What’s the tea?
Writer and designer Carrie McLaren is back with a new zine called Ape Sht*, and it is lowkey wild. If you’re familiar with her 90s-era project Stay Free!, you know she doesn’t hold back when it comes to dissecting weird media trends. This time, she’s diving into the history of "service monkeys."
The reality of 'helper monkeys'
Back in the 70s, a Boston organization called Helping Hands started a program training capuchin monkeys to help people with quadriplegia. The media ate it up, painting it as this super wholesome, joyful story. But real talk? The situation was actually pretty dystopian.
According to McLaren’s zine, these monkeys weren't exactly helpful. They were often messy, hard to control, and in some cases, dangerous. One critic pointed out in congressional testimony that monkeys could potentially mess with tracheal tubes, open urine bags, or even steer wheelchairs into walls. For the monkeys, life was even worse—they were often kept in cages, had teeth removed, and were trained using shock therapy.
The fallout
Alison Pascoe, a former trainer for the program, went on record for the zine to detail the brutal reality of the training process, including invasive surgeries like hysterectomies. While the organization, now rebranded as Envisioning Access, stands by the "human-animal bonds" they witnessed, they did confirm they stopped breeding monkeys for the program in 1999 and are focusing on caring for the ones currently in their program.
McLaren’s zine also covers the dark history of organ-grinder monkeys, detailing how trainers would essentially break the animals' spirits through abuse, often going through several monkeys before finding one that could "endure" the work.
Why it matters
This isn't just about monkeys; it’s about how media narratives can mask some major power dynamics. McLaren wants us to think about how we interact with non-human animals and how stories that seem "cute" or "helpful" on the surface can actually hide a lot of suffering. It’s a good reminder to always look past the headlines and question if the vibes are truly as good as they seem.
