• 'Win It' Wednesday: BP-Related T-Shirt and Coffee Mug

    Written by PETA

    We've spoken out against BP, and suggested ways in which each one of us can help save the waterways and the environment. Now, by special request, we've created a new, fun, and in-your-face line of BP-related merchandise that will help fund PETA's work to save wildlife. Now we're giving away our BP T-shirt and coffee mug to two lucky winners (you can also buy the shirt for yourself and all your friends):

     

    Give BP the Bird

     

    Ready to sport this compassionate gear? Tell us what you are doing to reduce your dependency on oil as well as what you would like to say to BP's big wigs if you could sit down and have coffee* with them. The two readers with the most inspiring comments will each score a T-shirt and a coffee mug. The contest ends on June 30, 2010, and we'll pick the winners on July 2, 2010. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms of conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting.

    Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth

    *Here's a little something to get you in the mood to tell us all about your imaginary coffee date with BP.

  • Adding Animal Cruelty to the List of Charges BP Should Face

    Written by PETA

    A pelican sits covered with oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in Barataria Bay, Louisiana just off the Gulf of Mexico June 6, 2010. BP's containment cap is capturing an increasing amount of oil spewing from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but the U.S. admiral leading the government relief effort said on Sunday the coast will be under siege from the massive spill for many more months. REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana/Greenpeace/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: ANIMALS DISASTER BUSINESS ENERGY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. NO SALES. NO ARCHIVES

    BP has more than the loss of human life, livelihoods and tourism to answer for. And so do the government inspectors who allowed this corporation—as seemingly greedy as the bankers, mining companies and marine park owners whose careless conduct has resulted in similar destruction—to put profit over safety.

    If the criminal investigation of BP and those who signed off on the drill-site inspection sheets and safety assurances shows willful fraud and deception, dereliction of duty, bribes or who knows what else, there is one additional set of criminal charges that should be added to the list: cruelty to animals. For this is the largest case of cruelty to animals in U.S. history.

    We are being spared, for political reasons, some think, but mercifully perhaps, most of the photographs of the animals who have died and are still dying, slowly, painfully, not just coated but drenched in oil. It is hard for anyone with a heart to see the gulls and pelicans, blinking up through a thick coat of muck that prevents them from flying, eating, taking a drink of water and escaping the burning heat of June. It is even too much to come across a snippet of video that shows a huge rubber-gloved hand gently plucking a tiny crab out of a puddle of black glop. Only the outline of his body tells you what he is, although his struggles tell you that he is still alive. For the moment.

    For most of the animals, any help is too late. Studies show that even if wildlife rescuers capture an oiled bird in time, before much damage has been done, the terror of being handled by a predator, of being force-fed, doused and scrubbed, is too much for their pounding hearts to endure. Even if they survive the trauma of being cleaned and re-cleaned, it is suspected that most die after their release.

    And in this case, one must ask, "Where can they be released?" Many birds mate for life; others are lost without their flocks. Their nesting grounds now lie under the oil slick; their friends and family are dead or dying. What is there for them to return to?

    And what of the turtles, dolphins and—dare I write it—the whales? Cetacean experts do not expect whales to escape this slick completely. Once killed for their own oil, will they now be killed by ours?

    And don't laugh, but what of the fish? As inconvenient as it may be to think about it, given the seafood buffets of summer, studies show that fish feel pain and fear just as acutely as mammals do.

    Whether or not BP is charged with cruelty, there are many things that we can and should do other than just pointing a finger. Some suggestions are to provide less support to oil companies by consuming less oil, by buying fewer oil-based plastic goods (the beaches of Hawaiian atolls are inches deep in discarded plastic) and by following the recommendations issued by the United Nations this month and going vegan in order to save the waterways, forests and ozone layer. Paul McCartney's "Meat-Free Monday" project is getting institutions and individuals to look at the environmental devastation caused by energy-intensive factory farming and to do something about it by reducing meat consumption. In taking responsibility, President Obama would do well to announce that he, too, is embracing at least that one baby step.

    Those responsible in the corporate world and in government can never truly make amends. How do you "make it up" to those who are suffering and dying in agony out there at this very moment or to those who have already lost their lives or loved ones? However, before looking away from the umpteenth heart-wrenching photo of an oil-coated pelican, the rest of us can do something positive and make some personal choices ourselves so that none of the oil companies will be able to claim consumer demand as a reason for misbehaving. It's just a thought.

    Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk

  • 'Give BP the Bird'

    Written by PETA

    The suffering that is being caused by the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is heartbreaking, and this brand-new PETA T-shirt speaks volumes about the crisis.

     

    Give BP the Bird

     

    The most valuable thing about this touching, tell-it-like-it-is T-shirt and related merch is that the proceeds will go toward PETA's work to save wildlife from all sorts of horrors. So, for the love of Kevin Costner and wildlife in peril, buy a T-shirt and give BP a piece of your mind at the same time.

    Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth

REPORT CRUELTY

If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2. 

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Chicken Photo: © Rommel Manuel