Boy and chimpanzee ‘sibling’ experiment
This is an article very close to this monkey’s heart. As you know, I consider myself to be pretty much a “one off”. I inherited some human abilities, such as reading and writing, but somehow I cannot talk, so part of the “download” is missing. Google tells me I’m the result of a Jumping Gene, or a “Transposon”. I don’t buy this fiction. The whole theory of evolution was popularised by Charles Darwin, and can easily be disproved eg: where did all the information contained in DNA come from? Don’t forget to subscribe to Creation magazine and keep abreast of the TRUTH, Click on link below:
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To read the author’s interesting biography, click on his name at start of this article.
Gibber! Gibber!
CHUGLEY
Boy and chimpanzee ‘sibling’ experiment
Published 12 Dec, 2025
If chimps are our distant cousins, could they not be raised together as if they were siblings? Read about a disturbing experiment, inspired by evolution.
First appeared in Creation 46(4)
Pages 50 – 51, October 2024
Evolutionists believe that chimpanzees and people are closely related. In the 1930s, psychologists Winthrop and Luella Kellogg attempted to apply this fallacious idea to their family, when they set up an experiment using their own son. Over a nine-month period from 1931–1932, they raised their ten-month-old boy, Donald, alongside a seven-month-old female chimpanzee called Gua.1 The outcome was described as “chilling” in a 2024 newspaper article.2
From bad to worse ‘experiment’
The Kelloggs wanted to investigate whether they could educate an ape and see if it might learn to communicate as a human being. Their five-year plan was to raise Gua and Donald together, treating them as though they were siblings. Fortunately for Donald, the project was stopped within a year.
Gua wore baby clothes, slept in a bed, and sat in a highchair during meals. She was able to master using a spoon and drinking from a glass.
However, the Kelloggs also forced Donald and Gua to undergo a series of comparison tests which they documented on film. The footage is disturbing. In one case, Donald’s mother called him to herself, only to block his access to her at the last moment. In another instance, Donald was spun around in a seat until in tears. Another involved firing a revolver within close proximity, causing distress in Gua; no report about any hearing damage for Donald. The couple even reported that they hit the two youngsters on the head with spoons to listen for differences in their skulls.
Instead of Gua becoming more human, Donald started to exhibit animal behaviour.
Apparently, seeing their son as a specimen in an evolutionary-driven experiment prevented the Kelloggs from being considerate parents, until the experiment backfired. Instead of Gua becoming more human, Donald started to exhibit animal behaviour. He began to walk on all fours, bite people, choose ape-grunts over human speech, and generally fall behind in development.
Not surprisingly, the Kelloggs abandoned their experiment, which they apparently “bitterly regretted”,2 soon after. Gua became a caged laboratory primate and later died of pneumonia. The long-term effects the experiment may have had on Donald are unknown. However, he tragically ended his own life when he was 43, half a year after his parents died.
Worlds apart
It goes without saying that this experiment was absurd—and abusive—from the beginning.
Not only are chimpanzees and people different created kinds, but the first are mere animals while the second are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Evolutionists emphasize similarities, but it would be better to consider some of the stark differences.
- Growing up: Compared to chimpanzees, people have a prolonged childhood and are dependent for much longer.3
- Physical strength: Chimps are far stronger and develop muscles quicker than people do; they are also mobile earlier.
- Cognitive abilities: Human intelligence and creativity far exceeds that of animals. This is demonstrated in science, sports, arts, and more.4
- Speech: Only people have the right kind of brain structure and organization to allow for complex speech. Apes cannot talk.5
- Morality: Animals are not moral agents. Only people are guilty before God because of our sins, and in need of a Saviour.
- Value: Because people are made in God’s image, we have a special value that animals do not have. Laws protecting human rights should not be extended to animals (Genesis 9:6).
- Experimental ability: Only humans had the capacity to set up such an experiment, grotesque as it was. No chimp parents tried to compare their baby chimp with a captured baby human.
A tragic lesson
The treatment of Donald by his parents, and other people involved, was not only unwarranted, but at times even cruel. Belief in evolution may cause people to lose sight of the fact that all people are created in God’s image and ought to be treated with dignity.
References and Notes
- Kellogg, W. and Kellogg, A., The Ape and The Child: A comparative study of the environmental influence upon early behavior, Whittlesey House, a division of McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New York and London, 1933.
- Sexton, B., Extraordinary tale of scientist parents who adopted a chimpanzee to raise as their baby’s SISTER—but bitterly regretted bizarre ‘nature versus nurture’ experiment on their son after it yielded chilling results, dailymail.co.uk, 20 Jan 2024.
- Burgess, S., The design and origin of man, chapter 7, Day One Publications, Leominster, UK, 2004.
- Bell, P., People are amazing! creation.com/people-are-amazing, 28 Jul 2022.
- Wieland, C., Has an ape learned to talk? Creation 25(3):52–53, 2003; creation.com/apetalk.
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