Premiering earlier this week, the series stars the Community actor as ex-cop Frank, who starts a new career in animal control, however he and fellow employees find themselves dealing with various mishaps with the wildlife they encounter.
However the animal rights group has made it clear it isn’t a fan of the new sitcom using live animals, which has so far included ostriches, dogs and a ferret.
‘Animal Control is a sickening soup of animal exploitation that has PETA questioning whether Joel McHale’s been living under a rock,’ PETA US Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler said in a statement to Metro.co.uk.
‘He either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that it’s 2023 and that CGI, VFX, and other humane forms of technology should be used, instead of dragging abused animals onto TV and film sets.
‘Read the room, Joel McFail: Animals aren’t the key to your comeback, and neither is this sad show.’
It wasn’t the first time the organisation has taken issue with the series.
On Monday it called out the fact the star posed with a cougar in its Super Bowl commercial.
In a statement on its website, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said: ‘While forward-thinking advertisers relied on modern approaches like computer-generated imagery or human talent for their coveted Super Bowl slot, Joel McFail shamelessly cornered the market on animal mistreatment.’
In the advertisement, Joel joked that the ad had cost ‘$3 million, and only half of that went to my hair’.
Encouraging people to watch the series, he was seen holding and petting a baby cougar and saying that there ‘really are cougars in your area who want to meet.’
In an outtake, he joked Fox only gave the show 15 seconds for their ad, which, coincidentally, was ‘the maximum amount of time you can hold a cougar before it decides to maul you’.
In a tweet after the ad aired, PETA also said that ‘forcing a cougar onto a live TV set for cheap laughs instead of CGI is insensitive and cruel’.
It added: ‘Animals used for TV are confined to cramped cages, hauled to different locations, forced to perform confusing tricks, and denied a natural life.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives for Joel McHale for comment.
Animal Control is available to watch on Fox and Hulu in the United States.
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