Written by PETA
All animal abuse is despicable, but some abuses are so outrageously dumb and mind-blowingly cruel that I can only guess that they were thought up by drunk, heartless buffoons trying to "out-cruel" each other in a bar bet. Case in point:
"Entrepreneurs" in Southern Russia could face two years in jail for animal abuse after allegedly forcing a donkey to parasail over the Sea of Azov. Horrified beachgoers reported that the terrified donkey screamed nonstop—the animal was so high in the air that crying children asked why a "doggie" was tied to a parachute. But as a police spokesperson noted, "No one had the brains to call police."
The donkey's terrifying ordeal didn't end there: After crash-landing in the water, she was dragged behind a boat for several meters before she was finally pulled out of the water, barely alive.
Police are investigating the incident, which has made headlines all over the world and prompted an international outcry. Please make sure that officials at the Russian Embassy hear from you too.
Written by Karin Bennett
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!
Mark Twain may be famous for his love of steamboats and jumping frogs, but some people may not be aware that he was also staunchly opposed to experiments on animals. He once wrote the following in a letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society:
"I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further. It is so distinctly a matter of feeling with me, and is so strong and so deeply-rooted in my make and constitution, that I am sure I could not even see a vivisector vivisected with anything more than a sort of qualified satisfaction."
In honor of Twain's spirited defense of frightened animals who are caged and killed in laboratories, PETA has presented its first Mark Twain Ethical Science Award to the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS), a nonprofit organization that has worked with scientists from hundreds of companies to design testing programs that replace tests on animals. PETA has donated more than $500,000 over the past decade to fund IIVS' work to develop non-animal tests.
In one case, IIVS developed a rapid screening method that allowed a company to eliminate the use of 750 rabbits per year, while almost doubling the number of products that the company was able to test each year. IIVS also works closely with regulators such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on non-animal testing strategies. With partial funding from PETA U.K., IIVS was instrumental in obtaining European Union approval of a non-animal skin irritation test as well as the first stand-alone non-animal eye irritancy test for certain classes of chemicals.
We think that Mark Twain would have been proud to have his name on an award recognizing IIVS for saving thousands of unconsenting animals.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Thanks to the efforts of compassionate people like Keely and Pierce Brosnan—and the many PETA Files readers who voiced their concerns (We love you guys!)—an attempt to end the moratorium on commercial whaling was defeated during the meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco. This move is all the more impressive in the wake of news reports detailing the desperate attempts of Japanese representatives to manipulate the outcome, from applying backroom pressure to paying poor countries to vote on their side!
While this is good news, it's not yet time to pop those champagne corks. Whales still face huge threats, from spewing oil (and oil development) to miserable lives in captivity to—as any fan of Whale Wars knows—killer nations that subvert (or just ignore) the international ban on whaling. So while we have momentum on our side, let's keep the efforts going until all whales are free to live their natural lives! Thank you for your role in all this.
Written by Jeff Mackey
It's not often that we use the word "great" to describe anything involving vivisectors, but a recent development involving a petition filed by PETA and Madison-based Alliance for Animals against sheep experimenters at University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison is just that: Circuit Court Judge Amy Smith has determined that nine individuals may face criminal penalties for conducting excruciating and deadly decompression experiments on sheep.
You might remember that PETA and Alliance for Animals joined forces to petition for prosecution after a district attorney shrugged off his own findings that UW-Madison had indeed violated state law using decompression to kill sheep. The D.A. apparently decided that it wasn't worth his time and effort to pursue charges.
After reviewing our petition, Judge Smith decided that animal experimenters are not above the law, determining "that probable cause exists to conclude that certain named individuals … violated [a state law prohibiting the use of decompression to kill animals], either directly or as party to a crime." That means that both the vivisectors and those who assisted them with their experiments may face criminal or civil prosecution. In her 24-page decision, Judge Smith also wrote, "[T]he University has apparently engaged in behavior resulting in the above-described animal deaths for years," and noted that "it may well continue to decompress animals to death contrary to law, unless I take action." She has appointed a special prosecutor to determine whether to bring charges against the nine UW-Madison employees.
Considering that this is possibly the second time that a judge has found probable cause for criminal charges—the first was PETA's landmark Silver Spring Monkeys case—it's no wonder that news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and others are buzzing about this important development.
We'll keep you in the loop on future developments as they happen, but we—and animals—are depending your efforts to help stop animal experimentation.
Back in the '80s, when many people still thought that PETA was a Middle Eastern bread, a funny actor from Oklahoma became our first champion in Hollywood and helped establish the organization as a household name. She was Rue McClanahan, the flirty "Golden Girl," and she became so active that she was PETA's honorary director for almost three decades.
I was still PETA's receptionist when I wrote to Rue and asked if she would star in our first anti-fur commercial. You can imagine my delight when I answered the phone to hear Rue say that not only would she do it, she had gotten Bea Arthur and Betty White to appear, too, and had even convinced the producers to film it for us free of charge on the set after one of their Friday-night tapings. From then on, Rue became a key PETA operative in Hollywood as well as a personal friend; she even let me use her dressing room as a makeshift office, as PETA had no office in L.A. back then. I left my post at the reception desk and started developing campaigns with high-profile personalities thanks in large part to Rue's enthusiasm.
Growing up in the country, Rue had always been shocked to see the glee that many people derive from hunting and fishing—and she had been mocked for her concern—so she felt relieved to get involved with an organization that made no apologies about defending all animals. After winning an Emmy, Rue did the talk-show circuit and always found a way to discuss her PETA activism, telling viewers, with that gracious smile, that not only was she anti-fur, she also opposed animal experimentation. In Salt Lake City, she took time off from the Touched By an Angel set to host PETA's video for a landmark factory farm cruelty case. In Las Vegas, she led a protest outside a furriers' convention. In Virginia, she launched PETA's mobile spay-and-neuter clinic. And in New York, she hosted a saucy PETA benefit at Chippendales. One muggy summer, she returned to Oklahoma, where PETA had filmed elephant trainers beating animals who were performing in the circus, to screen that footage at the state capitol and call on lawmakers to outlaw bullhooks.
When floods ravaged the Midwest, Rue flew to St. Louis to make appeals for people to include animals in their evacuation plans. She starred in public service announcements urging people to spay or neuter their animals and always to adopt from animal shelters rather than buying from pet shops or breeders (there were four shelter dogs at that shoot, and she took all of them home). She opened her house for a PETA benefit and told guests that "Rue" is French for "street" and that she always wished her last name had been "Walker."
But my favorite memory of Rue was when we traveled to New Mexico, where she helped push through legislation to outlaw cockfighting. When a reporter asked if there would be any naked protesters, she just smiled and replied, "It's not that kind of cockfight."
If animals could sing, I have no doubt that they'd serenade Rue with the Golden Girls theme song: "Thank You for Being a Friend."
Written by PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews
P.S. To make a gift for animals in Rue's honor, please visit our True Friends Memorials page.
The following is a post that originally appeared on PETA Prime.
Because of your support, PETA is able to work in local communities, helping individual animals in need. Thousands of animals are helped by PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP) each year. This is the second in a series of posts chronicling the work of CAP—this post is from Amanda Kyle, fieldworker for CAP. The first post can be found here.
As a CAP fieldworker, I was out one day delivering doghouses and straw bedding to dogs who are forced to live outdoors when a passerby alerted me to two semi-feral dogs suffering from severe skin infections. When I stopped by to check on the situation, I found these two frightened puppies living on what appeared to be an abandoned property. They wouldn't let me get close enough to touch them. Both dogs had bloody sores and were missing a lot of hair. No one was home, so I left a note, gave the dogs food, and put straw bedding inside a wooden box that seemed to serve as their "house."
I tried for several days to track down these suffering puppies' guardian—I talked to neighbors and stopped by at different times but could find no one who seemed to know anything. The puppies had been surviving off scraps that neighbors and passersby left for them.
Days later, when I stopped by, this time at night, the temperature was 18 degrees, and the note I left the first day was still on the door. I couldn't leave these puppies out there any longer. I can't even imagine how painful the below-freezing temperatures must have felt on their cracked, bleeding skin. I spent hours trying to catch these poor, frightened puppies, and I finally succeeded in coaxing them into carriers.
A vet determined that they both had a severe case of mange covering about 80 percent of their bodies. Their skin was also badly infected from the bleeding wounds, and they were suffering from a severe hookworm infestation. The vet who examined them gave medications to give them a little relief while we continued our search for the puppies' guardian, but the vet recommended euthanasia because of the severity of their condition. By this time, the two puppies seemed to have realized that my team and I were all there to help, and they warmed up to us quite well. They even let us pet them, so we were able to give them the love and attention that they craved—likely the only time they'd ever received any at all.
While I spent several more days trying to track down a guardian for these pups, another one of our fieldworkers brought the puppies home to stay with her and her two dogs. For those few days, these two sweet pups got to experience things that all dogs deserve to have every day, all their lives—shelter, regular meals, veterinary care, companionship, and compassion.
Even though the puppies were so much better off than when I found them, they were still suffering terribly. The medication gave them only a little relief from the infections that had grown so severe during the months with no medical treatment and poor nutrition. Had I left them where I found them—abandoned, freezing, and hungry—their condition would only have gotten worse and caused them even more pain over the days or weeks before they succumbed to their ailments. They likely would have died a miserable death. Because of their terrible suffering, we took the veterinarian's recommendation of euthanasia and gave these angels a peaceful release from their pain and suffering.
Even though this was such a sad case, I'm so thankful that we got the chance to give these dogs some care and much-needed relief. Part of what is so important about CAP's work is that I get to help animals for whom no other help is available. PETA's spay-neuter clinics are lowering the number of homeless animals in this region so that in the future, all pups (and kittens) will be born into loving homes, not on the streets. Until that day, we won't turn away from those who are in need, even though our hearts break while carrying out this work.
Amanda Kyle goes out into the community every day to rescue and improve the lives of animals in PETA’s own neighborhood.
We have to thank Joan Jett and her tweeting ways (Joan, you're in close competition with Chrissie Hynde to be my favorite sassy rocker chick) for the great turnout at yesterday's protests against two Queens, New York, restaurants that serve up octopuses and other animals while they're still alive. (No, I am not making that up—I wish I were.)
The owner of East Seafood restaurant was apparently so terrified that a kraken was going to seek vengeance on him for the torture of her smaller brethren that he locked the restaurant's doors for the duration of the protest. Good—no customers!
Please, help stop this abomination by writing to the Queens County D.A. and asking him to press cruelty-to-animals charges against live animal–serving restaurants such as East Seafood and Sik Gaek.
Just in time for Friday afternoon's behind-the-boss's-back video-game break, the creator of our popular New Super Chick Sisters is taking us on a walk through the game, showing us where the secret tofu blocks are stashed and demonstrating the proper technique for butt-stomping doomburgers on the way to save Princess Pamela Anderson from the clutches of evil Ronald McDonald. (Baffled? We promise not to tell anyone that you're a bigger fan of the Bee Gees than of video games if you promise to show this to a daughter, son, niece, nephew, or grandchild. It'll score you some points; you'll see.)
She had me at "hairball-coughing sea kitten suit"!
If you haven't played this addictive game, check it out. After you rescue Princess Pam, why not take down the chicken-abusing clown the good old-fashioned way—by dropping McDonald's a line?
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as "overly broad" a law meant to ban the distribution of videos depicting illegal conduct such as "crush" videos, in which animals are slowly killed under a high heel or bare foot, and videos in which animals are forced to fight or tortured in other ways—but we fully expect the Court to uphold a narrower federal statute barring distribution of vile videos that depict indisputable cruelty to animals. The bill is already in the works. And in case anyone out there who takes pleasure in others' pain is rejoicing, please take note: Abusing animals or inciting others to do so is still illegal and will result in jail time.
Caring people agree that video depictions of cruelty to animals should only be legal when their purpose is to expose—not promote—cruelty to animals. PETA's undercover footage—which shows elephants as they are beaten by circus trainers, chickens as they are scalded to death in slaughterhouses, and snakes as they are skinned alive—truly motivate, rather than titillate, viewers and inspire them to get involved and help stop the suffering. Case in point: You and me. Tell us which PETA video inspired you (and then please do a good deed by forwarding it to someone who doesn't realize what's going on in the world).
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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