Recently, PETA asked members and supporters to join us in writing to the executive producer of NBC’s daytime drama Passions, urging her to cancel its use of live orangutans as characters in the soap opera. Our pleas were ignored, and an orangutan, Precious, still appears on the show dressed in a silly nurse’s costume and forced to perform confusing tasks on command.

Orangutans, chimpanzees, and other great apes used in television and movies endure cruel and abusive treatment during training and often live in tiny barren cages when not being forced to “act.” A primatologist who spent 14 months working undercover for a California facility that trains great apes for the film and television industry saw trainers kick and punch the animals to make them obedient. She watched in horror as bright, curious, energetic chimpanzees were reduced to frightened, dispirited zombies cowering in fear of being struck again by a fist, stick, or rock. PETA’s undercover video reveals what orangutans endure off stage—the terrified apes are beaten with metal bars, slapped, punched, and shaken. These animals are often discarded at substandard roadside “attractions” or laboratories when they are no longer useful to producers.

Passions defends its despicable exploitation of endangered orangutans despite the fact that no humane organization or government agency and none of the show’s producers monitor training sessions, where most of the abuse occurs.

PETA needs your help to keep the pressure on Passions’ producer and to alert Passions’ sponsors to the cruelty that they are supporting.

Read Jane Goodall’s letter opposing the use of great apes in entertainment.

Please contact Passions’ producer to ask that she remove Precious from the show. Remind her that not only is the situation a terrible one for Precious, but her appearance is also helping to fuel the dangerous exotic pet trade:

Click here to urge Passions’ biggest sponsors to use their considerable influence to persuade the producer of Passions to remove Precious from the show.

Learn more about the use of great apes on TV.

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Learn more about captive exotic animals and what you can do to help them.