It’s Illegal! State Fair Will Let Tiger Exhibit Go Ahead After Feds Ordered It to Stop
For Immediate Release:
April 20, 2022
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
PETA supporters will be on hand to challenge the Georgia State Fair this Friday over its decision to host All Things Wild, an illegal big-cat show whose unlicensed operators have repeatedly violated the minimum animal care standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), even though the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has ordered the show to stop exhibiting big cats. Armed with signs proclaiming, “All Things Wild Abuses Tigers,” the protesters will encourage would-be attendees to stay away.
When: Friday, April 22, 4–6 p.m.
Where: Georgia State Fair, 1500 US-19 (at the intersection of Tara Place and Turnipseed Road), Hampton
Despite the USDA’s repeated orders, All Things Wild’s operators continue to exhibit big cats illegally and have even tried to pass off other exhibitors’ licenses as their own, including at a fair in Fort Worth, Texas, just last month, prompting authorities to shut down the exhibit.
“Parents deserve to know that All Things Wild exposes children to dangerous, illegal activity through its tawdry tiger displays,” says PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Debbie Metzler. “PETA is sounding the alarm on this unlawful exhibit and urging the Georgia State Fair to stop enabling it.”
PETA notes that All Things Wild operator Lisa Lopez and her business partner, Marcus Cook, have a long, ugly history of skirting law enforcement. Cook’s license to display tigers was permanently revoked after he was charged with nearly 100 AWA violations for actions that included using an electric shock prod on a tiger and handling methods that allowed a tiger to bite a member of the public.
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 investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
