Mondelez Unveils ‘Cage Free’ Animal Cracker Boxes Following PETA Pressure

The company behind Barnum’s Animals crackers unveiled a redesigned animal cracker box Tuesday showing animals roaming free in the wild after receiving pressure from the animal rights’ activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Mondelez International, Nabisco’s parent company, gave the animal cracker box its “cage-free” makeover after PETA wrote a letter asking the company to remove the animals from their cages, the Associated Press reported.

PETA, which has campaigned against using animals at circus performances for many years, implored Mondelez to implement the changes in 2016.

“Given the egregious cruelty inherent in circuses that use animals and the public’s swelling opposition to the exploitation of animals used for entertainment, we urge Nabisco to update its packaging in order to show animals who are free to roam in their natural habitats,” PETA wrote in the letter urging the redesign.

The animal rights activist group also put pressure on Barnum’s Circus, which closed down in 2017 due to declining ticket sales.

The redesigned boxes show the animals caged in the original design roaming free in the wild.

“When PETA reached out about Barnum’s, we saw this as another great opportunity to continue to keep this brand modern and contemporary,” said Jason Levine, Mondelez’s chief marketing officer for North America, in a statement.

Nabisco has made Barnum’s Animals crackers for 116 years, but the company had not redesigned its boxes in the U.S. other than for limited-time special editions.

“The new box for Barnum’s Animals crackers perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates the caging and chaining of wild animals for circus shows,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.