Zoo will return to CBS for its second season on Tuesday, and there is some new controversy surrounding the series. Bob Barker penned a letter asking for CBS to stop the use of live animals on the series. Barker has long been an animal advocate, and he hosted The Price is Right for 35 years. Each day, he would end the show with a message about animals.
Barker said the following in his letter, according to Entertainment Weekly:
“As former host of the longest-running show on CBS, I am writing to you after hearing from my friends at PETA that your network continues to allow wild animals to be used on Zoo, despite learning that, when used for entertainment, big cats and other animals are torn away from their mothers, subjected to abusive training methods, and locked inside tiny cages. I urge you to end this exploitation and adopt a network-wide policy banning the use of wild animals in future CBS programming. While I was relieved that Zoo dropped plans to use notorious animal trainer Michael Hackenberger this season after PETA notified producers that he had been caught on camera violently whipping a tiger – for which he is now facing five charges of cruelty to animals – eyewitness investigations and whistleblower reports have revealed that physical and psychological abuse of wild animals used for film and television is standard practice. The only way to stop this cruelty is to replace the use of captive wild animals in your shows with the creative, versatile, and humane technology that exists today, such as computer-generated imagery. As demonstrated by productions such as Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, and the upcoming David Yates film, The Legend of Tarzan, in which large numbers of animals have been created with such technology, it’s time for CBS to step up for animals and follow suit.”
CBS already responded to Barker’s letter with a statement that said, “We have the greatest respect for PETA and its cause. The health, safety and welfare of animals in our care during filming continues to be our highest priority.”
TV Guide teased that phase two of the animal problem on the series will have the animals trying to destroy the world and make it uninhabitable.
Are you a fan of Zoo? Do you agree with Bob Barker’s letter? Tell us what you think.
i agree with bob and peta. cgi is a great way to prevent wild animals from having to do what is no instinctive behavior. go peta and bob barker . good for you for fighting for animals
My dad, sister, and I are fans of the book…is season two over with? And will there be a season three?
I cant wait for season three
Don’t know why Bob Barker was upset about the CBS series Zoo even though in real life he’s an animal lover. Wish the show isn’t spay and neutered.
Why doesn’t Bob Barker write a letter to PETA about their awful practices of killing people’s pets?
The world gets sadder by the day for me. I just don’t see the point. I don’t hardly trust anyone let alone these companies/organizations.
perhaps you should focus on all the good things peta has done. not sure where you got your information but there are many companies who want peta to go away. one of them is the big meat industry. whose abuse has been exposed by peta and other animal rights organizations. does peta put animals down ? yes why ? because a forever sleep is far better than life on the cruel streets. many abandoned animals suffer long agonizing lives on the streets. some are abused by people . why not get informed by typing in your browser ,how many successes… Read more »
How about you use your browser to find out about the PETA employees who lured (on camera, no less) a pet from its loving home to be taken to their shelter and killed the next day. PETA has a longstanding practice of killing strays (and people’s pets, apparently) instead of trying to find them new homes. In 2014 alone at just ONE of their shelters between 95 & 96% of the cats taken in were euthanized and between 85 & 86% of the dogs taken in were put down.