Written by PETA
Thanks to the quick action taken by more than 5,000 PETA U.K. supporters, the European Union (E.U.) has just rejected Poland's proposal to delay a historic ban on battery cages for hens! In 1999, the E.U. passed the Laying Hens Directive—legislation that requires an end to the use of battery cages by 2012. Polish officials lobbied to delay the ban until 2017, but thanks to everyone in Europe who took the time to write to the U.K.'s minister of state for farming and the environment, Jim Fitzpatrick, the E.U. will stand by its original plan to ditch the cruel contraptions.
The production of a single egg means 34 hours of suffering for a hen. In the E.U., 300 million hens are crammed into filthy wire-mesh battery cages stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. The birds are packed into the cages so tightly that they are unable to spread even one wing, and they suffer crippling leg injuries from standing on wire cage floors 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When they get too old to lay eggs, they're thrown into transport crates and shipped to slaughter. Battery cages deny every one of a hen's natural instincts, including nesting, perching, scratching, and pecking.
You can help end hens' suffering by taking the pledge to be vegan today.
Written by Logan Scherer
Whether she's in the wacky world of Syfy's Eureka or the witchy universe of Eastwick, actor Jaime Ray Newman is always an angel to her rescued pooches. Now, in an exclusive interview, Newman gushes over her adopted dogs, explains how spaying or neutering companion animals can save millions of lives each year, and shares her own theory about how to achieve world peace:
We're relieved that a "chicken" who was shot at by passing motorists outside a Burger Barn in Wichita wasn't seriously injured.
We wish we could say the same for the cows whom the "chicken" was encouraging people to eat. (The "chicken" was actually a man named Robert Hatter, who was holding a sign reading "Eat More Beef!") Destined to be turned into beef patties, cows on factory farms suffer painful dehorning, branding, and castration without being given any painkillers. They feel terror, hunger, and thirst during their treacherous trek to the slaughterhouse, where they are hoisted upside down and slaughtered.
We're hopeful, however, that his harrowing experience will cause Hatter to think twice about promoting violence toward other animals. I can't think of a better way to do that than by ordering a copy of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit.
Written by Karin Bennett
Nine-spined stickleback, genius of the sea, allow me to introduce the rocket scientist of the air: the pigeon.
Scientists have discovered that pigeons are better than humans at solving statistical problems such as the Monty Hall Problem (named after the original host of the game show Let's Make a Deal). In the problem, a person, or in this case a bird, is given three doors to choose from. One of the doors has a prize behind it, and the other two do not. After the player makes a guess, one of the remaining doors that does not contain the prize is opened and the player is given the option of staying with the initial guess or switching to the other unopened door. Studies show that humans typically fail to collect any supporting data and stick with their original guess ("classical probability"), while pigeons double their chances of winning by switching choices. It turns out that these smart birds learn to make predictions by tracking outcomes and narrowing the possibilities ("empirical probability").
I consider this to be yet another example of why I'd be honored, not insulted, if anyone ever called me a "birdbrain."
PETA's forecast for SeaWorld San Antonio—cloudy with a chance of freedom:
On Saturday, PETA's "Let Orcas Out of Prison" banner flew across the sky while dedicated PETA supporters on the ground spread the word that trainers and animals will continue to get hurt or die until SeaWorld frees the animals to sanctuaries.
Coastal sanctuaries are the only humane places for the wild animals who are currently used by SeaWorld and other parks and who suffer for years in confined, unnatural conditions. One psychologist has pointed out that Tilikum—the captive orca who killed a SeaWorld trainer—is so traumatized from the shock of his capture, the disruption of his natural development, and his more than 30 years of imprisonment in a concrete pool that if he were human, he would undoubtedly be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
SeaWorld's continued exploitation of these sensitive animals is nothing more than a callous way to turn a cheap buck. Please don't support it.
"How do you put an interactive, social animal, one of the smartest animals in the world … and you're going to stick them in a tub and make them do tricks? How do you do that? Because they make money? It's disgusting and SeaWorld is absolutely wrong. This is a big wake-up call. How many more people are going to have to be killed? When are we going to realize that these animals are not supposed to be there?"—Hayden Panettiere
When it comes to speaking out against SeaWorld, the stars are aligning. The vegetarian Panettiere—who appears in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove—joins Matt Damon, Bob Barker, Pamela Anderson, and many other celebrities who have lent their voices to support Tilikum by publicly denouncing the use of marine mammals for "entertainment."
Will you be the next to speak up? Ask SeaWorld to release the animals to sanctuaries.
OK, so we didn't get to see a song-and-dance number featuring Steve Martin and vegetarian Alec Baldwin—who also narrated PETA's now-classic documentary Meet Your Meat—but we're still pretty happy about how the highly buzzed Food Inc./Cove face-off turned out.
The Oscar for Best Documentary went to frontrunner The Cove—the universally acclaimed examination of Japan's bloody dolphin trade and slaughter. And in one of the most inspiring moments of the night, Ric O'Barry proved that he'll stop at nothing to end the slaughter by displaying a sign encouraging people to get active for dolphins during his acceptance speech.
The win couldn't have come at a better time for captive marine wildlife, as Sea World and other parks come under increasing scrutiny for their abysmal record of injuries and deaths of both trainers and animals in the wake of last month's incident at SeaWorld.
On the red carpet, The Cove's director Louie Psihoyos put it best when he said, "One animal killing three people in one lifetime shows these animals are stressed, they don't belong in captivity. And when we capture them out of the wild and force them to do stupid tricks for our amusement, it says more about our intelligence than it does theirs."
We already know that elephants in the wild lead rich emotional lives, but recent findings about elephant brainpower and a "secret" language of low-frequency sounds have me wondering what these clever animals gossip about in the wild, and I'm going to have nightmares tonight about what the elephants who are beaten by Ringling are trying to tell us.
Among the researchers' conclusions is that while baby elephants will shriek to signal distress, adult elephants shriek only from pain. If you've seen PETA's undercover footage and the photographs from a former Ringling trainer, you know there are a lot of shrieking elephants at Ringling: Mothers and babies shriek as they are dragged away from each other with chains and ropes, babies shriek during violent "training" sessions, and trainers induce plenty of agonized shrieks as they dig their metal-tipped bullhooks into the elephants' sensitive skin.
As one researcher in Kenya said about the elephants he studied, "They've proved to have abilities which have only been found elsewhere in the great apes and humans." If you don't think humans belong chained and beaten in the circus, please don't support circuses that use elephants. Maybe this is how elephants say "thank you."
Written by Heather Drennan
For almost two months, rescue workers from around the world have been hard at work trying to clean up the devastation in the wake of Haiti's tragic earthquake. Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti, with support from PETA, continues to address the needs of displaced animals in Haiti, while Maryland-based Food for Life Global—the world's largest vegan relief organization—is distributing vegan meals every day to hungry people in Port-au-Prince. Thanks to the hard work of both of these organizations, the world can see that it is possible to relieve suffering without harming animals.
How can you make a difference? Lift the spirits of those who are helping the animals and humans of Haiti by posting a brief message of support to rescue workers now, and consider honoring their hard work by pledging to go vegan, volunteering at your local animal shelter, or donating to PETA.
SeaWorld may have animal pimp "entertainer" Jack Hanna in its corner, but Tilly has Jean-Michel Cousteau on his side.
The world-renowned French explorer, environmentalist, film producer and, of course, son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau has issued a brief video statement addressing the cruelty and danger of keeping killer whales and dolphins imprisoned in marine amusement parks. Please don't miss this one, folks:
Jean-Michel Cousteau's video contains so many eloquent, logical statements that I had trouble picking just one favorite. Can you?
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.
Follow PETA on Twitter!