Written by PETA
After lengthy discussions with PETA, PETCO has announced that it will reduce the number of animals for sale in its stores nationwide by 30% and revamp its live-animal vendor certification standards to improve conditions at all of its pet suppliers, starting with Rainbow World Exotics (RWE) in Hamilton, Texas.
At RWE—a hellish facility that breeds and brokers tens of thousands of animals who will be sold at pet stores, including PETCO and PetSmart—PETA found abuse and neglect of small animals and birds, including the following:
•Rabbits were neutered by an employee using a dull razor and Clorox wipes on the animals' open incisions. One improperly anesthetized rabbit kicked and struggled during the surgery.•Live hamsters, rats, and mice were dumped into trash cans, and animals were thrown against the floor in an attempt to kill them.•Many animals were denied veterinary care, including a baby Goffin's cockatoo named Angel, who Jack told you about in January; ferrets with rectal prolapses; and a guinea pig with a broken hip.
•Rabbits were neutered by an employee using a dull razor and Clorox wipes on the animals' open incisions. One improperly anesthetized rabbit kicked and struggled during the surgery.
•Live hamsters, rats, and mice were dumped into trash cans, and animals were thrown against the floor in an attempt to kill them.
•Many animals were denied veterinary care, including a baby Goffin's cockatoo named Angel, who Jack told you about in January; ferrets with rectal prolapses; and a guinea pig with a broken hip.
Watch the video posted below for more details on the horrors uncovered in the investigation, and check out the piece from the Today show, where the story broke nationally.
Change is good, but we wish that PETCO would have done even better and kissed its relationship with RWE goodbye. Says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch, "It is astounding that an abusive mill like RWE can still call the nation's two largest pet supply companies its customers." She continues, "The decisions by PETCO and PetSmart not to cut ties with RWE make it clear that to them, the bottom line is far more important than ensuring that tens of thousands of animals avoid pain and suffering. PETA wants consumers to know that animals do not generally fare well in the pet trade. Animal shelters and pounds are the place to go when you are ready to offer a loving, responsible home to an animal."
I couldn't agree more. If you care about animals, don't buy from stores that sell animals.
For what you can do to help, click here.
-Amy
During my time in Norfolk, Virginia, where I worked at PETA's headquarters, I got to know my local Harris Teeter very well. I'm the kind of person who likes to visit the grocery store on an almost daily basis so that I can load up on the freshest produce or just stroll the aisles. This led to quite a close bond with the store, and I even affectionately called it The Teet.
As you can imagine, when the news of Harris Teeter's new animal welfare policies flew into my in-box minutes ago, I was thrilled to learn that their plan is going to surpass national rivals. Under the new plan, they will do the following:
•Increase its purchases of chickens killed by controlled-atmosphere systems—the least-cruel method of bird slaughter—from 11% to 26% over the next three years. The Teet will also start purchasing turkeys killed by controlled-atmosphere systems, starting with 2% this fall, and giving purchasing preference to controlled-atmosphere systems suppliers. •Increase its purchases of pig meat from suppliers phasing out gestation crates—restrictive metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs—by 10, 15, and 20% over each of the next three years. Harris Teeter is also giving purchasing preference to suppliers that don't use cruel gestation crates.•Increase the total percentage of its egg sales that represent cage-free eggs from 6% to 9% by 2009, and will work to increase that number to 12% by 2010 (the national average is only 5%). The company's new line of Harris Teeter brand eggs will also be cage-free, and Harris Teeter is giving purchasing preference to cage-free egg producers.
•Increase its purchases of chickens killed by controlled-atmosphere systems—the least-cruel method of bird slaughter—from 11% to 26% over the next three years. The Teet will also start purchasing turkeys killed by controlled-atmosphere systems, starting with 2% this fall, and giving purchasing preference to controlled-atmosphere systems suppliers.
•Increase its purchases of pig meat from suppliers phasing out gestation crates—restrictive metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs—by 10, 15, and 20% over each of the next three years. Harris Teeter is also giving purchasing preference to suppliers that don't use cruel gestation crates.
•Increase the total percentage of its egg sales that represent cage-free eggs from 6% to 9% by 2009, and will work to increase that number to 12% by 2010 (the national average is only 5%). The company's new line of Harris Teeter brand eggs will also be cage-free, and Harris Teeter is giving purchasing preference to cage-free egg producers.
I am in no way saying that these changes make eating animals, eggs, or dairy products OK in my book—they don't. I still believe the best thing anyone can do to end cruelty to animals is to go vegan, but this is a small step in the right direction. And now I don't have to feel as guilty about my little love affair with a grocery store anymore.
Many of you have asked what PETA's response is to the recent recall of 143 million pounds of beef. Well, we're doing a mass mailing of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit," of course!
We've sent copies of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit" to school boards across the country and urged them to add more vegetarian options to school cafeteria menus. But we're not simply saying that vegetarian options should replace the tainted beef. Oh, no. Vegetarian options should replace all beef because of beef's dangerous levels of saturated fat and cholesterol, which can be an even bigger threat to human health than E. coli and salmonella.
Beef and other animal products have been conclusively linked to America's top killers: heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and cancer. Meat-eaters are 10 times more likely than vegetarians to suffer from heart disease, and a low-fat vegetarian diet has been proved to reverse heart disease.
PETA's Lindsay Rajt summed it up nicely by saying, "The diseases we may catch from downed cows are far less likely to kill us than the fat and cholesterol we get from their flesh. The best way to protect the health of the nation's school kids is to encourage them to eat more vegetarian foods."
For more details on the connection between your health and eating meat, please check out the health section of GoVeg.com.
Since being named the sexiest vegetarian of 2007, Kevin Eubanks has clearly embraced the prestigious title. So much so that the Tonight Show bandleader decided to write, direct, and star in a new ad for us that boasts about the benefits of a meat-free diet.
Kevin's ad is just one in a series of vegetarian testimonials—others feature Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, and Kevin Nealon—but Eubanks' hilarious video has a certain something not seen in the others.
Maybe it's the giant strawberry costume he's dressed in. Maybe it's his reference to wanting all his organs to work just fine (because of the connection between eating meat and impotence). Or maybe it's the date he has planned with pineapples, melons, and other fruits. OK, I think it's all of the above.
—Amy
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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