ALDF Signs on to 'No Reel Apes' Campaign

Next week marks the release of Peter Jackson's remake of the movie classic "King Kong." The Oscar-winning director used no real apes in the production, showing that cutting-edge filmmaking doesn’t involve cruelty to animals.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund and its partners in the Chimpanzee Collaboratory - including Dr. Jane Goodall and the Doris Day Animal Foundation - are working with humane organizations and Hollywood professionals like Pamela Anderson and Daryl Hannah to challenge the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to make great movies without great apes. ALDF signed on to an open letter sent to MPAA President Dan Glickman on December 5, urging him to call for an end to the use of great apes in movies and entertainment.

Check out this flash film spoof on Hollywood’s use of great apes, part of the “No Reel Apes” campaign to end the use of great apes in entertainment.

Most people don’t know the trauma and mistreatment young chimpanzees and other great apes suffer in the name of entertainment. Apes used in film and television are taken from their mothers when they are just babies, and the developmental damage they suffer is long lasting. By the age of eight, when chimpanzees become stronger and more independent, industry trainers struggle to dominate these natural behaviors, and apes become of no use and are “retired.” Most spend the rest of their lives—50 or more years—in pathetic roadside zoos and other substandard facilities.

What You Can Do

Send a polite letter to MPAA President Dan Glickman asking for an end to the use of great apes in Hollywood. As a leader in the entertainment community, he has the power to help our closest living relatives. Remind him that baby apes are taken from their mothers at an early age, forced to endure brutal training methods, and then often end up in horrible conditions at substandard facilities.

Contact Dan Glickman at:

15503 Ventura Blvd
Encino, CA 91436
818-995-6600
dglickman@mpaa.org