Written by Alisa Mullins
Following PETA's and PETA U.K.'s work in the E.U. to hasten the replacement of an animal test that had been used for decades in deadly shellfish toxicity detection, PETA has now helped make it possible for an alternative testing method developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in the U.S. by helping to fund a critical license.
Antagain|iStockphoto.com
For decades, state fisheries throughout the U.S. have used a painful and deadly test on mice to determine whether shellfish caught for human consumption contain a lethal concentration of toxins. In these tests, a sample of shellfish is processed in a blender, and this slurry is injected into the abdomens of mice, causing them to have seizures, become paralyzed, and die painfully from suffocation.
After years of communicating with the FDA, PETA recently learned of a new, much more humane method for detecting these deadly toxins that was developed by an FDA scientist and uses tissue from one animal instead of more than 1,000 live animals. Not only does the new test have the potential to save tens of thousands of animals a year, it is also scientifically superior and far less expensive.
In addition to helping fund the licensing of the new method, PETA has also begun to fund yet another method that will further refine the new test. Our scientists are also contacting all U.S. fisheries to urge them to implement this scientifically superior and more efficient method. PETA's hard work will allow the U.S. to use 21st century testing methods and eliminate the use of live mice for shellfish monitoring—much as PETA and our affiliates accomplished in the E.U.
PETA and its affiliates have donated more than $1 million to the development of non-animal test methods.
Of course, to eliminate animal suffering completely, we recommend that people not consume shellfish but rather partake of a healthy plant-based diet.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Long after Wells Fargo retired the horses that used to pull its trademark stagecoaches, the bank is helping animals again. After Wells Fargo executives heard from PETA about how mice and other animals suffer when they are ensnared in glue traps, the bank banned all such vile traps from its 6,200 national locations, earning itself a a Compassionate Company Award and a big box of vegan chocolate mice, which PETA sent to the company's San Francisco headquarters.
Beige Alert | cc by 2.0
PETA explained that mice, birds, and other small animals struggle to free themselves after being caught in these pans of pain, often ripping out their fur and feathers and breaking their bones before they eventually succumb to their injuries or to blood loss, dehydration, shock, suffocation, or exhaustion. Wells Fargo refused to support such cruelty.
Now three of the Big Four banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase) as well as 13 of the top 25 financial institutions have pledged never to use glue traps.
A lot has been happening this week at PETA: victories, anniversaries, and celebrations! We're after CareerBuilder, we stopped shipments of monkeys to laboratories, and we've done much more! Check out the latest news and victories:
What a busy week it's been in the PETAsphere! Just in case you missed any of the big news, we've got you covered. Follow us on Tumblr for future news about animal rights, vegan living, and where in the world the PETA campaigners are now.
Former "pussycat" Kimberly Wyatt instinctively knows that torturing rabbits, mice, and other animals for makeup is wrong. In her new ad for PETA U.K., Kimberly, who has her own line of cruelty-free cosmetics, exposes the painful and often deadly effects that chemical tests have on animals.
Hair: Klare Wilkinson|Make-up: Lan Nguyen|Studio: ShoreditchStudios.com|© karlgrant.com
Testing cosmetics on animals has been banned within the European Union (E.U.) since 2009. The E.U. also approved a ban on the sale of cosmetics containing ingredients that were tested on animals elsewhere, effective in 2013. But under pressure from some cosmetics companies, the E.U. is considering delaying that ban. Kimberly is hopeful that her ad will encourage the E.U. to uphold the original deadline.
She's got a lot of support: After PETA U.K., PETA Germany, and PETA Netherlands sent out action alerts to their members, the European Commission (the E.U.'s executive branch) received more than 20,000 e-mails urging it not to delay the ban. And when PETA U.S. sent out a similar action alert, we quickly collected and delivered more than 50,000 letters from people in the U.S. and other countries imploring the European Commission to keep the deadline and keep animals safe.
On this side of the pond, we aren't fortunate enough to have such a ban yet, but we can implement one in our homes by buying only cruelty-free products.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
The new year is already looking a bit brighter for animals: A PETCO store in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, has announced that it will close permanently on January 1—which is great news for the hamsters, gerbils, mice, fish, and other small animals who suffer and die every day in PETCO's stores and suppliers' facilities.
"Life" for the animals PETCO sells often consists of struggling to survive wild capture or captive breeding in horrific conditions, suffering from untreated injuries and illnesses, and fighting for food in feces-strewn, severely crowded cages. At the massive breeding mills that supply live animals to the pet trade, PETA investigations have revealed sick and dying animals placed in freezers to die, live hamsters placed in a plastic bag and bashed against a table in an attempt to kill them, animals deprived of veterinary care and left to cannibalize their cagemates' corpses, and other horrors.
For the sake of small animals, please say "No" to PETCO and other stores that sell animals.
Written by PETA
Each of us is inherently an "animal rights person" to some degree, whether we realize it or not. Take the recent case of the Charleston, West Virginia, Daily Mail blogger who wrote about having a mouse in her house. In the post, she wrote, "Please don't email me PETA." We did one better—we sent her a humane mousetrap and then she contacted us to learn more about it. A week later, she wrote this in her blog:
"So I thought I'd do a little research on the humane mousetrap and have a chat with PETA, after all they were kind enough to send it to me, to help with my 'uninvited' guest. At first, I was a little wary. I mean this is the group that files lawsuits on behalf of orcas, and well, there's nothing I like better than a … steak. But we may have found common ground on the mousetrap."
jma.work | cc by 2.0
Whether or not people support all of PETA's campaigns, most everyone can agree on the basic principle that cruelty to animals is wrong. Even if our friends and family aren't yet convinced that they should part ways with meat, perhaps they do agree that dogs deserve better than spending their lives on a chain or that baby elephants shouldn't be beaten by circus trainers.
When we work to find that common ground, animals win. And who knows, maybe today's humane-mousetrap user is PETA's next Person of the Year.
Do you take your tea with a dash of blood? How about a spoonful of dead mouse? PETA's new parody of a Nestea commercial from the '80s shows viewers why they should avoid the brand and "take the CruelTEA plunge":
Nestea insists on testing on mice and rats in an attempt to make health claims—despite the fact that U.S. and European regulators have stated that tests on animals are not sufficient to prove health claims about food and beverage products. One test involved locking highly social mice in dark chambers and painfully shocking their sensitive feet. In another test, experimenters injected mice with chemicals to make them develop diabetes and then force-fed them tea ingredients.
Share the new ad on Facebook and Twitter to urge everyone you know to "take the CruelTEA plunge" by pledging to drink only cruelty-free tea. Please also click here to urge Nestea to stop testing on animals. Unless you want to quench a thirst for cruelty, Nestea is one brand to avoid like the plague.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
As the nights get chilly, the thought of passing the evenings with friends and family in a nice, warm house sounds delightful … to mice. Like humans, mice are social animals who enjoy each other's company, and while you might not be so eager to enjoy theirs, you might have a little more respect for them after reading these fascinating mouse tidbits:
If—despite their charm—you still don't care to share your home with mice, the best way to keep them out of your humble abode is to prevent them from getting inside in the first place. Seal mouse-size holes (mice can enter a hole the size of a dime), keep food in sealed containers, always clean up crumbs right away, and use safe, homemade deterrents like peppermint-soaked cotton balls. If you already have unwanted mouseguests, never use cruel glue traps, which leave the animals to suffer slow deaths from suffocation or dehydration. Instead, pick up a few humane mousetraps and set the mice free outdoors.
A man who was spear-fishing off Anna Maria Island in the Gulf of Mexico found out what it was like to be speared by a fish when a shark bit his left thigh. By issuing a series of biting (geddit?) ads placed in the area, PETA is using this incident to remind Floridians that the deadliest killers in the water aren't sharks—but human beings.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Sharks aren't the only animals who have been striking back:
Perhaps if animals always fought back, people might think twice about abusing them. It would save a lot of lives all around. And speaking of saving lives—maybe these surfers will always be spared from shark attacks in return for their compassionate actions.
PETA's "do test" and "don't test" lists have been an essential part of shopping for millions of people for nearly three decades—and in all those years, we've never made a change to the way we list companies: They either conduct (or pay someone to conduct) painful skin, eye, and other poisoning tests on animals, or they don't.
© Jessica Florence
Now, for the first time ever, we are launching a new category, called "Working for Regulatory Change." This new category recognizes manufacturers that only conduct tests on animals that are required by law and work hard to develop and lobby for the validation of non-animal tests. The requirements for making the list are as tough as boot camp. In addition to refusing to conduct any tests on animals that are not required by law and devoting substantial support and human hours toward the acceptance of non-animal methods, companies must lift the veil of secrecy and talk openly with PETA about what tests they conduct on which species and how many animals are used. And they have to do it every year.
With such tough standards to meet, it's not too surprising that only one company is on the "Working for Regulatory Change" list so far: Colgate-Palmolive. Colgate has been transparent with the public and with PETA about what it does and why, and the company has had a moratorium on all tests on animals for its adult personal-care product line for more than a decade. In its last reporting year, Colgate conducted no tests on animals at all.
We'd never suggest buying products from companies that test on animals, but we also recognize that some companies have never spent one corporate dime on developing and validating non-animal test methods. We challenge these companies to follow Colgate's example and stop hiding and start working for an end to all tests on 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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