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The Offspring just released the band’s first album in nearly a decade, Let the Bad Times Roll, led by the catchy single “We Never Have Sex Anymore”.
While fans have welcomed new music from the group behind such hits as “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and “Why Don’t You Get a Job?”, the band’s music video for the new single has raised the ire of PETA.
In the video, trained chimpanzees play a married couple for whom the spark has gone out, leading the male chimp to head out for a debauched night at a strip club with John Stamos.
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In a press release issued on Friday, PETA shares a letter sent to Offspring frontman Dexter Holland, taking the band to task for exploiting the animals and asking that they pull the new video from YouTube.
“Today, PETA sent a letter to The Offspring lead singer Dexter Holland asking him to pull the group’s ‘We Never Have Sex Anymore’ music video immediately because of its egregious exploitation of chimpanzees. In it, two chimpanzees are dressed up and forced onto chaotic sets, including a set that looks like a strip club, where one is depicted drinking, tipping dancers, and swinging on a pole under bright lights,” PETA’s letter reads.
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“The primates were reportedly supplied by Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife, a notorious training outfit that has been cited numerous times by the U.S. 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. Martin also has a history of disposing of chimpanzees at roadside zoos,” the letter continues.
Reminding that PETA’s motto includes the directive that “animals are not ours to use in entertainment,” the letter concludes by explaining “that the repercussions of this music video could be disastrous. Not only does it normalize the disrespect and exploitation of highly intelligent, sensitive primates, it may also increase the black-market demand for endangered great apes as ‘pets,’ which is one of the main forces driving them toward extinction.”
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ET Canada has reached out to the band’s reps for comment.