Saturday 17 January 2009

of koko the talking gorilla

According to Wikipedia,
Koko (born July 4, 1971, in San Francisco, California) is a lowland gorilla who, according to Francine 'Penny' Patterson, is able to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language, and understand approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. She has lived most of her life in Woodside, California, although a move to a sanctuary in Maui, Hawaii has been planned since the 1990s. Koko is short for the name Hanabi-Ko, meaning "fireworks child" in Japanese (a reference to her date of birth, the Fourth of July).
There is a section in the wikiepdia entry entitled "Sexual Harrassment" which says,
Koko has been involved in a number of sexual harassment lawsuits. At least three former female employees have claimed that they were pressured into showing their breasts to Koko. They alleged that Patterson encouraged the behavior, often interpreted Koko's signs as requests for nipple display, and let them know that their job would be in danger if they "did not indulge Koko's nipple fetish." Koko has been known to playfully grab both male and female nipples without warning or provocation. Patterson claims that Koko uses the word "nipple" to refer to humans.

All claims of harassment have been permanently dropped as of November 21, 2005 after the foundation and the parties involved reached a settlement.

Jody Weiner, Koko's lawyer, writes about Koko and sexual harassment in the book Kinship With Animals.
Also see Conversation with Koko.

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