House of the Dragon Exploits Monkey While HBO Promotes Chimp Crazy Docuseries; PETA US Demands Recut

6 Aug 2024

House of the Dragon Exploits Monkey While HBO Promotes Chimp Crazy Docuseries; PETA US Demands Recut

London – Fans aren’t the only ones fuming over House of the Dragon’s disappointing Season 2 finale. Animal advocates were horrified to see a macaque monkey used as a set decoration in a scene that, hypocritically, played just six minutes after a teaser for the upcoming HBO documentary Chimp Crazy – a four-episode series that will show viewers how intelligent, social primates suffer when they’re exploited for entertainment. In response, PETA US rushed a letter (available here) to HBO Chair and CEO Casey Bloys calling on the company to recut the scene to remove the monkey and to establish a policy against using any real wild animals in its programmes.

“Primates exploited for movies and television are torn away from their mothers as babies, denied everything that’s natural and important to them, and forced to perform through fear of punishment,” says PETA US Director of Animals in Film and Television Lauren Thomasson. “HBO uses special effects to make the Targaryens look as if they’re riding dragons, so surely it could create a monkey using the same technology. PETA urges the network to ban the use of primates and all other wild animals on its sets immediately.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

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

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