Victory! Pilot Flying J Says ‘See Ya Later’ to Cruel Alligator ‘Trinkets’ After PETA Outreach

For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2024

Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382

Kindness to animals is taking off at Pilot Flying J after the company—boasting 750 locations and growing—confirmed to PETA that it will no longer sell “souvenirs” made from alligators’ body parts at the Knoxville-based company’s chain of travel centers.

The move comes after PETA contacted CEO Adam Wright to share how alligators on farms are confined in filthy pools and cruelly slaughtered for their skins, heads, teeth, and claws. PETA is sending Wright delicious alligator-shaped vegan chocolates in thanks.

“Alligators’ body parts belong on alligators, not mounted on a wall or collecting dust in a curio cabinet,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA applauds Pilot Flying J for this compassionate decision and urges everyone never to buy trinkets made from the bodies of animals.”

Alligators are highly intelligent and have been documented using small sticks as tools to lure in birds looking for nesting materials. Females are devoted mothers who gently carry their babies in their mouths and protect them for several years after they hatch. In nature, they can live to be 50 years old, but on farms, alligators are confined to cramped, disgusting pits and killed at just a year old. A PETA investigator documented that they were often improperly stunned before slaughter and that workers stabbed and hacked apart conscious, flailing animals. The company has promised to halt production of these gruesome “trinkets” by the end of the year.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.