PETA Statement on Elephant-Free ‘Big E’

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2021

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

West Springfield, Mass. – Below, please find a statement from PETA Foundation Associate Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Debbie Metzler in response to this year’s Big E, which won’t include elephant exhibits:

After the last elephant exploited at The Big E dropped dead in a parking lot, the fair heard PETA, more than 175,000 of its supporters, and local residents loud and clear. This year’s elephant-free fair is a tremendous first step, and The Big E could win a blue ribbon for kindness by officially banning all exotic-animal displays.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind