The plight of chimpanzees in showbiz was once again brought to the attention of the world with Jordan Peele’s #1 box office movie, Nope this weekend. The opening scene features a chimpanzee forced to perform on a TV show who goes on the attack. Known for his animal advocacy, Peele used a CGI chimp to make the point.
Peele says in an interview with Fox Washington DC., that animals can be “a reminder of how we treat anything that doesn’t qualify as human. There’s a real-world horror that animals are trapped in. In some ways, they symbolize something very bad about us. That’s what my movies are about. It’s about how bad we are.”
Dr. Andrew Halloran, Save the Chimps’ Director of Chimpanzee Care and Behavior, has been calling for the ban of live primates in films, with CGI as a more than reasonable option. Many of our residents such as Lisa Marie and Cody come from entertainment. Chimps in entertainment are typically taken from their mothers at birth. Once young chimpanzees reach maturity at 6 or 7 and become too strong to control, many are sold to unaccredited roadside zoos and the pet trade; few make it to accredited sanctuaries.
