Von Maur Department Stores End 125-Year Tradition of Caged-Bird Displays

July 2002

PETA received calls of concern about bird displays at various Von Maur department store locations. Von Maur is an upscale department store chain with 20 stores in six Midwestern states. We wrote to the president of Von Maur asking that the company consider dismantling the displays and allowing the birds to go to sanctuaries. We explained that even under the best of circumstances, a cage in a department store is no place for a bird.

The president of Von Maur thanked us for the information that we had provided and, after several weeks of consideration, decided to allow the birds to be released to sanctuaries, ending the 125-year tradition of keeping birds in the stores. Von Maur officials said that without our offer of assistance in finding homes for the birds, the release may never have been feasible.