PETA's Appeal in Behalf of Animals Abused for Entertainment Elicits Promise

For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2009

Contact:
Kristie Phelps 757-622-7382

Southfield, Mich. -- After learning from PETA that baby chimpanzees and orangutans who are used in advertising are routinely removed from their mothers and abused in behind-the-scenes training sessions, Southfield-based advertising agency GlobalHue has pledged never to use great apes in its ads.

GlobalHue joins Arnold Worldwide, Harris Teeter, Subaru, Honda, Keds, PUMA, Yahoo!, SEGA, Young & Rubicam, Levi Strauss & Co., the Ad Council, Gap Inc., and other companies and organizations that have pledged not to use great apes in ads.

Using young chimpanzees and orangutans in commercials is inherently cruel. In the wild, great apes stay with their mothers for years, and early separation is traumatic for both the mothers and the infants. Many trainers repeatedly ignore even the minimal care standards that are required by federal law. According to eyewitnesses (including a primatologist who spent 14 months working in a California facility), trainers beat and kick these intelligent young animals in order to force them to sit still for hours under hot studio lights and obey commands that are confusing and meaningless to them.

Chimpanzees and orangutans who are used in ads are usually only a few years old. These great apes can live to be more than 60 years old, but when they reach adolescence at around 8 years old, they become too powerful to control and are often discarded at roadside zoos or sent to cheap traveling shows.

"Chimpanzee and orangutan infants, like human babies, deserve to be safe and secure with their mothers, not beaten behind the scenes, caged, chained alone, or scared on a set somewhere," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "GlobalHue deserves a round of applause for refusing to contribute to the abuse and suffering of great apes."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.