Tips for Action Letters
Letters to companies that use great ape "actors" in their productions should be polite and direct. Tell them that you won't watch their show or purchase their products until they cease exploiting great apes. Be sure to ask for a response to your letter.
Possible points to cover:
- Training methods are based in fear and physical and psychological domination.
- Captive great ape "actors" are separated from their mothers at infancy, which causes irreparable psychological harm.
- Conditions at training compounds are often deplorable, including dark, small cages; little or no enrichment; and sometimes solitary confinement.
- There are eyewitness accounts of trainers punching, kicking, and beating chimpanzee "actors" daily with rocks, sticks, and broom handles.
- Experts agree: it's impossible to train a chimpanzee for film/tv without abuse.
- American Humane Association (AHA) guidelines are insufficient and don't cover anything that occurs off-set. It is during pre-production training that abuse is most likely to occur.
- The cozy relationship that great apes often seem to have with their trainers is very deceptive and not at all what it appears to be.
- Retirement at 7 or 8 years of age condemns great ape "actors" to 40-50 years of often solitary confinement at roadside zoos or other substandard facilities.
- Representing great apes as cute and plentiful props seriously undermines efforts to ensure their survival in the wild.
- The following leading animal protection and environmental organizations oppose the use of great apes in entertainment:
- The Humane Society of the United States
- Jane Goodall Institute
- American Zoological Association
- American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- International Fund for Animal Welfare
- Environmental Media Association
- Fund for Animals
- International Primate Protection League
- United Animal Nations
- New England Anti-Vivisection Society
- American Anti-Vivisection Society