Roger S. Fouts (born June 8, 1943) is a retired American primate researcher. He was co-founder and co-director of the
Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) was located on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. CHCI included a sanctuary for chimpanzees who have learned to communicate with humans and each other using ...
(CHCI) in Washington, and a professor of psychology at the
Central Washington University
Central Washington University (CWU) is a public university in Ellensburg, Washington. Founded in 1891, the university consists of four divisions: the President's Division, Business and Financial Affairs, Operations, and Academic and Student Life ...
. He is best known for his role in teaching
Washoe the chimpanzee to communicate using a set of signs taken from American
sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
.
[FAQ]
The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, Central Washington University.
Fouts is an
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...
advocate, citing the
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
Animal Welfare Act as a model for legal rights for the Great Apes (
Hominidae
The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ea ...
),
[ and campaigning with British primatologist ]Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...
for improved conditions for chimpanzees. He has written on animal law and on the ethics of animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This ...
.[Fouts, Roger S.; Fouts, Deborah H. & Waters, G. (2002) "The ethics and efficacy of biomedical research in chimpanzees with special regard to HIV research" in A. Fuentes & L. Wolfe, ''Primates face to face: Conservation implications of human-nonhuman primate interconnections'', Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 45-60.] He is also an adviser to the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
The Ferrater Mora Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is an organisation based in Oxford which promotes animal ethics.
History
The centre was founded in Oxford in 2006 by Andrew Linzey, a member of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxf ...
.
He is married to Deborah Fouts
Deborah Fouts was the co-director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI). CHCI was the home of Washoe, the first non-human to acquire a human language, and three other chimpanzees who use the signs of American Sign Language ...
, who was the co-director and co-founder of CHCI.
Early life
Fouts was born in Sacramento, California
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
. He received his B.A. in child psychology from the college that became California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...
a few years later. In 1964, he married Deborah Harris, who [Lynch, Kristin]
"Roger Fouts"
Muskingum College. became his life-time collaborator. Fouts earned his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...
.
Career
In 1967, Fouts' career took a decisive turn after it was almost derailed by a disastrous job interview with Dr. Allen Gardner Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to:
Buildings
* Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee
* Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas
* Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...
in Reno, Nevada. However, Washoe, a chimpanzee, took an immediate liking to Roger, and leapt into his arms. A few days later he was told he had got the job.["September, 1967 - Roger Fouts joins Project Washoe - University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada"]
Friends of Washoe. In 1970 the project with Washoe and the Gardners relocated to the Institute of Primate Studies in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...
.
The Gardners and Fouts taught the chimpanzees signs from American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
(ASL) by modeling (demonstration and getting the chimps to imitate) and physical prompting (directly manipulating the chimpanzees' hands into the required shapes). As the studies progressed, they found that the animals used ASL to communicate with each other. The apes created phrases from combinations of signs to denote new things that were brought into their environment. Loulis, Washoe's adopted son, learned basic ASL and over 70 signs directly from Washoe, without human involvement.[
Fouts has been a consultant or adviser on four movies, including '' Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes'' (1984).IMDB]
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See also
*Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. This ...
*International primate trade
The international trade in primates sees 32,000 wild non-human primates (NHPs) trapped and sold on the international market every year. They are sold mostly for use in animal testing, but also for food, for exhibition in zoos and circuses, and fo ...
* List of animal rights advocates
Advocates of animal rights support the philosophy of animal rights. They believe that many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as in avoiding suff ...
*Non-human primate experiments
Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and ...
Notes
Further reading
Roger Fouts
at Central Washington University
The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
at Muskingum College History of Psychology Archives
* Fouts, Roger S. & Mills, Stephen Tukel (1997) '' Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees'', William Morrow.
*Fouts, Roger S. (1973) "Acquisition and testing of gestural signs in four young chimpanzees", 180 ''Science'', pp. 978–980.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouts, Roger
1943 births
American animal rights activists
American animal welfare scholars
Animal testing in the United States
California State University, Long Beach alumni
Central Washington University faculty
Living people
People involved with sign language
University of Nevada, Reno alumni