\u201cMonkey love is totally different than the way that you have love for your child,\u201d Tonia Haddix, an exotic animal broker, says at the beginning of \u201cChimp Crazy,\u201d the documentary HBO series investigating the world of chimpanzee ownership. \u201cIf it\u2019s your natural born child, it\u2019s just natural because you actually gave birth to that kid. But when you adopt a monkey, the bond is much, much deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChimp Crazy\u201d arrives in a summer of cultural and political obsession about the place of animals in our family lives. When JD Vance became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, his 2021 comment about \u201cchildless cat ladies\u201d resurfaced, positioning them as adversaries of the traditional family. New York magazine published a special issue questioning the ethics of pet ownership, featuring a polarizing essay from an anonymous mother who neglected her cat once her human baby arrived. In the background of these stories, you can hear the echoes of an internet-wide argument that pits companion animals against human children, pet and tot forced into a psychic battle for adult recognition.<\/p>\n
These dynamics feel supercharged since 2020, the year when American family life \u2014 that insular institution that is expected to provide for all human care needs \u2014 became positively airtight. The coronavirus pandemic exaggerated a wider trend toward domestic isolation: pet owners spending more time with their animals, parents more time with their children, everyone less time with one another \u2014 except perhaps online, where our domestic scenes collide in a theater of grievance and stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cMonkey love is totally different than the way that you have love for your child,\u201d Tonia Haddix, an exotic animal broker, says at the beginning of \u201cChimp Crazy,\u201d the documentary HBO series investigating the world of chimpanzee ownership. \u201cIf it\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n