PETA Uses Marriott Shares to Seek Wild-Animal Ban

Shareholder Resolution Seeks to End Circus-Style Spectacles Featuring Cruel and Dangerous Traveling Animal Acts

For Immediate Release:
December 4, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Marriott still allows wild-animal displays at weddings and other events on its properties, so PETA—which owns stock in the company for the sole purpose of advocating for animal-friendly reforms—has submitted a shareholder resolution calling for a ban on the practice.

“In 2020, wild-animal exhibitors should not still be bringing stressed chained elephants or caged tigers onto hotel grounds, where they can easily harm guests and members of the public,” says PETA Senior Director Anne Brainard. “PETA’s shareholder resolution calls on Marriott to join the hundreds of properties that bar these abusive displays.”

Animals used in traveling displays are frequently separated from their mothers at a young age and beaten or whipped in violent training sessions in order to break their spirits. Elephants are shackled in chains, unable to take more than a step or two in any direction, and big cats and bears are confined to cramped cages. Deprivation of mental stimulation, chronic stress, and frustration cause many captive animals to develop abnormal forms of behavior, such as constant rocking, swaying, or pacing—and some have lashed out and even killed people.

Wild animals are prohibited at more than 650 U.S. facilities, including those owned by CBL & Associates, Macerich, and Simon Property Group. Other companies, including TripAdvisor, Airbnb, and Booking.com, have taken steps to remove activities that exploit wild animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.