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Costa Coffee Exploits Several Primates
October 21, 2010
Costa Coffee, a UK coffee company, has released an advertisement featuring many different primate “actors,” including rhesus macaques, squirrel monkeys, mandrills, and marmosets. You can view the commercial here.
Primate Patrol, as well as other primate advocacy groups, contacted Costa Coffee but the company has not yet chosen to remove the advertisement. Please send a polite letter to Costa Coffee urging them to pull the commercial from the air.
Let them know that primates are highly social beings and life in the entertainment industry completely disregards the need that they have for adequate exercise, natural nourishing diets, and valuable interaction with other primates. Additionally, brutal training practices for primates in the entertainment industry are well documented. Primates are afflicted by loneliness, boredom, and depression from the loss of freedom they experience in the entertainment industry.
You can see more information about the commercial at the following web pages:
The Observer UK Newspaper
Animal Defenders International
You may send your letter to:
Jim Slater
Marketing Director, Costa Coffee
jim.slater@whitbread.com
If you use Outlook, clicking on the above link will provide a pre-written e-mail for you.
[Date]
Dear Mr. Slater:
I was very saddened to discover that Costa Coffee exploited several different individuals for a recent commercial. The monkeys and marmosets featured are not unlike humans – they are highly social beings and the entertainment industry deprives them of a healthy environment, both psychologically and physically. You should know that primates used in entertainment are torn away from their mothers as infants, often repeatedly beaten during training, and then discarded when they are no longer viewed as useful to the industry.
Please make the compassionate decision to remove the commercial from the air, and please consider to never exploit primates for entertainment purposes again. Thank you for your consideration of my concerns on this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]