Stop & Shop Supermarket Chain Prohibits Animal Displays

October 2003

PETA received complaints that several Stop & Shop store managers had arranged to bring animal displays to their stores. One of the animal exhibitors included notoriously cruel R.W. Commerford & Sons, which has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for keeping a giraffe in a tiny pen and for failure to provide veterinary care to injured animals. We contacted the managers of each of the Stop & Shop locations about which we received complaints and wrote to the CEO, asking that the company prohibit animal displays at all its locations. We also posted an action alert calling for letters to the company. Subsequently, the company decided that it would not allow animal exhibits at any of its 330 locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and New York.