August
2006
Myth:
Apes Make Great Actors
Chimps in Entertainment: That Joke isn’t Funny Anymore
By Sarah Baeckler with Charles Spano
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Alamogordo, New Mexico seems an unexpected place
for a reunion—and
an even more unexpected place for a chimpanzee to find her freedom.
In July, the desert town is blistering hot; the strange surrounding
landscape
barren from the years of missile testing. The shadow of Holloman Air
Force Base looms. How ironic that here—where the original “space
chimps” were experimented on—there could be sanctuary.
It had been a year since I had seen my friend Teá. Then, the baby chimp
was working against her will as a performer for film and television. When I left
the compound where I had secretly investigated the brutal training methods used
on great apes in Hollywood, I could only hope that my undercover work would help
to free her from a life of abuse. Now it seemed my hopes were realized. But was
Teá really free? Would she ever overcome the misery of her early childhood
and become a healthy, happy chimpanzee?
Chimp Actors
Chimps who work in film and television—mainly in low budget movies and
cheap local commercials—are enslaved at the expense of their dignity, torn
from their natural existence and regularly beaten into submission. Sadly, creatively
bankrupt advertisers have often based campaigns on easy tropes and stereotypes
that mock chimpanzees. Writers and producers stick them into films and TV shows
when they need a quick laugh. Adam Sandler’s box office flop Grandma’s
Boy featured a chimpanzee sidekick. Careerbuilder.com, Re/Max and GE recently
put baby chimps into their ads. Both ER and The Today Show ran segments on chimp
retirement, which seemed well-intentioned, but they missed their mark completely
by featuring live chimps on the shows. Yahoo! recently held an advertising stunt
in New York City where they attempted to show a crowd of reporters that their
new tech tools are so easy, even a “monkey” can use them. They had
people compete with two live chimps—The Yahoo! Tech Monkey Challenge—just
this past May.
How pathetic that advertisers and producers these days are so strapped for
ideas that they have to resort to tired ploys exploiting our closest living
relatives.
Whether they are ignorant or just don’t care, they are contributing
to the abuse and mistreatment of these chimpanzees.
That “monkey” actor is actually a chimpanzee who has been cast into
a life she never chose. Her peers in the wild are still living with their mothers,
learning how to be normal chimpanzees, but she won’t get that luxury. Chimpanzees
become too strong to be safely controlled at a very early age, so while she will
probably only “act” until age seven, she will live another 50-plus
years. Training practices can be extremely brutal; conservation messages about
these endangered species are usually completely lost;?and retirement for these “actors” often
means decades stuck in a substandard facility, condemned to a lonely existence,
trapped in a tiny cage.
Behind the Scenes
Teá was born into biomedical research at the now defunct Coulston Foundation,
a notorious facility, infamous for unprecedented violations of federal animal
welfare laws. As a baby, she was sold to the entertainment industry and eventually
ended up on television shows like Scrubs and That ’70s Show. I was
hired to research the methods used by trainers on great apes in Hollywood,
and spent
over a year at Amazing Animal Actors.
The first time I ever saw Teá was before she appeared in any productions.
She had a fiery, independent spirit. On my next visit, she wasn’t there
and I was told it was because the trainers had a day-long “battle” with
her. I later learned that all acting chimps are put through this “breaking
of the spirit” where the trainers show the chimpanzees who’s boss.
When Teá came back, she had a big gash on her forehead that required
stitches and she was never the same.
I witnessed Teá and the other chimps in the facility endure brutal
treatment and regular beatings by animal trainer Sid Yost, whose past included
a conviction
for felony fraud and a jail sentence for possessing a prohibited species.
I saw Yost kick and punch these baby chimpanzees in the face, hit them with
sticks
and metal objects, and subject them to mental and psychological abuse. Even
worse,
this horrifying treatment of chimpanzees appears to be an industry standard.
When I went public with my sworn testimony, I could only hope that my investigation
would make a difference in the lives of these great beings who suffer for
our amusement.
To some extent, it has made a difference. At least the process of taking
action has begun. Film industry players who were previously unaware of the
dark practices
involved in great ape training have come forward to demand that Hollywood
be compassionate and not stand for this abuse any longer. “Chimpanzees used
in ads and shows are all babies snatched from their mothers,” says Baywatch
star Pamela Anderson. “I chose to be in the movies but these animals didn’t.
I don’t want to be a part of the cruelty.” Over 100 actors, writers,
directors and producers have echoed Anderson’s sentiments. Movie stars
Alec Baldwin and Christopher Lee (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings) are among those
who have pledged not to work on productions with great apes, effectively boycotting
the brutal practices required to bring a chimpanzee onto a set. Highly sought
writer/director David Goyer (Blade) cut a scene involving a chimpanzee in his
Batman Begins script when he learned what despicable conditions chimp actors
face. Cameron Diaz, after working with a chimpanzee “actor” in Being
John Malkovich, told Vanity Fair, “I won’t do movies with animals
anymore.” TV legend Bob Barker insists, “do not go to movies
in which there are animals because if you do you are subsidizing animal cruelty.
When
you see animals in pictures, you are putting them at risk.”
Even corporate America has begun to pay attention. After learning what goes on
behind the scenes for great ape actors, Honda and cutting edge ad agency RPA
jointly decided to discontinue a commercial with an orangutan. Puma and Keds
also bowed to pressure and pulled ads involving great apes. American Apparel
pledged to never use great apes in any of their advertising.
All it takes is a little education about the practices involved in training
great apes, and ethical, socially responsible companies are ready to do the
right thing.
The movement to end the use of great apes in film and television has a tremendous
amount of momentum right now. There are only a handful of great ape trainers
left. One, Steve Martin, told the Los Angeles Times, “with computers and
animatronics and such, there’s not as much demand for chimps and live
animals anymore.”
Progress aside, there is still work to be done. Companies driven by profits
and the bottom line—like Yahoo! and Careerbuilder.com—still callously
exploit chimpanzees in their ads despite being provided with expert testimonials
by the foremost members of the primatological community, including Jane Goodall.
Former chimp actors are scattered across the country, cast-off to substandard
roadside zoos. And perhaps most disconcerting, backyard trainers with sordid
reputations—like Maryland trainer Judie Harrison—hawk chimpanzees
into low-rent appearances that put both the public and the chimps in serious
danger.
If we want to make a change, we must hold these trainers accountable for their
actions. A former chimpanzee trainer who had the courage to admit that his practices
were wrong recently joined me and the Animal Legal Defense Fund in filing a lawsuit
against Sid Yost. It could take years, but it is our hope that the courts will
have the wisdom to find justice for these chimpanzees.
Reunion
As I ventured to Teá’s enclosure at Save the Chimps, Carole Noon’s
sanctuary in New Mexico, I wondered how Teá would respond to me. We hadn’t
seen each other in over a year. When I first walked up to her enclosure she saw
me and immediately ran up to the fence, climbed to my eye level and looked completely
shocked. I think she was surprised to see me at her new sanctuary home in Alamogordo.
I was giving her a chimp greeting, panting and head bobbing and offering my wrist.
She even pushed her lips through the fence to kiss me. Teá was still finding
her bearings following the trauma of her childhood—just beginning the
process of integrating into a social group. She was a little nervous around
her new chimp
friends, but I could see that she had made a lot of progress in her few short
weeks of freedom. The process of healing had begun.
Several months after my visit, something remarkable happened. Carole Noon’s
staff was able to reintroduce Teá to someone she hadn’t seen in
over four years—her birth mother. Teá and her mother took one look
at each other, they both screamed and then Teá leapt into her mother’s
arms as she never had before with anyone else. They are now making up for lost
time. An authority on chimp rescues and reintroductions, Noon is well aware of
both the hardships and triumphs. “It’s a painstaking but rewarding
process,” she says, “rescuing these chimpanzees from a life of
abuse and returning them to normal social relationships with other chimpanzees.”
What you can do
Make advertising executives and film producers take notice. Every time you
see an ad, TV show or film making use of one of your great ape cousins, contact
the
studio or the customer service line for the product being promoted and let
them know you won’t see their movies or buy their products until they
can think up a more creative way to sell their wares.
Sarah Baeckler is a primatologist whose research focuses on chimpanzee communication
and cultures of captive management. After several years of working with captive
chimpanzees in zoos and sanctuaries, Sarah spent 14 months undercover at a Hollywood
animal training compound where she witnessed and reported on institutionalized
abuse of chimpanzees by the trainers. Charles Spano is a director and producer
of documentary films and music videos.
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