After learning that CareerBuilder is once again using baby chimpanzees in a Super Bowl ad, Anjelica Huston has teamed up with PETA to urge the company's CEO, Matt Ferguson, to stop using chimpanzees in its commercials—unless they are created using cutting-edge computer animation, like the conscientious folks behind Pfizer's Robitussin "orangutan" ads and the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes have done, saving animals from being taken away from their families, cruelly trained, and then abandoned when they can no longer be controlled.

No More Monkey Business

Anjelica—soon to be seen in NBC's Smash—has been a strong supporter of PETA's campaigns to end the use of chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced to work as "performers" in films and on television. In her letter, the Oscar-winning actor, well, smashes CareerBuilder's excuses, pointing out that monitoring on-set action doesn't prevent the cruelty that happens before and after the ad is shot, as described in the video Anjelica narrated for PETA on the subject. 

As Anjelica's letter to Ferguson states, "It is astonishing that you are unmoved by the videos, photographs, and case reports of what befalls these animals from the moment they are taken from their mothers to the moment they die." Let's hope he finally gets the message and that this will be the last year that the big game will be interrupted by images of real baby chimpanzees performing stupid tricks in a sad attempt to appeal to clueless job-seekers.

Photo © Rommel Manuel

Since 1981, Sisi had been incarcerated at the Manila Zoo. Although orangutans are tree-dwelling animals, Sisi was forced to live much of her life in a tiny, litter-filled concrete-and-steel enclosure. She was on display continually in a cage that was surrounded by noisy souvenir stands and food vendors, and she was provided with nothing to hold her interest, help her pass the time, or stimulate her keen senses.

Sisi's death, reportedly from cancer, is just one indication of how animals have been left in deteriorating health without veterinary care at this atrocious zoo. Because PETA Asia-Pacific remains concerned about the well-being of the surviving animals at the Manila Zoo, who all lack the space, exercise, privacy, and mental stimulation that they require, the organization has decided to send a funeral wreath to the zoo in Sisi's honor. The wreath includes a ribbon emblazoned with the message "Sisi: Suffered in Life, Peace in Death" and will be accompanied by a card calling on zoo officials to close the facility's doors.

Written by Shawna Flavell

LA Zoo, this time. Last week was Tampa. Could it, just possibly, be because these animals don’t want to be there? At least no one was hurt during this particular attempted escape, but that doesn’t change the fact that in addition to being (quite clearly) unsafe for visitors, the conditions animals are kept in at zoos are inhumane and unacceptable. There’s more information on this issue here.