For immediate release:
18 March 2021
Contact:
Moira Collie 202-483-7382
Norfolk, Virginia. – Learning from PETA that greeting cards featuring great apes in costumes displayed in studios or interacting with people interfere with conservation efforts, Rite of help takes all such cards from its 2,450 stores and will no longer feature monkeys in its ads.
“Kudos to Rite Aid for pushing Hallmark and American Greetings to stop using monkeys for their cards,” says PETA primatologist Julia Gallucci. “Chimpanzees are not models or props, and clown photographs of them wearing clothes or sitting at desks endanger these endangered animals.”
Emmy Award-Winning Wildlife Documentary Producer Chris Palmer (who has written two books on the ethics of wildlife photography) also sent letter on behalf of PETA, Joe Arcuri, CEO of American Greetings, explaining that unnatural images of chimpanzees are misleading consumers into believing that the species – which may be at risk of extinction throughout our lives – is thriving. These images could also increase black market demand for endangered great apes as pets, one of the main driving forces behind extinction.
For all these reasons, the greeting card company Moon pig removed all images of captive monkeys from their products and fund agencies such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime prohibit inappropriate images of non-human primates.
PETA, whose motto is in part that “the animals are not ours to be used for entertainment” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human superiority. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…