Rouse Properties Bans Animal Exhibits After PETA Appeal

Mall Management Company Protects Animals and the Public by Prohibiting Petting Zoos

For Immediate Release:
June 27, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

A box of delicious vegan chocolates is on its way as a thank-you from PETA to Rouse Properties after the New York–based company pledged to ban animal exhibits at its 20 shopping malls across the U.S.

The decision was made after Rouse Properties—whose Greenville Mall in North Carolina hosted the Jungle Safari petting zoo in May—learned from PETA that animals used in traveling exhibits spend most of their lives in cramped, barren cages and that exhibitors often force them to perform or interact with the public as many as dozens of times per day, even when injured or ill. These exhibits also place the public at risk: In one incident, a leopard from Jungle Safari attacked and injured a 5-year-old child.

“A miserable life of being dragged to shopping malls and parking lots is no life at all for tigers, monkeys, and other highly sensitive animals,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “PETA is praising Rouse Properties for joining the growing number of compassionate companies that refuse to allow cruel petting zoos to set up shop.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that Jungle Safari in particular has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for numerous violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to provide animals with proper food and water sources and adequate veterinary care, among other basic requirements.

More than 600 malls—including all properties owned by CBL & Associates Properties, GGP, Macerich, and Simon Property Group—prohibit wild-animal exhibits.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.