Stratford Square Mall Bans Animal Exhibits After Hearing From PETA

Local Retailer Learns That Animals in Circuses Are Confined and Beaten, Pledges Never to Host Cruel Circus Acts Again

For Immediate Release:
September 3, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

A box of tasty elephant-shaped vegan chocolates is on its way to the Stratford Square Mall as a thank-you from PETA for its recent decision to ban circuses that use animals. The choice was made after the mall—which hosted the Kelly Miller Circus last year—learned from PETA that animals used by circuses and other animal exhibitors are dragged across the country in shackles and forced to perform confusing and uncomfortable tricks for audiences.

“Enthusiastic crowds are turning their backs on circuses and other businesses that force animals into a life of miserable confinement and repeated beatings,” says counsel to PETA Rachel Mathews. “PETA is urging other companies to follow in Stratford Square’s compassionate and business savvy footsteps by banning circuses that use animals.”

As PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment,” points out, animals experience extreme stress and deprivation in captivity. It’s standard practice in circuses to beat, shock, chain, and whip elephants, lions, bears, and other wild animals in order to intimidate them into performing confusing tricks.

Stratford Square Mall joins other progressive businesses—including General Growth Properties, Simon Property Group, and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., as well as many individual venues across the country—that have enacted bans on exotic-animal displays.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.