PETA claims ‘Animal Practice’ victory

NBC has canceled its freshman veterinarian comedy
NBC has canceled its freshman veterinarian comedy "Animal Practice," which featured a monkey named Crystal.
  • PETA is calling the cancellation of NBC's "Animal Practice" a victory
  • PETA claims 40,000 members wrote to NBC and the show's advertisers
  • NBC will replace "Animal Practice" with "Whitney" next month

(EW.com) -- With NBC canceling veterinarian comedy "Animal Practice," activist group PETA is declaring "victory."

"PETA's staff are celebrating today in response to news that NBC's 'Animal Practice' has been canceled," the organization said in a statement. "The cancellation of 'Animal Practice' sends the strong message that using animals for cheap laughs on TV shows is archaic and uninteresting to today's viewers, who are sophisticated enough to know that not only is putting a monkey in a lab coat not funny, it's also cruel."

NBC cancels 'Animal Practice'

Yes, thank goodness that Crystal, the most pampered monkey on the planet, has been rescued from employment with a cast of comic actors in Hollywood (on a series that, if anything, idolized the animal kingdom).

NBC is replacing "Animal Practice" next month with the return of sitcom "Whitney." PETA waged a protest against the freshman comedy, saying trained animals are often removed from their mothers in a "traumatic way," undergo "physical abuse" during the training process and worried the sitcom might encourage people to buy monkeys as pets.

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The organization claims 40,000 members wrote to NBC and the show's advertisers. Though "Animal Practice" would have needed more than 50 times that number of extra viewers to have had a shot at remaining on the air.

See the full story at EW.com.

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