Bullies don't just exist on the schoolyard. For one unlucky chimp, they exist in the zoo.
Bili the bonobo chimpanzee has already had a hard life. He was born in the United Kingdom in 2008, but after his mother refused to care for him, he was moved to a Frankfurt zoo. There he didn't have much luck either. Caretakers decided to move him again when they realized that females at the facility refused to mate with him.
That's how he ended up at the Wuppertal Zoo near Dusseldorf, Germany.
But his streak of bad luck doesn't seem to have ended. His new "zoomates," twin males Azibo and Ayubu, have decided they want nothing to do with him and have viciously bullied him nonstop. In photos that have recently gone viral you can see
Bili has been physically abused by the other bonobos. His ears, knuckles, and hands all have open wounds and he looks as if his spirit has been broken. Zoo officials still think there is a chance Bili can be integrated into the community of his fellow chimps but others aren't so sure. British activists are fighting to save him and get him out of Germany and back to the UK where he can have a life out of the zoo in a sanctuary.
No chimp, like other animals, should be held in captivity in a zoo. But chimps like Bili are especially in need of a better life. That's why it is important to support the activists and
demand that the Wuppertal Zoo release Bili to a qualified ape sanctuary in the UK so he can live a life free from zoo captivity and abuse. Please sign the petition.
Photo credit: Youtube