Right now, thousands of monkeys, apes, and other primates are languishing in cages, living in fear, and being denied everything that’s natural and important to them. These complex animals are used in crude, cruel, and useless experiments; they’re forced—out of fear—to “grin” on command on the sets of Hollywood movies and television shows; and many are captured in their native habitats, torn away from their families, and then shipped to the U.S. From this page, you’ll be able to complete multiple PETA action alerts that can help these animals.

In laboratories, these animals have barely enough room to sit, stand, lie down, or turn around. The rich environments full of sensory stimulation that they should be experiencing are replaced by ones devoid of color, scent, and almost every other type of enrichment. Research shows that 90 percent of our fellow primates who are used in laboratories exhibit abnormal behavior patterns that are caused by the physical abuse, psychological stress, social isolation, and confinement to barren enclosures that they’re forced to endure. Many go insane, rocking back and forth, pacing endlessly in the cages, and doing repetitive motions such as back-flipping. They even engage in acts of self-mutilation, including tearing out their own hair and biting their own flesh.

Every year in the U.S., more than 110,000 primates are imprisoned in laboratories, where most of them are abused and killed in invasive, painful, and terrifying experiments. While it’s well known that monkeys are sensitive, intelligent beings, experimenters treat them as if they were disposable pieces of laboratory equipment .

Primates Used for Entertainment

Primates are intelligent, curious, and highly social animals with complex physical and psychological needs that can’t be met on the sets of films or television shows. Most primates used for entertainment are taken away from their mothers prematurely—a practice that’s cruel to both the baby and the mother and denies the infants the maternal care and nurturing that they need for normal development. In order to force young primates to perform on cue, physical and psychological abuse are common.

In stark contrast to their lives in the wild, primates used for entertainment are denied adequate psychological and social stimulation, proper exercise, and the opportunity to engage in natural types of behavior. Their instinctual needs—which include exploring, choosing mates, raising young, and foraging—are completely thwarted. As a result, they often develop neurotic behavior patterns, such as pacing, rocking, swaying, cage-biting, and self-mutilation. Many suffer from debilitating loneliness and depression.

This article in The Telegraph highlights how unethical and damaging the use of primates in film and television is to their welfare and how it fools the public into believing that they’re happy in human environments.



Trainers who supply animals to the entertainment industry are frequently cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act, which establishes only minimal guidelines for animal care.

In order to force young chimpanzees and orangutans to perform on cue, fear-based training methods using physical and psychological abuse are common. When apes become too large and strong to handle (usually at between 6 and 8 years old), they may be dumped at shoddy roadside zoos and other substandard facilities, where they’re kept in cramped, barren cages—sometimes in solitary confinement. Chimpanzees and orangutans have long lifespans, so “retirement” from entertainment can mean decades of misery for these highly intelligent and sensitive animals.

The use of chimpanzees in film, television, and ads is becoming increasingly rare. In fact, all of the top 10 ad agencies in the U.S. have banned the use of them and other great apes in their commercials after learning about this important issue.

With the many advancements that have been made in computer-generated imagery, there’s no reason to use real chimpanzees or any other wild animals in film, television, or advertisements. Andy Serkis is among the most recent celebrities to speak out on this issue, saying, “We’ve matured as an industry and realized that [using real great apes] would be intolerable and cruel.”



If you want to help animals daily, there are tons of ways to get involved. Follow PETA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to stay up to date on our latest campaigns; subscribe to PETA E-news to get weekly updates on our efforts; and be sure to complete the PETA action alerts below—they all help primates used in experiments or for entertainment and can be completed with the quick click of a button.