Ever wondered what it's like to take part in one of PETA's undercover investigations? Tune in to the Discovery Channel tonight, January 28, at 8 p.m. Eastern time for an episode of Extreme Smuggling that shines a light on the trafficking of exotic and endangered wildlife and the investigative work that's crucial to fighting this cruel and illicit trade in living beings.

The program will feature PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch, who will discuss PETA's seven-month undercover investigation of a massive international wholesale dealer of exotic animals, U.S. Global Exotics, Inc. (USGE). PETA's investigation led to the immediate closure of USGE, the largest animal seizure in U.S. history, and the pursuit of USGE's owner Jasen Shaw on federal charges of smuggling, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. Shaw remains a wanted fugitive.

Hundreds of thousands of animals of all kinds were cruelly confined, severely crowded, and denied basic necessities such as food, water, space, heat, and veterinary care during their time in USGE's filthy warehouse. Most animals' ultimate destination was stores such as PetSmart and PETCO, massive commercial chains that sell wild animals stolen from their native homes, imported into the U.S. from breeding warehouses overseas, or bred and sold by massive mills such as Atlanta-based Sun Pet and Rainbow World Exotics, a Texas-based dealer that bought animals from USGE and supplied animals to PETCO and PetSmart stores.

PETA's investigation led to the rescue of more than 26,000 animals from the USGE hellhole.

What You Can Do

Animals sold by PetSmart, PETCO, and other pet stores are wild-caught or bred in horrific conditions, leaving countless animals to endure a miserable life in captivity, deprived of all that is natural and important to them. Please buy your animal-care supplies only from stores that do not sell any live animals.

Update: Great news! The hellhole formerly known as "Angel's Gate, Inc.," has been shut down for good!

After PETA provided evidence that Angel's Gate had persistently failed to comply with reporting laws for nonprofits, the New York Attorney General's Office filed suit to dissolve Angel's Gate for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in donations without accounting for any of those funds, in alleged violation of state law.

The lawsuit's settlement prohibits Angel's Gate founder Susan Marino from caring for or harboring any animals other than her own “pets” and from being an officer or a director of an organization that holds charitable funds for 10 years. The settlement also requires that Angel's Gate provide all outstanding financial reports. The documents are to be closely examined to determine whether the money that well-meaning people sent to the organization was ever actually used to help animals or instead was misused.

PETA's undercover investigation of the Delaware County, New York, facility found shocking, systemic, severe, and fatal neglect of ailing and debilitated animals—but now, no animal will ever suffer again at Angel's Gate, as Tuxie, Malcolm, Scrappy, Mimi, Casey, Marley, Lexus, and countless others did over the years.  

Originally posted on November 7th, 2012:

There's some good news to report about the criminal prosecution of Angel's Gate founder Susan Marino on cruelty-to-animals charges following PETA's undercover investigation of the misery-filled hoarder warehouse, which posed as a "hospice and rehabilitation center." On November 7, Kortright, New York, Town Justice Yvonne Pagillo prohibited Marino from having any animals for six months, during which time the case is adjourned.

Since August 29, Marino and Angel's Gate have been banned from taking in any more animals or contributions, thanks to a lawsuit brought against them by the New York State Attorney General's Office. Let's hope the lawsuit's resolution shuts down Angel's Gate for good and that this hellhole's finances will be gone through with a fine-tooth comb for evidence of misuse of charitable funds.

Angel's Gate is not the only hellhole at which PETA investigators found suffering, death, and cruel conditions. Caboodle Ranch, Inc., was also a self-proclaimed "sanctuary" with a website that gives well-meaning people a false impression. Please help ensure that not another hard-earned dollar goes to cause, not relieve, animal suffering by urging the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to cancel the ability of Caboodle Ranch to solicit contributions.

Next month, thousands of bullocks, ponies, and horses in India will soon be forced to walk and run as far as 150 miles, hauling carts full of families and goods to the annual Chinchali Fair. Along the way, some of them will collapse from exhaustion, injuries, dehydration, and despair. Others will try to soldier on, enduring injuries from the heavy yoke, increasing lameness, and the sting of the whip.

Animal Rahat, an organization of veterinarians and relief workers funded by PETA, plans to set up stations along the route to and from the four-day fair to bring some measure of relief to animals in distress—and the group needs your help. 

The attention that each animal will receive from Animal Rahat may prove crucial. The veterinarians will bandage wounds, provide water and food, adjust or replace harnesses and straps that are causing pain, demand rest for those who are faltering, and give medical treatment to animals who would otherwise lack the most basic care.

What You Can Do

Have you ever had someone offer help at a moment when you needed it most? Making a gift to Animal Rahat is the perfect way to pay it forward—and with the fair only weeks away, now's the time!

The strain of months of neglect showed on the horses' emaciated frames and in their sunken eyes. Confined to muddy pens that had long since been grazed out, they could only stare at the grass out of reach beyond the fence. They continually checked their dry water troughs, hoping that the rainy Washington weather would leave them a sip of water. Two dogs on the property fared no better. They waited listlessly for the once-a-week drop-by from their owner, when they would finally get to eat.

People who lived near the property where the animals were kept had called law enforcement time and again to report that the seven horses and the dogs were being neglected.For months, officials had been trying to get the animals’ owner to improve their living conditions, but the situation was getting worse. Finally, a neighbor called PETA and, at our urging, law enforcement seized all the animals. Several community residents stepped up to foster the horses and help them recover and the local animal shelter took in the dogs. A veterinarian confirmed that one of them was a full 40 pounds underweight.

Now, the horses and dogs are eating well and regaining their strength. And PETA is working with the district attorney to get cruelty charges filed against the animals' neglectful owner and we will push for the court to ban her from owning any more animals.

When you mess with bears, sometimes you get hurt. Of course, PETA's "bear" didn't actually harm a hair on the heads of the animal abusers at Chief Saunooke Bear Park (CSBP) during a protest last weekend, but he and about two dozen of his friends did bite back against the cruelty at the vile roadside zoo.

PETA's protest comes less than a week after the release of the findings of our undercover investigation of CSBP that unearthed evidence of systemic neglect and abuse of bears (including shooting and eating one of them), threats of violence, illegal drug use, sexual harassment, and racism by the park's staff. We are calling for the closure of the hellish bear pits and the seizure of the surviving animals.

What You Can Do

If you didn't make it to the demonstration, don't worry—you can still help the bears suffering at CSBP by asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to confiscate all animals from the shabby roadside zoo immediately and place them in a suitable sanctuary.

A driver on a rural highway in Ohio spotted a dog lying on the side of the road. She stopped her car and got out to check on the dog but couldn't tell much about her condition, other than that she appeared to be breathing. The driver called PETA but unfortunately hadn't contacted local police or animal control and had left the scene instead of staying until help arrived.

PETA immediately contacted local authorities, but we were told that they had just one officer on duty, who would check on the dog "when he has time." So we sought help from our most valuable resource: our members. After a few phone calls and e-mails, we found a young woman, Jess, who was willing to drive the two hours from her home to go to the dog's aid.

When Jess found the pup, she was no longer lying by the roadway. Instead, she was running in the neighborhood nearby—and she wasn't alone. A male dog, who was likely trying to mate with her, was now at her side, and he growled every time Jess tried to approach. Undaunted, Jess began knocking on doors in the area and finally located the male dog's guardian. With the other dog safely out of the way, Jess could now try to catch the stray, but the wily dog kept dodging her. With night closing in, Jess knew she had to go home and try again in the daylight.

Before setting out again, Jess borrowed a trap from animal control and baited it with tempting food. The starving dog likely hadn't had a decent meal in days, and she was quickly lured into the trap—and into Jess' waiting arms. Jess took the pup to the local animal shelter, and as she headed back to her home, she was content in knowing that with just a few hours of her time, she had helped a forgotten dog get a chance at a home of her own. 

Can PETA call on you when an animal is suffering in your area? Join PETA's Action Team to help save animals when they need you most. 

In August 2012, PETA was contacted by a whistleblower who had been volunteering for several months as an animal care assistant for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator operating out of her Florida home. Cruelty Investigations Department staffers urged the whistleblower to document her report that ill, injured, and orphaned wild animals taken into the home were living in utter squalor and that the rehabilitator left animals to languish without food or water.

Wretched 'Rehab'

The shocking conditions depicted in footage taken by the whistleblower over the course of three weeks included the following:

• A hairless baby raccoon was lying on top of a scale, inside a cluttered office without heat or bedding. Two days later, the same animal, then near death, was in the same place.
• Numerous baby squirrels, rabbits, and raccoons were stashed inside boxes or on top of the boxes with no obvious heat source. Later, the animals were in the same spots, badly dehydrated and dying—or dead.
• A live juvenile squirrel was wrapped inside a plastic bag and stashed behind several boxes.
• The rehabber's refrigerator contained, at times, 30 or more unwrapped bodies of juvenile rabbits, squirrels, and raccoons inside the door and in tubs.
• A barred owl was stranded in a bathtub, surrounded by her own waste.
• Turtles were kept for days inside boxes that didn't appear to have been opened, with no sign that the animals were provided with food or water.
• A river otter was housed in a small pen with only a little kid's pool as a source of water for drinking and swimming.
• About a dozen deer were penned inside a debris-strewn yard amid trash, animal crates, construction materials, and a boat.

Demanding Justice

PETA alerted state and federal wildlife officials, sparking an investigation whose findings corroborated the whistleblower's reports and led to the confiscation of numerous suffering turtles, tortoises, and birds.

With PETA pushing for action, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission filed 23 charges against the rehabber for animal neglect, improper animal housing, and unsanitary conditions. The state attorney's office also charged her with one count of maintaining wildlife in unsanitary conditions.

Following a plea bargain, the woman ceased the pretense of rehabilitating animals, and the survivors were removed from her care for release back into the wild or transfer to other facilities better equipped to meet their needs.

What You Can Do

Even well-meaning animal rescuers can become overwhelmed. Worse, many out-of-control hoarders use rescue as a pretext, causing massive suffering for the animals who fall into their hands. If you become aware of animals suffering in a supposed rescue or rehab facility, please document conditions with a camera or camera phone and report the perpetrators to local authorities. 

It's a happy new year for ducks and geese after Great Britain's House of Lords pulled foie gras from its restaurant menus. PETA U.K. had appealed to the lords, pointing out that it was entirely inappropriate to be serving a dish that is so cruel that it is illegal to produce in the U.K. Baroness Young of Hornsey responded by saying, "Just as we do not tolerate cruelty to dogs or cats, so we should reject inflicting pain and suffering on birds."

In the foie gras farm exposé that he narrated for PETA, Sir Roger Moore explains that workers ram hard metal pipes down ducks' and geese's throats several times a day and force-feed them grain, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. The pipes sometimes puncture the birds' throats, and many animals suffer from ruptured internal organs, fungal and bacterial infections, and liver failure. Those who survive the traumatic force-feeding process are slaughtered, and their diseased livers are sold as a "delicacy." This is obviously a highly traumatic, recurring experience for the birds, who stop grooming and withdraw, shaking, into the far reaches of their pens if they can.

The House of Lords joins countless other high-profile British venues in banning foie gras from the menu, including the House of Commons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Wimbledon, Lord's Cricket Ground, high-end retailer Harvey Nichols, and all the residences of His Royal Highness Prince Charles.

When a young couple on vacation in Florida decided to take a leisurely afternoon stroll through a park, they had no idea that they were about to save a life. But that's exactly what happened.

The pair came upon a duck sitting in the grass who didn't attempt to waddle away or even stand up as they neared. On closer inspection, they saw why. The duck's left leg was broken and was dangling limply from his body. Unable to move, he stared helplessly up at them.

The couple called PETA for help, and we quickly contacted a reputable wildlife rehabilitator nearby. The rehabilitator rushed to the park while the couple waited with the duck. Within an hour of the couple's worried phone call, the injured duck was out of harm's way and headed to get help.

Often, saving an animal's life is just that easy.

HBO canceled its troubled horse-racing series Luck amid PETA's protests over horse deaths on the set, and the bad luck continues for the show's creators. Now HBO and the show's producer, Stewart Productions, have been hit with a lawsuit charging that they willfully allowed horses to be abused and attempted to cover it up. 

Paolo Camera | cc by 2.0

The plaintiff in the suit is Barbara Casey, who worked for the American Humane Association (AHA) and was assigned to monitor animal welfare on the set of Luck. In her claim Casey asserts that HBO and Stewart Productions pressured the AHA to allow them to ignore animal safety standards in order to save time and money. Casey alleges that she balked at the idea but that her superiors sided with the show and ignored her desire to report abuse to law enforcement. Casey's claim also alleges that underweight and sick horses were routinely forced to work, that horses were often drugged, and that producers went so far as to misidentify horses so that animal safety representatives wouldn't be able to track down their accurate medical histories. Casey is also suing the AHA for wrongful termination on the grounds that her desire to report the criminal activity led to her dismissal.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Casey's lawsuit argues that "AHA bowed to political and financial pressure and refused to report the Production Defendants' conduct to the authorities. … AHA instructed Plaintiff not to report such conduct. AHA engaged in efforts to conceal and cover up the production defendants' criminal activities."

The law-enforcement investigation that PETA pushed for is still ongoing as well and could result in cruelty-to-animals charges.