PETA Statement: Escaped Tigers Should Go to Sanctuary, Not Same Outfit That Endangered Them

For Immediate Release:
March 26, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler, following reports that two tigers escaped from Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and were recaptured this morning:

Wild Animal Safari’s long history of leaving enclosures in disrepair and its apparent unwillingness to plan for a natural disaster made the escape of dangerous tigers inevitable. Before this roadside zoo risks the public’s and big cats’ lives again, PETA is calling for the feds to crack down on the shady safari and for the animals to go to reputable sanctuaries that know how to give them the care they need and prepare for the worst.

PETA notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)—which spent decades allowing unprepared facilities to operate without disaster contingency plans—shares responsibility for the escape. In response, the group is submitting a complaint to the agency, urging it to investigate. So far, the strongest action the USDA has taken in response to Wild Animal Safari’s citations over several enclosures that have been in disrepair, including ones confining dangerous animals, is to send a “letter of information” to the roadside zoo.

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, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.