From Chimps Committing Genocide In Gombe To Humans Committing Genocide In GazaNews Flash: “Veronika, a 13-year-old brown Swiss pet cow, picks up a broom with her tongue, then twists around and uses it to scratch the bits of her body she could otherwise not reach. Veronika has become the latest animal in the tool-using menagerie knocking down the straw man of human specialness and superiority. With the domestication of fire more than a million years ago, ancient humans began to break the bonds of niche. Modern humans, emerging over 100,000 years ago, began to exploit their environments and spread to every continent except Antarctica. It is no coincidence that the only other animal capable of premeditated murder, and genocide, is man’s closest relative, the chimpanzee.