Written by PETA
Who shot J.R.? Currently, TNT is shooting the Dallas patriarch for the reincarnation of the show coming next summer. And Larry Hagman is having a reincarnation of his own off the set: Switching to a vegetarian diet is helping him fight cancer.
Bob Barker and Jorja Fox are waging a fight of their own—for the elephants, tigers, and lions who are forced to spend a lifetime in chains just so that people can have a few minutes of "entertainment." The pair traveled to Washington, D.C., to ask congressional representatives to support the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, which would bar circuses from using wild animals.
The Toronto Maple Leafs' Mike Zigomanis might call himself a lover, not a fighter. The decorated Most Gentlemanly Player takes his thoughtfulness to the kitchen, too, where he whips up amazing vegan smorgasbords that make us nonchefs feel as inferior as his opponents do on the ice.
The lovely Sasha Grey scored a goal: she just adopted a furry new companion, her rescued dog, MacReady.
You'll find no fur on Placebo drummer Steve Forrest, who stars in a new anti-fur ad for PETA U.K.:
Photo: © Kayla Wren
Fellow fur foe Leona Lewis is launching her own Project Runway of sorts, offering aspiring designers a chance to create an outfit that she will wear on tour and be photographed in. And she has specified that the designers must "make it work" without harming any animals—Leona only wears cruelty-free fashion.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Rock icon and animal advocate Joan Jett's version of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" topped the charts, but one thing Joan doesn't love is the Edmonton Valley Zoo's refusal to release its lone elephant, Lucy, to a sanctuary. Ahead of her performance in Alberta on Saturday, Joan sent a letter to Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and the zoo's director, Denise Prefontaine, reminding them that every moment that Lucy remains in Edmonton is a misery. Joan writes, "This animal is basically being tortured. I urge you to please release Lucy to a sanctuary before the unbearably cold Canadian winter weather returns this year."
Edmonton officials should follow the lead of their colleagues in Toronto, who overwhelmingly voted by a 31-4 majority to send the zoo's three elephants to sanctuary.
Elephant experts agree that if elephants are not with others of their kind, these highly intelligent and social animals experience psychological distress, and Lucy has been the only elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo for more than four years. The cold climate and confinement to a small barn have also contributed to Lucy's poor health. She suffers from arthritis, obesity, chronic foot ailments, and respiratory problems, all of which would likely improve if she were able to join other elephants at a sanctuary with a more appropriate climate and miles of open space to roam.
Please join Joan, Bob Barker, William Shatner, George Laraque, PETA, Zoocheck, and the thousands of compassionate Canadians who are campaigning for Lucy's freedom by clicking here to contact Mayor Mandel and the Edmonton City Council right now.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Toka, Thika, and Iringa—the three elephants at the Toronto Zoo—will soon be on their way to paradise. By a vote of 31 to 4, the Toronto City Council overwhelmingly agreed that California's Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary is a much more appropriate home for these elephants. Earlier, there had been a push to send the three to another zoo.
© Digital Vision | Just Elephants | Getty Images
PETA and our colleagues at Zoocheck Canada kept up the pressure, writing to councilmembers and mobilizing Canadians to make their opinions known. Now, these three elephants will know the joys of roaming freely, swimming in ponds, taking dust baths, and socializing with other elephants. PAWS has a history of healing and restoring quality of life to elephants who have become debilitated from years in captivity.
TV icon and animal defender Bob Barker has offered to pay for the elephants' relocation to the sanctuary at a cost estimated to be between $100,000 and $300,000.
As an unrelated bonus, the City Council received a standing ovation when it also voted to ban the possession, sale, and consumption of shark fins, with hefty fines for violators.
Now, it's Lucy's turn. Please click here to ask Edmonton officials to follow their Toronto colleagues' lead and send this ailing and lonely elephant to PAWS, and click here to urge the Toronto Zoo and City Council to send Iringa, Toka, and Thika to the sanctuary without delay.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
In a hard-hitting interview with Canada's CTV network, the ever-eloquent Bob Barker blasts the Edmonton Valley Zoo and city officials for refusing to transfer Lucy, the zoo's ailing and aging elephant, to a sanctuary. Lucy will spend most of the next six frigid Alberta months alone inside a barren barn with nothing to do but sway and dream of the life that she was meant to have.
Bob, pulling no punches, calls Lucy's living conditions "really just one of the worst cases that I know of" and says that he is "appalled at the misery that Lucy has suffered there in Edmonton at the Valley Zoo." Watch here to see Bob take Edmonton and zoo officials to task.
Both Bob and former NHL powerhouse Georges Laraque have offered to make a $100,000 donation to the city to get the transfer underway, and earlier this year, comedian Steve-O led a PETA protest outside the zoo. Canadian William Shatner appealed directly to the mayor to do the right thing for Lucy. But so far, officials have refused to budge.
We're pushing full speed ahead to get Lucy's case heard in Canada's Supreme Court, but in the meantime, please e-mail polite notes to Edmonton's mayor and city council and beg them to move Lucy before winter sets in.
Update: In just over 24 hours, the "Stop Animal Homelessness at Its Roots" petition surpassed 5,000 signatures and became one of the first petitions to reach the level necessary to be sent to the Obama administration! Please keep asking everyone you know to sign this important petition so that we can alert the White House to how strongly people feel about the animal homelessness crisis.
Folks, this is huge. Starting today, we have a chance to show President Obama and our government that the companion-animal homelessness crisis deserves national attention.
The White House just launched a site on which citizens can post petitions, and any petition that receives 5,000 signatures in 30 days will merit review by administration officials. PETA has posted a petition asking that all animals adopted from animal shelters and bought from pet stores, puppy mills, and breeders be spayed and neutered. Bob Barker will be signing it, and he's asking for your support.
This is an opportunity to get the White House to pay attention to the fact that millions of dogs and cats are abandoned on the streets or turned over to severely crowded animal shelters each year.
Stars such as Cloris Leachman, Mickey Rourke, and Metta World Peace (aka "Ron Artest") support spaying and neutering because it saves lives, and you can too. Please sign PETA's "Stop Animal Homelessness at Its Roots" petition now and forward it to everyone you know. Get your family, your office, your old school pals, your club, your gym—everyone!—to sign it pronto. Please!
If the petition site doesn't work, please try back later. It looks like the site has been having some issues this morning, and we're hoping that it's just because so many of you have been signing the petition that the site is trying to catch up.
Oooh, don't miss this: The deadly consequences of the marine mammal entertainment industry are on screen in the new film A Fall From Freedom, produced by San Francisco–based EarthViews Productions. In hardball interviews with marine scientists, whistleblowing former trainers, and theme park PR mouths, the scope and scale of the suffering of all the dolphins and whales who have died in parks like SeaWorld is made clear.
The movie comes on the heels of Outside magazine reporter Tim Zimmerman's scathing investigative report about this insanely cruel industry, called "Blood in the Water." Describing the behavior of orcas in an "aqua park" in Spain, the piece notes that the whales used "their teeth to peel away strips of [the pool's coating] from the pool walls like bored kids picking at loose paint." Notes of a trainer monitoring one female orca's "frequent unhappy vocalizations" describes her as "back to feeling insecure when separated, alone, both in shows & in sessions." This piece makes riveting reading.
If you're hitting the road this summer, heed the plea from PETA pal Bob Barker to drive right on by marine theme parks and let SeaWorld know that you won't be buying a ticket.
I've got some great news and some not-so-great news. The great news is that the Toronto Zoo has heeded the call of animal defenders, including Bob Barker, and decided to close its elephant display, joining more than a dozen other zoos that have done the same thing. What's more, the Toronto Zoo has agreed that it will not send Toka, Iringa and Thika to any facility that uses bullhooks.
The not-so-great news is that instead of sending the elephants to the spacious comfort of a sanctuary, the zoo seems intent on sending them to another zoo. The Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California is willing and able to immediately provide these elephants with the many acres of natural habitat that they need to thrive, warmer weather, and the companionship of other elephants. Toka, Iringa, and Thika deserve no less, and we're appealing to the zoo to send them to PAWS.
Another Canadian elephant in desperate need of retirement is Lucy, who spends her days alone in Edmonton's Valley Zoo. Please ask city officials to send Lucy south.
TV legend Bob Barker is appealing to North Carolina's Cumberland County Board of Commissioners to let Ben, a distressed bear held prisoner at a dismal roadside zoo, retire to a sanctuary.
Cumberland County had an ordinance in place banning exotic animals, but rather than enforcing the ban, county commissioners amended their own law specifically so that Jambbas Ranch Tours, where Ben and other animals are confined to cramped, barren cages, could be exempted. A wildlife expert who saw the video footage of Ben said his pacing, biting at the chain link, and pushing his head against the fence were clear signs of psychological distress.
In a letter to the commissioners, Barker wrote, "It beats me how, rather than enforcing this humane provision, the board could listen to Jambbas’ owner and amend the ordinance to allow such inhumane treatment of animals to continue. I believe that you must not have been given all the facts or seen this situation for yourselves, as that does not seem right at all."
Please ask Cumberland County Commissioners to let this suffering bear spend the rest of his days being cared for properly in a sanctuary.
Backing up his beliefs with bucks, animal activist Bob Barker has offered the City of Edmonton $100,000—to use however it wants—if it will allow independent elephant experts to assess Lucy, the sick and depressed elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.
e_tavares/cc by 2.0
Lucy has trouble breathing because of an undiagnosed ailment. She also suffers from arthritis and chronic foot problems—the leading causes of death in captive elephants. Once Lucy is diagnosed and treated, the zoo will have no excuses left to avoid moving her to a sanctuary, where she'd enjoy the company of other elephants and have open, grassy meadows in which to walk, smell the roses, and heal.
Calling his offer a "win-win-win scenario," Bob says, "It's crucial that Lucy's condition be accurately diagnosed before her health deteriorates further. It is indefensible that Lucy has been forced to live in misery for all these years."
In other Lucy news, the appeal of PETA and Zoocheck Canada's lawsuit against the zoo is scheduled to be heard March 29. Watch for updates.
In the meantime, please implore Edmonton officials not to let Lucy become the next Knut.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's … Steve-O! The vegan comedian and daredevil led a PETA protest outside the Edmonton Valley Zoo to call on zoo officials to allow Lucy, the ailing and lonely elephant at the zoo, to retire to an elephant sanctuary. "I'm sympathetic to Lucy because I know that elephants in their natural habitat will walk some 30 miles every day," Steve-O says. "I don't understand how the zoo's able to keep her. It seems so black and white."
As Steve-O notes, elephants need to walk around and move freely. Edmonton's frigid winters mean that Lucy spends months on end inside a barn. Is it any wonder she's suffering from arthritis, chronic foot problems, and an undiagnosed respiratory ailment? Lucy—who has been in the zoo for more than 30 years—is depressed and needs the company of other elephants and room to move around.
You can help by joining Steve-O, Bob Barker, William Shatner, and NHL veteran Georges Laraque in appealing to zoo officials to allow Lucy to retire to a sanctuary.
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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