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February 6, 2024
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Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Wichita, Kan. – Nowadays, PETA despatched a letter to Aaron Landrum, president and CEO of Wichita-based Likelihood Rides, the most important producer of amusement rides within the nation, asking that the corporate finish the manufacturing and sale of animal-themed carousels that normalize the usage of animals as conveyances and amusements and as a substitute produce carousel figures within the form of automobiles, airplanes, spaceships, bulldozers, and different cars or extra whimsical designs, like taking pictures stars, rainbows, or brooms. PETA issues out that animals used for rides and different kinds of leisure—together with camels, horses, elephants, and dolphins—are continuously overwhelmed into submission, disadvantaged of the whole lot that’s herbal and essential to them, or even slaughtered as soon as their our bodies put on out and that public opinion has grew to become in opposition to such acts of human domination over different species.
“Youngsters be informed via play, and educating them to have appreciate and compassion for all residing, feeling beings can lend a hand create a extra simply and merciful international,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, writer of 50 Superior Techniques Youngsters Can Assist Animals. “PETA urges Likelihood Rides and all different carousel producers to hit the brakes on outdated animal-themed rides and embody designs that have interaction youngsters’s creativeness and show off human skill.”
If Likelihood Rides makes the transfer, it could sign up for a rising record of compassionate corporations—together with Nabisco, Dealer Joe’s, and Dukal Company—that experience effectively up to date their designs to mirror society’s converting perceptions of {our relationships} with others on the earth.
PETA—whose motto reads, partially, that “animals aren’t ours to make use of for leisure or abuse in every other means”—issues out that Each and every Animal Is Any person and provides unfastened Empathy Kits for individuals who want a lesson in kindness. For more info, please seek advice from PETA.org or apply the gang on X (previously Twitter), Fb, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Landrum follows.
February 6, 2024
Aaron Landrum
President and CEO
Likelihood Rides
Pricey Mr. Landrum:
I’m writing on behalf of Folks for the Moral Remedy of Animals—PETA entities have greater than 9 million individuals and supporters globally, together with hundreds in Kansas, with an offer: Would you please finish the manufacture and sale of animal-themed carousels and as a substitute completely produce figures within the form of cars, comparable to automobiles, unicycles, tractors, airplanes, rockets, and bulldozers, that youngsters are attracted to or much more whimsical designs, like taking pictures stars, rainbows, or brooms? Please permit me to give an explanation for what’s in the back of this most likely surprising however essential request.
Instances exchange, and our working out of animals has very much advanced during the last few many years. Animal-themed carousels by chance have fun the exploitation of sentient beings. Animals used for rides and different kinds of leisure—together with camels, horses, elephants, and dolphins—are confined and in servitude, by no means unfastened to pursue their very own lives and pursuits. They’re additionally on occasion overwhelmed, tormented, or even slaughtered when their our bodies put on out. As an example, PETA Asia’s exposé printed horrific abuse of camels used for rides in Egypt, appearing that those delicate animals are hit, yanked, tied up, and compelled to stroll on their knees, all whilst bloodied and crying out in ache. Any other PETA Asia investigation into the usage of horses, camels, and donkeys in Petra, Jordan—a well-liked vacationer vacation spot—printed that animals be afflicted by untreated sores and lameness and are badly overwhelmed when too exhausted to hold on. Even on this nation, horses used for carriage rides are continuously pressured to toil in excessive climate, pulling outsized a lot for hours on finish, on occasion till they cave in, as certainly they do.
Elephants used for rides also are sorely abused. Young children are taken from their trustworthy moms and “damaged”—i.e., overwhelmed with bullhooks and different guns till they turn into submissive to people—and the dolphins exploited for leisure by way of marine parks have both been violently captured and torn clear of their households and ocean houses or bred, continuously by way of synthetic insemination, and confined to cramped, stress-inducing areas that continuously lead to sicknesses, critical frustration, and immense bodily and psychological struggling.
All animals are considering, feeling, affectionate, playful, and social beings who shape robust bonds with their offspring if authorised to stay them (a rarity). They crave freedom from oppression. Animal-themed carousel units strengthen the perception that those sentient beings are merely right here for our leisure, somewhat than people with the similar capability to enjoy worry, ache, pleasure, and love as any folks.
Deciding to modify clear of those figures would ship two tough messages:
Animals are to be revered, now not exploited, and firms can and will have to evolve to stay alongside of the days. You possibly can sign up for many companies that experience effectively up to date their designs to mirror society’s converting perceptions of {our relationships} with others on the earth. As an example, in 2018, following talks with PETA, Nabisco changed the greater than 100-year-old design of caged animals on its Barnum’s Animals Crackers containers with imagery of untamed animals roaming unfastened. In 2019, after a push from PETA, Dealer Joe’s redesigned its Bamba Peanut Snacks, bathroom paper, and natural peanut butter programs to now not come with photographs of elephants appearing methods. And simply final iciness, after listening to from PETA, Dukal Company stopped promoting bandages depicting animals in circuses.
Tens of millions of other people international are calling for an finish to the exploitation of animals in leisure, together with the usage of horses, camels, and others as though they have been residing taxis. Would you kindly pledge to prevent selling this abuse by way of now not generating carousel figures in animal paperwork? Thanks in your attention. We look ahead to listening to from you.
Very in reality yours,
Ingrid Newkirk
President