1. Goodall: 'We should be moving beyond
animal testing'
World-renowned primatologist and animal-human rights advocate Jane
Goodall visits island for a series of goodwill meetings
By Ian Malinow
Special to El Nuevo Día (Sunday)
Castañer, Lares – It wasn't a usual day Monday for the elementary school
teachers and students of the Julio Lebrón Soto schoolin this sleepy, quaint
and mountainous town of Castañer, a place known more for being an
independentista stronghold than for its stunning natural beauty, numerous
coffee plantations and 50-degrees Fahrenheit winter nights.
The big occasion? The long-awaited visit of Jane Goodall, the world's most
famous primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist, who also happens to be
a UN Messenger of Peace.
On Monday morning between 10-11 a.m. before her arrival, the school's
front yard looked more like the scene of a Puerto Rican Christmas card than
a playground.
Dozens of toddlers, their mothers and other adults were clad in typical
“jíbaro” outfits and a troubadourwith guitar in hand was belting out
“décimas” and “aguinaldos” in front of a makeshift “jíbaro” hut while young
children, cheered, danced and sang around him. Coffee and plantain plants
were everywhere. And other teachers and volunteers were scrambling to set

2. up their favorite homemade delicacies — coffee ice cream, coffee cake and
coffee pudding — on a big table under a huge and colorful “flamboyán” so
the day's guest of honor could taste a slice of some of Puerto Rico's typical
treats. The only thing missing was a “lechón a la varita.”
When Goodall arrived at 11:15 a.m., the celebration began to the music of
the island's countryside as groups of children and visitors paraded to the
school's front gate to greet her.
“I'm very happy to be here and I thank you all for a wonderful welcome. I've
never been to Puerto Rico before but I arrived late last night and I had a
wonderful ride this morning to Castañer through the beautiful countryside. I
think you're all very lucky to live here,” said the thin, soft-spoken75-year-
old researcher in a still heavy U.K. accent.
“When I was a little girl growing up in England we didn't have any money,
we couldn't even afford a bicycle . . . .all the time I was a child I wanted to
go to Africa, live with animals and write books aboutthem....everybody
laughed at me, how would I get to Africa when we didn't have any money
and Africa was very far away, and I was a girl and girls didn't do that sort of
thing. The message I have for you is what my mother said to me: She said, if
you really want something, and you work hard, and you never give up, you'll
find a way,” she added.
Goodall arrived on the island from Los Angeles in the wee hours on Monday
for a three-day visit that includes a visit to a coffee plantation in Castañer,
Lares, a talk today at the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation in Trujillo Alto and
a visit to a public schoolat the Luis Llorens Torres public housing in San
Juan.
On Wednesday, she'll also give a seminar titled “Green Campus” at 10 a.m.
at the Schoolof Architecture in Río Piedras. (free to the general public) and

3. a conference titled “Compassion, Knowledge and Action: Changing Puerto
Rico and the Caribbean” at the University of Puerto Rico theater (free for
the academic community), starting at 1:30 p.m.
During a brief one-on-one interview with Sunday, Goodalltalked about what
keeps her going after all these years, her view on animal testing and the
world's poorstate of affairs. She also gave her opinion about what she
expects for the future of our planet and described her personal experience
about living with chimps for decades and learning their behavior.
“This is my life. I've been on the road for nearly 50 years, non-stop, no
break, no weekend, no nothing . . . .what is a vacation? When I travel I
usually meet groups of young kids and adults who are trying to make the
world a better place and some of these people are truly inspirational. And
there they are, often working in some dangerous areas and they're so strong .
. .so it's very inspirational,” mused Goodall, whose strong convictions and
yet mild demeanor give her a Ghandi-Mother Teresa-like aura.
Goodall also opined on animal testing, a practice she said “we should be
moving beyond that.”
“The point is that people who experiment on animals now say well, we
understand becauseyou taught us that animals do have feelings, they can be
happy and sad, and certainly can feel pain and despair. But sadly we always
need to use some, although use as few animals as possible. But I want
people to say it differently — that we know that ethically is not the right
thing to do. So let's get together with our extremely superior brain and find a
way to do these things without animals as quickly as we can,” she added.
The researcher acknowledged that she's aware of Bioculture, a local private
company that has a monkey breeding facility in Guayama, where it breeds
monkeys for the purposeof selling them to be used in scientific experiments.

4. And she advised local opponents to follow in her footsteps.
“We've been fighting the same situation in Nepal, where they are shipping
the monkeys somewhere else . . . and we managed to stop that without any
violence . . .just through education, handing out informational leaflets,
talking in schools. It's really important to find the facts and for what exactly
are they using them for and then try to get some professionalopinions which
could say why they don't need monkeys for scientific research,” she
explained.
For Goodall, the pastfive decades have taken a heavy toll on Earth and
humankind, especially Africa.
“Everything's changed, mostly for the worse. There was no problem
conserving chimpanzees back then in the 1960s, they were free and the
African forests ran wild across the nations. And then the foreign logging
companies went in, and you know, they had a negative impact on the
African culture. Africans always balanced the number of children they chose
for the environment but the Western way was different and so gradually
human populations increased, large parts of the forests were destroyed,
animals are becoming extinct and humans are suffering,” she said.
Goodall, however, sees a bright future ahead for the endangered species she
protects and the humans who live near them in Africa and other parts of the
world.
“I see a bright future ahead of us. We have a program that is adjusting the
needs of the people around the Gombe National Park where the chimpanzees
are and making their lives better in every way they want. So now becausewe
help the people in the area things are much better for the animals and
humans alike,” she said.
What struck her the most about living with chimpanzees for decades?

5. “How like us they are. They can show love, compassionand a close bond
between family members . . . but they can also show violence and brutality.
Genetically we're almost the same,” she opined.
Goodall, who has dedicated her life to the well-being of animals and humans
alike, and the protection of the environment vital to their survival, began her
career as an assistant to notable anthropologist Louis Leakey, who in 1960
sent her on her first African expedition.
In Puerto Rico, she'll help establish groups to educate and extend the work
of the Jane GoodallInstitute to the island.
Puerto Rico will become part of one of the most important and ambitious
programs, the “Roots and Shoots Project” of the institute founded by the
English anthropologist in 1991. The project seeks to protectboth wild and
domesticated animals along with the environment and to provide assistance
to help generate solutions to the social problems affecting communities.
Goodall’s prominence stems from her exhaustive research for over four
decades on chimpanzee behavior in the GombeNational Park in Tanzania.
The primatologist has dedicated her life to the defense of these animals in
danger of extinction and to protecting the rights of all species, including
humans.
Before leaving the small elementary schoolin Castañer — kids still playing
around, adults taking cover from the scorching sun — Goodallsent an
“important” message to Puerto Rico's youth through the Daily Sun.
“Every single one of us makes a difference every single day. And that we
have a choice about how we live our lives every day and we think about
what we're doing a little bit more, think about the environment, the people
and animals, make some small changes and that's going to lead to the major
change that we need. But basically for kids, you matter, what you do

6. matters. You do make a difference, and we need you.”
For more information call 787-215-1602, go to www.janegoodall.es/es. or
send an email to rasselta@janegoodall.org Everyone can join: mothers and
their children, churches, environmental groups, prisons, institutions, schools,
etc. The Project at present has more than 10,000 members in more than 100
countries.