Renowned ape expert Jane Goodall claims Michael Jackson’s famous pet chimp, Bubbles, was beaten in the singer’s care.
The 79-year-old researcher, who has spent almost half a century studying chimps, said she confronted the star after finding that Bubbles was abused at Jacko’s Neverland Ranch.
“I ticked him off. I went to see him to talk about Bubbles . . . When he was with Michael Jackson, he was being beaten,” she told TMZ in a video posted to the gossip site Friday.
Goodall, who was at an event in DC, stopped short of saying the King of Pop himself hurt Bubbles, but sister La Toya’s late ex-husband claimed in 2002 that Jacko had abused the ape in the mid-’80s.
“Michael beat him up a lot. I saw him punch him, kick him in the stomach. The chimp was on the ground crying,” Jack Gordon wrote in his tell-all, “The Jackson Family.”
“Michael used to say, ‘He doesn’t feel it. He’s a chimpanzee. I have to discipline him.’ ”
The Jacksons have denied the book’s claims.
Bubbles, now 30 and living at a sanctuary in Florida, appeared in several music videos with Jacko and went with him on tour in Japan in the late 1980s.
The chimp had his own guard, rode in a limo and even learned to moonwalk before he was taken to live with a trainer at age 4.
Goodall visited Jackson around that time. The star later claimed she inspired him to write the hit 1985 tune, “We are the World.”
But Goodall was appalled by Bubbles’ treatment and spoke out about the injustice of keeping apes as pets and using them in entertainment.
In her bizarre TMZ video, Goodall is asked whether the White House should ever have a pet chimp instead of a pet dog.
“Do you think . . . the president could have a chimp?” the reporter asks.
“No,” she replies.
“Chimpanzees belong in the forest. And pet chimpanzees are one of the worst things you could possibly do. By the time they get to 7 or 8 years old, they’re stronger than you would think.”
The reporter then asks about Bubbles. “Bubbles is still alive. And he’s beautiful, but when he was with Michael Jackson, he was being beaten,” she says.
Clueless, the reporter moves on, asking, “Did Michael Jackson ever teach him how to dance?”
Bubbles now lives the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla.
Goodall didn’t return requests for comment Friday. A Jackson rep denied that Jacko had abused the animal.