Written by PETA
Never buy an animal on a whim just because you saw one in a movie. How many times do we have to say this?
It looks like at least once more. Harry Potter fans, or to be more precise, their parents, have broken our cardinal rule of movie fandom. As a result, an animal sanctuary has opened on the Isle of Wight in the U.K. to help cope with the problem of owls who have been dumped by people who purchased them without thinking.
In the books and movies, Harry's snowy owl, Hedwig, is portrayed as low-maintenance, but many fans who purchased snowy owls for their kids are realizing that real owls require a lot of attention—and they're abandoning the birds after the magic wears off.
The moral of this story is twofold. Companion animals shouldn't be acquired on a whim, and birds of prey shouldn't be preyed upon by film fanatics.
Written by Karin Bennett
If I were to say "Hari Puttar," what is the first thing that would come to mind? If you said "Harry Potter," you'd be wrong, according to Mumbai-based studio, Mirchi Movies. They pinky-promise that their film Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors bears no similarity or links to the popular Harry Potter book series/films/franchise/cult-like-following. Apparently, Warner Bros. Pictures thinks anything sounding like Harry Potter is their turf and their turf alone and has filed a lawsuit against Mirchi to protect their "intellectual property."
With all this insanity over a movie title, we'd like to draw attention to a more meaningful issue, like … I dunno … skinning animals and wearing portions of their remains as ridiculous clothing. Call me crazy, but this seems a bit more pressing. In my willingness to compromise, please allow me to call our fur ad series "Hairy PETA!" Enjoy and pass along, please—for wide distribution—PETA's "Hairy PETA" series!
Hairy PETA and the Water Closet of Secrets
Hairy PETA and the Vomit of Fur
Hairy PETA and the Piddler of Litter-Sand
Have a favorite among the action-packed Hairy PETA films? Leave a comment to let me know which one you like best!
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:
I think without question that [when] one forcibly takes small simians, small apes away from their parents at [a young] age … and manipulating them into some sort of fake response for the amusement of humans or indeed human children—it's a very bad ethic. … I remember seeing this terribly sad, lonely elephant in Bath, England, at the zoo in the pouring rain with nothing but a football for companionship, and thinking, "No child on Earth would want to see that. No child on Earth who understands the predicament of this animal could possibly approve it."
Check out the b-roll from the video shoot here:
Thanks, Anjelica, from us and from them!
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If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.