For Immediate Release:
March 3, 2022
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Fort Worth, Texas – City officials moved in, following a tip from PETA that unlicensed animal exhibitor Lisa Lopez—who operates under the name All Things Wild—planned to display tigers illegally at the Cowtown Fair this week, and authorities have canceled the exhibit. PETA showed that Lopez’s plans to display the big cats and sell photo opportunities with them would have violated local laws prohibiting the possession of tigers and other wild or exotic animals.
“Because authorities took swift action, these tigers will not be forced to sit in a metal cage and pose for photos with fairgoers,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Rachel Mathews. “PETA commends the city for sending the message that all unscrupulous exhibitors will be held accountable if they try breaking the law.”
PETA notes that Lopez has a long history of skirting law enforcement. After she offered paying customers photos with tigers at a flea market in Liberty last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited her and ordered her to stop illegally exhibiting the big cats. According to city officials, Lopez had tried passing off another exhibitor’s license as her own to the event organizer—and she reportedly tried that ruse again at the Cowtown Fair.
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 investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
