Written by PETA
Much to the dismay of struggling addicts in the Wolverine State, the Michigan Tobacco Quit Line has been shut down until October 1 because it just couldn't financially keep up with the requests for nicotine replacement therapy products.
As an organization that helps people fight another addiction (meat addiction, that is) we feel the quit line's pain.
That's why, after hearing about the help line's financial woes, we wrote a letter to the director of the Department of Community Health in Michigan offering to team up and help cover the hotline's costs. Our proposal includes renaming the quit line The Cancer Prevention Hotline (because that's the point, isn't it?) and including copies of PETA's free "Vegetarian Starter Kit" along with the other distributed materials.
Are you a smoker who needs another reason to quit? Did you know that most cigarettes are tested on animals? Gross.
Written by Shawna Flavell
Longtime PETA supporter Judith Yeargin fought hard not only in her 30-year battle against breast cancer but also against the use of animals in experiments. That's why Judith, who died on March 2, left her body to the New York University Langone Medical Center (NYUMC) She hoped to spare some of the countless animals who are sickened and maimed during painful, deadly, and wasteful experiments.
Judith was a tireless crusader for animals. She attended countless protests and helped raise money to build a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic. Everywhere she went, she always kept an eye out for animals in distress. She rescued several strays during her travels, including a cat in France who had been hit by a car. Judith rushed the cat to the vet for immediate care while Judith searched for her guardian. While on vacation in Italy, Judith rescued a dog and wouldn't rest until she found the animal a good home. In France, she rescued another dog named Lucky, who accompanied her back home to Manhattan and lived to a ripe old age. When her elderly dog, Daffodil, was ill, Judith even managed to drag herself out of her sick bed just two weeks before her death to take Daffy to the vet. Daffodil was another of Judith's many rescues, adopted as a puppy from a local shelter after Judith heard on the news that Daffodil had been thrown into a trash compactor.
By donating her body to NYUMC, Judith not only promoted awareness about the suffering endured by animals in laboratories but also contributed to legitimate scientific research into breast cancer. Experiments on animals are not an accurate reflection of the effects of cancer in humans. It's bad science, and cancer patients deserve the best that medicine can offer.
"Judith never turned her back on any animal in need," says her dear friend, Lia. "[S]he just felt it was unethical to use animals and better if the science community could learn something from her body rather than cause pain and suffering to animals."
A great way to honor Judith Yeargin and other cancer victims is by refusing to support cancer charities that fund animal experiments and by purchasing only from companies that refuse to test their products on animals.
Written by Liz Graffeo
Have you recently gone vegetarian? Maybe you still eat meat but are looking for a lifestyle change to benefit your health and save animals' lives? Well, if you have been served grilled chicken or processed meats, you have a rare opportunity to fight for animals.
As some of you may know, the consumption of processed meats—such as sausage, bacon, and hot dogs—has been linked to colon cancer. Many folks are also surprised to learn that grilled chicken breast contains a cancer-causing chemical called PhlP. Unfortunately, food outlets that sell grilled chicken and processed meats are not warning consumers of the risk that their products pose.
The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is trying to bring manufacturers and sellers of hot dogs, sausage, grilled chicken, and similar foods that are linked with cancer to court in order to force them to put up warnings to notify consumer of the health risk of their products. PCRM is currently doing a nationwide search to find plaintiffs for this lawsuit … and that's where you come in! You could be a part of this unusual and exciting opportunity to help animals if you meet the following criteria:
If you do meet the above criteria and would like to assist PCRM with this lawsuit, please contact PCRM today at rbernstein@pcrm.org or 202-686-2210, extension 314. Best of luck to you and your colon!
Written by Sean Conner
We are so pleased to report that—thanks to your hard work—two important ballot initiatives passed yesterday, making history for animals. California voters approved Proposition 2 by a large majority, which will ban some of the worst cruelty to animals who are raised for food in that state: keeping egg-laying chickens in battery cages so small that they can't spread their wings, keeping veal calves in crates for their entire miserable short lives, and keeping pregnant pigs in crates that are so small that they can't take a step forward or backward or turn around. Animals on farms in California will be given these basic necessities by 2015, but we will continue to spread the message that the best thing that people can do to help animals is stop eating them altogether.
On the other side of the country, Question 3 passed, which will ban greyhound racing in the state of Massachusetts by 2010. Dogs who are used for racing typically spend 20 hours per day confined to cages measuring only 32 in. by 42 in. by 34 in. Many of the dogs can't even stand completely upright. The animals are also highly susceptible to injuries, including fractures, dislocations, lacerations, and amputations. And because they're no longer of use to the industry after they are injured, injured dogs are often simply killed.
The impact of both of these important initiatives is tremendous for the millions of animals whose lives will be affected by them. Our heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of you who worked toward their passage. We really are making a difference.
Written by Joel Bartlett
So, the president and CEO of Seattle-based Attachmate has found himself knee-deep in bison dung. No, really!
Software executive Jeff Hawn apparently warned the neighbors of his Colorado home to keep the bison off his property or else … and he meant it. According to CNN, Jeff alleged in a lawsuit that "the animals knocked his satellite television dishes off line and left poop, tracks, and hair on 'pristine pasture on rolling hills.'" Well, Mr. Hawn, maybe that's because they're … um … bison, and bison, well, have been known to walk around and poop, as shocking as that is. And it was their land, their home, before it was your land, your sprawling second luxury home.
Nine days after he filed this absurd suit, CNN reports, the first shots were fired and eventually the remains of 32 bison were found on Hawn's property. Law enforcement later found out that 14 hunters got a letter from Hawn giving them total permission to hunt the bison on his property. However, I'm guessing that he forgot about that whole "open range" law that Colorado has. Livestock can roam wherever they want, and if people don't want them around, they're encouraged to build a fence, not blow their brains out.
Luckily, money can't buy everything, and this lovely fellow has found himself smack dab in the middle of criminal court, charged with theft and 32 counts of aggravated animal cruelty. But now here's the kicker—one of Hawn's attorneys said that Hawn "had no other choice" but to get rid of the bison so that he could protect himself.
No other choice?!!?? The man is CEO of a major corporation and doesn’t know about options.
Well, luckily, the rest of Fairplay, Colorado, is outraged, as are we. Comment and tell us what you think about this mess of a situation, and we'll be sure to keep you updated.
Written by Christine Doré
Have you heard about this? It’s a pretty amazing story out of the UK about researchers at Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London, who developed a unique three-dimensional model of human breast cancer in a test tube. Pretty cool.
This development has the potential to save countless animals from horrible suffering, and it also has amazing potential to save human lives, since the results will actually be applicable to curing cancer in humans, unlike animal experiments.
Hats off to the Queen Mary’s researchers who came up with this exciting new breakthrough. It puts us one step closer to a world without animal testing . . .
For those of you who haven't heard of him, Gordon Ramsay runs a restaurant and hosts a TV show in England, where celebrity chefs are worshipped as a form of minor deity. Despite having only 5 TV channels for the entire country, the Brits have more cooking shows even than they have antiques shows, and they have the highest number of celebrity chefs per capita in the entire world. So in England, Gordon Ramsay is a kind of a big deal. He’s also a cold-hearted animal hater—which is where PETA UK comes in to the story. Evidently, Mr. Ramsay’s latest stunt has been to encourage British people to eat more horse meat, even going so far as to feature a horse-meat barbeque on his show, The F-Word. PETA UK’s response to his antics was as swift as it was smelly, and the pictures of their horse-manure dump outside Gordon’s restaurant this morning have been going everywhere in the British media. You can check out some of the press coverage here.
You may remember that we kicked off our KFC Campaign a few years ago after an undercover investigator at a KFC Supplier of the Year in Moorefield, West Virginia, discovered workers throwing live birds against walls, kicking them like soccer balls, and spitting tobacco juice into their eyes. Well, one of our investigators just returned from yet another KFC Supplier of the Year—this one in Butterfield, Missouri, owned by George's, Inc.—where he found exactly the same kind of sadism and workplace "accidents" that amount to nothing short of torture.
This is, quite literally, the best that KFC has to offer: Birds impaled by transport cages, kicked and thrown around by workers, and crushed to death in dumping machines. George’s has been warned that they need to be very careful how they respond to this investigation, as this is a time to address the severe deficiencies that have been exposed in their operation, not to retreat behind a mask of PR and damage control tactics. You can read our letter to the company here. And you can click here to sign our petition asking KFC to just, for God’s sake, stop allowing its suppliers to get away with this cruelty. Here’s our interview with the investigator:
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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