Animal Crackers Are Liberated From Their Two-Dimensional Prison Thanks To PETA

Animal crackers are now cage-free.

The iconic red-and-yellow cardboard packages will see a major update, as Mondelez International (owner of the Nabisco brand) announces the lion, giraffe, elephant, zebra, and gorilla that grace the cracker boxes will now be depicted sans cages. The Associated Press reports the redesign—on shelves now—comes after two years of pressure from People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals.

Remember that old box? Wild animals in cages, circus horrors!

PETA worked to get this "NEW LOOK!" box showing how it should be, homelands, freedom, & here it is!

Show the kids. https://t.co/96NMymp0mZ pic.twitter.com/HmXBv5flCn

— Ingrid Newkirk (@IngridNewkirk) August 21, 2018

"When PETA reached out about Barnum's, we saw this as another great opportunity to continue to keep this brand modern and contemporary," Jason Levine, Mondelez's chief marketing officer for North America, wrote in a statement quoted by the AP.

The animal cracker boxes have for decades depicted the animals behind bars en route to a Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus (the circus company went out of business in 2016). On the redesigned packages, the animals will still stand tall under the "Barnum's Animals" banner, but are depicted in a natural, presumably African plains setting with the outline of trees behind them.

PETA hails the move as indication of Americans' changing attitudes toward caged circus animals. Your move, Mother's.