New Expert Report Exposes ‘Giraffe Cam’ Harm

PETA Calls For Public to Reject Animal Adventure Park’s Latest Breeding Scheme

For Immediate Release:
March 17, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Animal Adventure Park, a roadside zoo in upstate New York, live-streamed yet another birth by April the giraffe over the weekend, but a new report—authored by PETA Foundation Supervising Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally, Captive Animal Law Enforcement Research Associate Whitney Kent, and Vice President Delcianna Winders—exposes the dark side of breeding giraffes for entertainment.

The report details how roadside zoos’ captive-breeding activities do nothing to help conserve wild giraffe populations: April’s calves will never be released into the wild, and although female giraffes in nature may stay with their mothers for their entire lives, all of April’s offspring were taken from her before they reached 19 months old—some of them at just a few weeks old—and most were sent to other roadside zoos. Studies show that unnatural exhibits like those at Animal Adventure Park can undermine legitimate conservation efforts by causing spectators to believe that the species must not be in jeopardy.

“As if live-streaming to the world a mother’s vulnerable, intimate moments of giving birth weren’t distasteful enough, Animal Adventure Park keeps breeding baby giraffe after baby giraffe—all of whom will endure a lifetime of confinement,” says Dr. Rally. “PETA urges kind people everywhere to turn away from the ‘giraffe cam’ and urge this roadside zoo to end its harmful breeding program.”

At roadside zoos such as Animal Adventure Park, giraffes are unable to engage in natural types of behavior, including roaming ranges of up to 1,200 square miles, forming complex relationships, and browsing for leaves and fruits on tall trees—and as a result, they often develop abnormal repetitive behavior patterns, such as pacing and compulsively moving their tongues. They also frequently suffer from gastrointestinal disease, kidney stones, abnormal tooth wear, pancreatic disease, and “peracute mortality syndrome” (or sudden death).

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, the human-supremacist viewpoint that other species are ours to breed, display, and sell for profit or amusement.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.