‘Little Mermaid’ Star Under Fire for Posing at Zoo Notorious for Abusing Apes

A visit by American actor Halle Bailey to a controversial zoo in Thailand has sparked concern from animal rights activists and triggered backlash on social media. The zoo has a history of unethical practices, including training animals to perform dangerous stunts and pose for photos with humans.

Last week, the 23-year-old actor, who stars in the upcoming Disney movie The Little Mermaid, shared photos of her posing with an elephant, a baby tiger, and an orangutan at the zoo—identified by activists as Safari World in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Safari World was also recently featured on a segment on the Disney-owned ABC talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! In a video of the television segment shared by the zoo on Facebook on April 21, an orangutan is seen posing for photos with a visitor, reaching to cup her breasts and kissing her cheek for one pose. 

At Safari World, orangutans are made to don human clothes and entertain visitors by fighting each other in boxing shows, dancing in bikinis, and swinging on ziplines—activities long slammed by animal rights groups as abusive and exploitative. For years, activists have also voiced concerns about the living conditions of animals at the zoo—many animal enclosures are surrounded by fences and barbed wire, while black bears have been seen panting in hot weather without proper shelter.

In 2004, wildlife authorities seized over 100 orangutans from Safari World, after the animals were found to have been smuggled from Indonesia. The case remains one of the world’s largest cases of great ape trafficking. 

Edwin Wiek, founder of the local animal rescue and conservation center Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, said Disney should not be promoting the zoo’s activities. 

“As a child, we all loved Disney. They entertain you with beautiful movies and cartoons, a lot of times about wildlife. And with this entertainment comes the task of edutainment or education,” he told VICE World News. 

“I think by using animals for the glorification of humans in that way, as we see with the pictures made, and so-called ‘funny videos’ of orangutans touching the breasts of women and making funny faces… it’s degenerating.”

Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand said in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday that “Disney’s promotion of unethical wildlife attractions in Thailand could set back decades of conservation work that has fought to educate tourists on why it’s never OK to exploit wildlife for entertainment.”

Social media users have flooded the comments section on Bailey’s Instagram post, which has now garnered over 805,000 likes. Many criticized her photos with the animals at Safari World. However, others argued that she did not deserve the hate, as she was probably unaware of the zoo’s association with animal cruelty.

“Give people a chance to learn from innocent mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. Just because she’s playing Ariel doesn’t mean she’s now the role model for all the kids around the world,” said one comment under the post, which received over 1,000 likes. 

Wiek said he does not condone the “cruel and hateful” comments Bailey has received, but he added that her young age is no excuse. 

“The way that animals are being trained is cruel, and the way they’re being misused is unethical,” he said. “We’re living in times now that we have to understand that conservation of wildlife is not served by putting animals in cages and having them used as entertainment for humans.”

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