Written by Jeff Mackey
Update: In March, PETA reached out to Hainan Airlines, and representatives from the airline confirmed that its policy remains firm: It still does not ship primates to laboratories. In the written statement, Hainan Airlines representatives said that they "fully agree" with PETA on this issue and that they support our "effort in the protection of animal rights."
The following was originally posted on February 24, 2012:
Exciting news! Two more air carriers, TAM and Hainan Airlines, have announced that they will no longer transport primates for use in cruel laboratory experiments! PETA and other animal protection organizations put the pressure on the airlines after it was revealed that they were recently handling shipments of monkeys to laboratories in North America.
Richard Fisher | cc by 2.0
Now we're that much closer to stopping the transport of primates for use in experiments once and for all—but we're not there yet.
Please continue to tell the few remaining airlines that ship primates to laboratories—including Air France, China Eastern Airlines, and Continental Airlines—that cruelty should be grounded.
In the triumphant finale to a long, hard legal struggle over a suit filed by PETA and citizens of Guayama, Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts that the monkey-breeding facility built in Guayama by Bioculture, Inc., was constructed illegally and therefore cannot be opened for business!
The court also denied Bioculture's motion to reconsider the ruling. So, as Kathy Guillermo, PETA's vice president of laboratory investigations, put it, "The final nail is now in Bioculture's coffin, and the 4,000 monkeys and generations of their offspring who would have suffered and died for the company's profit have been officially spared."
Muchas gracias to everyone who helped put a stop to Bioculture's plan to capture monkeys from their homes in the wild, imprison them in cages, and then sell their offspring for use in painful and deadly experiments at notorious facilities such as Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Charles River Laboratories, and Covance.
Now, let's put another nail in the nasty monkey-pimping-and-torture coffin. Click here to urge airlines that still transport nonhuman primates to U.S. laboratories for cruel experiments to cut out the monkey business.
Written by PETA
It's no secret that the airline industry has been struggling to make ends meet—even the perennially profitable Hawaiian Airlines has hit some market turbulence lately. So PETA has reached out to Hawaiian with a win-win proposition: Make Hawaiian Airlines the official airline of sea kittens.
Hawaii is known for its "aloha spirit." What better way to extend love, compassion, and mercy than by standing with these smart, fascinating, and most misunderstood animals? If Hawaiian accepts our offer, the airline would be working to help change the public's perception of fish by giving these vastly underappreciated animals a new name and a new image that reflects their interesting personalities and remarkable intelligence. And PETA would promote Hawaiian to our friends (that would be you guys) as the airline of choice for sea kitten–friendly travelers.
In the meantime, if you want to wrap something (including yourself) in a pro–sea kitten message, check this out.
After hearing reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is planning to add 3,000 more dogs to those already sniffing out "bombs, drugs and smuggled cash," PETA fired off an urgent letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, asking that the dogs be adopted from shelters and breed-rescue groups, rather than bought from breeders.
If DHS rescued dogs from animal shelters, not only would it help curb the animal overpopulation crisis, it could also give dogs an opportunity for an exciting and fulfilling life. When dogs work with someone they like, they have a far better life than if they live in a crate and get a brief walk twice a day, for example. Some police officers hold retirement parties for their dogs, while others treat them like equipment. That's why we are also asking DHS to ensure that the dogs who are added to its forces are allowed to live in the homes of their trainers, trained with positive reinforcement, and retired properly if they fail the grade, get injured, or grow old. Please weigh in by contacting DHS and join us in asking Napolitano to require these animals to be treated like loyal companions—not like tools from a storage shed.
Security screeners at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport waved all three passengers through with their pet turtle in a carrying case. Gate officials welcomed them on their flight to Milwaukee. But as the plane pulled away from the gate and then turned back around, AirTran staff told the three young Helm sisters that their beloved turtle pal—a 2-inch baby red-eared slider named after Avatar princess Neytiri—was not allowed to fly in the cabin and that they had to dump her or get off the flight, literally.
Apparently the crew members even refused to watch the tiny animal for a few minutes to allow the girls' father time to dash back to the airport to pick her up. Instead, a staff member allegedly instructed the crying sisters to toss their tiny turtle into a trash can. The animal was initially presumed dead, but we have since learned that she narrowly escaped being crushed in a trash compactor after an airport employee took it upon herself to pluck the animal out of the trash and take her home. The Helm sisters and Neytiri are being reunited in Milwaukee today.
PETA wants to make sure that this never happens again. We have contacted AirTran CEO Robert Fornaro to ensure that the incident is investigated and that appropriate disciplinary action is taken. Please keep this horrific incident in mind the next time you choose an airline!
Written by Karin Bennett
When PETA caught wind of Air Canada's financial woes, we flew into action with a tempting offer that could help keep the company flying sky high and save thousands of seals from being slaughtered on Canada's ice floes each year. PETA V.P. Dan Mathews will meet with an Air Canada representative on September 11 to discuss giving the Air Canada planes that fly between Canada and the U.S. a makeover—by wrapping them in our anti–seal slaughter ad. Check it:
In April, we asked US Airways to deck out a few of the planes that it flies in and out of Vancouver, home turf of the 2010 Olympics. Though that proposal was rejected, we haven't given up. Got any high-flying ideas about where we could place this ad next? Share your brilliance below.
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
Those poor folks in the airline industry have been hit from all sides in recent years, from heightened security after 9/11 to ever-higher fuel prices. Now, there's more bad news for airlines from our neighbours to the north (for the geographically-challenged, that would be Canada—and did you notice how I spelled "neighbours" with a "u," like proud veggie Bryan Adams and other Canucks do?). The Canadian Supreme Court has just ruled that airlines have to provide an extra seat—free of charge—to morbidly obese passengers.
While the airlines may see this as a blow to their bottom lines, we hope they'll think of it as an opportunity instead. To wit: Bring back the veggie meals! And not just as an option, but for all passengers.
You see, adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters. So by putting veggie food on those seatback trays, the airlines can help keep their frequent flyers slim and healthy—and free up more seats for paying customers, as we suggested to the powers that be. You can see our full letter to Air Canada here.
Of course, even if you're not traveling by air this holiday season, it's good to know that there's a way to keep from carrying extra pounds into the new year. To learn more, check this out.
The company—whose reaction to the 2005 investigation was to use its lawyers to try and strongarm PETA and PETA Europe into removing the footage from the Web—was eventually cited for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act. In a separate case, five Covance facilities were cited by the USDA for instances of animal abuse, including deliberately starving a dog and depriving her of veterinary care. These guys are the world's largest breeders of dogs for experimentation, and you can bet that there were more horrors in store for the dogs made to suffer through the 28-hour-long trip in a Japan Airlines cargo hold. A Covance promotional pamphlet recently obtained by PETA shows dozens of beagles in rows of cages, with the tagline "Helping to bring miracles to market sooner."
Thanks to Covance, it's too late for these particular beagles, but we're asking Japan Airlines to follow the lead of Air Canada and other compassionate airlines by refusing to transport dogs and other animals to vivisection laboratories in future. No responsible business should associate with monsters like Covance, and we're working very hard to ensure that Japan Airlines gets that message. If you'd like to help out, you can write to the airline's CEO through this form.
"Everything that is alive is going to die someday (even you). What matters is the quality of life while something is alive. The fact that food animals are going to eventually die to feed humans doesn't mean that the quality of their lives is therefore irrelevant and should be ignored (since you are also mortal does the quality of your own life not matter either?). Quite the opposite. All sentient beings are worthy of being treated with respect and consideration IMO and that includes lobsters. Minimizing their pain is a worthy and admirable goal IMO. I admire Whole Foods for having animal welfare standards and for continually evolving them--and their ban on selling live lobsters is another positive evolutionary step on behalf of animals. . . .”
Amazing. You can check out the full story here.
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!