On this day in vegan history · April 3, 1934
Jane Goodall Is Born
She proved chimpanzees make tools, hold grudges, and grieve their dead, then spent her last decades asking why we still eat animals we now know think and feel.
The facts
- Born
- April 3, 1934, in London, England, as Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall
- Breakthrough
- In 1960 at Gombe, she observed a chimpanzee stripping a grass stalk to fish termites from their mound, the first confirmed tool use by a non-human animal
- Cambridge PhD
- In 1962 she was sent to study for a PhD at Cambridge without a bachelor's degree first, only the eighth person ever allowed to do so
- Went vegan
- In 2021 she became a vegan and authored the plant-based cookbook Eat Meat Less
Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London on April 3, 1934, decades before the world would know her as its foremost expert on chimpanzees. In 1960, with no university degree, she began watching wild chimps in what is now Tanzania and saw one strip leaves from a grass stalk to 'fish' termites from their mound, the first confirmed tool use by a non-human animal, a finding that made her mentor Louis Leakey declare science would have to redefine 'man,' 'tool,' or 'human.' Cambridge admitted her to a PhD anyway, only the eighth person allowed to skip the bachelor's degree first. Decades of watching chimps play, fight, and mourn convinced her the line between human and animal minds was far blurrier than science had assumed. She became a vegetarian and, in 2021, a vegan, making the case on ethical, environmental, and health grounds and publishing a plant-based cookbook, Eat Meat Less.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Thousands of people who say they 'love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated with so little respect and kindness just to make more meat.
Jane Goodall
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Goodall's chimpanzee research broke the wall science had built between 'us' and 'them,' proving animals use tools, form bonds, and grieve. That same evidence became her case, decades later, for why the world's most trusted naturalist stopped eating them.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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