Nickelodeon, How Could You? December 24, 2008

Posted by Rachel-O at December 24, 2008 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 23 ) | TrackBack

So, I'm not going to lie. As a little girl, growing up as an animal lover—I loved TV shows, movies and basically anything that involved animals. Naively, that included movies with live animals. I just didn't know any better.

Just like a lot of other industries—I soon learned just how horribly animals were treated behind the scenes for our entertainment. Just learning the fact that, well you know that "cute" face that chimpanzees make in any movie you see them in, where it looks like they're smiling? Well, chimpanzees actually make that face out of terror— and that made me change my mind. Animals like tigers, monkeys, and other wild animals are often torn from their mothers arms in the wild to be forced to live lives of confinement and abuse to be trained to end up on the big screen. When animals get too big to be portrayed as cute in movies or are too large to control, they are often abandoned at roadside zoos or makeshift "sanctuaries" like the one pictured below. Please help us put an end to using animals in TV shows and movies.

Chubbs, who loved to blow kisses to our investigator at the Amarillio Wildlife Refuge, was often sad and depressed. He reportedly appeared in several episodes of Monkey Movies, on Animal Planet, and in the remake of Planet of the Apes.
We recently learned that Nickelodeon's new holiday film, Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh, features a live chimpanzee. In the film, the chimpanzee is portrayed in a demeaning way, and this teaches not only disrespect for animals, but continues to perpetuate the idea that ripping animals from the wild, where they belong, and forcing them to play ridiculous parts in movies is entertaining. Honestly, who thinks a chimpanzee riding a tricycle is entertaining? Especially knowing he's doing it because he was beaten?

Please write to Nickelodeon Executive Vice President of Programming and Planning Peter Danielsen. Ask Nickelodeon to pledge never to use great apes in any of its programs again.