Community
Print
An art show has dropped its monkey act after 20 years, following pressure from vegan campaigners.
The Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show pulled the ‘performance’ by a capuchin monkey named Django after conversations with animal rights charity PETA.
According to PETA, Djano has no canine teeth, which it says ‘were likely pulled out, a cruel and traumatic procedure that’s been prohibited by a U.S. Department of Agriculture policy since 2006’.
Cruel act
“We know so much more about animals now than we did 20 years ago, including that monkeys invariably suffer when subjected to a barrage of strange noises and busy activity and to grabbing hands,” PETA Primatologist, Julia Gallucci, said in a statement.
“The Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show made the compassionate and forward-thinking decision to stop hosting this cruel act, and PETA urges everyone to skip any event that treats living beings as props.”
The charity adds: “Monkeys are wild animals, and when forced into stressful situations – such as public exhibitions – they sometimes become aggressive and bite humans. A concerned individual recently filmed Django behaving aggressively toward children at a fair.”
