Local Petco Store to Face Heat Over Caged-Bird Sales
For Immediate Release:
September 6, 2022
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
PETA is taking the fight for birds’ freedom to Petco’s hometown with a ruckus outside a Petco store on Friars Road, in the shadow of a new sky-high message warning everyone away from caged-bird purveyors like Petco. PETA supporters will stand in front of the store brandishing placards reading, “In Nature, Birds Fly. At Petco, They Die” and “Life Sentence, No Parole: A Cage Is No Place for Birds,” to draw attention to the fact that an estimated 40 million birds are kept caged and often improperly cared for across the U.S.
When: Thursday, September 8, 12 noon
Where: Petco, 10410 Friars Rd., San Diego
“Many birds scream, tear out their feathers, and slowly go insane from the stress of captivity,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on shoppers to steer clear of Petco, which sells sensitive animals with specialized needs as carelessly as it sells kitty litter.”
In nature, birds perch in treetops, splash in lakes, soar high above the ground, woo mates, feed their babies, and communicate with the other members of their often large flock—none of which they can do in captivity. The pet industry breeds birds in filthy facilities, steals chicks from their mothers, clips their wings so that they can’t fly away, and sells them to buyers who are often unprepared to provide them with the decades of specialized care that they need, causing many to languish and even die of neglect.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
The new billboard is located at 10437 Friars Rd., San Diego. PETA has also posted the message near Petco stores in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
