Uh-Oh, Katy Perry Is in Trouble with PETA Over ‘Roar’ Video

It’s probably best not to take PETA’s outrage too, too seriously (I mean, it’s not like they’re going to throw paint all over your decadent fur coat or anything), but a spokeswoman for the animal rights organization has criticized Katy Perry for exploiting exotic animals in her new video for the single “Roar.”

Here, with a small tide pool of salt, is the statement about “Roar” from PETA spokeswoman Merrilee Burke:

Animals used for entertainment endure horrific cruelty and suffer from extreme confinement and violent training methods. They often become stressed and anxious when hauled around and forced into unfamiliar or frightening situations.

The Serengeti Ranch, the animal exhibitor that we believe supplied the animals for the Roar video, has been inspected by the US Department of Agriculture 22 times since 2001.

PETA certainly doesn’t miss opportunities to draw attention to itself (sometimes in pretty negative ways), and, since Katy Perry presents a large, high-profile target, this statement feels a little perfunctory and, in its own publicity-mongering way, exploitative.

Still, Burke’s points are all valid — showbiz animals, with some exceptions, can have a pretty rough go of it. Just ask the lunatic who used to run Barnum & Bailey.