Festival Foods Grocery Chain Won’t Host Animal Exhibits

April 2003

PETA received complaints that Festival Foods in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, allowed Bridgeport Nature Center to operate in its parking lot. The Nature Center, in reality a traveling tiger exhibit, has been cited numerous times by the USDA for putting animals and the public at serious risk of injury, for transporting tigers in poorly ventilated cages, and for failure to provide shelter.

After we alerted Festival Foods’ manager to the dangers and cruelty of exotic animal displays, we received a letter from the store’s chief operating officer informing us that after reviewing the information that we had sent, the company had decided to set a policy against hosting animal exhibits, stating, “[W]e will stick to what we’re good at … selling groceries.”