"Project NIM": Discussion Questions
1) In the film, there is a scene where it shows the chimpanzees being transported to a medical facility where they would perform experiments on primates (literally called the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates ), and these chimpanzees would be sedated and kept in isolated cages . It seemed that back in the time this incident occurred, roughly 1987, not many people were extremely concerned with animal cruelty. However, one of the researchers from the facility that Nim, the chimpanzee around whom this documentary was filmed and titled, was previously transferred from, worked hard to get a lawyer to threaten the facility that he will take the case of animal cruelty against Nim to the supreme court. This was specifically in regards to Nim because - without giving away the plot of the entire film - he was raised up with humans and shared their emotions of fear, love, and pain, etc. He was eventually bought by a group that was dedicated to protecting wildlife,