Cracker Controversy: Iconic Snack ‘Animals’ Now Roam Free After PETA Pressure

Packaging changes have come to yet one more iconic consumer product.

Though fans surely will continue enjoying delicious Nabisco crackers in their red-and-yellow handheld boxes, the animals that “decorate” the boxes are now depicted as roaming free on the grasslands — rather than appearing behind the bars of circus boxcar cages.

The cookies will retain their current branding as far as the name goes — Barnum’s Animals crackers — which is a tip of the hat to P.T. Barnum of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which closed last year after a 146-year run.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began lobbying for a change to the boxes back in 2016, as the Associated Press reported.

PETA’s request for Nabisco to discontinue depicting captive animals on the cookie boxes appears to be an extension of their work in this area. The organization had advocated on behalf of very real circus animals — many of which suffered atrocities in poorly regulated circuses worldwide — for more than 30 years.

Nabisco first offered the iconic snack back in 1902. The design of the cookie boxes remained largely unchanged for 116 years, with occasional exceptions for special edition runs, the Chicago Tribune explained.

Deerfield, Illinois-based Mondelez International, which owns Nabisco, has begun rolling out the new boxes, which feature a zebra, an elephant, a lion, a giraffe, and a gorilla roaming free on the grasslands with acacia trees in the background.

The newly illustrated versions are already available in stores.

“Big victories can come in small packages,” PETA said in a statement on its blog. “We find new evidence that people are embracing compassion for animals like never before.”

In a tweet, the group thanked Nabisco for the new box, which PETA claims better reflects that “society no longer tolerates the caging and chaining of animals for the circus.”

Check out this video — and then see the tweets below:

Oh thank God! I was so worried about these fictional animals in their fictional cages. Now they're free to roam the fictional plains, where the fictional lion can tear the fictional zebra to shreds. https://t.co/itSruI7Kia

— Herman Cain (@THEHermanCain) August 21, 2018

Isn't it worse to "free" the animal crackers from their cages, promising liberty, only to be met by the gaping maws of savage preschoolers?

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 21, 2018

A symbolic victory for animal rights activists — and a moment in snack history. pic.twitter.com/REEaT4ou9f

— Brandon Spring (@BP_Stormcrusher) August 21, 2018

Whose idea was it to remove the animal crackers from their cages?! pic.twitter.com/U9kI9dCHVe

— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 21, 2018

I am SO glad PETA used their resources to free cracker animals from their cardboard cartoon cages! Whew, that was close! How much longer could those poor snacks put up with such mistreatment?

— lori fournier (@lori4nier) August 21, 2018

Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.

(photo credit, homepage and article: shadywood, Reddit.com)