It’s No Game for Monkey Forced to Perform Tricks at Japan Football Match

A macaque monkey—who was dressed in a football kit and restrained by a leash tied around his neck and held by a handler—was forced to perform tricks while standing upright with a ball at a football stadium prior to a J-League football match in Japan.

We need to talk about the J League… pic.twitter.com/DlHL17z5e1

— Mundial Magazine (@MundialMag) November 27, 2017

For the monkey, who’s being used as a living prop, it’s no game.

Most animals used in such displays perform under the threat of violence with an electric shock prod, and often, their teeth are removed. They’re usually taken away from their mothers shortly after birth—a heartbreaking trauma from which neither they nor their loving mothers ever fully recover—and are deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them.

Monkeys don’t choose to walk on their hind legs and pick up footballs. They perform because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t. As a PETA investigation shows, to force animals to perform silly tricks, trainers break their spirits through methods that create a fear of punishment.

What You Can Do

Please never patronize any attraction that uses animals. Every ticket purchased to such events supports a cruel industry. Instead, take your friends and family members to see only animal-free circuses.