Written by PETA
Given the escalating violence among young people, it's impossible to understand how anyone can cheer for 12-year-old bullfighter Michel Lagravere, who boasts that he has stabbed seven bulls to death. It's also disturbing that people continue to egg the young man on even after he was recently tossed around by a bull in a Mexican bullfight:
The misguided child walked away with only minor injuries, but that bull's days are still numbered. Bulls don't stand a chance in the arena—especially not when even a 12-year-old is permitted to torture them to death.
Did you know that bulls are physically harmed and provoked before they are let into the arena? They are beaten and sometimes have their horns shaved. Then, surrounded by the screaming crowd, the confused bulls will naturally fight for their lives as men on horses run them in circles and stab them with knives until the animals are dizzy and weakened from blood loss. Finally, the matador comes in for the killing stab when the exhausted bull is already near death.
Please contact Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhán to politely voice your objection to bullfighting and to tell him that you won't be vacationing in Mexico until bullfights are banned for good.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Can you say "bombshell" in an airport? Fans of Meet the Parents probably agree that it wouldn't be wise, and after the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane, I'm not sure. But I've no doubt that's what United Airways passengers were thinking as they feasted their eyes on PETA's Lettuce Lady yesterday. Our lavish lady was at LAX, sharing her lifesaving message, her charms, and Tofurky sandwiches with hungry fliers en route to Detroit.
While most Americans will never fall victim to a terrorist attack, those who consume pepperoni and provolone increase their risk of succumbing to other killers (heart attacks, cancer, or strokes) to one in four or less. The best security for airline travelers (and everyone else) is to jettison meat, eggs, and dairy products from their diets.
Written by Karin Bennett
"Super Freak." Super Target. Superbad. I'd say the wedding reception classic, shopper's wonderland, and hit flick are all worth cheering. But "superbugs," a la swine flu, salmonella, and E. coli? Not so much.
These drug-resistant infections contaminate not only our air and waterways but also America's meat supply, which is also greatly responsible for creating them. The practice of feeding antibiotics to crowded factory farmed pigs, chickens, and cows started in the '90s and has since skyrocketed—70 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. last year were used on factory farms. Old killers like malaria, tuberculosis, and staph are making comebacks, stronger than ever. And thanks to the overuse of antibiotics, more than 65,000 people died last year from drug-resistant infections.
Health and government officials everywhere, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the White House to the World Health Organization, are worried. This alarming article by the Associate Press, which I urge you to read and forward, had so many mind-boggling stats and quotes that I was tempted to cut and paste it in its entirety. Instead, I lifted the following quotes:
"This is a living breathing problem, it's the big bad wolf and it's knocking at our door."—Dr. Vance Fowler, Infectious disease specialist, Duke University
"If we're not careful with antibiotics and the programs to administer them, we're going to be in a post antibiotic era." —Dr. Thomas Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
"If you mixed an antibiotic in your child's cereal, people would think you're crazy." —Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat from New York
How can you keep superbugs at bay? Start by going vegan. There's no doubt that you'll save animal lives—and better protect your own.
The following post originally appeared in Florida's Bradenton Herald.
Who would you save—your child or your dog? This is the phony choice lobbed at those of us who advocate for the replacement of animal tests with non-animal testing methods. Fortunately, you don't have to choose.
Under pressure from citizens concerned about exposure to hazardous chemicals, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are now considering overhauling toxic-chemical regulations. In more than a decade—and despite killing many millions of animals in chemical toxicity tests—the EPA has failed abysmally to safeguard the public by pulling dangerous substances off the market. The examples are legion and well documented.
For instance, the link between benzene—a gasoline component and solvent widely used in the preparation of drugs and plastics—and human leukemia was established as early as 1928, yet dozens of subsequent animal studies failed to replicate benzene's cancer-causing effects. Only during the late 1980s were researchers finally able to induce cancer in animals by overdosing them with benzene—and our government is still testing benzene on animals.
Exposure to arsenic has been implicated in increased cancer risk for nearly 150 years. Smelter workers exposed to arsenic in the air are at higher risk for developing lung cancer, and population studies show that arsenic in drinking water can also cause cancer. Yet regulation was delayed for decades while thousands of animals were killed in experiments that attempted to reproduce the effects already seen in humans. Reviews published as late as 1977 reported that animal experiments had failed to produce evidence supporting a link between arsenic exposure and increased cancer risk. It was not until the late 1980s that researchers finally succeeded in reproducing the cancer-causing effects of arsenic in animals.
Updating our chemical management laws is important for protecting human health and the environment. But in order to be effective, we must acknowledge that the current way of testing chemicals for toxic effects uses methods that are decades old, condemns thousands of animals per chemical and provides information that is not very useful for regulating chemicals. Much has happened in the fields of biology and toxicology in the past few decades, and it is imperative that we use all of our current understanding and technology to test chemicals. In addition to providing more relevant and useful information, the modern methods also use many fewer animals—perhaps even no animals.With tens of thousands of chemicals on the market and more entering it every day, it's now widely recognized, even by regulators, that "it is simply not possible with all the animals in the world to go through chemicals in the blind way we have at the present time, and reach credible conclusions about the hazards to human health" (Dr. Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate in medicine).
The National Academy of Sciences, the government's own scientific arm, released a report in 2007 confirming that scientific advances can "transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole-animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro (non-animal) methods." Such an approach will improve efficiency, speed and prediction for humans while cutting costs and reducing animal suffering. Indeed, high-tech methods are the only way thousands of chemicals can be tested.
Any update of the laws regulating toxic chemicals must include measures to ensure that the most modern testing methods are used. It is critical that the science underlying chemical safety assessments be updated from the crude animal tests developed around the time of World War I to the 21st century technology that is now available. Without this shift in science, chemical management reform of the kind being proposed by the EPA and others is logistically impossible.
So, your child or your dog? We now can—and should—save both.
Written by Jessica Sandler, director of regulatory testing
Confession: I've rewatched the final performance of "True Colors" from last week's Glee episode on my DVR like it's my job. And lucky for me, it is. My Gleekdom isn't entirely work-related, but with so many compassionate actors on the show, I need to tune in. First, Lea Michele spoke up for horses by posing for an ad against horse-drawn carriages, and now comes this tasty tidbit from Jenna Ushkowitz about her Thanksgiving:
We make homemade stuffing—my mom is making Tofurky because I am a vegetarian and we just eat a lot! … I am trying to have a smaller carbon footprint.
Ushkowitz joins tons of other celebrities who enjoy cruelty-free meals and save lives every day of the year.
Written by Logan Scherer
Our sexy pilgrims put the free in cruelty-free in Atlanta yesterday, giving out complimentary Tofurkys to lucky passersby. The sizzling settlers charmed the lunchtime crowd and even convinced a restaurant owner to give a Tofurky to his chef.
The visit to Atlanta marked the end of our six-city Sexy-Pilgrim Tofurky-Giveaway Tour, but the tasty generosity never has to end. Save lives and the environment by making your Thanksgiving a vegan one—check out our scrumptious Thanksgiving guide.
Unless you've had your head in the sand for quite some time, you know that "swine flu blues" are sweeping the nation. Just in time for sniffle season, PETA's swine flu prevention masks have arrived.
We are giving you, dear PETA Files reader, a chance to win the perfect accessory for your next pro-vegan demonstration or leafleting junket (or cross-country flight). All you need to do is simply create your own "swine flu haiku," a short, three-line poem, about this pandemic that has worried people all over the world. Here's mine:
Swine flu fears? Not hereBecause I am vegan andWash my hands a lot
(Remember, the first line in haiku must have five syllables, the second must have seven, and the third one must have five.)
What's that? You can do better? Well, then, prove it. Submit your clever haiku in the comments section below by December 9, 2009. We'll pick 5 winners on December 11, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!
This week, PETA started a national tour to promote a cruelty-free Thanksgiving. Droves of lucky San Franciscans were the first to receive free Tofurky roasts, kindly donated by Turtle Island Foods.
The only thing I can think of that would be more worthy of thanks than gobbling (sorry, had to) up a succulent, savory Tofurky—while saving the lives of turkeys—would be to get one for free. Luckily for you, our turkeys are strutting their way through cities across the country and giving away roasts at each stop.
Join PETA's Action Team to get updates on upcoming events in your area.
It was literally a sticky situation for employees at one Lowe's store in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday, when a woman dressed as a mouse entered the store and "glued" herself to the floor. As the "mouse" screamed and writhed, customers surrounded her with caution signs reading, "Lowe's Tortures Animals."
The "mouse" was taken into police custody after half an hour of shrieking and struggling, and she was lucky. Being arrested is nothing compared to the days of starvation and dehydration that animals ensnared in glue traps suffer. The misery of glue traps is so painful that some animals even chew off their own legs in a desperate attempt to free themselves. No glue trap is humane—and there are effective alternatives. Urge Lowe's to end the torment and stop selling glue traps immediately.
PETA's Lettuce Ladies are on the road again! And this time they're kicking America's poor eating habits to the compost heap.
The lettuce-clad ladies are hittin' the streets to greet folks with delicious and free Tofurky sandwiches. Their goal: to get people to turn over a new leaf and go vegetarian for the new year. Check out these photos from the road:
The Lettuce Ladies don't have to be the only sexy veggies roaming the streets. If you make PETA's 30-Day "Pledge to Be Veg" before the end of the month, we will donate money to a program that plants fruit trees! Now, you can help yourself, the environment, animals, and the hungry just by making one simple change to your diet. That's a pretty sweet deal.
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
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!