diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index de91cbc..3b40bd2 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ whitelist_externals =
   /bin/mv
 setenv =
   DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=zoo.settings
+  SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib
   coverage: COVERAGE=--junitxml=junit-{envname}.xml --cov-report xml --cov-report html --cov=zoo/
   fast: FAST=--nomigrations
   flakes: FLAKES=--flakes