Animal Crackers Redesign Frees Animals From Cages

(Photo: PETA)

You’re favorite cookie just got a whole lot better

After more than a century behind bars, the animals on one of America’s favorite snack boxes are finally roaming free into the wilderness.

The red boxes of Barnum’s Animal Crackers may be iconic, but when they were first developed back in 1902, the boxes featured animals behind the bars of a circus wagon in reference to the Barnum & Bailey Circus. As we know today, traveling circuses have a reputation for mistreating and abusing animals.

Circuses have come under so much fire that even Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey closed in 2017, attributing their decision to shut down to low ticket sales.

To update the design of their boxes, Mondelez International, the parent company of Nabisco and the makers of Barnum’s Animal Crackers, has teamed up with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to release a new design that features free-roaming animals. The animals featured on the box include a zebra, elephant, lion, tiger, giraffe, hippo and gorilla strutting against a golden sunset.

In the earlier stages, PETA submitted a new box design for consideration.
“The new box for Barnum’s Animals perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates caging and chaining exotic animals for circus shows,” PETA wrote in a statement.

By: Maytinee Kramer