There’s Nothing Righteous About Cruelty: PETA Demands Answers for HBO’s Monkey Exploitation

HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones didn’t get the memo: using animals for laughs is never OK. In its latest season, HBO trots out two capuchin monkeys—Katie and Allie—to play a “helper monkey” in a storyline that’s as out of touch as it is irresponsible. Monkeys aren’t props—they’re living, feeling beings. Yet the show treats them like wind-up toys, reducing their suffering to a punchline.

Katie Deserves Retirement—Not Another Role

Instead of enjoying her golden years in peace at a legitimate sanctuary, she’s still being dragged onto sets. And now, Allie—a younger capuchin around 11 years old—is being set up for the same fate.

Monkeys Belong in Rainforests, Not on Film Sets

In nature, capuchins live in rich, tight-knit groups and spend their days racing through the treetops of South American rainforests. But in Hollywood, they’re taken from their mothers prematurely, isolated in cages, and suffer from chronic stress, boredom, and depression.

Behind the scenes, Hollywood trainers commonly use violence and psychological abuse to get monkeys to resist their natural instincts and perform on cue. They’re also typically denied adequate social stimulation and exercise. In a recent interview, The Righteous Gemstones actor Adam DeVine joked, “It takes a certain person to be the animal wrangler, because you do have to be a lunatic. Your job is to yell at a monkey all day.”

Katie and Allie were supplied by Bob Dunn’s Animal Services, a facility with a long, disturbing history of citations under the federal Animal Welfare Act. During the production of The Righteous Gemstones, federal inspectors cited the facility for failing to meet even basic  standards under the Animal Welfare Act.

The Show Spreads Dangerous Misinformation

Aside from the exploitation, The Righteous Gemstones is perpetuating a harmful message by depicting monkeys as service animals. This fuels the false narrative that these animals can be used to assist people with disabilities or that they’re happy to live in human households.

Monkeys are not service animals. The Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t recognize them as such—for good reason. The American Veterinary Medical Association also opposes their use due to serious concerns over animal welfare, public safety, and the risk of disease transmission.

Even Helping Hands—the only U.S. group that trained monkeys for this purpose—has shifted to developing robotic assistance devices instead.

Hollywood Knows Better

Hollywood bowed to public outcry and PETA’s demands by ending the use of chimpanzees in film and TV after undeniable evidence of abuse. The entertainment industry must stop pretending that using monkeys for on-screen gags is harmless. It’s not. These animals don’t belong on studio sets, inside trailers, or at the center of “funny” scenes. They belong in nature or in true sanctuaries where they can live with dignity.

Take Action for Monkeys

Someone needs to answer for this! PETA has already sent HBO letters and urged producers to do better. And then we got creative. We mailed showrunner Danny McBride a box of fake monkey poop with a warning: “the crapture is coming.” It made headlines in TMZ and Entertainment Weekly and made our point clear: Exploiting monkeys isn’t just offensive. Join us in telling HBO it stinks.

• Boycott The Righteous Gemstones and any production that uses real primates.
• Speak up on social media and let HBO know that using real animals is exploitation, not entertainment.
• Support films and shows that use CGI and other creative options that don’t exploit animals.