Justin Bieber attended his creepy dad Jeremy Bieber’s engagement party in Toronto over the weekend, a star-studded, extravagant affair that involved assorted super heroes, including Batman along with a vintage Batmobile, as well as a live, chained tiger lounging around the property. Like one does! The younger Bieber posed for several photos with the captive tiger, which unsurprisingly raised the ire of Peta — the animal rights organization that saves up its greatest outrage for only the most high profile of offenders.
PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange released a statement to E! News about Bieber’s latest faux pas:
Justin Bieber is lucky not to have had his throat torn out by this stressed captive tiger. Tigers used for photo ops are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth, and the Bowmanville Zoo, in particular, was caught whipping one tiger more than 17 times, even after the cat was lying on his back in a position of submission and fear. This is why PETA urges everyone to stay far away from cruel and dangerous big-cat photo ops and also why we’re asking Justin to vow that this will be his last time promoting these types of abusive outfits.
This is not the first time Bieber has run afoul with animal rights activists, as the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance recently slammed the pop star for suggesting that he would one day adopt another monkey, after his pet monkey Mally was confiscated by German officials.
For his part, Bieber doesn’t seem too concerned, even posting one of the photos to his Instagram account. Although he didn’t find much more love there from commenters:
In all seriousness, it should come as common sense that an endangered, wild animal is not a party accessory, but one thing that remains consistent is that Bieber (and his dad) can never be accused of having too much common sense.
