Success: AEON petting zoos closed because of bad conditions animals suffered

December 2017

AEON, Japan’s largest retail group, used to have a traveling petting zoo at the AEON shopping Mall to promote their business. In a ground-breaking public decision, they cancelled the display because they decided that they could no longer support the use of animals in such an activity.

Some of the problems that led to the AEON decision included the group allowing:

• Hedgehog exhibits to be left outdoors when the temperature was below 18 degrees Celsius
• Loud music to play next to the cages of small animals
• Rain to blow into the dog circle making their space wet
• The exhibition of a cat on a tight leash, with no toilet space
• The exhibition of birds polluting the floor with droppings
• Guinea pigs to suffer injured eyes and other body parts
• All animals including goats, dogs, cats etc. to be stored in wooden boxes overnight
• The animals to be put into shelters only once, even though there were two typhoons that occurred during the time of the outdoor exhibition