Written by Alisa Mullins
Acclaimed photographer Jo-Anne McArthur has been documenting the plight of animals around the world for more than 10 years. Now a haunting new film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Liz Marshall, The Ghosts in Our Machine, chronicles a year in McArthur's life as she photographs animals on fur farms and factory farms and in laboratories, zoos, and aquariums. She also photographs "the ones who got away" relaxing in rolling pastures at sanctuaries in the U.S. and Canada.
"I feel like I'm a war photographer and I'm photographing history," McArthur says. "I'm trying to save the world."
Every month, The Ghosts in Our Machine names a special "animal ambassador," and this month's pick is PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, who compares the movie to the groundbreaking anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin: "In much the way Harriet Beecher Stowe's book …did in its time, this film has the potential to broaden our view of those around us, to suggest their potential and their reality, cause us to pick apart our prejudices, and raise the potential for consideration, understanding and inclusion, to change a world view."
The Ghosts in Our Machine debuted in Toronto late last month and has already won several awards at film festivals. Look for it at a theater near you in the coming months.
Today is PETA President Ingrid Newkirk's birthday, and instead of a bottle of cruelty-free perfume or a new pair of vegan shoes, when we asked her what gift she would like, she said the same thing she said last year. She wanted people to donate to one of her favorite causes: Animal Rahat, whose vital work consists primarily of providing veterinary care, water, shade, rest, rehabilitation, and retirement to bullocks, donkeys, and other animals toiling as "beasts of burden" in India, which is where Ingrid spent much of her childhood.
However, last week Animal Rahat's multifaceted work included rescuing a dog who had tumbled down into an ancient, crumbling well and had been trapped about 80 feet down for four days. Villagers were dropping food down to the dog, who was miraculously uninjured, but because of the well's deteriorating condition, rescue seemed impossible. However, armed with a net and with the villagers' help, Animal Rahat's Mr. Gaikwad and a PETA India staffer repelled down to the ledge that the dog was stranded on, netted the frightened animal, and hoisted him to safety.
We set up a Causes page as well as a special page on our website where people can donate to Animal Rahat in Ingrid's honor, and boy, did you come through for our birthday girl. So far, we've raised $2,059 for Animal Rahat … and counting. Happy Birthday, Ingrid! And a big thank-you to you from this grateful little guy, and from many others, for caring and sharing!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk put her money where her mouth is—in a very literal sense—in an eye-catching protest outside British retailer Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly store this week.
The protest illustrated what geese endure while they are being raised for the foie gras sold in Fortnum & Mason stores. But in order to replicate fully how foie gras is produced, Ingrid would have had to be force-fed several times a day for weeks until her diseased liver had painfully swelled to up to 10 times its normal size.
The process is so cruel that it's illegal in the U.K., but Fortnum & Mason continues to sell foie gras imported from France, where a recent PETA U.K. investigation documented the confinement of geese to crowded, filthy pens and their slaughter while still conscious.
High-profile British venues, including the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Wimbledon, Lord's Cricket Ground, and all the residences of His Royal Highness Prince Charles, refuse to serve foie gras, and retailers Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, House of Fraser, and Jenners refuse to sell it. PETA UK won't stop until it has added Fortnum & Mason to that list.
Last night at The Ebell of Los Angeles, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk kicked off her Naked Truth U.S. speaking tour to a packed house that included Sam Simon, Jennifer Tilly, Christian Serratos, Tony Kanal, and host Kevin Nealon. And listeners were moved.
While others come in bodies different from our own, we're all the same inside," Ingrid said. She asked the audience, "Who are they, and who am I, that I should live and they should die?
The goal of the tour is to show audiences that animal rights isn't just about "pets," pelts, or veggie burgers—it's about persuading people to view all animals as fellow citizens worthy of our respect. And the way that we accomplish that is by doing exactly what Ingrid went on tour to do: Speak. When we do, "we fail to reach some people sometimes, but when we don't try, we fail to reach everyone," Ingrid explained.
Determined to start speaking up, yesterday I suggested some activities that my friend could do with his daughter instead of taking her to SeaWorld. And tonight, I'm taking my date to try vegan sushi. That I can do. We all can. As Ingrid maintains, fretting won't win the animal rights battles, but activism will!
She is known for giving powerful, motivational speeches, so if you can make it to see her on the tour (tour dates to be added soon), please do, and take someone else with you. But if you can't, the one thing to remember is that the "naked truth" about advancing the animal rights movement, is simple.
Speak up—at every opportunity.
PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters has a new moniker—the Sam Simon Center—in honor of entertainment giant Sam Simon, the multiple Emmy Award–winning co-creator of The Simpsons and the writing genius behind hit shows like Taxi, Barney Miller, Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show, and Charlie Sheen's new FX series, Anger Management. Accompanied by a Dixieland jazz band, Simon arrived by boat to cut the ribbon at a dedication ceremony today, which was also attended by New York Jets safety Bret Lockett and other luminaries, including the glamorous Jennifer Tilly, TV host and producer Mark Thompson, and World Series of Poker champion Phil Laak.
Simon, who serves on PETA's Executive Committee, has been a vegetarian since he was 19 and a vegan since joining PETA years later. He is known for his work with The Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to help soldiers who return from war with physical and mental trauma. He attacks animal homelessness at its roots by sponsoring spay and neuter surgeries in low-income areas of Los Angeles. He also helped PETA launch our newest mobile spay-and-neuter clinic and hosts annual PETA fundraisers at his home in L.A.
Perhaps because he works in the entertainment industry, the plight of animals in entertainment is especially close to Simon's heart. He is an outspoken opponent of cruelty in circuses, roadside zoos, and marine parks, and he recently attended a PETA news conference with Bob Barker to call attention to the plight of animals on TV and movie sets. "[I]f you can't afford the CGI [computer-generated imagery], either do a rewrite," he said, "or do a cartoon show like I did."
Simon once donated his fee for an episode of The Drew Carey Show to PETA because the plot involved greyhound racing, and he felt that he could not in good conscience keep the money. As if he's not busy enough, Simon also hosts a weekly Friday Internet radio show on Radioio.com in which he always keeps animal issues in the spotlight.
"Sam Simon may be a big Hollywood figure, but it's his big heart that makes him a PETA soulmate," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Whether the new month is coming in like a lion or a lamb, March 1 is National Pig Day, which, according to its cofounder, has been set aside "to accord the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized, place" as a smart and social animal. George Clooney and his dear departed companion pig would agree.
And while there are plenty of great ways to celebrate our curly-tailed pals, none of them involves eating pork. Pigs raised and killed for meat spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy warehouses under the constant stress of intense confinement and are denied everything that is natural and important to them before being violently slaughtered.
Now, some folks would like you to believe that you can have your (nonfakin') bacon and a clear conscience, too—but that's a bigger load of, um, manure than even a factory farm generates. Long story short: There is no such thing as "humane meat."
But here's PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk to explain that (and read a cute poem):
The good news is that March is also the month for the annual observance of Meatout, so there's no better time than right now to kick the cruelty habit in favor of healthy and humane vegan foods—and PETA can help you get started!
PETA's Community Animal Project staffers' days are filled with tending to "forgotten" dogs, animals who have been relegated to a chain or a cage in the backyard and left to live out their days in solitary confinement—a punishment reserved for society's most dangerous criminals, yet these dogs have committed no crime. When our caseworkers find them, forgotten dogs are often suffering from the final stages of cancer, heartworm infestations, untreated infections, mange, hypothermia, or malnutrition. If you give a dog only the briefest of glances when you toss kibble in the bowl once a day, it's all too easy to turn a blind eye when the dog deteriorates from simply being filthy to being gravely ill.
Recently, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk encountered one such dog, an elderly Rottweiler mix named Sam. She wrote about Sam in an essay that was posted on Ladies' Home Journal's sister website, DivineCaroline.com:
He had been a puppy once, welcomed into a home, played with, made a fuss over. But there came a day, probably not long into his young life, when he became too messy, too much trouble, too big—he was a Rottweiler mix, after all—too bothersome, and that's when he was put outside in the pen. That day was some 11 years ago. . . . When I found him, he was lying curled up in his plastic box with the chewed sides and the bare floor, just as he must surely have spent most of every day and every night for all those years. There was not a scrap of bedding, even though it was 37 degrees out, with temperatures forecast to drop to below zero that night. The pen stank of feces, and I could see his waste among the leaves. He had his back to me, so I called out to him and made loud kissing sounds, but it wasn't until I whistled that he heard me, turned around, and slowly came out of the box, making his way to the gate. ... His coat was dull and dirty. His ears bore faint scars from the previous summer, when he could not escape the flies, who, drawn to his urine, incessantly nibbled at him. I put a big chew bone near him, and he stopped, sniffed, and bent his head to the ground, taking a while to find it. That's when I realized that he had been navigating by smell and familiarity. He was blind.
He had been a puppy once, welcomed into a home, played with, made a fuss over. But there came a day, probably not long into his young life, when he became too messy, too much trouble, too big—he was a Rottweiler mix, after all—too bothersome, and that's when he was put outside in the pen. That day was some 11 years ago. . . .
When I found him, he was lying curled up in his plastic box with the chewed sides and the bare floor, just as he must surely have spent most of every day and every night for all those years. There was not a scrap of bedding, even though it was 37 degrees out, with temperatures forecast to drop to below zero that night. The pen stank of feces, and I could see his waste among the leaves.
He had his back to me, so I called out to him and made loud kissing sounds, but it wasn't until I whistled that he heard me, turned around, and slowly came out of the box, making his way to the gate. ...
His coat was dull and dirty. His ears bore faint scars from the previous summer, when he could not escape the flies, who, drawn to his urine, incessantly nibbled at him. I put a big chew bone near him, and he stopped, sniffed, and bent his head to the ground, taking a while to find it. That's when I realized that he had been navigating by smell and familiarity. He was blind.
Read Ingrid's essay in its entirety at DivineCaroline.com.
So are you feeling a little bummed that you missed out on the record-breaking $500 million Powerball jackpot? No need.
As PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk points out in an opinion piece just published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, you've already won the jackpot just by being in the right place at the right time—and of the right species:
When we feel sorry for ourselves, it helps to put things in perspective. It helps to remember that we live in the United States of America, where we have a great many luxuries unknown to most of the world. We don't have to stifle our opinions or get a government-issued pass to travel to another state: We enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of movement. We are entitled to an education. We do not have to starve or freeze: Someone will provide us with food, shelter, and water. If we are down on our luck or out on the street, there are basic support services available from the government and from charities. And even beyond all of that, we have won life's lottery because we have been born human. Whether you believe we lucked out because of karma or divine intervention or by an accident of birth, just imagine for one moment what life would be like if you had been born a mouse in a laboratory, a dog kept outside on a chain all winter, a bear in a barren enclosure in a roadside zoo, or a bird confined to a cage. This is an appeal to all of us who have won life's lottery by being born into the luckiest 0.0001 percent of life-forms: Remember to care and to share, especially during this season of goodwill—Powerball or no Powerball.
When we feel sorry for ourselves, it helps to put things in perspective. It helps to remember that we live in the United States of America, where we have a great many luxuries unknown to most of the world. We don't have to stifle our opinions or get a government-issued pass to travel to another state: We enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of movement. We are entitled to an education. We do not have to starve or freeze: Someone will provide us with food, shelter, and water. If we are down on our luck or out on the street, there are basic support services available from the government and from charities.
And even beyond all of that, we have won life's lottery because we have been born human. Whether you believe we lucked out because of karma or divine intervention or by an accident of birth, just imagine for one moment what life would be like if you had been born a mouse in a laboratory, a dog kept outside on a chain all winter, a bear in a barren enclosure in a roadside zoo, or a bird confined to a cage.
This is an appeal to all of us who have won life's lottery by being born into the luckiest 0.0001 percent of life-forms: Remember to care and to share, especially during this season of goodwill—Powerball or no Powerball.
Read the essay in its entirety here.
Via Philly.com
PETA is always saying that we wish people would put themselves in the place of animals. But if they won't, we'll do it for them. The founder of PETA and our affiliates worldwide, Ingrid E. Newkirk, let herself be hitched with a bit in her mouth to a horse-drawn carriage in order to help PETA India show Mumbai residents that they wouldn't like it if the horseshoe were on the other foot.
Ingrid let traffic at a busy intersection watch her struggle to pull the carriage, called a "Victoria," just as horses often do. But unlike horses, she didn't have to worry that if the load proved to be too heavy, the cart driver would yank on the spiked bit in her sore mouth or whip her mercilessly to make her force a few strained steps out of her trembling legs. And what do the horses get for their effort? They are denied adequate food, water, and rest and are kept in filthy, damp stables infested with biting insects. Many never receive any veterinary care in their entire lives.
And horse-drawn carriages aren't just dangerous for horses. Passengers and people standing nearby are often injured when horses collapse from exhaustion, get frightened and bolt, or collide with other vehicles.
A growing number of cities in India and around the world have banned horse-drawn carriages, and PETA India is working to make Mumbai the next. Stateside, you can join the campaign to get abused horses off New York City's congested streets.
The 20th-anniversary edition of PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Free the Animals has been released—get yours from the PETA Catalog—and the brilliant host of HBO's Real Time (and PETA honorary board member) Bill Maher has given it a rave review on the Huffington Post.
Bill gives an overview of some of the amazing victories PETA has won for animals in the two decades since Free the Animals was first published—and some of the things that still haven't changed enough—while touting it as "the riveting, real-life story of the people who put on disguises, use fake IDs or jimmy their way into laboratories in order to carry out the daring rescues of animals used in experiments and of the insiders, the whistleblowers, who risk their jobs to help them."
If you don't believe Bill, though, take it from Penny (the canine companion of peta2 Manager Ryan Huling), who is clearly spellbound by Free the Animals.
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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