The Mayo Hotel Bans Animal Exhibits After PETA Appeal

Boutique Hotel Nabs Horse-Shaped Chocolates in Thanks for Compassionate Move

For Immediate Release:
January 22, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

After guests were encouraged to paint a horse at The Mayo Hotel’s New Year’s Eve party, prompting multiple complaints from the public and an appeal from PETA, the luxury hotel has pledged to ban events featuring live animals. In thanks, PETA is sending it a box of horse-shaped vegan chocolates.

“The Mayo Hotel was quick to agree with PETA that sensitive animals shouldn’t be exploited or harassed for events,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “It joins hundreds of venues and dozens of communities nationwide that have recognized that animals aren’t party props and prohibited or restricted live-animal exhibits.”

As PETA pointed out to the hotel, not only does painting live animals put them at risk of developing painful allergic reactions, it also endangers the public, as it’s impossible to predict how an animal will react in a crowded setting. Animals used for such events are trucked from one venue to the next, where they’re subjected to screaming crowds, loud music, and people touching them.

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