Perry under fire for elephant video
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Singer and animal lover Katy Perry is under fire for using elephants in her video for ‘Roar’. Picture: AFP
Source: AFP
KATY Perry may be a noted animal lover, but the pop star has come under fire from PETA and an LA filmmaker for using a captive elephant in her latest video.
Chris Palmer, director of the Centre for Environmental Filmmaking, says that Perry has repeatedly used captive elephants as accessories, most recently in the video for her latest hit, Roar, and he’s penned an open letter to her, hoping she’ll become a bit more informed.
"Suzy is Katy’s reluctant elephant co-star in the song’s video," Palmer wrote.
"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 two years old and shipped to the US, where she was most likely bound and beaten in order to make her perform without complaint."
This is not Perry’s first involvement with the gentle giants. In 2010, she rode an elephant in to Perez Hilton’s Hollywood birthday party and also used elephants in her wedding to now ex-husband Russell Brand.
Perry responded with a letter from the American Humane Association, which declared that no animal had been harmed on her set.
PETA countered the argument, stating that the AHA doesn’t monitor cruel capture and training methods. There’s also talk that PETA members will be protest outside this weekend’s taping of Saturday Night Live in New York when Perry is scheduled to perform.
“I don’t imagine that Katy’s mean, just distracted,” a PETA spokesman said. “Katy Perry may be one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but next to that sad elephant, she looks like a very small person.”
