Paws Up to Price Chopper!

This afternoon I received a call from Neil Golub, President and CEO of Price Chopper, which is listed in Champlain Valley Fair advertising as the sponsor of the "Nerger Lion and Tiger Show."

Mr. Golub said he was misled by Fair management who told him Price Chopper would be sponsoring a petting zoo. He was "horrified" to learn that Price Chopper's good name and funding had been associated instead with an unsavory circus act.

He'd received a complaint early in the week, even before receiving notice of a planned protest against Price Chopper. And his stores had taken the initiative to withdraw their funding and support of the Nerger's style of "entertainment." Price Chopper, he assured me, is a family owned and operated business that wants to serve the community and would never voluntarily abet any form of animal abuse.

Thanks to Price Chopper's prompt action, the protest against the grocery story on Shelburne Road in Burlington (originally planned for Sunday, August 30) has been cancelled.

Instead of protests, Price Chopper and Mr. Golub should receive expressions of gratitude from everyone who believes that elephants, big cats and other circus animals deserve to live free of brutality and fear.