Victory: Boots Pulls Captive Great Ape Greetings Cards

Victory: Boots Pulls Captive Great Ape Greetings Cards

London – After meeting with PETA US, British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain Boots – whose parent organisation is US-based Walgreens Boots Alliance – has stopped selling cards that feature damaging images of great apes in all its stores.

“Chimpanzees aren’t models or props, and clownish photos of them wearing clothes or sitting at desks put these endangered animals at risk,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA urges everyone to make loved ones smile with greetings cards featuring humans or cartoons, not endangered and exploited animals.”

In 2019, greetings card company Moonpig dropped all images of captive great apes from its products, and top stock-image agencies like Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime are banning inappropriate images of primates.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – notes that studies show that unnatural images of chimpanzees wearing costumes, displayed in studios, or interacting with humans mislead consumers into believing that the species – which may face extinction within our lifetime – is thriving. These portrayals may also increase the black market demand for endangered great apes as “pets”, which is one of the main forces driving them towards extinction.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]

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