After hearing from PETA, a Brooklyn gallery quickly canceled plans to present a demonstration in which frogs would be cruelly injected with women's urine and also given away to event attendees. PETA decried the needless suffering of the frogs involved and called for the gallery to abandon the demonstration.

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Lacking Compassion and Common Sense

The gallery, Proteus Gowanus, had planned to host an exhibit in which an anthropologist would invite women to watch as he injected their urine into two African clawed frogs, replicating an archaic pregnancy test. The frogs would be injected as many as 60 times each, resulting in significant pain and distress. Animal pregnancy tests were long ago replaced with better non-animal methods.

The anthropologist was also going to give away five frogs to exhibition attendees so that the women could perform the test in their own homes—with no guarantee that the frogs would not be mistreated, killed, or released into the wild, where a fungus that African clawed frogs carry that kills other species of frogs could wreak havoc on wild amphibian populations.

Making a Statement

After learning about the gallery's plans, PETA immediately called on the gallery to cancel the exhibition and was in the process of filing a cruelty complaint with local authorities, issuing an action alert, and calling in amphibian experts—but this turned out to be unnecessary as the cruel and risky demonstration and giveaway were quickly replaced by a lecture.

The moral of the story? Cruelty to animals may occur in unexpected places—but wherever we see it, we must never be silent.

It's spring! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the dueling robins I saw on my way to work this morning are a sign that it's mating season. With animals across the country looking for love, a $150,000 grant awarded by the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Transportation Enhancements Grant Committee (TEGC) couldn't have come at a better time. The Monkton Conservation Commission in Vermont plans to use the grant to install a "salamander crossing" under Monkton's Vergennes Road, which the state's leading reptile and amphibian expert describes as "one of the most important of the known amphibian crossings in the state." This passage will offer amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals a safe way to travel between uplands southeast of the road and an important swamp northwest of the crossing—by helping them avoid the dangers that claim the lives of millions of animals who become roadkill every year in the U.S. For recognizing that all animals deserve consideration and protection, PETA is giving the Vermont Agency of Transportation a Compassionate Action Award.

With "ecopassages" (both under and above roads) popping up all over the country—including Massachusetts' salamander tunnels and California's cougar corridors—animals everywhere are having an easier time traveling, getting food, and mating. Have you spotted any ecopassages in your community?

Written by Logan Scherer