Tell Groupon to stop profiting from wild animal suffering

Groupon, the major global discount and travel company, is known for its discounted offers to restaurants, gyms, and hotels, is selling deals for businesses that exploit wild animals for entertainment and profit. 

Last year, with the help of animal-lovers like you, we moved Expedia Group to stop selling tickets to captive dolphin shows. Now let’s urge Groupon to stop profiting from wild animal suffering and adopt a public animal welfare policy that protects animals instead of exploiting them. Sign the petition now. 

Our latest report, Tracking the travel industry, found that Groupon is severely failing wild animals and selling exploitative wildlife attractions across a wide range of wild animal species.

In the past several years, Groupon has sold deals for: 

• The notorious Miami Seaquarium, where Tokitae, a 56-year-old orca, has languished alone in a tiny concrete tank for more than 50 years. 
• Suncoast Primate Sanctuary, which is not a sanctuary at all – it is a roadside zoo in Florida that keeps primates in small, barren cages. 
• Marineland in Niagara Falls, which has faced numerous animal cruelty charges and where Kiska, a 45-year-old orca has been living in isolation and observed bashing her head against the wall of her small concrete tank – a telltale sign of her distress and frustration.   
• Waddles’n’Wags Animal Haven, a roadside zoo in Eganville, Ontario where animals like servals, foxes and crocodiles are kept in small enclosures with little enrichment. 
• Reptilia, a reptile zoo in Ontario, that has recently tried to open up new locations throughout the province. Toronto and London have recently voted against the opening of new locations out of animal welfare and public health concerns. And they removed their application for St. Catharines after public pressure.  
• A petting zoo in Washington where a sloth and tamandua died due to the facility’s lack of knowledge and experience in caring for these animals.    

Groupon deals are time-limited, meaning venues and offers change constantly. The cruel venues currently promoted are not a new phenomenon. Historically, Groupon has done business with some of the most infamous wildlife exploiters, including Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park (G.W. Exotic), the facility owned by Joe Maldonado, aka the Tiger King, as well as multiple circuses that used elephants in dangerous and harmful performances such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. 

Groupon profits whenever it features discounted deals for these venues on its website–it takes a cut of every deal sold. We are urging Groupon to prohibit venues that offer interactions with wild animals and/or captive wild animal performances. Groupon currently has no animal welfare policy publicly available on their website. 

Sign the petition telling Groupon to stop profiting from wild animal suffering and adopt a public animal welfare policy that protects animals instead of exploiting them.