Victory! Sprint Agrees Not to Use Great Apes in Ads June 25, 2009

Posted by Rachel-O at June 25, 2009 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 ) | TrackBack

webecoist / CC

I've been holding off on buying a new Blackberry (to replace my tired and true Sidekick) for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have a whole lot of other things (vegan cupcakes, tempeh BLTs, chickette sandwiches ... ) to buy with hundreds of dollars, and secondly—up until today, Sprint was all about using live animals in their ads. If there's one thing I'm not all about, it's giving money to companies who support cruelty to animals.

Whether or not you see it, animals used in show business suffer immensely. Chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, are trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and are then discarded at filthy roadside zoos when they're no longer useful in show business. Simple fact? Animals don't belong in show business, and if they could speak, who for a second doubts that they wouldn't choose freedom over slavery?

Today, Sprint, thanks to everyone who wrote to them asking them to trash their animal ads, has agreed to stop circulating the ad featuring a chimpanzee that you may have seen recently in your own local theater, and never use another great ape in upcoming ads or commercials. You can read Sprint's full statement here.

Other companies like SEGA, Honda, PUMA, Yahoo! and Levi Strauss & Co., have all agreed to make the same step towards ending cruelty to animals on the silver screen—and while some others may still be intent on hurting animals, we're sure they'll eventually come around—thanks to you!

Now, about giving up those cupcakes ...

To Animals, It's Not Entertainment June 5, 2009

Posted by Rachel-O at June 5, 2009 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 4 ) | TrackBack

Every time we post a blog encouraging you to write to companies who continue to exploit animals in their advertisements, TV shows or movies, we receive hundreds of e-mails and messages from people who either agree or completely don't get it. Animals "love to act", they say, or "love their trainers" or "you can't prove that all animals are abused". What do we have to say? Well, you're missing the point.

You can say without a doubt that slavery was wrong—even without proving that every single slave was beaten. Maybe some slaves knew nothing but slavery for their entire lives—but that never made it right. Animals forced into industries that trap them, chain them and enslave them are unwilling victims in this trade that makes money by hoping that you won't make the connection.

For the animals who are chained in trucks or trains, forced to perform in circuses or under spotlights in Hollywood studios—it's not entertainment. No animal chooses to live in captivity, ride a tricycle or perform on a TV show. No elephant in a circus chooses to give up freedom to be chained in a boxcar for most of his day and to be beaten with a bullhook. No great ape chooses to be taken out of the rain forest, away from his family, and forced to drive a car in a commercial.

What can you do? Don't support companies that exploit animals, don't go to the circus, and use this link to share peta2's new video to everyone you know. Post it on your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter!



P.S. Your support works! Just this week Arnold Woldwide has joined the list of companies including Gap Inc., SEGA, Puma, Yahoo!, and others in signing PETA's pledge to never use great apes in advertisements.

Victory: Levi's and The Gap Inc. Love Animals! May 5, 2009

Posted by Rachel-O at May 5, 2009 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 ) | TrackBack

cryptomundo / CC

I don't think I need to tell you how much we hate it when companies use animals in their ads—or how pathetic it makes the company look when they insist on dragging animals through hell for a thirty second clip to sell some product. It's also downright terrifying and so sad when animals who—having spent part of their lives in the spotlight—completely lose it, and end up paying the ultimate price.

Following the tragic death of Travis, a chimpanzee who formerly starred in Old Navy commercials, PETA approached Levi's and Old Navy's parent company, Gap Inc. (which also owns Gap and Banana Republic), to ask the companies not to use apes in any future ads.

Executives for both companies knew that their choice was clear once they learned that young apes who are used in commercials are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and then discarded to live in filthy roadside zoos when they are too old and strong to handle.

Gap Inc. and Levi's join other progressive companies and organizations that have also signed our pledge, including Harris Teeter, Young & Rubicam, SEGA, Honda, PUMA, Subaru, Keds, Yahoo!, and The Ad Council.

And, because we are never ones to let compassionate acts go unrewarded, we are sending both companies thank-you gifts for a job well done.

Here's hoping that other leading US companies follow their lead and take a stand against the abuse endured by great apes and other animals forced into show business.

R.I.P Travis: Another Victim of the Spotlight February 18, 2009

Posted by Rachel-O at February 18, 2009 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 17 ) | TrackBack

On Monday, a 15 year old chimpanzee named Travis snapped after spending his entire short life in captivity and mauled a woman. Travis was stabbed multiple times, "pounded" with a shovel, and eventually shot to death.

The former "star" of Coca Cola and Old Navy commercials and an episode of "The Maury Povich Show", Travis was, according to Police Captain Conklin, "raised almost like a child by this family ... He rides in a car every day, he opens doors, he's a very unique animal in that aspect. We have no indication of what provoked this behavior at all." Great—except for the fact that 200lb chimpanzees aren't children.

Although Travis was raised in captivity since birth, taking great apes and other animals out of the wild and away from everything that is natural to them and forcing them to live lives in the spotlight while being beaten and forced to perform tricks, or putting them in other unnatural situations—even when they can seem loving—can cause stress and end up violent and deadly for both human and non-human primates alike.

These former "celeb" chimpanzees, like Travis, were kept in unnatural habitats and were photographed in filthy conditions in a PETA undercover investigation.

Travis was so agitated the day of the attack that his companion, a 70 year old woman named Sandra Herold, gave him the drug Xanax in some tea to calm him down. Travis wanted to go for one of those rides in Herold's car and took her keys and when Herold didn't know what to do, she called her friend Charla Nash, who rushed over to help—and ended up being attacked.

Herold reportedly also had a "large cage" built in her home for Travis.

This whole situation is sad but honestly, writing this blog is hard for me to do. A "large cage"? As if a house isn't a small enough cage, there has to be an even smaller one built inside for this chimp to be trapped in? It's no wonder that after so long Travis just couldn't take it any longer. And giving him Xanax? This whole thing was entirely preventable.

Travis, nor any other great ape or animal, belongs in entertainment or captivity. Who ends up happy in this story? Was the thirty seconds in those commercials really worth a lifetime of distress and eventual slaughter of Travis, and now also a possible death of a woman trying to calm a miserable, enraged animal down?

Please never support companies, movies or TV shows that continue to use animals for entertainment. You can catch PETA's Lisa Lange on Bill O'Reilly tonight at 8pm on Fox News for more on Travis and this sad story.

Spain to Grant Legal Rights to Great Apes June 30, 2008

Posted by Marta at June 30, 2008 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 6 ) | TrackBack

Los animals no son nuestros para comer, llevar, experimentar, o usar para diversión!

Any Spanish speakers in the house? If so, please join me in a huge round of felicitaciones for our friends over in Spain. No, not for their big Euro 08 soccer win, although that was pretty sweet too. The Spanish Parliament have begun the process of passing groundbreaking legislation granting great apes the rights to life and freedom. Read that sentence again. Great apes. The right to life and freedom. I know. It's incredible.

Susanad813 / Creative Commons
It'll be a while before the law passes, but once it does, it means that it'll be illegal to perform harmful experiments on great apes in Spain, as well as use them in circuses or movies & television. In Germany, the basic rights of animals have been guaranteed by the federal constitution since 2002, but this new law in Spain marks the first time specific rights have been granted to individual non-human animals.

For a country where some people still get their kicks by forcing pissed-off bulls to chase them around town, this is a pretty amazing step forward. The world is changing as we speak, people. Viva la revolución!

—Dan