CBL & Associates Properties Inc. has enacted a new policy that prohibits companies such as Pocket Pets, which sells a small animal known as a sugar glider, from setting up kiosks at its malls.
“By banning Pocket Pets, CBL & Associates is making a huge difference for tiny sugar gliders, who suffer immensely when they’re purchased on a whim,” said Daphna Nachminovitch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA said that Chattanooga-based CBL was the last remaining major shopping mall management group in the U.S. to still host Pocket Pets, which sells the tiny nocturnal tree-dwellers.
PETA has complained that buyers don’t have the knowledge required to meet the animals’ specialized needs, and that sugar gliders frequently end up confined to small cages, overly or roughly handled, fed improper diets, and forgotten when the novelty wears off.
Dan Summerlin, CBL’s director of corporate relations, confirmed the move by the mall operator but declined further comment. Last year, PETA criticized CBL at the company’s annual meeting.
CBL Chief Executive Stephen Lebovitz said then that its officials were willing to talk over PETA’s concerns relating to the small marsupial.
“We hope to meet for discussions in another forum,” he said, adding that the company opposed and doesn’t tolerate cruel treatment of animals at its properties.
Kristin Simon of PETA said Pocket Pets would set up temporary kiosks at CBL malls to sell sugar gliders, including in Chattanooga in the past. The animals were sold as “cheap trinkets to people who purchase them on a whim,” she said.
Pocket Pets said the company was founded on the idea to make sure gliders are sold ethically and responsibly. Last year, the company said it discourages impulse buyers, asking them to first do their due diligence on the animals. Pocket Pets would support buyers after the sale with emails and a customer service team, the company said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.