Bringing in animal guest and acts has been a staple for talk show hosts for as long as there have been talk shows! Nothing gets an audience to “oooh and aaah” like a wild animal jumping all over their favorite talk show host. While this may appear as a funny and entertaining experience for the audience, not may people stop to think how the animals feel about making these guest appearences.

Under bright stage lights, overwhelmed by loud music and audience screams, wild guest are pretty much completely overstimulated. Not to mention that animals used for entertainment are not simply brought on for the night then released back into their natural habitat, these animals are held captive for years, if not their entire lives, confined to cages and abused into performing tricks.

There is very little that is glamorous about the life of a “show” animal. This past week, Jimmy Fallon brought a live elephant,  white tiger, a full-grown crocodile and a monkey on the Tonight Show. Since, Fallon has fallen under scrutiny from the Performing Animals Welfare Society and a number of Hollywood stars, including Bob Barker, who is an avid animal activist himself.

In an open letter to Fallon, the stars address all the issues surrounding captive animal entertainment, explaining that animals, especially elephants are incredibly intelligent and complex beings that cannot thrive in captive environments. Concluding that no animal should need to suffer for the purpose of our entertainment, the letter urges Fallon to discontinue the practice of bringing wild animals on to his show.

You can view the entire letter here, and if you feel so inclined write your own letter to Fallon, his Rockefeller address can be found on the letter head.

Image source: FilmMagic