Written by Jeff Mackey
The always wonderful Bob Barker has stepped up yet again to help PETA save animals from suffering—this time, the animals are nine cats at a medical school that his late wife was to attend before she decided to become Mrs. Barker, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).
Bob, who grew up in Missouri, has sent a letter to the school's chancellor, generously offering $75,000 to fund the purchase of new state-of-the-art pediatric simulators to be used in place of the cats who are currently forced to endure repeated intubation exercises.
This is the second time that he has spoken out for cats used in this archaic exercise. Following a plea from Bob, the University of Virginia recently announced that it was abandoning its cat intubation laboratory in favor of simulators.
Since this is World Week for Animals in Laboratories, it's the perfect time for WUSTL to take Bob up on his proposal (although, of course, there's never a wrong time to help animals in laboratories). And if that weren't enough, Bob also tells the school that he would be happy to find homes for all nine cats!
WUSTL's acceptance of Bob's offer would not only give these cats a future of love and security instead of pain and fear in a laboratory—as seen in an undercover video from a recent PALS course at the university—but also better prepare the trainees to help save children's lives. As Bob mentions in his letter, a recent study from neighboring Saint Louis University School of Medicine found that using a simulator in its PALS courses—which don't include any animal laboratories—substantially improved trainees' intubation skills.
What You Can Do
Please join Bob Barker and PETA in urging WUSTL to modernize its medical training program today.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Update: When the plan to hire a Russian cargo jet to take the Toronto Zoo's three elephants to a Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary didn't work out, the Royal Canadian Air Force stepped up. Now, as soon as Defence Minister Peter Mackay gives the thumbs-up, Toka, Thika, and Iringa will be flying high courtesy of a C-17 transport aircraft and a military endeavour dubbed "Operation Dumbo Drop."
The following was originally published on November 29, 2012:
It could be only a matter of days until the Toronto Zoo's three captive elephants, Toka, Thika, and Iringa, let the frozen Canadian ground fade into the distance as they set off for their new home: the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in sunny California. After a long campaign by Zoocheck Canada, PETA members, and the compassionate members of the Toronto City Council, the trio will trade their zoo enclosure for acres of varied natural terrain, lakes to bathe in, heated barns, and even therapeutic whirlpool baths. Although the elephants' tale has a storybook ending, their journey to freedom certainly wasn't without conflict.
jmbone | cc by 2.0
The Long Road Home
When the Toronto Zoo, under pressure from Bob Barker, Zoocheck Canada, and PETA, initially agreed to release its captive elephants, it was determined to simply ship them to another decrepit zoo. But the Toronto City Council sided with animal advocates and voted for the gentle giants to be retired to PAWS instead.
Then it seemed as though one of the elephants' foot ailments might make the 40-hour drive too dangerous. So animal advocate extraordinaire Bob Barker stepped up and provided the trio with their own "Elephant Force One" of sorts, a private plane that will quickly whisk them to their new home. The Toronto Zoo then raised concerns about the potential for tuberculosis at PAWS, but an independent infectious-disease report determined that the facility was safe. Once again, the Toronto City Council voted, and once again, it resoundingly insisted that the elephants be sent to PAWS immediately.
A Tale of Two Cities
The Toronto City Council also said in its final motion on Toka, Thika, and Iringa that it feels that Edmonton, Alberta's, Valley Zoo should allow the zoo's lonely elephant, Lucy, to retire to PAWS as well. Because elephants are ill-equipped to tolerate frigid weather, Lucy is forced to spend the winter months confined to a small barn. Our lawsuit to free Lucy did not succeed despite the wonderful comments of one judge who felt Lucy should be free but who could not persuade the other judges on the panel. Lucy hasn't had the company of any other elephant in four long years. But Zoocheck Canada and PETA are determined to win her freedom, and Bob Barker is advocating for her with all his might.
Please join us in asking Edmonton officials to give Lucy the peaceful retirement that she so deserves.
Update: Well, that was fast! Shortly after Mary Matalin sent a personal appeal on PETA's behalf urging lawmakers to shelve bills intended to prevent undercover investigations of factory farms, legislators in Arkansas have scrapped their proposed "ag-gag" measures.
Now, let's keep the momentum going—if you live in California, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, or Vermont, please tell your state legislators to drop "ag-gag" bills and protect animals, consumers, and free speech.
The following was originally posted on March 28, 2013:
Republican strategist Mary Matalin and her husband, Democratic consultant James Carville, differ on most political issues—but when it comes to legislative attempts to block undercover investigators from PETA and other organizations from revealing how animals suffer on factory farms, the couple stands united in opposition to "ag-gag" bills.
To that end, Matalin filmed a PETA appeal and sent it to Republican legislators—the primary sponsors of these measures—in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont, highlighting the importance of PETA's undercover work in prosecuting abusers and stopping institutionalized cruelty. After she introduces a video clip about a case that revealed routine beatings and even the sexual abuse of pigs on a Midwestern factory farm and which led to criminal convictions, Matalin states, "A meat-trade magazine called the case a 'wake-up call' for the industry. Unfortunately, factory farms keep hitting the snooze button, and instead of fixing the problems, they're trying to blame the messenger."
Thanks to the support of concerned citizens, "ag-gag" bills have already been killed in several states, but we can't rest until all lawmakers stop trying to shield lawbreakers. Please join PETA, Mary Matalin, James Carville, Bob Barker, Cloris Leachman, Katherine Heigl, and many other figures from both sides of the aisle in urging legislators to protect consumers' right to know the truth about factory farms. If you live in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, or Vermont, please take action.
Update: The New Mexico legislature adjourned without voting on the proposed "ag-gag" bill, effectively killing it for this year. Four other states are still considering making it a crime to record video on farms, so residents of Nebraska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania should let their legislators know that they oppose these unconstitutional bills.
The following was originally published on March 14, 2013:
Not content to stop after his successful campaign to get Wyoming's "ag gag" bill thrown out, Bob Barker has set his sights on the other proposed "ag gag" bills in New Mexico, Nebraska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
© StarMaxInc.com
As a longtime animal advocate and vegetarian, Bob knows that by making it illegal to record video on factory farms, such measures would threaten efforts to document workers' abuse of animals and to provide evidence that authorities need to win cruelty convictions. The lifelong Republican has written to fellow members of the GOP to let them know why the Grand Old Party needs to give these bills the old heave-ho. In a letter to state legislators, Bob wrote:
Since there is no government inspection of factory farms for cruelty violations and workers who report abuse to supervisors are routinely ignored, evidence from undercover investigations is critical to exposing abuse and helping officials prosecute abusers. … Americans today want better treatment of animals killed for food, not for their legislators to hide illegal cruelty on farms behind locked doors.
Bob's name certainly carries a lot of weight, but animals who are suffering on factory farms need all the help they can get. People who live in states where "ag gag" bills are currently on the floor should let their legislators know that they support the constitutional rights of whistleblowers to expose abuse.
After all, animal abusers—not whistleblowers—are the ones who should be treated like criminals.
Update: Today, The Washington Post ran a cover story highlighting PETA's efforts to stop the U.S. military from killing thousands of goats and pigs each year in crude medical training drills. As the newspaper points out, a bill that was signed into law last month requires the Department of Defense to submit to Congress by the end of this week a detailed strategy and timeline for the phase-out of these deadly exercises. This is the first time in history that Congress has passed a bill that protects animals from abuse in military training exercises. Please take a moment to write to the Department of Defense and urge it to act quickly to phase out these barbaric exercises.
Originally posted on January 4th:
The year has just begun, but already 2013 has seen an exciting first for animals! President Barack Obama has just signed into law a bill that requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to create a strategy for replacing the shooting, stabbing, and dismembering of animals in military training drills with non-animal methods. This is the first time in history that Congress has passed a bill that seeks to protect animals from being abused in military training exercises.
tintedglass | cc by 2.0
Last year, people were outraged when PETA released disturbing, never-before-seen undercover footage showing live goats as they were stabbed, had their organs yanked out, and had their limbs broken and cut off with tree trimmers during a military training drill, all while the animals moaned and kicked.
Multitudes of you contacted your representatives demanding that these archaic forms of "training" end and that the abusers who were caught on video be held accountable. You won. Under a provision in the newly signed National Defense Authorization Act, the secretary of defense has less than two months to present Congress with a strategy for phasing out the use of animals in trauma training. And the people who were caught on camera abusing goats were cited for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
High-profile military veterans Oliver Stone, Bob Barker, and Gideon Raff have all joined you in asking the DOD to modernize its training program by replacing its deadly animal laboratories with more reliable methods such as human-patient simulators. These realistic models can breathe, bleed, talk, and even "die," and trainees can perform procedures on them over and over again until they master lifesaving skills.
While this monumental law requires the secretary of defense to create a plan to phase out the use of animals, it does not mandate a specific date by which animal training methods must end. Help us keep the pressure on by e-mailing the secretary of defense and other DOD and Department of Homeland Security officials and urging them to switch to superior non-animal training methods immediately.
Update: Another one bites the dust! Because of the public outcry following Bob Barker's letter to lawmakers on PETA's behalf (see below), Wyoming has become the latest state to shelve an "ag gag" bill designed to protect animal abusers on factory farms by preventing undercover investigations from being conducted. The irresponsible and dangerous legislation, House Bill 126, died in committee on February 12. Afterward, one of its cosponsors said that the negative attention surrounding the bill was a factor in setting it aside.
Our thanks go out to everyone who responded to PETA's action alert. Why not celebrate this victory by sending your not-yet-vegan friends a link to Meat.org, where they can view footage obtained—legally—from undercover investigations on factory farms?
Originally posted on February 8th, 2013:
PETA pal and TV legend Bob Barker has once again stepped up for animals—this time in Wyoming, where legislators are considering House Bill (H.B.) 126, a measure specifically designed to protect animal abusers within the intensive-agriculture industry, even from law enforcement.
Bob, a lifelong Republican, has urged the Republican-majority Senate to reject the bill, which could prevent undercover investigators from collecting evidence of routine and systematic animal abuse on farms that is crucial in helping prosecute abusers. Undercover investigations by PETA have revealed the routine beatings, mutilations, sexual abuse, and other severe cruelty to animals prevalent within the meat, dairy, and egg industries and often lead to criminal charges and convictions, including in Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
In his letter, Bob writes, "Americans today want better treatment of animals killed for food, not for their legislators to hide illegal cruelty on farms behind locked doors. Over the last few years, I've been joined by figures from all walks of life, from Republican strategist Mary Matalin to animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, in opposing bills similar to H.B. 126, and legislators have listened, as such bills have died or been tabled by sponsors in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, and Tennessee as well as Arkansas, the second-largest poultry-producing state in the nation."
If you are a Wyoming resident or you know some, please urge (or get them to urge) your state senator to join you and Bob Barker in opposing H.B. 126 today!
Residents of Indiana, Nebraska, and New Hampshire can also contact their legislators to urge them to reject similar bills that have arisen in the agriculture industry's desperate attempt to thwart consumers from learning the truth about the gruesome life and miserable death of animals on factory farms.
Update:
We have two hot developments to report in PETA's campaign to expose and end the abuse of animals in cruel and archaic U.S. military medical training drills: Following complaints filed by PETA about the abuse of goats seen in a shocking undercover video, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited military trauma training contractor Tier 1 Group for violating the Animal Welfare Act, and the Virginia Beach Zoning Administration (VBZA) has warned the owner of the property where the training allegedly took place that these exercises are not permitted there.
Originally posted July 27:
In April, PETA released the video footage taken by a whistleblower during a trauma training session for members of the U.S. Coast Guard. The video showed course instructors with Tier 1 Group repeatedly cutting off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, stabbing the animals with scalpels, and cutting into their abdomens to pull out their organs as they twitched, moaned, and kicked. Veterinarians who viewed the video confirmed that these are signs that the goats were not adequately anesthetized and were likely feeling pain.
The video also showed a course instructor from Tier 1 Group who cheerfully whistled as he cut the legs off goats as well as Coast Guard participants who joked about writing a song about mutilating the animals.
At the time the video was released, PETA filed a number of complaints with authorities, and two of these agencies have now taken disciplinary action against parties responsible for the training. (A U.S. Coast Guard investigation into PETA's complaint is ongoing.)
The USDA citation for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act was issued because of Tier 1 Group's failure to give adequate anesthesia to the goats who were stabbed and cut into. This is a repeat violation, as Tier 1 Group was cited by the USDA for a similar violation last year.
The USDA's citation of Tier 1 Group for failing to anesthetize animals properly during invasive procedures is made even more alarming by the fact that just days after the USDA citation, the U.S. Navy awarded Tier 1 Group a contract worth nearly $2 million to conduct 24 trauma training exercises on live pigs. A company that has violated federal animal welfare law should not be rewarded with millions of tax dollars.
The VBZA letter not only warned that such exercises aren't permitted but also notified the property owner that legal action may be pursued against him if such unauthorized activities are conducted on the land in the future. These unlawful training exercises have taken place there for years, but officials have now made it clear that they must not occur there ever again.
Please join PETA and its dedicated supporters—including military veterans Oliver Stone and Bob Barker—in urging the military to replace these cruel animal laboratories with humane and advanced human-patient simulators.
On the heels of a Los Angeles Times report about whistleblowers' allegations that oversight failures may have led to animal injuries and deaths during film and TV productions, PETA was joined by Hollywood animal advocates Bob Barker and Sam Simon for a news conference calling for immediate action to protect animals.
PETA was flooded with complaints from whistleblowers after we released leaked information earlier this year about the deaths of horses on the set of HBO's Luck. The complaints that we've received include an incident in which a horse and rider were allegedly swept downstream in a scene from the upcoming film The Lone Ranger and the deaths of three horses on the set of The Hobbit. Many of the alleged incidents reportedly involved pressure from industry figures to put animals at risk in a wide range of movie and TV productions, including some that are still being filmed.
During the news conference at PETA's Bob Barker Building in Los Angeles, legendary The Price Is Right host Barker and The Simpsons co-creator Simon backed PETA's appeal for the American Humane Association (AHA)—the organization assigned to monitor the use of animals on TV and film sets—to launch an immediate investigation into the allegations. To ensure that the AHA's ratings have any meaning, PETA presented a series of recommendations for an overhaul of the monitoring system, including the following:
Producers, directors, and writers must also do their part. They must make sure that animal trainers with U.S. Department of Agriculture violations are not employed, that scenes aren't written that would endanger horses and wild animals, and that computer-generated imagery, animatronics, and other technology are used to replace animals. Animals should never have to die for our entertainment.
You can help horses, great apes, and other animals used in the entertainment industry by contacting the AHA right now. Use the form below to urge the AHA to swiftly implement a plan to protect all animal "actors."
Written by PETA
When former English soccer player Michael Owen ran his leg of the Olympic torch route, he got some help from a special guest—a dog up for adoption at a London animal shelter. The now-famous dog, named Rory, may not be homeless much longer.
Marathoner Michael Arnstein is also giving animals props at the Olympics—he fuels up only on vegan foods.
Legendary basketball player John Salley will soon be flashing his charming smile all over Detroit. He is just one of the faces of the "Real Vegans" billboard campaign, by nonprofit VegMichigan, which aims to show people how easy and healthy vegan eating can be.
In fact, it's so easy and healthy that vegan eating is heading to the final frontier. NASA announced plans for an all-vegan menu for its astronauts who are setting out for a mission to Mars in 2030.
Bob Barker is sending three elephants on the journey of their lives. The longtime PETA friend is flying Iringa, Toka, and Thika from the Toronto Zoo to the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California, where they will get to retire in spacious comfort.
It was a flight of a different sort that had America's Next Top Model alum Natasha Galkina speaking up for animals this week. After she read about PETA's campaign to get United Airlines to stop shipping monkeys to be tortured in laboratories, she tweeted her disgust at the airline, adding to the chorus of animal-friendly voices on Twitter:
Things got rockin' at our "Summer Is No Vacation for Animals on Fur Farms" demonstration in Portland, Maine, when Gavin Rossdale and his son Kingston stopped by:
Gavin thanked the demonstrators for being there and mentioned that he and his fur-free wife, Gwen Stefani, are teaching their children to be kind to animals.
Chad Ochocinco (whose sizzling PETA anti-fur ad might be part of the reason why he's considered "the ultimate catch") tied the knot last weekend with fiancée Evelyn Lozada. So PETA sent the happy couple—what else?—an elegant faux-fur throw from Donna Salyers' Fabulous-Furs.
Fur foe Lea Michele is being recognized for her animal activism. She earned a 2012 Do Something Award nomination for her work with PETA to shut down New York City's cruel horse-drawn carriage industry. Be sure to cast your vote here!
PETA pals are snagging nominations right and left this week. Eva Mendes, Penélope Cruz, Benicio Del Toro, Roselyn Sanchez, Martin Sheen, and Constance Marie are all nominated for 2012 National Council of La Raza ALMA Awards.
And vegetarian wrestler Austin Aries just claimed the title of TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
When 11-time Olympic medal winner Natalie Coughlin heads to London, she'll have some new reading material for the plane. PETA sent the swimmer vegan cookbooks and a vegetarian/vegan starter kit to help her maintain her nearly 100 percent vegetarian diet on the road.
NFL star Arian Foster is hopping on the vegan-athlete bandwagon. His inspiring tweets were some of the best in the Twitterverse this week:
Dominic Monaghan also took to Twitter to defend animals this week, calling the show Swamp People, which glorifies the killing of alligators, "death entertainment" that "continues to demonize reptiles as monsters and animals that are okay to torture and kill." He then vowed, "I'm gonna stop them."
Bob Barker is ready to put a stop to the Calgary Stampede. Everyone's favorite game show host said of the cruel 10-day rodeo festival, in which three horses have already died this year, "I would like very much to see them celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede by saying that is enough animal cruelty. Let's wind it up and close it down."
To keep up with what the stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
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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