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Used and Discarded
Used and Discarded
After movie stardom often comes retirement to a lavish estate where others will cater to your every need--but only if you're a human. Animal actors like the great apes seen in movies as silly sidekicks and in television commercials have a much less lavish retirement plan, to say the least.
Chimpanzees can live to be 60 years old, but their usefulness to the entertainment industry is usually over by age 8, when they become too strong to be managed. Trainers may have the chimps' teeth pulled or fit them with shock collars under their clothes so that they can continue to control even mature chimpanzees with enormous strength. When they are no longer amenable to discipline, and beatings have become too routine to affect them, the apes are typically discarded.
As a result, former ape actors may spend decades in small, barren cages or be sold to poorly run roadside zoos. These chimps may be bred repeatedly to provide a continuous supply of newborns for the entertainment industry.
PETA found Chubbs, a chimpanzee used in Planet of the Apes and in the Chimp Channel series, languishing in a deplorable roadside zoo in Texas called Amarillo Wildlife Refuge. For more information, click here.
Hollywood uses animal actors for all they are worth, abandoning them when they become too aggressive or when a certain species becomes passé. Instead of abusing and discarding animals, moviemakers should use the many cruelty-free alternatives available to them, and leave wild animals in peace.
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