Written by Alisa Mullins
After hearing from PETA supporters and other concerned citizens, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced this week that it is proposing to close a loophole that, until now, has denied captive chimpanzees protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). If the proposed rule is adopted and properly enforced, as PETA has advocated, Hollywood will no longer be able to force baby chimpanzees—who are torn away from their mothers, caged, and "trained" through beatings—to perform in TV shows, ads, and movies. And laboratories will stop subjecting chimpanzees to invasive, painful, and lethal experiments—a recommendation that the National Institutes of Health has already made.
© Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
In announcing the proposed rule, the FWS concluded that "the Act does not allow for captive‐held animals to be assigned separate legal status from their wild counterparts on the basis of their captive state."
This should mean that the government now has no justification for denying PETA's petition to include Lolita—who is currently being held in solitary confinement in a cramped tank at the Miami Seaquarium—in the endangered listing of the Southern Resident orcas, the now-protected population that she was captured from more than 40 years ago.
What You Can Do
Please submit comments to the FWS asking it to finalize its proposal to classify all chimpanzees, including captives, as endangered. Then take a moment to sign our petition urging the National Marine Fisheries Service to grant Lolita the same protection from harm afforded her family in the wild. And tell everyone you know not to patronize marine abusement parks!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
You might recall that last fall, PETA convinced Simon Property Group, the largest real estate company in the country, to ban exotic-animal exhibits at all its properties. At one mall that Simon owns in Winchester, Virginia, Cole Bros. Circus makes an annual appearance during the city's Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, which means that Cole Bros. would have to skip this city altogether or use only human performers in its show—no animals whatsoever.
Marion Doss|cc by 2.0
To our surprise, that is just what the circus is doing! The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival announced that Cole Bros. had created "a new-concept circus in 2012 entitled 'Circus of the Stars' that they feel will be just as dazzling and just as amazing as previous circuses." I'm of the opinion that seeing a circus replete with daring and funny human performers would be considerably more exciting than watching frightened, abused animals forced to do silly tricks.
Cole Bros. has a long history of repeatedly violating the Animal Welfare Act and recently incurred a $15,000 fine after PETA filed two complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the physical safety and psychological well-being of two of its elephants. It was also forced to pay $150,000 for illegally selling endangered elephants to someone wholly unable to provide them with proper care, in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
But this humans-only circus is a great start toward making Cole Bros.' abuse of animals a thing of the past, and PETA will continue working to have venues host only the circus's animal-free performances.
Written by Jeff Mackey
In light of new information about the abusive conditions endured by a threatened grizzly bear and endangered leopards on the farm of Terry Thompson—who released dozens of wild animals (most of whom were shot by law enforcement) outside Zanesville, Ohio, last October, before killing himself—PETA has sent another urgent letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) renewing its requests for an investigation into whether the animals were harmed or harassed in violation of the Endangered Species Act and asking that the surviving animals not be returned to Thompson's widow, Marian.
npmeijer | cc by 2.0
Tom Stalf of the Columbus Zoo, where the animals are currently being housed, described the condition of the animals as "horrific." Stalf stated that the grizzly bear was relegated to a bird cage set in a drained pool and was aggressively chewing on the cage when authorities found the animal. The Columbus Zoo also reported that when one of the leopards was injured at the zoo, X-rays showed old injuries, including a broken back and tail bones, that had not healed. The animal was subsequently euthanized.
The grizzly bear, two leopards, and two macaques are the only remaining survivors of last year's tragedy. They are quarantined at the zoo by order of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Ms. Thompson is awaiting a hearing to challenge the order and seeks to regain possession of the animals.
While PETA works to keep the survivors safe, you can help by calling the FWS Office of Law Enforcement at 703-358-1949 to politely urge the agency to investigate whether the Endangered Species Act was violated and to ensure that the animals are not returned to Marian Thompson.
Written by Jennifer OConnor
It took a PETA lawsuit to compel the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to change course, but after three decades of secretly and illegally issuing hundreds of Endangered Species Act (ESA) permits to circuses, roadside zoos, and other animal exploiters, the FWS will change its ways.
The permits—called "captive-bred wildlife (CBW) permits"—previously allowed animal exhibitors like the notorious Ringling Bros. circus and Have Trunk Will Travel to harm and harass captive-bred endangered animals like Asian elephants without any public scrutiny or comments on their plans. Now, anytime circuses and operators of traveling and roadside displays want to "take" an endangered species (which includes harming, harassing, and wounding them to force them to perform in shows), they will be subjected to public scrutiny and forced to adhere to ESA requirements.
An example of how all this can help animals harkens back to one of PETA's earliest exposés—this one involving Las Vegas "entertainer" Bobby Berosini, whose CBW permit was suspended (and his show closed) after PETA revealed that he had viciously beaten the orangutans used in his tawdry act.
Ringling Bros. circus has a pending CBW permit application that would allow it to take endangered elephants and leopards, so please click here to voice your objections to the FWS right now.
Federal laws are known for having loopholes, and a regulation that allows notorious animal abusers and profiteers to use chimpanzees for purely commercial purposes and in horrific laboratory experiments needs to be closed right now. Currently, only wild chimpanzees are protected as endangered under the Endangered Species Act—captive chimpanzees are inexplicably denied these protections—but that could soon change.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has proposed an amendment that would remove this major exemption and protect wild and captive chimpanzees equally for the first time. PETA supports this new rule since it means captive chimpanzees who are forced to perform confusing and unnatural tricks in the name of entertainment and who suffer at the hands of callous experimenters would be given the full protection of the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits harming and harassing listed species.
The FWS is asking the public for comments on this proposed change and needs to hear from you by the end of the day on January 30.
Click here to urge the FWS to give captive chimpanzees the same protections currently afforded to their wild counterparts.
On the heels of the record $270,000 penalty paid by Feld Entertainment—the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—PETA is renewing our call for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to deny the company's application to import eight tigers and a leopard in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The ESA prohibits importing endangered species except for "scientific purposes" or to benefit the survival of the species. It's beyond a stretch for the circus to claim that it's helping tigers by jamming them into tiny cages and whipping them into submission. Many of the violations that Ringling paid a penalty to settle involved big cats, including a tiger who suffered a laceration after her tail was slammed in a cage door and a lion who died of heat exhaustion in a sweltering boxcar while crossing the Mojave Desert.
The FWS has a duty to protect animals from harm and should not cave in to the demands of an influential corporation that just agreed to pay a huge fine for alleged violations of federal law.
Written by PETA
This morning, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews appeared on the Today show to talk about the court case involving Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Alert PETA Files readers will recall that Ringling has been sued by a coalition of animal protection groups over what they allege are violations of the Endangered Species Act. Namely, they're arguing that beating elephants with bullhooks and keeping them chained for hours or even days on end are no way to treat an endangered species.
Here's a little refresher: Over the course of the six-week trial, reams of evidence were trotted out to support reports that Ringling keeps elephants chained for an average of more than 26 hours at a time, sometimes for as many as 60 to 100 hours straight, and that elephants often suffer from bleeding wounds after being struck with bullhooks. Former Ringling employees testified about the horrors they witnessed while on Ringling's payroll, which included seeing an elephant who was violently beaten for a solid half hour.
The judge is still weighing his verdict, but in the meantime, Ringling is on trial in the court of public opinion. Kudos to Today for helping us expose Ringling for the sleazy animal-abusing con artist that it is.
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.
Follow PETA on Twitter!