Everyone loves to see a good movie. It's fun and allows you to let go of your worries and enjoy someone else's story.  Tengwood.org would like to ask people to stop for a moment, and think before going to a movie that uses live animal "actors", especially endangered species.

While the companies that train animals for movies profess that they use humane methods of training, and genuinely care about their animals, it is not possible to train a wild animal without stress for the animal. Often, with animals like monkeys, who can be strong and use biting in their normal, everyday natural society, training methods must be harsh enough to dominate the animal. The capuchin in this picture is showing what primatoligists call a 'fear grin' - we're sure that the filming of this movie was not fun for him!  Capuchins should be living with other monkeys in nature - not performing tricks in a movie studio for human amusement.

So if you go to 'Hangover 2', 'the Zookeeper', 'Water for Elephants', or 'Mr. Popper's Penguins', or watch a movie with an animal "actor" in it, take a moment to think about how they might have gotten the animals to perform their tricks.  Do we really need wild animals acting like silly people in a movie...?  Let's allow animals to be themselves and not just a tragic parody of a human.