Written by Michelle Kretzer
Can DSK's experience be used for good? Dominique Strauss-Kahn may no longer preside over the International Monetary Fund or be running for the highest office in France, but PETA France is banking on his ability to illustrate one pitfall of having unprotected sex:
DSK might not have considered "spay-and-neuter advocate" to be his next move, but no one can argue that he isn't in the perfect position to let people know about the harmful effects of tomcatting—such as animal overpopulation.
This time, perhaps something good can come from a sex scandal.
Written by PETA
PETA France tried nicely asking the president of the Trophée des Hauts de France ceremony in Lille, France, not to serve foie gras, but he insisted on displaying the vile "torture in a tin." That left PETA France no choice but to not-quite-so-nicely point out the cruelty involved in its production.
Earlier this year, PETA released a video narrated by Kate Winslet that contains undercover footage taken on French foie gras farms and shows ducks being confined to iron maiden–like cages, unable to stretch even one wing or take a single step in any direction. Such intense confinement is, of course, a violation of Council of Europe guidelines.
Here's how one investigator described the conditions on one farm:
"It is absolutely astounding to enter a force-feeding room. Hundreds of ducks are lined up like shoeboxes. They are … jammed in cages that restrict freedom of movement. They are unable to stretch even the tip of a wing or to turn around. … [D]ucks are haggard, and some of them haven't enough strength to raise their heads anymore. Metal cages, darkness, animals exhausted from struggling, corpses—you feel like you're entering a torture chamber."
PETA Germany has urged the European Commission to crack down on French foie gras farms that illegally confine birds to cages that restrict their movement. You can help by writing to the European Commission and asking it to enforce the 1999 guideline (Council Directive 98/58/EC):
John DalliCommissioner for Health and Consumer PolicyEuropean CommissionB-1049 Brussels Belgiumcab-dalli-webpage@ec.europa.eu
Written by Alisa Mullins
Mais oui! The rain didn't keep members of PETA France—or nearly five hundred other demonstrators—away from a massive anti-fur march in Paris on Saturday.
Onlookers learned the stomach-turning truth about fur—that regardless of whether it involves the bloody head-bashing of baby seals in Canada or the skinning of live animals on Chinese fur farms, fur always represents horrible suffering for animals.
As a result of the march, the French television news service M6 even ran a feature against the fur trade. It also polled visitors to its Web site: So far, out of 16,000 respondents, 81 percent favor an end to the fur trade.
So tell us, what's your opinion on fur?
Written by Karin Bennett
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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