cryptomundo / CC

I hope your closets are prepared, because I'm sure this bit of news will have you rushing out to stock up on vegan sweaters and skinny jeans. Both Levi's and Gap Inc. have pledged not to use great apes in future advertising campaigns!

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 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, 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.

Written by Shawna Flavell

citypages / CC

The recent attack on a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee named Travis served as stark reminder that great apes should never be kept as "pets" or used for entertainment. In the wake of this tragedy, we are happy to announce that Young & Rubicam (Y&R) (the fourth largest ad agency in America) has called on all its offices worldwide not to use great apes in any future advertising campaigns.

In a commentary that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Jane Goodall explains that the widespread portrayal of chimpanzees as cute clowns in ads, TV shows, and movies has misled the public about the dangers they pose. "Only a month ago," she writes, "Americans watching the Super Bowl may have laughed at an ad in which chimpanzees dressed as mechanics worked on a car. … Is it any wonder viewers might think that chimpanzees would make great pets?"

Y&R joins other progressive companies, including SEGA, Honda, PUMA, Subaru, Keds, Yahoo!, and The Ad Council, that have also pledged not to use great apes in ads.

Icing on the cake? Even the U.S. government is doing its part. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Captive Primate Safety Act, which would ban the interstate transport of primates for use as pets. The bill is now going to the Senate, so please urge your senator to support this important legislation.

Written by Liz Graffeo

After our recent demonstration in New Haven to let residents know that Yale is spending millions of taxpayer dollars torturing monkeys, the university wasn't exactly ready to throw open its doors and give guided tours to people who wanted to find out more. Well, Yale's secretive vivisectors may have been a bit surprised on their drive to work when they saw our massive new billboard near their facilities calling on anyone who witnesses cruelty in the university's labs to blow the whistle:

Whistleblowers have been instrumental in revealing neglect, carelessness, and cruelty in laboratories across the nation. This has led to countless victories for animals—so we're always eager to hear from people with the inside scoop.

Even if you don't work in a laboratory, you can blow the whistle on animal abusers. Whistleblowers have revealed details of Ringling's abuse of animals, shed light on beatings of animals on movie sets, and given us behind-the-scenes information on the horse-racing industry. Wherever you see animals abused—whether at a race track, pet shop, circus, carnival, or in your own neighborhood—speak up and let us know about it!

Written by Liz Graffeo

Stephen Sommers
flixster / CC

Hold on to your loincloths, boys and girls—another adaptation of Tarzan (yes … in addition to the 88 that already exist) will be swinging into theaters in 2010! Critics say co-writer and director Stephen Sommers will be focusing on jungle love, but this classic story is sure to have scenes of a boy raised by great apes in the jungle. So, when Anjelica Huston (who has been speaking up for animals abused in the film industry since she was a kid) heard about the film, she contacted Sommers. Anjelica writes:

Luckily, Sommers has a history of using flashy special effects and CGI in his blockbuster films, which have included Van Helsing and The Mummy. Hopefully, he'll continue to do what he does best and leave great apes in the jungle where they belong. Oh, and Sommers, if Anjelica's lovely letter doesn't convince you, here's a promise: Leave out the live apes and I'll be your personal Jane.

P.S. If you haven't seen it yet, check out Anjelica's behind-the-scenes exposé about great apes forced into the entertainment industry here.

Written by Liz Graffeo

Ugh …No, seriously. Ugh!OK, having turned *mumble* years old last Friday, I'm not really a member of this show's "target demographic." But even 'tweens must find the heartless use of a live baby chimpanzee in Nickelodeon's Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh offensive.Forget for a moment that this is a program with so little imagination that they named the lead characters—played by Drake Bell and Josh Peck—"Drake" and "Josh." Forget that their idea of family-appropriate humor is to depict a child on the receiving end of a stream of ape urine—and I'm not sure that qualifies as "humor" at all. Still, although these folks clearly aren't very smart or creative, nothing justifies exploiting an animal for supposed "entertainment."

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.

So what's so wrong with using a chimpanzee? I'm glad you asked. You or I might have fantasies of thanking "the Academy" while clutching a statuette and dressed to the nines (wearing Stella or Marc, natch), but animals want to be left in peace—they don't want to be "stars." In fact, the chimps in movies and TV are still toddlers who need to be back with their families doing what they're meant to do. I mean, think about it: When you see documentaries about apes in nature, are they wearing clothes or riding unicycles? Do they have hidden restraints and shock collars?To get chimpanzees, orangutans, and other great apes to perform, "trainers" often beat and electro-shock them. The rest of the time, most of the animals live in tiny metal cages. And when they're no longer useful to producers, they're often dumped at horrible roadside zoos—usually when they're only about 8 years old and have about 50 years left to stare at the wall. There's no time like the holidays to remind Hollywood that we're not going to put up with any more "monkey" business. Please join us in telling Nickelodeon that there's nothing less Merry than a lonely, suffering chimpanzee forced to grimace and mug for a few chuckles.

Written by Jeff Mackey

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After learning from PETA just how hideous life can be for great apes who are kept captive and forced to perform in advertisements, thanks go to Ad Council president and CEO Peggy Conlon for signing our "Great Ape Humane Pledge," committing never to use great apes in ads! This means the Ad Council won't ever support the abuse of great apes in advertising.

To express our gratitude in PETA style, we sent Conlon a box of vegan chocolate chimpanzees and a big "thank you" for joining the host of companies that have stood up for great apes. The Ad Council joins the likes of Subaru, Honda, Yahoo!, PUMA, Movietickets.com, and SEGA, which also recently made this fantastic pledge.

Oh, and PETA will be following up with the CEOs of all the top U.S. ad agencies that sit on the Ad Council's executive board, requesting that they follow suit, so … expect more on this campaign in the near future! Of course, if you work in the ad world, you can save us the trouble of tracking you down by signing PETA's "Great Ape Humane Pledge" today! Yes, chocolate monkeys would follow shortly!

Written by Sean Conner

Anjelica Huston has decades of experience on the set, tracing back to watching her father, John, filming during her childhood. Given her experiences with animals on the set, we were excited when she sat down with us to discuss the abuses endured by great apes used in film, television, and advertising.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors have documented that chimpanzees and orangutans were denied even minimal "environmental enrichment" and veterinary care in times of illness. And undercover investigations have shown that trainers beat and scream at great apes in order to force them to perform dumb, confusing tricks, take after take, under the burning arc lights.

Chimpanzees can live to be 60 years old and orangutans can live to be 50, but they grow too strong to be handled around age 8. That's when, useless to the industry, most are dumped in roadside hellholes, where they can live in barren cages, languishing amid their own waste or sold for use in experiments. There is no Hollywood actors' retirement home for them. You can see Anjelica's video about this business here:

Anjelica also spoke with us after the filming of the video, telling us how she grew so passionate about this issue, and why the abuse of great apes will never happen on her set:

Check out the b-roll from the video shoot here:

Thanks, Anjelica, from us and from them!

Written by Sean Conner

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In a historic first, the Spanish Parliament is expected to pass legislation that will extend rights to great apes. Yes, you read that right. The resolutions bringing Spanish law in line with the recommendations of the Great Ape Project will not only outlaw experimentation on apes but will also make it illegal to exploit them for films and TV. Boo-ya! The new legislation has been approved by Parliament's environmental committee and has strong enough support that it is expected to become law within a year.

Woo-hoo! Way to go, Spain! Come on, America, what's the dealio?

By the way, if you want to do something for apes and other primates in the U.S. of A. (since we're not going to be able to get them all Spanish visas), be sure to tell your senators to support the Captive Primate Safety Act. Really. Go.

Posted by Jeff Mackey