WARNING: UPSETTING CONTENT Donald Kellogg was just 10 months old when he was subjected to a horrifying experiment by his parents
Emilia Randall GAU Writer
07:00, 25 Sep 2025
The chimp and toddler underwent months of barbaric experiments(Image: provided)
Luella and Winthrop Niles Kellogg believed they could use their own child in a chilling experiment involving a chimpanzee.
Toddler Donald Kellogg was just 10 months old when he became one of the subjects in the horrifying and doomed research.
The youngster was left in floods of tears when he was subjected to hideous trials at the hands of his parents Luella and Winthrop Niles.
The scientist couple believed if they raised the chimpanzee alongside their own child, the animal would become more human – it had disastrous consequences.
The Kelloggs moved Gua the chimp into their home on June 26, 1931, reports the Mirror US.
The horrifying experiment had to be abandoned nine months later when it was Donald who “became more ape than human”.
His parents observed Donald biting, crawling and grunting like a chimp.
Donald was made to sleep in a similar bed to the chimp and the “brother and sister” were spoken to in the same way.
Gunshots were fired in one experiment to see whether it would be Donald or Gua who reacted quicker.
The parents unleashed chaos on their child(Image: Youtube/ AV Geeks)
Both the boy and chimp were whacked on the top of their heads with spoons to determine how different their skulls sounded.
The tests were 24/7 and despite being cut short led Winthrop to publishing a book – The Ape and the Child: A study of environmental influence upon early behaviour.
The Kellogg couple were encouraged with Gua’s progress, especially physically, but found she struggled to keep up with Donald intellectually after he started to formulate words. Documenting the experiment’s conclusion, The Psychological Review said: “We are told that the study was terminated on March 28, 1932, when Gua was returned to the Orange Park primate colony through a gradual rehabilitating process.
“But as for why, the Kelloggs, who are so specific on so many other points, leave the reader wondering.”
Theorising about the sudden halt to the trials, they continued: “First, the schedule that the Kelloggs maintained for the nine months was so gruelling that they may have quit for reasons of fatigue.
“Second, they may have wanted to use the time remaining to them on leave from Indiana to prepare the book manuscript for publication. Third, Gua was maturing, gaining in strength and, according to Kellogg, becoming less predictable and more difficult to manage.
“It is possible the Kelloggs feared Gua might inadvertently harm Donald.”
Mum Leulla allegedly grew concerned her boy was developing more ape-like characteristics than human ones, leading to the study’s termination.
For a period afterwards, life continued normally, with Winthrop making his living researching bottle-nose dolphins at Florida State University.
Both he and his wife died in 1972, and devastatingly their son took his own life just 12 months later at the age of 43.
Regarding Gua, she was relocated following the experiment’s end, but succumbed to pneumonia at three years old just one year afterwards.