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The Portland Pickles, an independent baseball team in Oregon, is apparently ignoring a county ban, scientific consensus, and the well-being of animals by hosting asinine events for which exotic animals are dragged to its stadium. These events have exploited alligators and other wild animals.
Multnomah County prohibits forcing many species of wild and exotic animals to endure traveling displays. The director of the county’s Animal Services said, “The driving force behind this [ban] is really about … inhumane treatment.” In nature, these wild animals would instinctually avoid humans, and denying them everything that’s meaningful to them as a marketing ploy to sell baseball tickets is speciesism—a human-supremacist worldview. Being surrounded by noisy human crowds at a stadium is a severe stressor for wild animals, and scientific literature warns that chronic stress can suppress their immune systems—leaving them more susceptible to diseases—and can interfere with their development.
Urge the Portland Pickles to stop hosting events that exploit exotic animals and to join the hundreds of entities nationwide that have committed to more creative and compassionate ways to entertain using only willing human participants.