Written by PETA
Prompted by reports that churchgoers are more prone to obesity than those who don't go to church, PETA wants to help one of the largest churches in West Virginia—the U.S.'s fattest state—become one of the slimmest. PETA is offering Chestnut Ridge Church, a mega-church in Morgantown, vegan ads to place on their pews and a yummy meatless cookout to kick off the church's celebration of life this Easter.
Eating a plant-based diet is the best way to combat obesity as well as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. To "resurrect" your own health this Easter, simply take the Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
A West Virginia man faces 29 charges of cruelty to animals after allegedly using various tools to torture and kill at least 29 dogs and puppies over the course of several months. According to reports, Jeffrey Nally Jr. told police that he got the dogs from ads in the local newspaper and that the animals were all free or just a few dollars. Apparently illustrating the link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to people, Nally is also charged with allegedly keeping his former girlfriend captive in the home for months, forcing her to watch him torture the animals, and then making her clean up the mess. West Virginia State Police rescued the woman, along with three live puppies whom they believe were slated to be killed.
As horrific as it sounds, cases like this are not uncommon. Perhaps the most famous case is that of Barry Herbeck, who tortured, sodomized, and killed nearly two dozen animals whom he obtained through "free to a good home" ads. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Classified ads are magnets for abusers who would not be approved for adoption from animal shelters. (Nally was reportedly a convicted criminal under home confinement when he allegedly obtained the dogs.) Animal dealers also target such ads as sources of animals they later sell to laboratories for experiments.
If your local newspaper runs "free to a good home" ads, please contact the paper's editors, warn them about the dangers of these ads, and ask them to stop running them. And if you see such ads, call the number listed and urge the animals' guardians to take the animals to an animal shelter instead.
With the passing of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, animals and the people who care about them have lost a longstanding and true friend. The senior senator, who was a meat cutter in his youth, evolved into a tireless advocate for animals.
Sen. Byrd's soft spot for animals, fueled by his love for his little dog, Billy, was as legendary as the passionate speeches he often made on their behalf. No one who saw it can forget the speech he gave in response to the Michael Vick scandal, in which he condemned dogfighting as "Barbaric! Hear me! Barbaric!"
In 2001, Byrd gave a moving speech in defense of a bill addressing cruelty to farmed animals, saying,
"Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric. Six-hundred-pound hogs—they were pigs at one time—raised in 2-foot-wide metal cages called gestation crates, in which the poor beasts are unable to turn around or lie down in natural positions, and this way they live for months at a time. … These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain."
A year later, Sen. Byrd led an effort to convince the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide $5 million—a record amount—for improving enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act.
In 2005, Sen. Byrd coauthored the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which would prohibit the transport, purchase, and sale of horses for human consumption. Versions of the bill, now called The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, have been introduced every year since then, but have yet to pass both houses. As a tribute to Sen. Byrd, please urge your U.S. representatives to at last pass this important law.
PETA named Sen. Byrd our 2007 "Person of the Year" to recognize his defense of animals throughout six decades of public service. Sen. Byrd gave a powerful voice to those with none of their own. His passionate and inspiring dedication to helping animals will be sorely missed.
Written by Alisa Mullins
PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department is pushing hard to ensure that, if he is convicted, a West Virginia pet-store owner currently facing felony cruelty-to-animals charges never gets within arm's reach of an animal again.
Authorities reportedly found lots of dead animals, including kittens, a dog, a reptile, mice, and rats, during a search of 27-year-old Aaron Ashley's Pets Plus store in Fairmont, West Virginia, on February 9. Ashley allegedly chose to kill them via hypothermia when they got sick! He is also accused of starving animals and knowingly selling puppies infected with parvovirus, which is often deadly.
How many more examples does anyone need of the disgusting practices that are being unearthed in the backrooms at pet stores and animal dealers: Animals are bashed against floors and walls, stomped on, drowned, put into the freezer alive, and denied food, water, and even basic medical treatment for illness and injury. In 2008, a PETA undercover investigator videotaped a Fairfax, Virginia, Petland employee scooping live rat pups into a plastic bag and slowly freezing them to death. And at U.S. Global Exotics in Arlington, Texas, a few months ago, PETA's undercover investigator found that employees killed hundreds of sick, injured, and dying animals the same way.
And while this lot turns a buck churning out more animals, millions of dogs and cats die in animal shelters for lack of a good home. Please fight this cruelty by never buying anything from stores that sell animals, always adopting animals from shelters, and opening other people's eyes.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
As horrible as the findings were, our undercover investigation at Aviagen has proven to be the gift that keeps on giving—giving out indictments to those we caught on video abusing animals, that is.
Quick review: A PETA investigator went undercover on Aviagen's turkey factory farms in West Virginia and gathered evidence that workers broke turkeys' necks, stomped on their heads, and shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths. This evidence led to the first-ever indictments for felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds, and the first-ever cruelty convictions of turkey factory-farm workers.
Aviagen's farms are spread out over multiple counties in West Virginia, which means that workers were subject to prosecution in each county where they abused or neglected these intelligent, sensitive birds. The first indictments were handed down in Greenbrier County, and now further felony indictments have been issued in Monroe County against Walter Hambrick and Scott White. White was already convicted in Greenbrier County of the cruelty he committed there, and he went to jail. Hambrick—whose charges in Greenbrier County are still pending—now faces three more felonies just a few minutes down the road.
Of course, it's easy as (eggless, nondairy) pie to stop contributing to factory farm and slaughterhouse cruelty—like the kind at Aviagen, Belcross, AgriProcessors, Pilgrim's Pride, and too many others to mention—simply by going vegetarian.
Written by Jeff Mackey
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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