Too much monkey business

GREETINGS cards featuring chimpanzees have been scrapped by online retailer Moonpig after complaints from animal rights activists. Other companies are coming under pressure to follow suit.

Will Travers, president of the Born Free foundation, said: ‘The days of chimps’ tea parties and boxing orangutans are well and truly over.’

That’s all very well, but has anyone asked the chimpanzees themselves? The famous PG Tips chimps always seemed to be having a whale of a time.

If you were an ape, would you rather be moping around in a tree or drinking tea, eating sandwiches and playing the piano in a TV commercial? The orangutan who

played Clyde alongside Clint Eastwood in the 1978 film Every Which Way But Loose became quite a celebrity, enjoying a life of Riley.

He was certainly a better actor than Sondra Locke.

Monkeys are much brighter than some animal rights campaigners give them credit for. Researchers have concluded that apes may have inspired humans to take up dancing.

Two chimps have been observed performing a conga-style dance at a zoo in the U.S. Monkeys could even have invented an early version of the tango. So, far from banning chimps from taking part in human activity, maybe it’s time a couple were invited on to Strictly.

You hum it, son, I’ll play it!