PETA Slams The Offspring For Chimpanzee Strip Club Video With John Stamos
PETA has issued a statement condemning the Offspring for the “egregious exploitation” of chimpanzees in a music video for the song “We Never Have Sex Anymore” off of their new album Let The Bad Times Roll. In the video, two chimpanzees are “dressed up and forced onto chaotic sets,” PETA writes. “Including a set that looks like a strip club, where one is depicted drinking, tipping dancers, and swinging on a pole under bright lights” (while hanging out with actor John Stamos.)
PETA claims that the chimpanzees in the video were supplied by Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, “a notorious training outfit that has been cited numerous times by the US Department Of Agriculture for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for locking chimpanzees in cramped and barren ‘night housing’ for up to 18 hours a day and failing to provide animals with adequate shelter from the elements, adequate ventilation, clean cages, and proper feeding.”
Steve Martin — not that Steve Martin — allegedly “has a history of disposing of unwanted chimpanzees and other wild animals” at roadside zoos, and two of the chimpanzees he used ended up at G.W. Zoo — which you might recognize as Joe Exotic’s zoo from the viral Netflix documentary series Tiger King. Coincidentally, the Offspring watched Tiger King while quarantined last year and covered “Here Kitty Kitty,” one of Joe Exotic’s songs from the show.
“The out-of-touch video for ‘We Never Have Sex Anymore’ risks resurrecting the chimpanzee trade in Hollywood,” PETA Animals In Film & Television Senior Manager Lauren Thomasson writes in a letter to the Offspring singer Dexter Holland. “Dressing up chimpanzees, presenting their fear grimaces as ‘smiles,’ and placing them side by side with celebrities is a dangerous messaging trifecta, and there isn’t a primate expert alive who doesn’t condemn this kind of old-school exploitation.”
“There are plenty of things we all miss about the ’90s — but animal exploitation isn’t among them,” she concludes. “Every minute your video remains online, it risks legitimizing a cruel industry, propping up the exotic ‘pet’ trade, and reversing years of animal advocacy work that has nearly ended the use of chimpanzees in Hollywood. These chimpanzees’ tragic story is something that just can’t repeat. We urge you to pull the video immediately.”