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C H I M P S I N E N T E R T A I N M E N T It seems every time you turn on the TV these days, there's a chimpanzee on the screen - not a wild chimp enjoying life in the forest, but a captive chimp dressed up for a commercial, or playing roles on television shows. Then you set foot in your local store and see pictures of "smiling" chimps on birthday cards and calendars. To most people, the chimps look happy. It all seems like harmless fun, doesn't it? What most people don't know is that chimpanzees used in entertainment suffer for their trade. 
Chimpanzees used in entertainment are all young children, because an adult could easily injure or kill any human actors or trainers they work with. Chimps
become physically impossible to control by the age of eight, so the chimps you see on TV or posing for photos are children younger than eight years old. That's
a pretty short career for a chimp who will live to be fifty.
Unfortunately, those eight years in entertainment aren't as fun as they might seem. If you think human child stars have it rough in Hollywood, with all of the pressures and trappings of fame, chimp stars have it much, much worse. First, the chimps are taken from their mothers at birth, just like chimps who are sold as pets. They are then taught unnatural behaviors and tricks by force until they become too dangerous to work with anymore. To add insult to injury, chimps in Hollywood are usually portrayed as buffoons, objects to be mocked and laughed at, when in fact they are intelligent, feeling beings just like us. When their careers are over, they end up in poor conditions in roadside zoos, or are used as breeders to continue the cycle, spending the rest of their lives in a cage. A lucky few end up in sanctuaries, but this is no justification for all that they have endured for our amusement. So what can you do to help chimps in entertainment? Plenty, as it turns out. Don't watch movies or TV shows using chimp actors, and don't buy any product that is advertised using chimps. Pick the birthday card with the funny cartoon instead of the one with the grinning chimp. Avoid circuses or shows at amusement parks that use chimps. Write to directors, actors, and companies that use chimps and tell them you won't watch their movie or buy their product. There are very few trainers in Hollywood left who use chimps. If nobody wants to see chimps in movies and advertising, then there won't be any reason for them to stay in business. Please have a look at our Reading List for more detailed information about the life of Chimpanzees! | |||||||||||||
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