In Katy Perry’s music video for her single Roar she makes friends with a monkey, brushes a crocodile’s teeth, and even roars at a tiger, forcing it to submit to her.
Following the videos release the team at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) attacked the video. The group claimed that casting animals are often traumatized because of bad working conditions on the set of tv shows, movies, and music videos.
PETA’s Merrilee Burke sent the following notice to the video’s directors and producers:
“What you may not know — as most people do not — is that animals used for entertainment in film and television endure horrific cruelty and suffer from extreme confinement and violent training methods.”
Burke goes on to say that the bright lights of sets and heavy equipment can traumatize animals, causing stress and anxiousness.
If you have followed the career of Katy Perry you are probably aware that she is a huge animal lover. In fact Perry loves animals so much that she insisted on having an American Humane Association member on-hand for the three-day shoot.
Perry and her team responded to PETA’s unwarranted attack with the following message:
American Humane Association was on set for the filming of the above referenced music video, which used an elephant, a monkey, birds and a tiger. After reviewing the reports, we believe that the Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were followed and that no animal was harmed in the making of this music video.
Sources on-set have claimed that the animals dictated the pace of the shoot, thus ensuring their safety and comfort with the shoot.
PETA has not yet issued a follow-up statement to Katy Perry’s own message.
The animal rights group also attacked Serengeti Ranch, one of the animal providers for the music video. The Texas based ranch has been cited for 13 animal rights violations since 2001.
Raise your hand if you think PETA was engaging in its typical round of fear mongering over a situation they didn’t adequately investigate?