We’ve asked BBC & Netflix to stop using performing primates in their TV shows
We’ve asked BBC & Netflix to stop using performing primates in their TV shows
14 May 2021
We are deeply concerned by the persistent use of live monkey “actors” in television drama productions, exemplified most recently by the use of a macaque in the BBC/Netflix co-production The Serpent.
Although this appeal to the media giants was prompted by the use of a pig-tailed macaque in the recent series The Serpent, which they jointly produced, each of them continues to air programming that features other primate species as performers as well. We noted that capuchin monkeys were used as “actors” in other recent dramas, such as The Alienist and The Terror. Pig-tailed macaques are listed as ‘Vulnerable and Declining’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.