Hallmark finally halts sale of greeting cards featuring grinning CHIMPANZEES eight years after PETA exposed how ‘exploited’ monkeys were ‘imprisoned’ and living in squalor at Missouri Primate Foundation

Hallmark has finally stopped selling greeting cards featuring grinning chimps, eight years after PETA revealed how the chimps were “exploited and imprisoned” at the Missouri Primate Foundation.

The announcement was made earlier this month. It means Hallmark has joined other card companies, including American Greetings, and major retailers, such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart, in banning the harmful images.

PETA held demonstrations near the company’s headquarters in Kansas City, taking out advertisements and enlisting the help of celebrities, including actress Judy Greer, to shame Hallmark into toeing the line.

According to the animal rights nonprofit, their mission was also supported by tens of thousands of their supporters writing letters to Hallmark.

They also claimed that Hallmark was under pressure from drugstores that had stopped selling the controversial cards.

Connor was dressed in costumes and given props during the card company’s photo shoots, infuriating animal rights activists

Connor is seen smiling on a bench, but activists insist the exploitation of chimpanzees for greeting cards is no laughing matter

Although consumers were unaware of the abuse and grim conditions these great apes lived in at the Missouri Primate Foundation before PETA closed it in 2021

Many of the chimpanzees have been held captive in the facility for more than 20 years

In 2016, the People Ethical Treatment for Animals released a video of their research revealing the horrific conditions the chimpanzees lived in, entitled: “Hallmark Profits From Abused Chimpanzees.”

Researchers showed footage of the chimpanzees being kept in small cages littered with feces and trash in the facility.

PETA described the Missouri Primate Foundation as “ground zero” in the United States for the cruel trade of chimpanzees as primate “pets” and for entertainment purposes.”

One of the sixteen chimps imprisoned in the facility was a chimp named Connor, who had been part of the Hallmark photo shoots since childhood. He languished in the facility until he was rescued by the animal rights group.

The chimpanzee’s wide smiles and goofy poses were prominently featured on several Hallmark cards. In some photos he is seen with a prop, in others he is dressed in a costume.

But the way he was treated was no laughing matter, PETA said.

According to the animal rights group, the cards were sold in more than 40,000 stores nationwide, but consumers who bought them were unaware that Connor was being stored in a cage where he was exposed to cockroach and fly infestations.

In the video, the chimpanzees were seen looking sad while dogs roamed freely and barked at the animals. Many of the chimpanzees pulled out their own hair in psychological distress, the group claimed.

Another chimpanzee named Tammy, who had lived with the Missouri Primate Foundation for more than 20 years and was used for breeding, had been abused.

An eyewitness told PETA that when her babies were taken from her, Tammy would scream, tear her cage apart and refuse to eat for days.

There is a chimpanzee pictured at the Missouri Primate Foundation with a chain around its neck

The animals were kept in small cages full of fly and cockroach infestations, waste and feces

Sixteen chimpanzees lived at the facility – many were born and raised there – before being rescued by PETA and moved to an animal sanctuary in Florida. One of those sanctuaries is Save the Chimps

The signature toothy smile that Connor was known for and which appeared on many cards celebrating birthdays and holidays was not an expression of joy, PETA claimed, but a grimace that indicated fear and stress.

“The clownish images of chimpanzees dressed in costumes displaying a ‘grim of fear’, which the public mistakes for a grin, hinder conservation efforts by misleading consumers into believing that the species is prosperous rather than endangered,” the animal rights group said. said.

A serious concern of the group was that the images featured were fueling black market demand for the chimpanzees as ‘pets’, which they claimed posed a major threat to wild populations.

One of those chimpanzees was Travis, born at the Missouri Primate Foundation.

Travis was sold to be someone’s pet, but was later murdered after escaping from his cage and violently attacking a Connecticut woman named Charla Nash, ripping off her face and hands.

That tragic incident made international headlines, with Nash subsequently receiving a successful face transplant and a failed hand transplant.

During Connor’s final Hallmark photo shoot, PETA said he reportedly became so agitated that he bit his trainer, knocked over tables and tried to attack other people on set.

In 2021, five years after their unmasking, Connor was rescued along with many of the other chimpanzees and transferred to an animal shelter, and the Missouri Primate Foundation closed for good.

One of the sanctuaries was Save the Chimps, one of the largest chimpanzee sanctuaries in the world, located in Fort Pierce, Florida. There the animals roam freely, climb and are treated humanely.

Primatologist and PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler said: “PETA celebrates this victory for chimpanzees, who should never be exploited as models or props.”

“Hallmark’s decision to stop mocking endangered great apes recognizes that images have power, and for chimpanzees facing extinction, it could be a matter of life and death,” she further stated.

DailyMail.com has contacted Hallmark for comment.