 (m) million pesetas (12 thousand U-S dollars).
In Spain, animal welfare laws are set at the regional level, in this case the Community of Valencia.
But there are no laws that cover the conditions in which wild animals are housed or for what they are used.
Although the local Mayor has expressed concern about these chimps, he has very few powers that would enable them to be confiscated.
But business has become more difficult for Rojas.
Last year, after being denounced by a nearby resident, Rojas was made to apply for new possession papers issued under CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species).
Although these gave him legal ownership of the chimps, the papers were stamped with a condition that prohibited him using them for commercial purposes.
Crucially though, this does not yet apply to the two youngest chimps owned by Rojas, which he kept at his home.
The delivery note for Paquito and Rosi is dated 1977, two of the older chimps came from Ravensden Zoo in England - not a public zoo but a company well known for trading wild animals unwanted from zoos.
Paquito and Rosi were only a few months old when Rojas and his wife collected them from Lisbon airport.
The chimps' CITES certificate, issued in 1984 by the Ministry of Trade in Valencia records Paquito and Rosi's place of birth as London Zoo.
It's well known that, despite claims of protecting endangered species, many zoos have more animals than they know what to do with.
The downward spiral of neglect from 'respectable' zoo to animal dealer and circus trainer is all too common.
London Zoo may be more careful about where it places its animals today, but know one will ever know how many animals are bought and sold around the world in this way.
Rojas has only agreed for six chimps to go to Olga's sanctuary and Rosi, the elder female on the group was not on the list.
The reason for her exclusion from the list is her pregnancy.
A few months ago she became pregnant by Paquito, with whom she had shared this cage for so many years.
Unfortunately for Rosi she is especially valuable now as young chimps are easy to keep and much in demand for lucrative filming contracts - for a few years at least.
The story of these unlucky chimps is one that shames the circus industry and Spanish animal legislation.
The chimps origin, and the way they have been made to perform over the years, reveals a tale of exploitation stemming from the heart of the zoo industry, to the advertising industry, to T-V chat shows and ultimately in this case to one of the world's biggest companies.
SHOTLIST: Valencia, Spain - Recent
1. Rafael Rojas opening doors to truck
2. Close-up chimp in chained cage
3. Mid shot chimp in cage, pan across
4. Tilt from rubbish to truck
5. Close-up chimp looking out between bars
6. Chimp curled up in corner of cage
7. Chimp standing up to bang on cage bars
8. Rojas talking to chimp who rocks cage
9. Close-up chimp looking through cage bars
10. Vets preparing to take blood samples
11. Blood being taken
12. Olga Feliu, vet
13. Close-up blood samples
14. Feliu playing with chimp through bars
15. Wife wrapping up baby chimp
16. Couple playing with chimps inside house
17. Zoom in baby chimp lying wrapped up on sofa
18. Circus trainer showing photographs
19. Chimp's birth certificate
20. Close-up place of birth on certificate - London Zoo
21. WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) officer entering truck, chimps shrieking
22. WSPA officer calming chimp by playing with his hand through bars
23. Chimp drinking milk out of carton
24. Chimp being taken out of truck in large cage
25. Cage being loaded into van
26. Sign at entrance to Mona Sanctuary
27. Feliu and WSPA officer entering foundation
28. Woman playing with chimp
29. Feliu feeding chimp
30. Close-up chimp eating grapes
31. Mid shot three champs?