Written by Michelle Sherrow
Want to wake up Easter morning to a basket filled with goodies? Here are five ways to be sweet to rabbits this spring—and make sure the Easter Bunny's trail runs right up to your house.
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Hoppy Easter!
It isn't quite Easter yet, but one Los Angeles woman still got a surprise from a bunny. Taken aback to see a big, fluffy black-and-white rabbit calmly nibbling grass near her home, she called PETA and asked how she could tell if the animal were a wild rabbit or a domesticated bunny someone had simply turned loose outdoors after growing tired of caring for the animal.
This lucky (and adorable!) bunny got a second chance at finding a good home
Based on the rabbit's physical description and friendly demeanor, it was clear that the little one had been someone's companion. And as the PETA employee explained, domesticated rabbits lack the survival skills and training of their wild counterparts and will fall victim to predators, cruel people, or foreign parasites and diseases against which they lack a natural immunity.
The caller did everything right: She safely secured the bunny in a large box, carried the animal into her home, and called someone at the local animal shelter, who drove out and picked the bunny up. The friendly rabbit likely hadn't been outside for long since the animal was still very healthy, and the fluffy one now has a second chance at finding a forever home.
If you are considering adopting a rabbit, don't buy; go to a shelter or a rescue group.
D.C.'s Washington Humane Society gave away rabbits for pennies recently. As one commenter who read the disturbing news article posted, "I hope this is … [an] April Fool's joke." Sadly, it wasn't. The animals were being adopted out for "29 cents in honor of the Leap Year."
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Selling animals for less than the price of a pack of gum devalues them and encourages spur-of-the-moment adoptions by people who have not considered whether or not they are ready to invest the substantial amount of money and care that animals need. It would have been easy for people to acquire the cheap bunnies to give as Easter gifts to children, so many will likely join the countless other neglected cast-off Easter bunnies and chicks who live in cramped cages in backyards or are abandoned outdoors, where they cannot survive and die painfully.
Other people's intentions could be much more sinister: Virtually free rabbits are often sought after by those looking for cheap snake food, dogfighting bait, and laboratory victims—even by those wanting to make rabbit stew.
In response to pressure from "no-kill" advocates like Nathan Winograd and well-meaning members of the public, more and more animal shelters are stooping to these kinds of cheap and dangerous gimmicks to reduce their euthanasia statistics, even when it means shoving animals out the door without regard for each individual animal's well-being and safety. But if the number in the "adopted" column represents animals who suffered miserable fates and died at the hands of cruel or irresponsible people who have no idea what a rabbit needs, feels, or wants, that number starts to look pretty ugly.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
It's starting to feel like déjà vu: PETA has once again filed formal complaints with the federal government about the abuse of animals in laboratories at the University of Colorado–Denver (CU). Through a state open-records request, PETA has just learned that the same neglect and incompetence that we documented there in a 2007 investigation are still occurring.
The records show that during just the past two years, at least 60 animal welfare incidents—dozens of which may constitute violations of federal law and guidelines—have occurred, including the following:
Based on PETA's undercover investigation, in 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited CU for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act and also issued the university an official warning letting it know that it would be fined $10,000 per incident if it were found violating the law again. It's time for the government to follow through on that warning and stop CU's abuses for good.
Please ask the federal government to stop funding cruel animal experiments and to put your tax dollars toward modern, humane non-animal research methods.
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.
Gracie had been relegated to a tiny cage for weeks when a PETA staffer noticed her and asked her owner if she could give the rabbit a new home. Gracie's owner agreed. After all, she said, she didn't really want a rabbit companion—she'd bought Gracie to feed to her snake, but the rabbit had proved to be too big.
Gracie didn't let her harrowing start to life dampen her spirit, and she became a superstar, posing with actor Charlotte Ross in a PETA anti-fur ad. And in her new home, where she is wanted, Gracie enjoys romping through the vegetable garden and digging holes. She doesn't like it when her chicken companions try to eat her food, but the wily rabbit never hesitates to steal theirs.
While sweet Gracie got her happy ending, she would be saddened if she knew that rabbits just like her are confined to tiny cages every year in laboratories in the U.S. They have cosmetics and household cleaners dripped into their eyes. Their backs are shaved, and corrosive chemicals are painted onto their raw skin and left to burn away the tissue for weeks. Then they are killed.
Show rabbits a little grace. Buy cruelty-free products.
Written by PETA
As anyone who has ever forgotten to spell out "w-a-l-k" can attest, dogs can understand our language. One recent study showed that dogs can learn up to 165 words and gestures and that they can count. And dogs aren't the only animals you can depend on in an emergency either—a rabbit recently saved her human family from a house fire.
Could birds call each other "humanbrain" as an insult? Like humans, crows and ravens are very social and have large brains for their body size. They also rival humans and monkeys in their ability to delay self-gratification for a greater reward. They are articulate, too, as evidenced by escaped former companion birds who are now teaching their flocks to understand English. If a family planning to welcome a new baby is having trouble picking a name, perhaps they should consult with parrots, who name their offspring.
Dolphins talk to each other in a way similar to humans, too, by adjusting their muscular tension and air flow. Words likely not in their vocabulary? "Imprison," "abuse," and "exploit" …. But if they are familiar with those terms, it could explain why scientists in Australia are just now discovering a new species of dolphin—maybe they were hiding!
People have been safely using toothpaste, dish soap, and other household products for generations, but that didn’t stop REACH, the European Union's massive chemical-testing program, from torturing and killing about 200,000 animals in tests on the ingredients in these products, among many other chemicals. A recent report by the agency that oversees REACH reveals that companies are ignoring the requirement to use every available alternative to experimenting on animals and are instead putting thousands of animals through suffering that most people wouldn't wish on their worst enemy.
According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, "Among these 'unnecessary' tests were 188 studies on eye irritation carried out on rabbits; 336 skin sensitisation studies on guinea pigs or mice; 254 short-term toxicity tests on fish; and 33 genetic toxicity tests on mice."
PETA U.K. is calling out the government officials responsible for enforcing REACH by placing this ad in an influential European politics magazine, The Parliament, and asking Europeans to write to the European Commission.
In related news, PETA and its international affiliates have written to the European Chemicals Agency, which oversees REACH, demanding a moratorium on reproductive toxicity testing until a newly approved refinement―that can spare hundreds of thousands of animals―is in place.
In the meantime, you can help animals on both sides of the pond by buying only cruelty-free products. Visit the PETA Living page for lists of companies that do and don’t test on animals.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
You may want to start preparing some celebratory (non-animal tested) tea and (vegan) biscuits. The United Kingdom has taken a significant step toward ending tests of household products on animals. As a member of the E.U., Britain has already made it illegal to test cosmetics or their ingredients on animals, and now the government has made a commitment to ending household-product tests after consulting with companies, trade bodies, and animal protection organizations to come up with a working plan for ending the cruelty of animal testing.
In household-product tests, experimenters feed or inject animals with high doses of toxic chemicals or rub irritants into their skin. New testing methods will include laboratory-grown cultures and computer modeling.
British Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone said, "We believe it is possible to sell household products without inflicting pain and suffering on animals, and it is unacceptable that testing in this area continues."
While experiments of household products on animals might not be banned in other countries yet, they can be banned in your home. Choosing cruelty-free products gets animals one step closer to freedom from the laboratory.
Dozens of animals were rescued from a ramshackle farm in Arnsberg-Hüsten, Germany, after a whistleblower alerted PETA Germany that the animals were being kept in filthy, dilapidated sheds or were enclosed in broken wire fences—exposed to the elements, predators, and the beer-bottle-littered ground.
Upon investigation, staffers found 59 chickens, 34 rabbits, 25 ducks, and six geese, as well as the skins and heads of two dead rabbits and the carcasses of three dead and decaying animals, which were being eaten by rats. The whistleblower stated that the owner of the farm slaughtered animals and sold them to his neighbors.
PETA Germany staffers shot video footage, which they used to file a complaint with authorities, who ordered the farmer to surrender most of the animals. The church that owned the property also ordered the man out, and the city bulldozed the shacks. The man subsequently surrendered the rest of the animals, who were taken by PETA Germany and two other rescue groups and placed in sanctuaries. Not a bad weekend's work, PETA Germany!
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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