On at least two incidents in mid-to-late June 2004, Patterson intensely pressured Keller to expose herself to Koko while they were working outside where other employees could potentially view Keller’s naked body. … On one such occasion, Patterson said, ‘Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples. I will turn my back so Kendra can show you her nipples.’
There is stupid, and then there is…well, I don’t quite know what the hell this is. Francine Patterson is being sued for attempting to force two employees to expose their breasts…TO A GORILLA. WTF??
Now, if memory serves, Koko is female, no? So are we to assume that Ms. Patterson is encouraging lesbian behavior in her simian charge? Wow…now THAT’S some DUMB@$$ AWARD-quality stuff, eh?
Two former employees of the Gorilla Foundation, home to Koko the “talking” ape, have filed a lawsuit contending that they were ordered to bond with the 33-year-old female simian by displaying their breasts.
Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, both of San Francisco, are taking on the Woodside nonprofit and its president, Francine “Penny” Patterson.
Their lawsuit, filed…in San Mateo County Superior Court, alleges sexual discrimination, wrongful termination in retaliation for reporting health and safety violations, and failure to pay overtime or provide rest breaks….
Yeah, but then things get even wierder:
The suit follows complaints filed by Alperin and Keller in January with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, in which they gave identical reasons for why they were fired: “I refused to expose my breast to perform acts of bestiality with one of the gorillas.”….
Koko — older sister of Kubi, who presided over the zoo’s Gorilla World exhibit until he died last year — now has a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words in American Sign Language, according to foundation claims that are much debated among scientists.
Right…and apparently four of the words in Koko’s vocabulary are “Me wanna see titties!!”
The suit, in any case, says that Patterson would interpret hand movements by Koko as a demand to see exposed human nipples. She warned Alperin and Keller that their employment with the foundation would suffer, the suit says, if they “did not indulge Koko’s nipple fetish.”
During at least three visits, the suit says, “Patterson communicated to Alperin that exposing one’s breasts to Koko is a normal component to developing a personal bond with the gorilla.”
So, are we talking abnout a zoo or a singles bar here?
Gorilla expert Kristen Lukas, curator of conservation and science at the Cleveland Metro Park Zoo, said she’d never encountered a gorilla with a nipple fixation.
“This is absolutely a first,” she said. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
The zoo’s publicist, Sue Allen, said, “Those of us in Cleveland would say: ‘Only in San Francisco.’ “
Indeed. Somehow, I have a hard time envisioning this sort of scenario taking place at the Topeka Zoo. Perhaps Ms. Patterson simply lost sight of the fact that her employees were human and not, in fact, gorillas. As such, they could reasonably be expected to object to demands that they publicly expose themselves to a gorilla.
And what of the alleged request “to perform acts of bestiality with one of the gorillas”? Do really want or need to know just what that is all about? No, I didn’t think so, either….
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