Hallmark CEO to Face Chiding ‘Chimpanzee’
PETA Says Company Must End Sales of Cards That Harm Apes
For Immediate Release:
April 11, 2022
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
As Hallmark CEO Mike Perry arrives home from work on Wednesday, he’ll be greeted by a “chimpanzee” mascot and PETA supporters who will be gathering to remind him that it’s high time his company stopped selling greeting cards that exploit great apes.
When: Wednesday, April 13, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Perry’s home
Hallmark cards depicting exploited chimpanzees in costumes and showing the fear grimace—often mistaken by customers for a grin—can be found in more than 40,000 stores across the country. Such images increase the demand for great ape babies, taken away from their mothers to become “pets,” and hinder conservation efforts by misleading the public into believing that chimpanzees—endangered animals—are prevalent in nature.
“There’s nothing funny or forward-thinking about a company that profits from the exploitation of endangered great apes in human costumes and poses,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Hallmark to stop producing cards featuring great apes, who need to be protected, not ridiculed.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
