Next of Kin
Roger Fouts
Roger Fouts grew up on a small family farm where he observed that animals have individual personalities and traits that clearly involve thinking to at least some degree. By the time he was five, he knew exactly where each cow wanted the milk pail placed; if it wasn’t placed right he didn’t get any milk. For his family the notion that animals are dumb beasts without distinctive personalities was something city people thought, and something a farm family could not afford to indulge. This was emphasized when their dog sacrificed his own life to save the life of one of Roger’s brothers.
Roger’s goal was to become a psychologist and work with children. In college, although he wanted to study human psychology, he was required to take animal psychology courses as well. In these he learned that all animals are mindless creatures whose rigid behavior is controlled by instinct. His thoughts on the farm had obviously been wrong.
If he was to go to graduate school, he needed a graduate assistantship. His only offer came from the University of Nevada at Reno. Two scientists on the University faculty, Allen and Beatrix Gardner, were raising a young chimpanzee they had named “Washoe,” and were teaching her to talk. Roger’s job would be to help take care of her. They recognized that chimpanzee anatomy is not suited to speaking words, but since chimpanzee hands are always active they were teaching her to use the American Sign Language. The Gardners were raising her like a human child which meant that she was clothed in dresses and diapers.
Washoe slept in a small house trailer on the Gardner’s property and she had a back yard of about 5000 square feet to play in. The chapters during which Roger was working toward his doctorate contain many anecdotes of his experience working with Washoe.
By the time he had received his degree, the Gardners had decided to terminate the experiment with Washoe and had arranged for both Washoe and Fouts to go to the University of Oklahoma and the Institute for Primate Studies under Dr. William Lemmon. Gardner did not ask Fouts whether he wanted to go; he just said that Fouts would be going with Washoe. And to show that Ph.D.’s aren’t always the smartest of people, Roger went without ever talking with Dr. Lemmon or visiting the Institute or the University.
During his four years in Reno, Fouts had noticed how much alike humans and chimpanzees are. In the book, he points out that ninety eight percent of human and chimpanzee DNA is identical and chimpanzees and humans are descended from a common ancestor. Chimpanzees are so close to humans that they should be treated much as humans are treated, he claims.
In Reno, Washoe had had a small trailer to sleep in, an open yard to play in and a willow tree to climb in. Professor Lemmon decreed that chimpanzees should know that they are chimpanzees. They lived in small, cramped cages and they slept on the bare floor. Fout’s ten years in Oklahoma City were spent mostly fighting with Dr. Lemmon. Finally, conditions became so bad that he left Oklahoma, taking “his” three chimpanzees with him.
He went to Central Washington University, which not only did not have a primate program, they didn’t have any primates. But they were willing to set up Fouts with the kind of program and facility that he wanted. He has been there ever since. He has also founded a semi–independent Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute.