Kategorie: Animals

Victory! Following a bold PETA campaign, Hallmark, the world’s largest greeting card company, has stopped producing and selling cards featuring harmful and degrading images of chimpanzee infants who were torn away from their mothers.

Hallmark’s action comes after PETA held lively demonstrations near the company’s headquarters, ran creative ads, and enlisted the help of celebrities, including Judy Greer, to write heartfelt letters.

Our conscientious supporters sent tens of thousands of e-mails to the card company, which also faced pressure from drug stores and retailers that had stopped selling these cards.

PETA protest at Hallmark in the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. by Christopher Smith

Clownish images of chimpanzees dressed in costumes and displaying a “fear grimace,” which the public is fooled into mistaking for a grin, impede conservation efforts by leading consumers to believe that the species is thriving rather than endangered. They also may drive the black-market demand for the animals as “pets”—one of the main threats to their populations in nature.

Hallmark’s decision to stop mocking endangered great apes acknowledges that portrayals hold power, and for chimpanzees threatened with extinction, it can be a matter of life or death. PETA is celebrating this victory for chimpanzees, who should never be exploited as models or props.

Hallmark was the last major card manufacturer still selling cards with exploitative images of great apes.

It joins other card companies, including American Greetings; major retailers, such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart; and stock-image agencies, such as Dreamstime and Shutterstock, in banning the harmful depictions.

Other Primates Need Your Help

Right now, thousands of monkeys and other primates are languishing in cages, living in fear, and being denied everything that’s natural and important to them. These complex individuals are used in crude, cruel, and useless experiments; they’re forced—out of fear—to “perform” on the sets of television shows and Hollywood movies; and many are captured in their native habitats, torn away from their families, and then shipped to the U.S.

“There’s nothing noble about exploiting animals!” That’s the loud message that a PETA member delivered when she descended on the Nobility Ball at the Sharon Shrine temple last night to shame the Shriners for continuing to force elephants and other animals to perform in old-style circus shows. Photos and video footage of the disruption are available here.

The Sharon Shrine Circus is among the last remaining shows that showcase the domination of wild animals, who are confined to small cages or kept in shackles and are deprived of any semblance of a normal, natural, or happy life. The Sharon Shriners partner with notoriously cruel exhibitors, including Carson & Barnes Circus, which has been cited for more than 100 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and whose head trainer was caught on video violently beating elephants with bullhooks—weapons resembling a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end.

“Wild animals should be free to live their rich lives, not chained, beaten, and forced to perform in circus acts that harken back to an ignorant era,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the Sharon Shriners to stop promoting cruelty under the big top and end animal shows, as numerous other Shrines have done.”

Some well-intentioned people may think that attending a Shrine circus benefits children. But ticket sales aren’t charitable donations: The profits are generally used to maintain the club’s premises and fund its activities.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

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