Victory! Hallmark Grows a Heart and Stops Exploiting Chimpanzees

Update: Following a bold PETA campaign, Hallmark has stopped producing and selling cards featuring harmful and degrading images of chimpanzee infants who were torn away from their mothers! And our lawsuit against the Missouri Primate Foundation made it possible for Connor—a chimpanzee whose face is familiar to many through Hallmark and American Greetings cards—to live in an accredited sanctuary, the Center for Great Apes, where his needs were prioritized over profits.

Originally posted on February 8, 2017:

There’s nothing cute about the “grin” exhibited by chimpanzees on greeting cards. It’s actually a “fear grimace” and likely the result of abusive training. PETA has pushed Hallmark to stop selling cards featuring exploited and neglected chimpanzees but to no avail. So for Valentine’s Day, we’re showing people how coldhearted the company is with a demonstration outside a Hallmark store near the corporation’s headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.

Although Hallmark hasn’t paid for a chimpanzee photo shoot in many years, it’s still making money from tormented chimpanzees’ images. Recent studies, including two conducted by researchers at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and Harvard University, demonstrate that the inaccurate portrayal of these endangered animals hinders conservation efforts and increases the demand for exotic animals as “pets.”

Great Apes Are Being Exploited—You Can Help

Intelligent, curious chimpanzees are still being exploited in roadside zoos and human homes, but you can join PETA and take action to help get them to true, accredited sanctuaries, where they could finally have the lives they deserve.