For decades, Hallmark Cards has been profiting from clownish images of chimpanzees featured on several of its greeting cards. It’s been years since the last Hallmark photo shoot, and chimpanzees aren’t being used in Hollywood anymore. PETA is asking Hallmark to keep up with the times and stop selling these offensive cards.
They’re meant to be humorous, but greeting cards featuring endangered chimpanzees dressed in silly costumes and making funny faces are no joke. These unnatural and degrading images—which can be seen on Hallmark greeting cards in more than 40,000 stores across the country—harm chimpanzees by misleading the public into believing that they’re prevalent in nature, when, in fact, they’re endangered. Studies show that the inaccurate portrayal of chimpanzees in media seriously hinders conservation efforts and may also increase the demand for these dangerous animals as “pets.”
Making a mockery of chimpanzees is a form of speciesism—the misguided belief that other animals are less deserving just because of their species. Chimpanzees in nature will seek out plants with medicinal properties if they aren’t feeling well. They’ll take the leaves from one of these plants and fold them up like an accordion before swallowing them whole—a technique that ensures that the leaves will clear the chimpanzees of parasites.
Using the form below, please send a polite note to Hallmark asking it to stop selling all greeting cards featuring clownish images of chimpanzees and other great apes.