Great Britain has united against circuses that force wild animals to perform. With the vast majority of the British public behind them, the members of Parliament voted unanimously to ban wild-animal acts in circuses in England and Wales. 

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Pressure has been mounting for the past few years for the government to make this historic move, particularly after animal rights advocates released an undercover video that showed a groom at Bobby Roberts Super Circus who kicked an Asian elephant named Anne and beat her with a pitchfork. PETA U.K. kept up the anti-circus momentum, with demonstrations, ads, newspaper articles, and action alerts asking its members to e-mail the prime minister. Now Britons can pop a cork and celebrate the fact that legislation to ban all wild animals from circuses is passing through Parliament, meaning no more wild animals will be torn from their homes and families, denied everything that is natural and important to them, confined to tiny boxcars or cages, and forced to perform demeaning and painful tricks for human amusement.

Circuses in England and Wales will go on—but with talented human performers who are there by choice.

We aren't there yet in the U.S.—but the time is coming. Check out PETA's guide "Steps to Take When the Circus Comes to Town" for ideas on how to help. England and Wales are ending these cruel acts, and we can, too.

Following reports from whistleblowers that a whitetip shark died during the production of a Kmart commercial, PETA is urging the chain to investigate the incident immediately and to adopt a policy against using wild animals in its ads. According to the whistleblowers, the 5-foot shark was flown from New York to Los Angeles on March 6 and placed in a small above-ground pool in Van Nuys, California. Human actors repeatedly jumped in and out of the pool during the shoot, which likely caused the animal to stress. 

PETA was told that The American Humane Association (AHA), which approved the script and was on set, allowed shooting to continue for about an hour after the shark began exhibiting signs of stress. The shark was then reportedly taken out of the pool and died later that day.  

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Sharks are delicate animals who, in captivity, require a highly specialized and controlled environment. Sharks have exceptional sensory systems that allow them to detect minute electrical fields and sense low-frequency sounds and vibrations. The noise and chaos of a commercial shoot is a very stressful environment for these sensitive animals.  

Animatronic and CGI sharks have been in use for nearly 40 years in films such as Jaws, Bait 3D, Deep Blue Sea, and Shark Night. In addition to urging Kmart to adopt a policy against using wild animals in its commercials, PETA is contacting the AHA regarding its failure to protect the shark. 

One animal death is one too many. 

We love Jimmy Fallon around here. He's funny but not mean, has a keen musical sense, and is still boyishly charming. He's totally adorbs. So what's not to like? Well, there is one thing we'd change—and PETA has sent Jimmy a letter explaining why.

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For some inexplicable reason, a frequent guest on Late Night has been animal exhibitor Jeff Musial. Unlike the amiable Mr. Fallon, Musial is unlikeable, disrespectful, and clearly more interested in scaring Jimmy and giving the audience cheap laughs than taking care of the animals he treats like props. Musial handles the animals roughly, causing them additional anxiety in an already stressful situation.

So, what gives, Jimmy? After staying up late to watch you, we want to go to bed with a smile, not toss and turn with nightmares about cruelty to animals. And we're not alone: PETA has received many complaints from viewers who were upset by how Musial mishandles terrified animals. We really hope that you'll make the compassionate decision never again to feature Musial's squalid animal act on Late Night.

What You Can Do

Animals and showbiz go together like gasoline and matches—a disaster waiting to happen. Please never support any animal act by buying a ticket.

Following PETA's release last week of disturbing whistleblower reports of 27 animal deaths during the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we have asked authorities in New Zealand, where The Hobbit was filmed, to investigate and pursue appropriate criminal charges if warranted.

The five whistleblowers, all wranglers who worked on the film set, allege the following:

• Two geldings ran a pony named Rainbow off an embankment in the paddock that they were all housed in. The next morning, Rainbow was found still alive and suffering, with his neck and back broken, and had to be euthanized.
• A horse named Doofus was housed with two geldings even though they had already injured the pony. He was subsequently found tangled in the fence, the skin and muscles torn from his leg, surrounded by hoofprints that indicated a fight.
• A horse named Clare was run over a bank by other horses in her paddock, most likely because there was not sufficient space or grass for them all. She was found with her neck broken and her head submerged in the river.
• A horse named Zeppelin died suddenly after displaying symptoms of colic, which can result from feeding grain to a horse who isn't accustomed to it. Zeppelin's typical diet was grass and hay, but he was fed grain on the set.
• A horse named Shanghai was hobbled (his legs were tied together so that he couldn't move) and left lying on the ground for more than three hours. The resulting rope burns were covered up for filming. Hobbling is a violation of the guidelines of the American Humane Association (AHA), the agency that monitors the treatment of animals on film and television productions.
• A horse named Molly became tangled in wire fencing in her paddock, tearing the skin and muscle from her leg.
• Numerous goats and sheep died from worm infestations and from falling into sinkholes. 
• Twelve chickens were killed by dogs who weren't properly supervised.

Reportedly, the AHA monitors who were supposed to be ensuring the animals' safety were overly friendly with the head trainer—who was himself distracted by other projects—and the AHA was absent for many of the animal sequences. Allegedly, three horses died before the AHA investigated and recommended improvements in housing. The wranglers also report that they voiced their concerns to the unit production manager but were ignored.

In September, PETA contacted the AHA about reported problems on The Hobbit set, but we've yet to receive a response. PETA wrote to director Peter Jackson to find out what, if anything, he knew about the animals' deaths during production. The man who brought us the superb computer-generated imagery (CGI) that won him our Proggy (for "progress") Award for King Kong has the ability to make the animals and other interesting creatures in his movies 100 percent CGI, and PETA calls on him to do so again.

In the age of Oscar-winning digital effects, there is no reason why a single animal should suffer for a film. Join PETA in urging Jackson to continue to use cutting-edge CGI and give his assurance that no animal will ever suffer again for one of his movies.

Animal advocates, it's time to break out the bubbly. After pressure from PETA and tens of thousands of our members and supporters, NBC has pulled the plug on its cruel show, Animal Practice. Here's the celebration in progress at PETA's Bob Barker Building in L.A.:

The only thing funny about this "sitcom" was its laughable ratings. By not tuning in, viewers told NBC that they weren't interested in watching animals dressed up and made to perform cheap tricks—animals who had been torn away from their mothers as babies and subjected to cruel training methods and unnatural living conditions.

Even before the first episode aired, PETA showed NBC that if the network wanted to broadcast cruelty, it was going to have a rocky road ahead of it. We wrote to NBC and the show's producers and explained how wild animals suffer in the entertainment industry. We kept the heat on by asking advertisers to pull their support, organizing demonstrations, sending an urgent action alert to our members and supporters, and enlisting primate experts to speak out about how the portrayal of monkeys as "pets" leads irresponsible people to acquire them on a whim. And it worked.

NBC will air the three remaining episodes of Animal Practice that have already been filmed. Then viewers can rest assured that cruelty to animals won't be part of the Wednesday night TV lineup.

Cheers!

On the heels of a Los Angeles Times report about whistleblowers' allegations that oversight failures may have led to animal injuries and deaths during film and TV productions, PETA was joined by Hollywood animal advocates Bob Barker and Sam Simon for a news conference calling for immediate action to protect animals.

Report: Horses Died on Hobbit Set

PETA was flooded with complaints from whistleblowers after we released leaked information earlier this year about the deaths of horses on the set of HBO's Luck. The complaints that we've received include an incident in which a horse and rider were allegedly swept downstream in a scene from the upcoming film The Lone Ranger and the deaths of three horses on the set of The Hobbit. Many of the alleged incidents reportedly involved pressure from industry figures to put animals at risk in a wide range of movie and TV productions, including some that are still being filmed.

Giving Meaning to 'No Animals Harmed' Ratings

During the news conference at PETA's Bob Barker Building in Los Angeles, legendary The Price Is Right host Barker and The Simpsons co-creator Simon backed PETA's appeal for the American Humane Association (AHA)—the organization assigned to monitor the use of animals on TV and film sets—to launch an immediate investigation into the allegations. To ensure that the AHA's ratings have any meaning, PETA presented a series of recommendations for an overhaul of the monitoring system, including the following:

• Banning the use of great apes in all productions and requiring that all films using great apes receive an "Unacceptable" rating
• Using animal-safety representatives who are experts on the species whose use they will be monitoring
• Requiring a representative to be present every time an animal is used in order to grant an AHA rating
• Ensuring that representatives report all animal welfare concerns to the production team and that they stop production if an animal could possibly be harmed. Incidents of cruelty must be reported to law-enforcement authorities as well.
• Prohibiting the use of bullhooks, whips, electrical shock devices, and other weapons

Producers, directors, and writers must also do their part. They must make sure that animal trainers with U.S. Department of Agriculture violations are not employed, that scenes aren't written that would endanger horses and wild animals, and that computer-generated imagery, animatronics, and other technology are used to replace animals. Animals should never have to die for our entertainment.

You can help horses, great apes, and other animals used in the entertainment industry by contacting the AHA right now. Use the form below to urge the AHA to swiftly implement a plan to protect all animal "actors."

PETA has sent an urgent letter to the board of directors of the American Humane Association (AHA) detailing reported allegations of incidents—some of them fatal—and lack of proper oversight involving animals on more than a dozen recent or current film and television productions purportedly monitored for animal safety by the AHA, as related to PETA by whistleblowers. PETA is asking the AHA to investigate the allegations and, if they prove to be valid, to fix any problems that allowed them to occur.

Were Animals Harmed?

The AHA is the organization—known for its "No Animals Were Harmed" statement seen in film credits—tasked by Hollywood with monitoring the use of animals on TV and film sets. But it is not clear that this statement means what it seems to say. The deaths of horses on the set of HBO's Luck made it clear that AHA involvement didn't mean that animals were safe. After PETA took that matter public, the series was canceled—and PETA was contacted with reports about several other productions where animals allegedly died or were injured or put at risk. If the reports are substantiated, some of the problems could have been averted. Some of the assertions allege that AHA's management ignored problems or even helped set up the filming of sequences that were potentially dangerous for animals.

The productions about which concerns were conveyed to PETA include Moonrise Kingdom, Boardwalk Empire, The Hobbit, Failure to Launch, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Lone Ranger, and others. PETA was informed that the AHA ratings of some films do not reflect what occurred on set, that "Acceptable" ratings have been given when not all animal action was monitored, and that ratings were changed when the AHA feared information about problems on the set would be leaked. Some of the reported incidents allegedly resulted in injuries to animals and even their deaths.

Whether or not the whistleblowers' claims are verified or if the AHA institutes reforms, AHA ratings are based only on the short period of time when animals are on the set—they don't reveal anything about how the animals were trained or the conditions in which they live.

What You Can Do

There is no reason to use animals as "actors" when animation, blue screen, computer-generated imagery, and other advanced technologies can produce realistic substitutes. If you see a movie that uses animals in an improper way or portrays animals disrespectfullly, walk out, and tell the theater manager that you'd like a refund and why. For television shows or commercials, express your objections to network representatives or the advertised company.

This time, the sad news comes from Japan: Pan-kun, a well-known chimpanzee from the Aso Cuddly Dominion Zoo who is forced to dress in costumes and perform for gawking audiences, erupted in frustration after a show and violently attacked a student trainee. Pan-kun remains at the zoo but has been "retired" from performing. The young woman has been hospitalized.

Because chimpanzees, monkeys, and other nonhuman primates remind us of ourselves, we're fascinated to observe them—but incarcerating exotic animals far from their natural environment and society can result in unpredictable and dangerous behavior.

We hardly needed yet another example of how the growing frustration of wild animals who are held captive and made to do stupid tricks for our amusement under the threat of physical punishment turns them into ticking time bombs. But here it is. And there'll be more so long as we keep compelling smart, sensitive, and complex animals to entertain us against their will.

What You Can Do

You can help. Sign PETA's pledge never to support film and television productions that exploit great ape "actors."

For decades, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) illegally and quietly issued captive-bred wildlife permits—allowing circuses, roadside zoos, and others to harm, harass, and wound captive-bred endangered species and making it almost impossible to challenge these abuses. For example, one federal judge wouldn't allow a former Ringling Bros. circus employee and a coalition of animal protection groups to challenge Ringling's beating and chaining of captive-bred elephants because Ringling had a captive-bred wildlife permit.

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PETA sued the FWS in August 2011 over its decision to secretly issue one such permit and ignore a requirement that the public be notified of all permit applications. We asked the court to require the FWS to make those applications publicly available and to consider public comments before making a decision about whether to approve any application.

PETA prevailed in the lawsuit—the agency agreed to do just that and to pay PETA's attorney fees. This victory will make it easier for PETA to keep a closer eye on animals bred in captivity by Ringling, SeaWorld, Have Trunk Will Travel, and other animal abusers. It also enables PETA to weigh in on permit applications and bring legal challenges against permits that are improperly issued.

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What You Can Do

To learn more about helping captive animals, head over to the "Animals Used for Entertainment" section of PETA.org.

After PETA just filed formal complaints about horse abuse and neglect on the set of the HBO show Luck, we've placed this graphic ad in the Los Angeles Times:

Image:(c) iStockphoto.com/Eric Isselee

Like all other animals, horses don't want to be "actors," and they are often subjected to stressful and dangerous situations during the production of films, ads, and TV shows. The American Humane Association (AHA), the organization responsible for overseeing how animals are cared for on the set, is funded by the Screen Actors Guild—part of the same industry that it monitors. The AHA rarely, if ever, files formal complaints when animals are abused.

We hope our ad encourages producers and directors to protect horses by calling, "Cut!" on using them in films and television.