Jane Goodall is one of my all-time favorite people! A tireless advocate for compassion, Jane has proudly earned her title as “UN Messenger of Peace.”

Goodall recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss her lifetime of work. In the interview, she talks about the dangers of keeping wild animals as pets, saying:

“The full range of chimp emotion is the same as ours. It’s exactly the same. They have a dark side, they have a bright side. But I’ve worked with chimpanzees in the wild for nearly 50 years, they don’t bite off our faces. They’re not meant to be in homes — they’re wild animals.”

Amen!

Goodall also discusses her organization, Roots and Shoots, which engages and inspires young people to work for human, environmental and animal issues. I mean can she get any cooler? Check out the video out below the fold to hear more of what Jane has to say!

- Dr. Jane Goodall responding to the Nightline special detailing the mistreatment of hundreds of chimpanzees and other primates at New Iberia Research Center. Join the HSUS and urge Louisiana Governor Jindal to retire the 26 elderly, wild-caught chimpanzees from the New Iberia Research Center! 

As much as we adore famous faces here at Ecorazzi, we also know that it doesn’t take a movie contract and an entourage to be a star! There are incredible people doing awesome deeds all around the world and Anderson Cooper and CCN will honor them this week with CNN Heroes – An All-Star Tribute.

This past February, CNN launched its search to find the most outstanding humanitarian and received 3,700 nominations from 75 countries! Since then, philanthropic leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Magic Johnson, George Lopez, and Queen Rania Al Abdullah have narrowed down the search to 10 finalists.  We’d like to congratulate the following people on all their great work: 

Tad Agoglia,Yohannes Gebregeorgis, Carolyn LeCroy,  Anne Mahlum, Liz McCartney, Phymean Noun, David Puckett, Maria Ruiz, Marie Da Silva and Viola Vaughn.

The final winner will be chosen by the public and voting starts tomorrow! To read more about these remarkable people and cast your vote, visit cnn.com/heroes!

via: looktothestars.org

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of Charlize: “You have used your voice, compassion and special relationship with the public to create a better world”. From a woman who fought back against sexual harassment in North Country, to a serial killer who suffered violence and abuse in Monster, Cheron’s message of peace circulates around ending violence against women.

Charlize herself has witnessed domestic violence first-hand; at the age of 15 she saw her mother fatally shot her alcoholic father as he threatened the family in a drunken rage.

Besides Clooney and Goodall, Charlize joins celebrities like Michael Douglas, musicians Daniel Barenboim, Midori Goto and Yo-Yo Ma, authors Paulo Coelho and Elie Wiesel and equestrian Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein.

Peace out, Charlize! Peace out!

via: waleg.com

Photo credit: PR Photos

Jane Goodall

Goodall, along with a group of world renown scientists, presented a petition with 150,000 names asking the European Union to put an end to the nearly 12 million animals that are used each year for animal testing. And that’s just in the European Union. Around the world it’s estimated that 115 million animals are exploited each year for medical testing, and guess who’s the ”single largest user?” Yep, it’s us — your friendly neighbors here in the United States. 

Jane said: ”We need to recognize at the outset that what we do to animals from their perspective certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable.” In reference to alternative technologies for medical research, she asked, “Where is the big encouragement, where is the political will, where is the funding for this kind of research and where are the prizes?” Goodall asked. “Why is animal-alternative work never recognized in the Nobel Prize for medicine, for example?”

To learn more about how YOU can help stop animal testing, visit stopanimaltests.com and let’s put an end to all this ridiculousness. Come on ya’ll…it’s 2008! 

via: canadianpress.com

Jane Goodall is not having it!

Last week the American Association for the Advancement of Science was reprimanded by some of the world’s top conservation biologists, including famed primatologist Jane Goodall, for depicting chimpanzees as “frivolous subhumans.”

The crime: an advertisement released by the AAAS showing chimps dressed in hats reading the association’s journal.

Wanna see for yourself? Too bad! The images were pulled shortly after complaints started rolling in. And also, in an attempt to not suck so hard, the organization has given Jane Goodall and six of her colleagues space in the journal this week to make the case that chimpanzees SHOULD NOT be dressed up as humans, or used frivolously in entertainment and advertisements.

Repeat after me: WE LOVE YOU JANE!!!