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Peta takes aim at We Bought a Zoo

This article is more than 12 years oldCameron Crowe asked to tame forthcoming film's cavalier attitude to owning wild animals in wake of Ohio zoo tragedy

With its assertion that "you don't even need any special knowledge to run a zoo – what you need is … a lot of heart", the trailer for Cameron Crowe's forthcoming We Bought a Zoo raised a few eyebrows when it debuted in September. Not least, it appears, among the members of US animal rights group Peta, which is calling for the movie to display a warning pointing out that taking charge of a menagerie of exotic creatures is actually a rather daunting task.

The group's request comes after the shooting last week of nearly 50 animals in a tragedy at a zoo in Zanesville, Ohio. Police were forced to kill 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17 lions, as well as dozens of bears, monkeys and leopards, after the owner of the private facility released them from their cages before allegedly shooting himself to death.

"We Bought a Zoo conveys the misleading and downright dangerous message that no special knowledge – just a lot of heart – is needed to run a zoo," Peta vice president Lisa Lange said in a statement. "As the tragedy in Ohio gruesomely illustrates, wild animals aren't Disney characters. They have very special needs that all too often aren't met by people who buy them on a whim because they think it would be 'cool' to own a tiger."

Peta (the acronym stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) also calls for an end to animal auctions and loose regulations which have led to a situation where there are more than 15,000 big cats in private captivity in the US alone.

We Bought a Zoo stars Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church and Elle Fanning. It is loosely based on Guardian contributor Benjamin Mee's identically titled book about his attempt to make sense of a new life alongside five Siberian tigers, three African lions, nine wolves, three big brown European bears, two pumas, a lynx, four Asian short-clawed otters, two flamingos, several owls and a Brazilian tapir called Ronnie at a zoo in Dartmoor. The film hits US and UK cinemas on 23 December 2011.

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