|
 Martin Sheen Has a Bone to Pick With the USDA
Martin Sheen agrees with PETA: Animals do not develop the capacity to suffer on the day that they are killed; they possess that capacity their entire lives. Sheen helped by writing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on PETA’s behalf, urging the agency to heed our call to apply animal protection laws on factory farms. But the USDA applies the Humane Slaughter Act, which requires that “the slaughtering of livestock and the handling of livestock in connection with slaughter shall be carried out only by humane methods,” only while an animal is being killed. That leaves animals unprotected by this law from the moment of birth until the day they reach the slaughterhouse!
 • Go vegan if you haven’t already. Call 1-888-VEG-FOOD for a free vegetarian starter kit, or visit GoVeg.com.
• Donate to PETA’s legal fund to support our efforts in this and other important cases for animals.
|
Dig This Pig!
 Shoppers at Tarrytown mall in Austin, Texas, are mesmerized by PETA’s V.I.P. (Very Important Pig), a 3-foot-tall fiberglass statue with cruelty-to-animals statistics and pro-vegetarian slogans painted on her. Viewers’ remarks: “I’m going home to get my wife and bring her back to see this!” and “I had no idea that so many pigs were killed every year.”
 Arsonists=Animal Abusers, Says PETA
PETA asked the government to charge two federal employees, Arizona’s Leonard Gregg and Colorado’s Terry Barton—accused of deliberately starting the largest-ever wildfires in the histories of these states—with cruelty to animals. The blazes decimated huge tracts of woodland, condemning countless animals to fiery deaths. Hundreds of thousands died from burns, debilitating injuries and smoke inhalation or exhaustion from desperate attempts to flee. We also offered to provide evidence of the mass suffering and death of wildlife and to identify specific animals who perished, enlisting the help of witnesses, including firefighters, residents and wildlife rescuers.
|
PETA Victorious!
|
 Recently, often with the help of your calls and letters, PETA accomplished the following:
• Helped residents of Richmond, Missouri, pass an ordinance banning exotic animal exhibits.
• Convinced a New Hampshire public library to cancel plans to host a traveling zoo that has been cited for failing to comply with the USDA’s minimal standards of animal care.
• Prompted the National Institutes of Health to release new guidelines for euthanizing rodents, thanks to our UNC-laboratories investigation.
• Helped Carver County, Minnesota, residents prevent the construction of a “custom slaughterhouse,” where animals would not have been stunned prior to their deaths.
• Helped rescue 21 sheep, 17 goats and seven cows from slaughter after their caretaker passed away.
• Pressed authorities until they shut down an illegal backyard rabbit-breeding and -slaughtering operation in Illinois.
• Persuaded the Nez Perce Indian tribe, Tri-Cities Animal Control and the Whitman County Humane Society to stop selling animals to Washington State University for training sessions.
• Saved a binturong (a nocturnal Asian bearcat) from being shipped to a breeder after he showed up on someone’s porch in Pennsylvania. We secured him a spot at the Austin Zoo, a facility that provides lifetime care for rescued animals.
• Helped pressure Ohio State University to stop killing cats in experiments purported to study the effects of “speed” on HIV. With a $1.7 million federal grant, veterinarian Michael Podell had been infecting cats with the disease-causing virus and then killing and dissecting them.
• Convinced Corpus Christi to shut off the gas box for good and switch to intravenous injection, the most humane euthanasia method.
|
|
YOU DID IT!
|
ANIMAL TIMES® READERS ARE HELPING THE ANIMALS
 ARK II, Windsor’s animal rights group, hosts a live radio show every Monday on CJAM 91.5 FM radio from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. In Texas, listeners can tune in to Shirley Wilkes-Johnson’s “Go Vegan, Texas!” radio show on Houston’s KPFT 90.1 FM. Southern Californians love Bob Linden’s “Go Vegan” show on KRLA 870 AM in Los Angeles.
Itching to broadcast your views? Talk with your local college or public radio station manager. Usually you don’t need previous broadcasting experience—just a passion to educate others, and you will be trained on the equipment. It’s simple and fun!
 AOL employee Carolyn Danese received the Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award, the most distinguished award that AOL Time Warner gives its employees, for her outstanding work for animals. Carolyn, a founding member of the Humane Association of Georgia, was instrumental in passing Georgia’s Animal Protection Act of 2000, which makes aggravated animal cruelty a felony, and legislation in 2002 creating a statewide spay/neuter program. Contact PETA for info on passing laws in your town!
|
|
