SEGA pulls breakdancing monkey advert

SEGA has removed an advert for Samba De Amigo from its website following complaints from an animal rights group.

As you'll know if you've seen the trailer, it shows a real live monkey shaking a set of maracas. The monkey goes on to perform a popular breakdancing move, the "backspin", only to be pointed and laughed at by a group of children.

Animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained about the ad, but all is now forgiven.

"We're officially bananas about SEGA," reads a message on the PETA blog. "In fact, we're sending them a thank you card and little vegan chocolates in the shape of monkeys."

The rest of the message isn't quite so jolly, though. Apparently PETA explained to SEGA "how involuntary chimpanzee "actors" are taken away from their mothers when they are just a year or so old and forced to perform confusing and repetitious tricks".

"We also explained some of the horrible methods that chimpanzee "trainers" use, such as electric shocks with shock collars and prods, isolation, beatings with sawed-off pool cues and slapjacks, and food deprivation."

At the age of eight, the post continues, chimps reach puberty - which means, like some kind of simian Aled Joneses, they're no longer wanted in the cruel world of showbiz. They're dumped at roadside zoos or sold to laboratories, where they are experimented on and run the risk of getting the zombie lurgy.

Not only has SEGA pulled the video, the company has "promised to keep all great apes out of its ads" in future, apparently.

It's not clear whether PETA is aware SEGA has also been training hedgehogs to run at super-fast speeds and fight fat men in space helicopters for years now.