Apes: Don't Buy This Baby

Kizito and I produced a poster that school children could color. The three part text was simple, explaining the high death rate of chimpanzees taken for the pet trade, the very poor pets that they became, and the fact that chimps could carry disease to humans.

The poster was designed for the expatriate and wealthy locals, to educate on the pet trade in apes. It used chimpanzees as the example, since the majority of apes seen in the market were chimps (bonobos were indirectly included, since they were called pygmy or black-faced chimps). The poster was translated into French and Lingala. Students at TASOK (The American School of Kinshasa) colored the posters and distributed them to businesses in downtown capital.