Bristol Zoo Under Fire From Animal Rights Charity

For Immediate Release:
26 July 2016

Contact:
Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

BRISTOL ZOO UNDER FIRE FROM ANIMAL RIGHTS CHARITY

PETA Calls for Cancellation of Controversial ‘Big Night Out’ Party at Bristol Zoo

Bristol – With Bristol Zoo Gardens set to bring back its “Big Night Out” event – in which alcohol-fuelled partygoers can create a rowdy, stressful environment for the animals on display – PETA fired off an urgent letter this morning calling on the zoo to cancel the traumatising event scheduled for this Friday, 29 July.

As the group notes in a letter to Dr Bryan Carroll, the CEO of Bristol Zoo, at similar events at the London Zoo, one person reportedly tried to pour beer on a tiger, another allegedly attempted to undress and enter an enclosure that held penguins, and yet another fell and “accidentally” punched a bird, among other incidents. According to Bristol Zoo’s website, event attendees will be permitted to consume alcohol during a “fun-packed night full of entertainment”. In addition to posing a safety risk, allowing visitors into the zoo outside normal business hours disrupts animals’ sleep schedules – especially when visitors behave in an unruly manner.

“Plying people with alcohol during a late-night event might make a good fundraiser for Bristol Zoo, but it doesn’t put the animals’ needs first”, says PETA Senior Campaign Coordinator Kirsty Henderson. “PETA is calling on Bristol Zoo to do what’s best for the animals – and that means cancelling the stressful ‘Big Night Out’ event.”

Other dangerous occurrences reported at similar zoo events include one incident in which a man got “touchy-feely” with some baby penguins and another in which a man asked a staff member, “Which penguin can I fight?”

 Read PETA’s letter to Bristol Zoo here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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