Written by PETA
Faster than you can say Frau von Hammersmark, actor-director Eli Roth took to Twitter following last month's death of a SeaWorld trainer to speak out against keeping marine mammals in captivity.
The Inglourious Basterds star knows that if SeaWorld continues to exploit and abuse animals, then a sequel to the fatal horror show will inevitably surface. So Roth has written to Hamilton James—the CEO of Blackstone, SeaWorld's parent company—asking that the theme park immediately move its imprisoned animals to coastal sanctuaries and replace them with state-of-the-art virtual reality exhibits.
Having helmed groundbreaking horror films such as Cabin Fever and Hostel, Roth is an expert on humane alternatives to live animals in entertainment—from CGI technology to animatronics. In his letter, he suggests these technologies and lets James know that "showing visitors a more realistic version of what life is like for real marine mammals rather than displaying the captive animals' unnatural and repetitive behavior patterns—which are linked to their oppressive environment—is actually more educational, with no risk to human life."
Join Roth and the many other stars who have spoken out against SeaWorld by urging James to release these jailed animals to sanctuaries before another animal or human dies.
Written by Logan Scherer
Ryan Gosling is the heartthrob with a heart of gold—and now he's got a message for the Golden Arches: Stop scalding chickens to death in defeathering tanks. The Oscar-nominated actor just fired off a letter on PETA's behalf to McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner asking him to adopt a less cruel slaughter method. Controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), which McDonald's European suppliers already use, would eliminate the worst abuses currently faced by chickens who are killed for McNuggets.
Ryan himself said it best in Half Nelson: "The only constant is change." By changing to a more humane slaughter method, McDonald's would evolve and show the world some compassion for animals. If you could say anything to McD's, what would you tell them?
E-mail, text, and BBM all you want, but sometimes there's nothing quite as powerful as an old-school letter. Our proof: This 8-year-old's plea to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do something that makes a difference for animals (like ending the seal slaughter!) is enough to restore anyone's faith in snail mail. Click on the letter to read the whole thing:
Inspired to write your own missive to Harper? Do it write away!
Loyal readers of The PETA Files know that this is not the first time we have mentioned rapper DMX (whose real name is Earl Simmons). If we wrote about him anymore, we'd have to give him his own chapter filed under "Cruel Scum"—a title that is probably still too kind.
Well, we're sick of DMX … again—and all the other celebrities who think power, money, or fame will get them off the hook for mistreating animals.
We have written a letter to Andrew P. Thomas, the judge overseeing Simmons' charges stemming from a 2007 police raid of the rapper's property north of Phoenix, where 12 pit bulls were reportedly found neglected, malnourished, and messed up. We're asking that Thomas—if Simmons is convicted of these charges—impose a sentence that forbids Simmons from owning or harboring any animals for as long as possible, that imposes a truly meaningful period of incarceration, and that requires him to undergo a thorough psychological evaluation followed by mandatory counseling at his own expense.
In one particularly cruel situation, police apparently found puppies who had been left in their cages so long that they needed to be cut out of them.
DMX has an extensive criminal past—including a similar raid that took place at his home in New Jersey in 2002 (during which police found 13 pit bulls on his property) as well as an arrest for illegal drug possession. People who abuse animals often go on to abuse or even kill humans. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Rader (aka "BTK Killer"), who abused and killed animals for practice prior to killing humans?
You can read our full letter here:
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
So today's a fairly slow news day (ya know, Labor Day weekend and all), but we wanted to be absolutely sure you all were fully prepped for your long weekends of not being at work! To give yourself one of those warm, fuzzy feelings, we thought we'd take a new direction with our videos and show you some cute videos for a change (instead of our typical videos that, ya know, make you think).
Enjoy!
Written by Christine Doré
We've all heard the old saying "A picture is worth 1,000 words." But a picture of a zany, street-theater style demonstration is worth a zillion words (don't worry, I verified that figure on Wikipedia). PETA members, staff, interns, and activists have been hard at work as always, and I've collected a few snapshots of our peeps "takin' it to the streets." Seeing as how I'm pressed for time, I can't crank out the zillion words each of these photos deserves, but hopefully you'll be happy with the next 100 or so. Enjoy!
Written by Sean Conner
Deflocked, baby. Deflocked.
To check out the archives of past strips, click here.
Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Gerald G. Poindexter, whose job entails dealing with a certain dogfighting case that you may have heard of involving Falcons Quarterback (for the time being) Michael Vick has apparently decided to sit around and do nothing instead. A full eight days after the indictment, Mr. Poindexter has yet to file any state charges against Vick. As PETA Director Daphna Nachminovich puts it,
"Short of an engraved invitation, what else will get Poindexter to file charges against Vick? He should be ashamed that it took the federal government to come down here to do his job for him. This case needs to go before a grand jury lickety-split. Vick's name will forever be associated with cruelty to dogs and so will Poindexter's unless he takes immediate action to see that justice is served."
Right on, Daphna. And Poindexter, what the hell are you up to? You can read our letter to the attorney here.
OK, this one's from a few years ago, but these things are so damn popular that I thought I'd post it. A little context—this is the letter that PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich sent to Michael in 2004 to ask him to reconsider his anti-animal stance. The sad truth is that Bruce’s decidedly less sensational letter never received any attention at all—least of all from Michael Moore, who refused even to acknowledge receipt. But it's a cracking good letter, nonetheless. You can check it out here.
First of all, if you know Michael Moore, you know he can take it. Seriously. The guy is not going to cry himself to sleep because we offered him some diet advice. For anyone who has seen a Michael Moore documentary or read one of his books, you'll know that he doesn't pull punches when it comes to issues he's passionate about, or miss an opportunity to take a potshot at those he disagrees with. Compared with the letters Michael Moore writes (see, for instance, this letter he wrote to the president), Ingrid's letter was incredibly polite.
Secondly, I should probably provide a little context to our own relationship with Michael Moore—which goes back a long way. We've written to him several times over the years, starting back in the days of Roger & Me with ever-so-polite appeals to embrace animal rights. We don't hold it against him, but the only response we ever got from him was when his people showed up outside the PETA building with a donkey, two goats, two sheep, a rabbit, a chicken, three dogs, a fish in a bowl(!), a guinea pig, two gerbils, and a rat in a cage "wearing" offensive signs, like “You are wasting your lives.” He arranged to haul these animals out on a hot day to taunt hard-working people just to get a cheap laugh for his show. In addition to that little stunt, whose real victims didn’t even have the luxury of understanding what was happening to them, Michael Moore has made comments throughout his career glorifying meat-eating and hunting, and mocking people who care about animals. Now, neither I nor any of my colleagues take those comments personally—we dish it out, and we can take it. But, like I said, so can Michael Moore.
Michael Moore has never responded with anything but sneering to PETA's requests that he address animal protection issues in one of his documentaries, but we're not giving up hope. And, even if he ignores this particular attempt to reach him in his own style—playful and provocative at the same time—we hope that some of the people who hear about this story will get the message: A vegetarian diet is the compassionate choice, it's the healthy choice, and it's the right choice—for us and for animals. I'm glad that this letter has given us the opportunity to say that again.
P.S. Judging from some of the comments I read yesterday, I should probably also point out for a few people that “elephant in the room” is an expression that means “an important issue that people are avoiding.” Not, like, an actual pachyderm in someone’s living space. Like this one.
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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