FX's Y: The Last Man pilot didn't use CGI for Ampersand, one of two mammals living after everyone else with an X chromosome died. Instead, the network used Katie, the same capuchin who portrayed Marcel on TV's Friends.
However, this caught the attention of PETA, whose motto reads that "animals are not ours to use for entertainment," and in an official statement to CBR, PETA primatologist Julia Gallucci slammed FX.
"In an age when Aladdin and Dumbo have brought monkeys to life with realistic, humane computer-generated imagery, there's no excuse for dragging a live monkey onto the set of Y," the statement partially read.
"We were shocked to see that a real monkey was used in Y," the statement reads. "As PETA warned FX as well as Y's producer and various showrunners, using monkeys as television props thwarts conservation efforts and promotes exotic-pet ownership, which involves removing baby monkeys from their mothers shortly after birth and raising them in deprived conditions. In an age when Aladdin and Dumbo have brought monkeys to life with realistic, humane computer-generated imagery, there's no excuse for dragging a live monkey onto the set of Y."
PETA concluded its statement by saying that Y: The Last Man using Katie is a case of "speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview."
Katie is now in her 30s, and her animal trainer revealed that she does indeed appear on Y: The Last Man as Ampersand.
Y: The Last Man stars Diane Lane as Senator Jennifer Brown, Barry Keoghan as Yorick Brown, Imogen Poots as Hero Brown, Lashana Lynch as Agent 355, Juliana Canfield as Beth, Marin Ireland as Nora, Amber Tamblyn as Mariette Callows and Timothy Hutton as the U.S. President. The series is expected to premiere on FX in 2020.