Katy Perry may have dominated the charts with her latest single, "Roar," but she certainly isn't a star in the eyes of PETA at the moment for her use of animals, specifically elephants, in the hit song's video, the New York Daily News reports.
Animal rights activist and filmmaker, Chris Palmer, recently spoke out against Perry's use of captive elephants as accessories in her music videos and appearances via an open letter for the New York Daily News' Confidenti@l.
"Suzy is Katy's reluctant elephant co-star in the song's video," Palmer writes. "Elephants don't like loud noises, bright lights or hectic sets with dozens of people running around...How did Suzy, a member of a threatened species from Africa, find herself next to Katy Perry on a deafening California set? She was violently captured from her free-roaming herd in Zimbabwe when she was 2 years old and shipped to the U.S., where she was most likely bound and beaten in order to make her perform without complaint."
Palmer has documented Suzy's traumatic past for years, including her birth and capture from her close-knit herd in 1988.
"In the decades since her capture, Suzy has been shuffled from place to place," Palmer writes. "She has spent 10 of the last 20 years without the companionship of other elephants. Elephants are highly social animals, and in the wild Suzy would have lived, and enjoyed a deep bond, with her family - socializing, foraging, and walking leisurely for miles each day."
PETA has joined Palmer's efforts to reach out to Katy Perry and ask her to stop using pachyderms as "props and for publicity stunts."
However, Perry responded with a letter from the American Humane Society stating that no animals had been harmed on the set of her music video. PETA's response? The AHS does not monitor cruel capture and training methods. The group is reportedly scheduled to protest the singer during her performance on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.
Perry has used elephants before during appearances, including in 2010 when she rode one into Perez Hilton's birthday party, and that seem year during her wedding to now ex-husband Russell Brand.
