Will ‘Littlest Pet Shop’ Become ‘Littlest Rescue Shelter’?
PETA Asks Hasbro to Help Promote Adoption—and Combat the Cruel Pet Trade—by Rebranding Tiny Toys
For Immediate Release:
November 7, 2019
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
With the holiday shopping season on the way, PETA Kids—PETA’s program for kids aged 12 and younger—sent a letter this morning asking Hasbro to help animals by rebranding the “Littlest Pet Shop” as the “Littlest Rescue Shelter.”
PETA notes that pet stores are notorious for obtaining animals from puppy mills and other mass-breeding facilities—where they’re denied socialization, exercise, and veterinary care—and selling them to impulse buyers who aren’t prepared to offer them a lifelong home. In pet stores, rats and reptiles are housed in severely crowded boxes, fish circle endlessly in cramped tanks, and birds are put on display in cages in which they can barely stretch their wings, much less fly. In addition, at least 6 million dogs and cats end up in animal shelters every year—half of whom have to be euthanized for lack of good homes—and buying animals from pet stores robs those in shelters of a chance to find a home.
“While buying a puppy at a pet shop contributes to the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis, adopting from an animal shelter saves a life,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “PETA is calling on Hasbro to promote adoption to millions of families by giving its beloved toys a much-needed update as the ‘Littlest Rescue Shelter.’”
By changing its name, Hasbro would join several companies that have made similar animal-friendly choices after discussions with PETA. Stauffer’s stopped producing SeaWorld-branded Shamu whale cheddar crackers, and Nabisco and Trader Joe’s updated their animal crackers packaging to depict animals living free in nature, instead of locked inside circus boxcars.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
