Photo: Getty Images North America
CVS startled the pharmacy store industry several years ago by deciding not to sell cigarettes. Now they've decided not to sell something else.
After complaints from PETA and others, CVS stores will be banning "monkey-themed greeting cards" from their store.
People and organizations complained that cards featuring monkeys and great apes dressed up were harmful to conservation efforts for primates. According to PETA, the cards "mislead consumers" into thinking that the species is thriving.
Chimpanzees have been classified as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says they are at "high risk" of extinction.
I'd like to bring up a bit of irony here.
CVS is supposedly helping apes and chimps by not selling greeting cards featuring these wonderful creatures. But the receipts they give you for buying a pack of gum are 8 feet long. So, they're destroying 10 acres of rainforest with every receipt, denying apes their natural habitat to survive.