PETA Rallies Members Against Cruel Exotic-Animal Display at Muscatine Mall

Unaccredited Zoo Tears Cubs Away From Their Mothers and Gives Away Unmanageable Adult Animals, Group Says

For Immediate Release:
March 25, 2010

Contact:
Lisa Wathne 757-622-7382

Muscatine, Iowa -- Concerned that G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park's (G.W.) exotic-animal display is scheduled to appear at Muscatine Mall beginning March 31, PETA has sent an action alert to its members and supporters in Iowa asking them to call on the mall's manager to cancel the upcoming appearance and ban any future events that would use exotic animals on mall property.

"G.W. is interested in one thing--making money," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "Otherwise, it wouldn't tear baby animals away from their distraught mothers. These babies should be with their mothers--not carted around for display in shopping malls and parking lots." 

Animals in traveling shows endure considerable stress as they are confined to cages barely larger than their own bodies, are preventing from exercising, and are subjected to grueling schedules, irregular feeding, extreme noise, and incessant interaction with humans.

A PETA undercover investigation of G.W. found, among other abuses, a lion who was not provided with pain relief following surgery to amputate the remaining stump of her leg after it was torn off by tigers, a wounded horse who suffered for days with an untreated broken leg before dying and being fed to big cats, and tigers who were hit with a rifle butt. In January 2006, G.W. was put on probation for 18 months and paid a $25,000 fine to settle U.S. Department of Agriculture charges that involved allegations of dangerous animal-handling practices, insufficient staffing, and filthy, wet, unsafe, and dilapidated enclosures.

For more information about PETA's work to protect animals, please visit PETA.org.