PETA expressed its disappointment after Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Travis Kelce visited Sydney Zoo – and urged the couple to consider going to ‘a true sanctuary’ instead
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have come under fire after visiting Sydney Zoo this week, with an animal rights non-profit organisation issuing a statement following their trip.
The superstar and her boyfriend went on a date at the zoo after he flew to Australia to join her during her Eras Tour. During their visit, they were seen walking around, chatting with park staff, and also petting and feeding a kangaroo.
While fans gushed at the couple, PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – said Taylor and Travis should have been mindful of how animals are sometimes treated in places like zoos. The organisation urged the pair to visit "a true sanctuary" instead.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift fans have a strange theory about her zoo date with Travis Kelce
PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare, Debbie Metzler, said: "While we understand all too well the appeal of seeing Australia's wildlife, PETA hopes that next time Taylor and Travis want to see wild animals, they'll spend their time and money at a true sanctuary." The animal charity said a sanctuary is a better choice because visitors are not allowed to feed or touch the animals, but have to keep their distance from them.
Meanwhile, Taylor's fans said they are convinced that Travis "manifested" their zoo date years before meeting the pop star. After pictures of the couple emerged, Taylor's eagle-eyed fans did some digging and found a tweet Travis shared exactly six years before their zoo visit in which he expressed his passion for wildlife parks.
On February 22, 2018, a fan wrote on X, formerly called Twitter, that he had met Travis on an airport shuttle. He described the American football player as a "super cool guy" and said he was trying to convince him to visit Omaha, Nebraska, and check out the zoo. Travis replied to the tweet, saying: "You're good people too man, and I can't resist a good Zoo! Haha."
The tweet went viral and many fans commented, with several people saying he was "manifesting" – which means making something happen by imagining it and consciously thinking it will happen – the visit. One wrote: "He really went to the Zoo with Tay Tay on the same exact day 6 years later. TEACH US YOUR MANIFESTATION WAYS."
Another added: "Travis please tell me your secrets on manifesting I’m begging." One more commented: "well exactly 6 years later." And another penned: "man, there are so many invisible strings."
Body language expert Judi James has given her take on the connection between the couple from the zoo pics. She told The Mirror: "This A-list couple managed to make a trip to the zoo look like any other ordinary couple’s romantic date, walking hand-in-hand and with their arms wrapped around each other.
"It's Taylor doing the very active approval and endorsement signals here, making her look just a bit more like a smitten teenager than the less demonstrative Travis. When they hold hands and walk along it's Taylor putting her free hand on his arm in a double-handed, intensified signal of ownership and attachment.
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"When they each have an arm around the other it’s also Taylor clutching Travis's hand that is dangling from her shoulder, again to intensify the intimacy and bonding." Judi suggests the emotional attachment between the couple is clear for all to see.
She adds: "And when he walks ahead and she’s left slightly behind it’s Taylor performing an act of self-comfort, touching what looks like the chain around her neck to suggest she finds it hard to be separated from Travis for longer than a couple of moments."
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