Why Penalize Mother and Baby Chimps?

I can’t get it out of my mind that the chimp babies are taken from their mothers (“An Expert Mother,” Aug. 30) at the Los Angeles Zoo when it’s the male chimps that are aggressive and maybe dangerous. This is very similar to the human situations where the husband and father is abusive and the wife and child have to leave the home. Why couldn’t the mother chimps and the babies be separated out together? None of this is to take away from the good care that Kelley Greene and others are trying to provide, but surely we as humans are smart enough to figure out a better way than sedating the mothers, stealing their babies and hoping that they might recognize them when reunited!

--BETTY DECTER

Beverly Hills