Welcome to PETA's Animal Times

IN THIS ISSUE

Every August, the Circus World Museum holds a Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee, Wis. Originally held to show off the museum's antique circus wagons, the event has evolved into an enormous parade with a $1 million budget.

This spectacle is bad news for animals who get trucked in for the event, including zebras, hippos, tigers, giraffes, primates and elephants. Drawing huge crowds and held in sweltering heat, the parade has a history of "incidents": horses have become spooked and bolted into the crowds; a giraffe died of heat prostration.

Ask the city to take a step in the right direction by eliminating elephants. In captivity, elephants are beaten into submission--many snap and go berserk, injuring, and sometimes killing trainers and bystanders. Elephants can also can carry TB, which is transmissable to humans.

Please write to the Milwaukee Public Safety Commission and ask that elephants be left out of the parade in light of their threat to public safety.

Mr. Michael Murphy
Chairperson, Public Safety Commission
City Hall
200 W. Wells St., Rm. 205
Milwaukee, WI 53202
fax: 414-286-3456

So-called "hog-dog rodeos"--in which dogs and wild pigs are pitted against each other in closed pens--are illegal in Texas. But that didn't stop some unlawful entrepreneurs from trying to organize one of the bloody spectacles anyway. Fortunately, a whistleblower found out about the event and alerted PETA. We phoned the sheriff's office with the details, forcing organizers to cancel!

Be a whistleblower! Contact PETA's Research, Investigations, & Rescue Department any time you observe or suspect animal cruelty.

Great news! After four years of PETA protests, Exxon has capped all its treater stacks (Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, and Shell, capped their stacks after we told them that birds and bats fly in, cannot escape and starve or burn to death). Tippi Hedren and Victoria Principal wrote thanking Exxon. Said Tippi, "Because of Exxon's concern and action, generations of future migrating birds no longer face a perilous minefield of fiery oil production equipment". Victoria added "Exxon's actions should inspire other companies to act responsibly and humanely."

One of the world's richest countries, Taiwan is home to countless stray dogs, and the management of these dogs is the worst in the world. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk visited pounds there where dogs were rounded up by garbage collectors using thin wire snares and metal tongs.

Once collected, dogs are simply crammed into pens, the sick and dying, pregnant and old, all together. Many are covered in sores from untreated mange. Aggressive dogs attack the weak, and some dogs starve, unable to reach food or water. Killing methods are hideous: Dogs are often drowned, poisoned, and electrocuted.

Animal protection legislation is being considered now for the first time ever in Taiwan. The government needs to hear from you. Please be polite but firm.

Please get everyone you know to contact Premier Vincent Siew, Executive Yuan, No. 1, Sec. 1, Chung Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.; Fax: 011-886-2-2396-9546; e-mail: ey_mail@ey.gov.tw. Beg him to stop the cruel killing immediately, and to adopt an anti-cruelty law now.