Gov. Holcomb Signs Cub-Petting Ban Into Law—PETA Celebrates

For Immediate Release:
March 14, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Asher Smith regarding Gov. Eric Holcomb’s signing into law House Enrolled Act 1248, a public safety and animal welfare measure that will ban public encounters with bear and big-cat cubs across the state:

PETA’s exposés of cub-petting cruelty and our precedent-setting lawsuit against the misleadingly named Indiana roadside zoo Wildlife in Need helped set the stage for this bill, which should mean the end of tourist traps that separate cubs from their mothers and pass them around like toys, often causing them to cry or scream. We look to other states to now follow Indiana’s trailblazing example.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—asks that everyone encourage their members of Congress to support the Big Cat Public Safety Act as a next step. More information about PETA’s lawsuit against Wildlife in Need is available here, and general information about the cub-petting industry is available here.