Written by PETA
It was just another evening in Hollywood—the sun was sinking in a gold-and-orange blaze, throngs of tourists were posing for photos on the Walk of Fame, and some of my PETA colleagues and I gathered to spread the message that McDonald's suppliers mutilate conscious chickens.
Although a couple of teenagers who hovered around Ozzy Osbourne's star assured me that they could beat up anyone who gave us any trouble, most of the more than 300 passersby who took our leaflets were sympathetic. In fact, even the bus passengers wanted our leaflets—a convenient bus stop provided the opportunity for a certain enthusiastic (and tall) staffer to hand leaflets through the bus windows.
You can help by telling McDonald's to require its suppliers to use a less cruel chicken-slaughter method, lest the stretch of sidewalk in front of this Hollywood location give new meaning to "Walk of Shame."
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
From plane flyovers to 18-hour tub-ins, people are saying "enough" to SeaWorld's exploitation of orcas, bottlenose dolphins, and other animals. And now, even if you live nowhere near Orlando, San Antonio, or San Diego—where SeaWorld forces marine mammals to spend their entire lives in tiny tanks—you can still make a difference for animals if you RSVP to our virtual protest on Facebook and participate in it on June 18.
SeaWorld, which owns most of the captive orcas and bottlenose dolphins in the U.S., has a hideous history of animal exploitation. Marine mammals suffer for years in tanks that are only a few times larger than their bodies. They are never able to swim freely, feel the ocean current, or enjoy life in a closely knit pod, and they die far short of the life span that they would enjoy if they lived in the ocean where they belong. And the park's death toll is staggering, counting not only orcas such as Taima, her mother, and her stillborn calf but also humans, including the trainer who was killed by Tilly the orca in February.
If you RSVP for the Facebook event now and update your Facebook status with a comment about SeaWorld on Friday, you and all the friends you can muster can show park officials that their deadly attraction belongs in the history books.
Spread the word to your friends and family: Never buy a ticket to SeaWorld.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Good news: Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter ended last night—and more than 80 percent of the seals who had been marked for death were spared this year.
Thanks to a huge PETA push and the hard work of caring people like you, worldwide demand for seal fur is plummeting. We worked to get the European Union to ban the sale of seal products, and the U.S. Senate unanimously passed U.S. Senate Resolution 84, which calls for an end to the annual slaughter. There are few places left for sealers to sell these wretched pelts.
But we must keep up the fight until Canada stops the slaughter altogether, and that means year-round pressure! PETA has big plans to do just that. And you can help by staying active online and in your local community. Let's stop this barbaric massacre forever.
Written by Paula Moore
PETA's presence was felt by Australian wool producers who are attending a weeklong international trade meeting in San Francisco. Yesterday, 120 protesters made a striking appearance as they gathered outside the conference building and denounced industry executives for allowing wool producers to abandon their commitment to ending the bloody and painful practice of mulesing this year.
Leading designers and retailers around the world—including Gap Inc., Timberland, Abercrombie & Fitch, Limited Brands, Liz Claiborne, HUGO BOSS, and Perry Ellis—have pledged to move away from wool that comes from mulesed sheep or have instituted an outright ban on it.
Shoppers can make a difference by turning their backs on wool altogether.
Notorious animal abusers might rethink a visit to Norfolk, Virginia—home of the world's largest animal rights organization (PETA!). When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus rolls its elephant-beating act into town, our Norfolk office holds a lively and unmissable protest to make it known that the animal circus isn't welcome here—or anywhere! Check out yesterday's great turnout from PETA's opening-night demo. We'll be at every show to cheer the plummeting attendance figures. Please take a second to speak up for the animals who suffer for the saddest show on earth by urging the USDA to revoke Ringling's exhibitor license.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Last night's crowning of the Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show was bested by two protesters who informed the crowd that every time a dog is purchased from a breeder, another dog dies in an animal shelter:
The 15,000 audience members collectively gasped at the shock of the unexpected interruption, but the facts are much more startling: People who are deliberately breeding animals even when U.S. animal shelters must put 3 to 4 million dogs and cats to death every year are callous, profit-hungry, cruel shoo-ins for worst in show.
Written by Logan Scherer
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 43 percent of American adults—and nearly 60 percent of those under 30 years old—oppose the use of animals in experiments. If I made my money addicting animals to drugs and then killing them or drilling holes into their skulls for sexual behavior experiments, I would take this news as a sign that I should quit my day job and start looking for another way to make a killing earn a living.
Apparently, this kind of clear thinking is in short supply at the national conference of the Society for Neuroscience. Instead of embracing modern, humane non-animal research methods, some members of the society met in Chicago yesterday to brainstorm ways that they can drum up support for archaic and cruel experiments on animals.
PETA held a demonstration outside the conference, and was joined by Dr. Larry Hansen, whom the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease just named one of the world's top 100 Alzheimer's researchers. Dr. Hansen is one of many progressive, forward-thinking scientists who realize that animal experimentation should be replaced.
More than 100 million sensitive, intelligent animals are experimented on and killed in U.S. laboratories every year. Take a minute to visit StopAnimalTests.com and find out how you can speak up for these animals.
Written by Shawna Flavell
PETA Europe members were at The O2 arena in London yesterday to protest Ben Hur Live's use of real horses, camels, donkeys, chickens, falcons, and eagles forced to "perform" in the show's rock concert–like chaos of bright lights, loud noise, and commotion.
Animals forced to perform never find it entertaining. And for the more than 100 animals used in the European production of Ben Hur Live, "stage fright" has certainly taken on a very literal meaning.
We've all heard that animals used for circuses are beaten, chained for up to 100 hours at a time, and carted around the country in tiny boxcars without a semblance of a natural life, but being on stage is just as terrifying and unnatural, and as I'm sure you've probably learned, it often ends in tragedy for the animals and the audience.
Please tell everyone you know in Europe that Ben Hur Live is hell for animals before someone gets hurt, and urge your friends and family never to patronize shows that use live animals.
Written by Heather Drennan
Sometimes seals are on Sarah McLachlan's shirt. Sometimes they drive tractors. Sometimes they're in Washington, D.C.
And, as it turns out, sometimes they block the entrance to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City to protest Canada's seal slaughter while the country's prime minister, Stephen Harper, is inside at a meeting … and then they're taken away by the police.
Take action! Tell Prime Minister Harper that the seal slaughter must end.
Written by Amanda Schinke
And it's all because friends don't protest friends.
No, we haven't suddenly made amends with Anna Wintour. It's longtime PETA friend Charlize Theron who has us putting the kibosh on our protest plans.
Charlize will be on hand at Vogue's Fashion Week party on Thursday to sign copies of the magazine's September issue. But while Charlize may be gracing the cover of this notoriously furry magazine, the Oscar-winning actress wouldn't be caught dead in fur.
The PETA pal even wore our "Fight Breedism" T-shirt to her Vogue interview.
Don't worry—we'll still be making sure that ol' Anna hears from us. She and fellow fur fiend Michael Kors will be putting in an appearance at Wintour's "Fashion's Night Out" event at Macy's … and so will we.
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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