Written by Alisa Mullins
In India, kids celebrate the winter solstice, called Makar Sankranti, by flying kites. Sounds like a fun, harmless tradition, right? The trouble is that, as anybody who has seen The Kite Runner knows, kite-flying in the East can be extremely competitive—cutthroat, if you will. Many kite-flyers use glass-coated string called manja to sever their competitors' kite strings. But the string has severed lots of other things, too, including birds' wings and breasts and even human throats. So PETA India held an eye-catching protest during Makar Sankranti to urge kids to use cotton string instead:
Every year, bird sanctuaries are called to assist thousands of pigeons, crows, owls, hawks, and other birds who have been badly maimed. Thousands are killed after becoming helplessly entangled in razor-sharp manja. Pedestrians and people riding by kite competitions on bicycles or scooters have also been injured and even killed. Five people, including two children, were killed and nearly 250 people injured in one state alone during a previous Makar Sankranti.
PETA India is lobbying to get manja outlawed throughout India.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Many of you have joined PETA and PETA India (as well as Paul McCartney) in calling for the release of Sunder, the horribly abused baby elephant who was held captive in spiked chains in a dark shed at the Jyotiba Temple in Maharashtra, India. Despite assurances from the government that Sunder would be taken into protective custody, the authorities fear retaliation from the temple trustees if they seize him, and now the little elephant has been moved not to a sanctuary but into a heavily guarded factory compound where no one can see him. PETA India has stepped up pressure for Sunder's release, including holding this demonstration outside the office of the principal chief conservator of forests, sending a message that he could hardly have missed:
Our friends in Mumbai report that they've been fielding calls from people who are exasperated with the government's inaction and eager to see as much attention as possible brought to Sunder's predicament until he is released. Stay tuned …
What You Can Do
In the Americas, many elephants are also held captive and abused by circuses—please help set them free.
A trio of PETA mermaids came ashore at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to remind everyone that "seafood" comes from animals who feel pain and suffer when they're netted or impaled and pulled into an environment in which they can't breathe. After all, who would know better than these hybrid lovelies that fish, lobsters, and other sea-dwellers feel pain and want to live—just as the rest of us do.
Cut the line on cruel seafood and make vegan fare the catch of the day instead!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) likely had no idea that as they made their way to class, they were passing by a laboratory in which cats, exactly like the ones many of the students would return home to, were being tormented and killed in gruesome experiments. But PETA set out to show the students exactly what was going on behind closed doors on their campus and to enlist their support to get the experiments stopped.
UW experimenters did not want information about their cruel sound localization experiments on cats to be released, and they fought PETA for more than three years to try to keep the information under wraps. But we sued the school for release of the disturbing pictures taken of the laboratory's feline victims—and got the photos.
PETA members marched onto campus holding signs emblazoned with the graphic images of Double Trouble, one of the many cats UW abused. UW faculty drilled holes into Double Trouble's head, screwed a steel post to her skull, implanted electrodes in her brain, and put coils in her eyes. They dripped toxic chemicals into her ears to deafen her, then implanted devices in both ears. During at least two of these surgeries, Double Trouble's anesthesia was inadequate, and she woke up or was conscious and likely in pain.
Experimenters immobilized Double Trouble's head and made her try to locate sounds coming from different directions. They starved her for days in order to make her cooperate during these experiments in exchange for a piece of food. When the experimenters were done using Double Trouble, they killed and decapitated her.
And after all the pain and trauma that Double Trouble was subjected to, the experimenters admitted that the project was a failure. Meanwhile, institutions around the world study how the brain locates sounds by using advanced methods with human volunteers.
Many UW students signed PETA's petition asking the National Institutes of Health to stop giving the school taxpayer money to fund these cruel experiments. You can, too.
When Gladys Bleakney's home-daycare class in Ottawa, Ontario, learned that the turtles and frogs in their favorite pond were under siege by people who were catching and eating them, the children took matters into their own tiny hands. The world's cutest demonstration was born:
The kids believe that, just like people, all animals have feelings and deserve respect. The future looks bright for animals.
PETA has been on pharmaceutical company Amgen's case for years over the company's stubborn refusal to more actively implement alternatives to animal experiments, among other things. But we're riding high this week after pulling a fast one at Amgen's Tour of California Bike Race.
Amgen sponsored the massive race and had its branding everywhere, but so did we:
PETA got the last laugh near the finish line. As the racers flew by and the news cameras flashed, two stealthily placed staffers whipped out signs about Amgen's animal abuse and held them high for the crowd to see:
It's time for Amgen to join in the race to replace animal tests with modern science.
Fresh off a stint asking politicians to "cut the pork" out of the federal budget, PETA's plucky "pig" asked attendees of Iowa's Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival not to cut the pork off pigs' bodies.
When the "pig" implored, "I am not bacon," the fans of fried fat stopped to listen and take our leaflets. I guess all that bacon grease hasn't ruined their hearts yet.
If this "Fur Out, Love In" demonstration brings to mind a John Lennon–Yoko Ono bed-in, why not celebrate Valentine's Day peacefully—without the skins of tortured animals? Imagine all the animals living life in peace …
The striking display of blood-soaked people lying "dead" on trays outside a pig slaughterhouse was enough to stop traffic—literally.
When Ringling brought "The Cruelest Show on Earth" to Tampa Bay, Florida, this week, it was met with a hardy crowd of animal protection advocates—and a group that was a bit, well, shorter. Children showed up to protest Ringling with handmade signs depicting elephants who were beaten and proclaiming, "Kids Know Better."
Out of the mouths of babes—and into the minds of many. Help the awesome kids in your life get involved with PETA Kids.
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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