Calgary Zoo Gives Hunting Club the Boot

After PETA Appeal, Zoo Wins Praise for Banning Safari Club International

For Immediate Release:
September 8, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

After hearing from PETA and other concerned people, the Calgary Zoo confirmed that it will not allow the Calgary Chapter of the Safari Club International (SCI)—a widely condemned hunting group with ties to Walter Palmer, the dentist who shot Cecil the lion—to hold its annual fundraiser on its premises. “We are refunding their deposit, and they are moving their event elsewhere,” a zoo representative wrote to PETA.

The Calgary Zoo’s decision comes in the midst of the international outcry against trophy hunting sparked by Cecil’s death. More than 40 airlines and shipping companies now refuse to transport hunting “trophies” like animal heads, horns, and skins—and New York lawmakers have renamed their anti–trophy hunting bill “Cecil’s Law.”

“The Calgary Zoo has made the right call in cutting ties with a group that celebrates and enables the massacre of majestic animals who want only to be left in peace,” says PETA Foundation Deputy Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is calling on other businesses to follow the zoo’s lead and show the despicable Safari Club International the door.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that SCI brags about the animals its members have killed and auctions off chances to kill animals such as rhinos, elephants, and lions, even though these species’ populations are dramatically declining and hunting them destroys eco-tourism worldwide.

PETA’s correspondence with the Calgary Zoo is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.