Seems Cheeta may be worthy as the first ape with a star? No? If you think so sign the online petition below:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080611/ap_on_...arseeking_chimp

http://www.gocheeta.com/

http://www.ape-o-naut.org/famous/famous/reallife.html (Cheeta is auspiciously missing from the list of famous hairy historical relatives)


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/GoCheeta/

Who would have guessed the critter is the oldest non-human primate alive, 75 y.o., must have been that
great Tarzan movie conditioning. Also, he is an artist ala Koko, and even donated some of his work to
Goodall's Gombee (sp.) preserve. Jane Goodall even sends him a video birthday card at gocheeta.com
(their birthdays are within a few days of one another, and she is two years younger than him)

Actually all the stars are apes (except Lassie and co).

It's too bad this this effort will likely do more harm than good for chimps (in my opinion). Nothing against poor Cheeta, a true and worthy survivor if ever there was one. But the glorification of any Hollywood chimp is likely going to be more of a positive for the continued abuse of chimps in the name of "entertainment" than it will be for the plight of the diminishing numbers of wild chimps. Giving him a star seems to validate that this practice is OK, but I think an objective look reveals that it's really not. more here and here.

Getting down off my soapbox.

Apeman

this is a great new article. thanks bill

What about Flipper, and Free Willy, Gentle Ben, Black Stallion, Mr. Ed, the Budweiser Clydesdales (probably spelled that wrong), Hidalgo, the Lone Ranger's horse Silver, and.. and... and...