PETA Statement on Elephant-Free ‘Big E’

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Debbie Metzler in response to this year’s Big E, which won’t include elephant exhibits:

After the last elephant exploited at The Big E dropped dead in a parking lot, the fair heard PETA, more than 175,000 of its supporters, and local residents loud and clear. This year’s elephant-free fair is a tremendous first step, and The Big E could win a blue ribbon for kindness by officially banning all exotic-animal displays.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.