No Elephant Rides at Tractor Supply Co. After PETA Appeal

Business Receives Thanks and Vegan Chocolates for Agreeing Not to Host Longtime Elephant Abuser or Any Other Animal Exhibitor

For Immediate Release:
July 18, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

After learning that some Tractor Supply Co. stores allowed notorious animal abuser Hugo Liebel to offer elephant rides in their parking lots, PETA notified the Brentwood-based company of his long history of endangering the public and forcing an elephant named Nosey to give rides despite her arthritis. In response, Tractor Supply Co. ordered its stores not to allow the exhibitor and says that it has no plans to host other animal exhibitors. PETA is sending the company kudos and a box of delicious vegan chocolates as thanks.

“Tractor Supply Co. made the quick and compassionate decision to stop an ailing elephant from being used in the company’s parking lots,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA encourages everyone to reject cruelty to animals by rejecting any business that uses and abuses wild animals for profit and supporting those that don’t.”

As noted by PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—Liebel’s history includes nearly 200 citations for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act, including chaining Nosey so tightly that she could barely move and repeatedly denying her adequate veterinary care. Recent video footage shows her standing alone in a hot parking lot, confined to a cramped, electrified enclosure without shelter, food, or water—and she’s often seen continuously rocking back and forth, a sign of suffering and distress that isn’t observed in the wild.

After reviewing 20 years’ worth of federal documents related to Nosey as well as a decade’s worth of photographs, an independent veterinarian and elephant expert called her case “the worst, most prolonged, documented example of an uncorrected case of suffering and abuse in an elephant I have ever reviewed.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.