A neighbor confronts a protester on 86th Street.
Weekly nighttime protests on 86th Street over the plight of 66 chimpanzees in Liberia are upsetting and angering nearby residents as the noise has continued unabated for months. As we previously reported, the activists are protesting the New York Blood Center because they say the research organization abandoned chimpanzees it had used for research. Board member Michael Hodin lives on the block where they’re protesting. The protesters tend to yell, hit a cymbal, and blow whistles from about 8:30 to 10 p.m.
Activist Donny Moss sent us the video below with this explanation:
“For months, we sent letters; made polite phone calls and staged day time protests. After being ignored, we shifted gears by protesting at night. And, as you can see in this video, area residents (who ignored us for months) are now flying off the handle.”
For the animal rights activists, the disruption is part of the plan — if Hodin doesn’t listen to the activists, maybe he’ll listen to his fed-up neighbors.
“We have families!” says one stressed-out neighbor.
“This is bigger than that,” says one of the activists. “This is bigger than your baby being awake for an hour.”
After a doorman apparently gives them the finger, the activists walk up to his window yelling “Shame, shame!”
At times, as you can see in the video, things appear to get physical.
Police are present at the protests, but don’t tend to step in, the video indicates. One protester says they’re allowed to protest until 10 p.m. as long as they don’t use amplified sound.
Private security guards also have been attending the events and filming the protesters, Moss notes. It’s not clear if they’ve been hired by the blood center, Hodin or someone else.
We reached out to the blood center for a comment but received no response.
Whatever happened to being arrested for disturbing the peace?
Disturbing the peace is when hunters hired by Michael Hodin’s organization go into the jungle to shoot mother chimpanzees and peel their babies off of their bodies in order to kidnap them, hold them in a cage for 30 years and conduct invasive research experiments on their bodies before dumping the survivors onto islands with no food or water. The people responsible for this atrocity should be arrested, not those who are staging legal protests.
No, it is you and your militant cohorts that are disturbing the peace by kicking, screaming, and crying like spoiled children that don’t get their way. Your narcissistic and selfish actions betray any real care that you claim to have for these poor chimps. So, nice job in turning people away from what would otherwise be a worthy cause.
I hope you didn’t strain yourself twisting that logic.
“This is bigger than that,” says one of the activists. “This is bigger than your baby being awake for an hour” – the words of a fascist who decides who/what is worthy or not. They are all the same, and their “larger good” is just a fascist hypocrisy.
Let’s get to Donny Moss’ apartment. See what happens.
You have every right to protest anywhere that is public access. Note – throwing “facist” around when someone points out the difference between an hour or two of noise vs. a lifetime of torture then abandonment just makes you silly.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Could not agree more.
News flash: The US has no jurisdiction in Liberia.
I get the anger and the plight of the apes.
However – won’t it be more effective if they protest in front of the office of the NY Blood Center?
I get the anger of the people living on the block as well.
The protester are disturbing the peace, and as much as their cause is noble, ya can’t do that.
And push comes to shove – get your money together and try to feed the apes yourselves.
They have done that at New York Blood Center day and night, well as HSUS has organized the NYBC protest day and night but they still don’t listen, so majority of Chimp lovers went up to CitiCorp and MetLIFE, we commute to Summit, CEO of Metlife, larger donor of NYBC to protest, well as Howard Melstein, Laurie Glimcher’s work place/apartment, well as Dana Institute in Boston by Boston Activists, California Activists in Owen Garrick’s apartment.
All of them has power to reinstate fundings for 66 chimpanzees by doing blood drive to increase funding for 66 chimpanzees or giving fundraiser money to HSUS/HSI for they could donate money to Ponso who properly commute back and forth between Liberia and Ivory Coast.
CitiCorp and Metlife listened, but NYBC still wouldn’t listen to their former partners either.
US Animal Rights Protests are not violent, so police never arrest them.
We protested at the NY Blood Center for many months, and we were ignored. The blood center left us with no choice but to target the board members. After our letters and phone calls to the board members were ignored, we protested politely during the day. After Hodin (in this case) ignored the many months of daytime protests, we began to come back at night. Only then did people in the neighborhood begin to pay attention. Perhaps now they will ask Hodin to feed the chimps who earned his organization an estimated $500 million in royalties. Abandoning 66 chimps on islands with no natural food or water after holding them captive in cages and conducting horrific experiments on them for 30 years is an atrocity. Please contact Michael Hodin and tell him to do the right thing.
Let me get this straight.
The apes have been stranded on an island with no food or water since sometime in 2015.
Lets call it a year’s time.
The apes are still alive.
Quite a miracle, as it has not been reported that they turned cannibal.
So, pray tell us Mr. Moss, how they sustain themselves for a year with no water or food?
I get the cruel and shabby way they were treated by the NY Blood Center.
I am a animal lover and I donate to animal right groups for over 40 years.
But, tell us how these apes have survived for at least a year, on a deserted island, with no water or food.
Maybe they found a way that can be used for us distant cousins as well.
And the world will be saved.
When the NY Times reported in May 2016 that the Blood Center abandoned the chimps, the Humane Society of the United States created a GoFundMe page to collect donations to feed the chimps on an emergency basis. As an aside, the NY Blood Center didn’t only abandon the chimps, it abandoned the caretakers who were delivering food and water to them once every other day (an atrocity in and of itself). The chimps are in good hands now, but the public can’t pay for the chimps’ food indefinitely. The NY Blood Center created this population of captive chimps, profited off of them and then dumped them on islands with no natural food or water. The organization publicly promised to provide the survivors with lifelong care, but new management must want the expense off of their balance sheet.
But she was a “rent controlled person,” don’t you know they have special rights and privileges? Sheesh, the nerve of these protestors.
Let me get this straight: Hodin ignored you protest, so you decide to take on the whole neighborhood. How’s that working out for you?
Pretty well if it’s receiving all of this attention I’d say.
They are extremely obnoxious and odious. Whatever merit there is to their cause has long since been lost to their tactics.
They are in the midst of one of the most liberal and activist communities in the country and they are doing nothing but making enemies.
Your comment suggests that we had friends in the neighborhood in the first place. During the months when we protested politely during the day, the vast majority of people who saw us week after week disparaged us, belittled us and told us to “get a life.” Only a handful of people were sympathetic. Making enemies doesn’t harm the cause because we didn’t have helpful friends in the community in the first place.
Typical fascist responce. Takes a while sometimes, but fascists always lose.
Donny,
Would you mind telling us where you live? I’m absolutely certain that one of your neighbors has done something that I disapprove of. I would like to get some of my fanatical friends together and come protest loudly outside your home one night a week until you force your neighbor to stop doing the thing that I disapprove of. How about it?
It’s not hard to find his $3m condo downtown. If you really care to.
I care too…i have been unable via google.
I will gladly post it here.
Any tips?
Steven, my comment addressed to Donny Moss’ fascist reply, not to your post. Sorry for messing up.
No problem. I figured that.
Michael Hodin needs to do the right thing. I live on 86th St. but not right where these protests are disturbing me, and I understand the frustration of neighbors who have to deal with this protest. Maybe some of the wealthy people who live in the UWS can pry a few dollars from their pockets and solve this. What Hodin and the New York Blood Center did was despicable.
A gofundme page was set up for the chimps in May of 2015. Maybe this group of protesters should concentrate on fundraising instead of protesting, because a year has gone by and their tactics aren’t changing anything.
https://www.gofundme.com/abandonedchimps
$318,052 of $480k goal
Raised by 6,540 people in 16 months
Soliciting donations from members of the public, who should not be paying for these chimps) is not a sustainable solution. The extraordinarily wealthy organization that created and profited off of this population of captive chimps should be paying for their food. On a separate note, our tactics are working because MetLife and Citigroup, major NY Blood Center donors who we targeted, issued statements condemning the blood center and cutting their funding.
Donny-
Why don’t you publicize your address, and those of your members, so the folks who are being disturbed can organize a counter protest at your place of residence? Then we can truly see how/if people are apathetic and entitled, or if they are truly just pissed off by your taking a protest from something against an organization to an individual. Personally, I support the cause of animal rights (financially and morally – I am a vegetarian) and I do not live on 86th (but nearby), however if given the opportunity I would gladly protest your home to give voice to my neighbors who you have harassed over the past months…As an activist this should make you happy then everyone gets protest their own personal injustices…
Love this tactic. “I am going to annoy a bunch of people that have nothing to do with this issue until they help me.” And you wonder why you have so many people opposing you. Protesting is one of the lowest forms of activism. Why not develop relationships that can actually help you solve the problem. Garner support from those that are sympathetic to your cause, rather than annoying people who have no interest in it. Despite what you might think, your cause doesn’t rank as #1 priority for everyone. Shocking that with almost $400k you cant figure out a way to be more productive. Many of the world’s largest corporations started with far less than that in there coffers. Just shows a lack of creativity, and smarts. But that’s what I would expect.
What do you expect? He is a bully.
you remember bullies from grade school…they didnt have friends, so got negative attention because its better than nothing.
Donny has admitted below, that ‘well, no one liked us, so we figured as long as they hate us, lets screw em worse’
Since Donny came to our street, i have been working overtime to support Hodin in anyway i can.
“Soliciting donations from members of the public, who should not be paying for these chimps) is not a sustainable solution. The extraordinarily wealthy organization that created and profited off of this population of captive chimps should be paying for their food.”
But obviously the members of the public have been paying for the food and the chimps have been fed since 2015, correct?
“On a separate note, our tactics are working because MetLife and Citigroup, major NY Blood Center donors who we targeted, issued statements condemning the blood center and cutting their funding.”
This doesn’t prove your tactics are working if the members of the public are still feeding the chimps and you’re still standing out on 86th street and protesting. If anything has changed since May of 2015 then why are you still out there?
Just for the record I don’t live on 86th street, but if I did I’d be really po’d if I had to listen to this every night. It’s an incredibly passive aggressive way to get Michael Hodin’s neighbors into taking up your cause.
Good for them. They speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. You don’t like noise? Then don’t live in NYC.
Re: “You don’t like noise? Then don’t live in NYC.”
Exactly WHEN did it become OK for the self-righteous to wreck the lives of people who have ZERO connections to the current problem-of-the-moment that the protestors are protesting (and posting their pathetic protest to social media)?
Yes, NYC has noise, but this is NOT background noise. This is a bunch of self-righteous adult-children showing off that nobody can stop them, just the way their parents could not stop them when they were obnoxious screaming attention-seeking toddlers…which they STILL are !
I find it amusing that they are fighting to feed the chimps but then show the chimps at the end and what are they doing? Eating.
Yes – because other people have stepped up to feed them – people who did not make $500 million on the chimps after tearing them away from their homes in the wild and abandoning on an island. If that’s okay with you, then you need a heart transplant.
HELP US GIULIANI!!!!!!
You don’t win support by disrupting people’s lives when they are trying to sleep or put their kids to sleep and then shaming them for wanting peace in their neighborhood. This will only build resentment and resistance to their cause.
Lol at all the white tears being shed because of some noise in their precious lives ??? Shut up and deal with the noise or do the right thing and start contacting these low lives that abandoned these chimps.
Nothing racist about this comment. Don’t you just love people who love animals, a wonderful thing I love them too, but HATE HUMANS.
Oh i see, help you or suffer the consequences. “wah wah wah…take my side or i’ll make your life miserable.” Just because you lack the intellect to recruit resources peacefully and productively you are going to force people to join your cause. Ever think how worthless your cause must be if people wont join it voluntarily?
Have them talk to their greedy neighbor. I am most appalled at the dog owners complaining about this. Making millions off animals you abuse for all of their lives then dumping them like a pile of trash on some island???
Make the neighbor talk to him?? Just because someone lives in a certain neighborhood, why does that make them responsible for all of their neighbors actions? As someone said above, tell me where you live. I am sure many of your neighbors do things I don’t approve of, I am going to annoy you until you fix all of them.
Uh, no. People before animals. The more disruption to peaceful normality and sleep that a child experiences, the greater the danger to his healthful development. And, in turn, the greater the odds that said child will grow-up to be a burden or even menace to society.
I feel sorry for the people who have to suffer through these antics.
I know “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!??!?!?!” is the inevitable UWS rallying cry for anything that makes anyone vaguely uncomfortable, but come on. Kids are not going to become sociopaths or hobos because someone protested on their block and made it hard for them to sleep for an hour a week. I’m not saying I’m not sympathetic to someone whose baby gets woken up, but let’s keep some perspective, okay?
It’s not an hour a week. You clearly aren’t a parent. It disrupts their whole night and subsequent nights since young kids are usually are put to bed around 7:30/8PM. An hour into their sleep on seemingly random nights there is LOUD noise from 8:30PM to 10PM and it’s very hard to sleep through. Young kids don’t understand that it’s just “once a week for an hour” to them it’s that scary noise and those scary people coming back again. Terrible tactics. Poor chimps, with friends like these who needs enemies.
It’s not an hour a week. You clearly aren’t a parent. It disrupts their whole night and subsequent nights since young kids are usually are put to bed around 7:30/8PM. An hour into their sleep on seemingly random nights there is LOUD noise from 8:30PM to 10PM and it’s very hard to sleep through. Young kids don’t understand that it’s just “once a week for an hour” to them it’s that scary noise and those scary people coming back again. Terrible tactics. I have more and more sympathy for Michael Hodin, clearly there is no reasoning with these protesters. You can’t reason or negotiate with crazy. Poor chimps, with friends like these who needs enemies.
Do you keep your kids in sensory-deprivation tanks as they move about NYC the rest of the time so that a peaceful protest on their street is an extraordinarily terrifying experience? Come on. I really am sympathetic to the frustration of parents who’ve just gotten their kids down when the protests start, but if your children require that much peace and quiet not to grow up to be ax-murderers, you need to live in Greenwich.
Liberals vs. liberals. I love it. Also, Donny Moss and his minions appear to be quite unhinged.
You should support your protesters. Bring them some beef satay or ham sandwiches. It’s hard work and unfortunately not many people thanks them.
Majority of animal rights activists are vegans, so they cannot eat animal food.
There are some non-vegans joins protest as well for compassion for chimpanzees.
I not vegan, but I respect vegans, but chimpanzees starvation is same as children starvation.
Until NYBC do the right thing, protest will never ends.
Wait what?! They are eating the animals food? Maybe that’s not so bad…don’t chimps eat fruit and such? or is the issue that people are eating the chimps? I had chimp once, it was very chewy…sort of like meat flavored bubble gum
Yuki,
I will repeat the request I made to Donny Moss: please tell us where you live, as I am sure that one of your neighbors must be doing something that I disapprove of. As we all know, the way that we resolve disputes in our society is to regularly show up outside the home of someone we disagree with and to bother that person’s neighbors to try to force them to make that person do what we want them to do, right? I eagerly await your response with your home address.
Anyone objecting to citizens execising their Constitutional right to protest and speak should think twice about how they would feel if they were unable to protest their favorite cause. There are no reports of arrests (in this article) even with a police presence. Yet i assume that most of Hodin’s neighbors and commenter here are just fine to break the law protesting Donald Trump (from simply stealing signs to blocking traffic to vandalism etc). The hypocrisy stinks to the sky.
I had to read the article twice. I seriously thought it was a spoof. I find it upsetting that seemingly engaged and impassioned people could treat other humans in such a cavalier manner. Surely the rights and welfare of people is as important as that of chimpanzees.
I am an animal lover and truly feel bad for the chimps. But given that we are less than a month from an election that is going to shape the direction of the country for years to come, particularly if a tyrannical narcissist is elected, I really wish these activists would focus on a bigger issue than this – please go a hundred miles west of here and do some campaigning in Pennsylvania.
I agree.
Anyone helping to get out the vote out for Trump in PA would be doing a great service to the country and to Western civilization as a whole.
(They’re both narcissists, though.)
The token UWS republican. I won’t divert this thread from its intended topic, but all I have to say is it must be really hard living in a neighborhood where 99.9% of the people disagree with you – couldn’t find a nice place on Staten Island?
As a person with very thin political affiliations, i prefer a neighborhood with lots of different ideas.
More interesting, more productive, more democratic, more human…
1.) You set yourself up so perfectly for my reply that I just couldn’t resist.
You could have left-off with, “an election that is going to shape the direction of the country for years to come”, perhaps adding something like, “the stakes have perhaps never been higher”. But you just had to wave your “Hillary 2016! We must defeat the deplorables!”. And you just assumed that this would go unchallenged and not cause the thread to veer further off-topic because you figured that you had expressed a view that was manifestly self-evident and uncontroversial to all or nearly all of the readers.
2.) Not all Trump supporters and Trump voters are Republicans. You ought not to make such assumptions.
3.) Both Republicans as well as Trump supporters and voters, while obviously a minority in these parts, make-up a much higher percentage of voters here than the mere 0.1% that you asserted they do.
4.) Is there no room for dissidents in your vision of the Upper West Side? Must everyone conform, more or less, to the same basic ideological and political lines? What happened to diversity— that value that we are incessantly told is such a noble and even obligatory one, such a fundamental part of “who we are”— as a nation, a state, a city and a neighborhood?
As one of the lone UWS republicans myself, its best neighborhood to live in. Nobody keeps out the riff-raff like rich liberals. Please keep up the good work!
Such unabashed righteousness. This is a typical response of people who lack creativity and intellect. Instead of working to actually solve the problem or develop productive relationships, let’s just annoy people and force them to take up a cause. Notice how you only see union workers (with there giant inflatable rat) or animal rights activist protesting. I never see a an accountant or marketing manager protesting because they were treated unfairly at work. They take legal action, they find a new job, or take the matter into there own hands and resolve intellectually. Ignorant tactics by Donny Moss.
” Notice how you only see union workers (with there giant inflatable rat) or animal rights activist protesting. I never see a an accountant or marketing manager protesting because they were treated unfairly at work. They take legal action, they find a new job, or take the matter into there own hands and resolve intellectually.”
so you are against Unions and democratic demonstration?
W 86 St resident close to protest, and my family and I are not bothered by this protest at all. Just last week I watched them admirably and thought such commitment, perseverance, and passion for a valid cause is a good thing.
Until recently, I lived across the street from the protestors and heard them bang & yell nightly. It was/is annoying. For weeks I had no idea what it was about, but really didn’t care either. Just walked by and kept of moving.
What I may see here, though, is a potential for residents to challenge the protestor law to limit the curfew to 9pm if in a residential area.
People should have the right to voice protests, but does seem like 10pm would be considered reasonably late for the average resident.
We could give the monkeys citizenship a section 8 apartment and food stamps, would this make the protestors go away
Good for the protesters! If somebody doesn’t take a stand against the needless suffering of animals it will only get worse.
Thank you all who protest for your courage.
Thank you Susan. Mr Hodin is obviously ignoring his neighbors by refusing to help the chimps. Let’s be clear, there would be no protest if he did the right thing. MetLife saw the light and no longer supports NY Blood Ctr. Presented with the facts, they acted, but no one home @ NY Blood Ctr.
In support of the 86th residents who are being harassed, I’d be up for following some of the protesters home and providing their names and/or addresses.
really woody? then go ahead! i’m sure what you do everyday is so important (like Hodin), but we will manage without you for a day or two.
I don’t understand the connection between investigating the names/addresses of the protesters and my profession. Do you wonder the same about the protesters?
But you might be onto something with that logic. It’s also important to find out where the protesters work and where their kids go to school. Their bosses, co-workers, teachers, & classmates should be aware of the worthy endeavors they’re engaged in. I would help that cause. Legally of course just like they do on W 86th St.
DITTO
Donny won’t give any of their addresses.
Their commitment to their cause ends when it becomes inconvenient for them.
Why isn’t anyone throwing water or eggs at these jerks out their window?
Hodin made $500 million from the blood of 66 chimpanzees? I am definitely in the wrong line of work.
I live on 86th Street and can hear the protesting. Does anyone know why these chimpanzees aren’t covered under the CHIMP act which would require funding for their care once they are no longer being used research? Is it because the NYBC wasn’t funded by NIH for its research? I thought since this Act was passed, any retired chimpanzees were supposed to be retired to sanctuaries and provided care for the rest of their lives.
The police Dept advised me that counsel woman Rosenthal gave them a permit to protest so there’s nothing they can do. Guess she doesn’t live around here. I complained to her office but received no response,
This rude and inconsiderate behavior which affects people who have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this problem makes me far less sympathetic to their cause. Why should these people be disturbed? The protesters are obviously oblivious to those of us who have children or who may be ill. Do they think it’s appropriate for people suffering in the midst of chemo treatment or serious chronic pain to be disturbed this way? I don’t. But they are obviously too myopic to care about their fellow humans; it seems that they only have compassion for animals. If they think their actions make people care about the chimpanzees, they are sorely mistaken. When you find Danny Moss’ address please publish it here so I can bring my cymbals….and my son’s drum set!
Like the self-righteous zealots that they are, they are indifferent to the human suffering that they cause. They would be more likely to stop if someone told them they were disturbing a cockroach than if you tell them they are disturbing children and sick people.
Have any of the residents of this building gathered to speak to the one who is on the board of the NY Blood Center? Would they be willing to publicize this?
Why should they submit to blackmail? Rewarding this tactic will only lead to more of it.
You know this is how Planet of the Apes started, right???
what kind of people end up using chimps at a blood center anyway? to me, such people are disgusting.
NEWS FLASH:
THEY ARE PROTESTING IN FRONT OF A WOMEN’S SHELTER.
This is a shelter where, each night of these demonstrations, women without anywhere else to go have tried to get a night’s rest. And it is directly in front of Donny Moss and his friends, as they crash away with drums, cymbals, and whistles, making as much noise as they possibly can. If you don’t believe me just google it — it’s the B’nai Jeshurun/The Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew Homeless Shelter. Note they try to sleep at 9 since they have to be back on the street at 7 AM.
I don’t live on 86th, but last week I tried to explain this to Donny and the others. He had no idea — none of them did. They have been protesting all these months and they did not bother to find out who lives next door.
But they said it made no difference. I asked what he expected these women to do. He said they should get up out of their beds and complain to Michael Hodin. I asked if it would be enough if one of them did that. He said no — they would not stop until they received satisfaction from Hodin.
Moss and his accomplices filmed the whole thing, but I guess this is not something they want to publicize.
But really, sir, at long last, have you no decency? Have you no compassion?
My previous comment made it rather clear that I am at least largely in agreement with many of the comments that have been posted here that have been critical of the protesters. I would like to add, though, that while the protesters may be many things, to call them “fascist”, as a number of comments here have done, is foolish, melodramatic and betrays an ignorance of what the term “fascism” actually means.
In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, George Orwell wrote,
“The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’.”
Historian and political philosopher Paul Gottfried deals extensively with the misuse and abuse of the term “fascism” in his book, Fascism: The Career of a Concept. The book is reviewed here. A brief treatment of the subject by the book’s author called, The “F” Word”, can be read at the linked URL.
These protesters are the lowest pieces of crap on earth. They are terrorists using a loophole in the law to get away with harrasment.
Someone should film them, research where THEY LIVE, then get a cybal and whistle and GO TO TOWN in front of their home where THEIR babies get to sleep peacefully.