Written by PETA
A little birdie told me that PETA's cruelty caseworkers are her heroes. After reading about some of the ways that they've helped our feathered friends recently, I must agree—they are flock stars!
A young bird was found stuck and struggling in a sticky gel that had been applied to the rafters of a hardware store in northern Virginia to prevent birds from roosting. After a compassionate customer removed the gel and safely released the bird, PETA convinced the store to stop using the gel permanently!
In Piedmont, South Carolina, four chickens were severely injured after falling from a truck that was transporting them to slaughter. Three of the birds died quickly, but one survived, and a kind passerby called PETA for guidance on how to help her. He whisked the chicken to a veterinarian, who determined that the bird was paralyzed from a spinal injury and euthanized her—giving the suffering bird a painless death that was infinitely better than the one she would have faced at a slaughterhouse.
After learning that ducklings were drowning in vertically sided storm water ponds at a northern Illinois home improvement store, PETA worked with the store to have ramps installed so that flightless birds can climb out of the pond. The store is now working on a more permanent solution, such as fencing.
A concerned woman in Roland, Iowa, called PETA after finding two orphaned mourning dove fledglings in her driveway who weren't moving and who appeared to be in danger. PETA staffers connected her with a nearby veterinarian who examined the birds, found them to be fairly healthy, and turned them over to a wildlife rehabilitator who shares clinic space with him. The rehabilitator is hopeful that with a little TLC, the fledglings can soon be released where they were found.
All of these birds were helped because someone cared enough to intervene. If you see an animal in distress, be that someone!
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
If the heartbreaking pictures of animals suffering on factory farms and in slaughterhouses bring you down (and if they don't, you need to worry), you'll be pleased to learn that scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina are developing a way to give die-hard carnivores an animal-friendly meat fix. With the help of a grant from PETA, the scientists are working on growing "cultured" meat in their laboratory, relying on techniques similar to those they are using in their research on growing human organs for transplant patients.
The list of benefits of bioengineered in vitro meat goes on and on. It is far less likely to be contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, and campylobacter, which are widespread on factory farms. Scientists can control how much fat is added to the meat, which could help people lower their risk for heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. The production of cultured meat wouldn't generate the tons of animal waste that factory farms do or contribute to climate change and massive water and air pollution. And, of course, if cultured meat became widely available, millions of animals every year would be spared from being scalded, skinned, or hacked apart or having their throats cut open while they are still conscious and struggling.Meat produced safely in a clean, controlled environment could someday make dead animal flesh look about as progressive as The Flintstones.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Media outlets everywhere are reporting that a home on New York's Long Island is for sale. Why all the buzz? This house is well known as the "Amityville Horror house," the infamous site of alleged paranormal activity brought on by gruesome murders at the home as depicted in the horror classic The Amityville Horror.
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, there's no denying the horrors that countless animals suffer in factory farms before they are cruelly killed in slaughterhouses. So enter PETA: We've written to the current owner to propose that we be allowed to rent the residence so that we can set up shop—er, haunted house.
PETA's "Amityville Slaughterhouse of Horrors" would guarantee chills (and likely some sleepless nights) for visitors who will experience what life and death are like for victims of factory farms and slaughterhouses. Of course, it wouldn't be all gore and horror: Our walk-through exhibit would also include an on-site café where visitors can learn about simple, tasty alternatives to butchered animal bits.
Will we be bringing the haunting real-life tales of tormented animals to Amityville? We'll let you know—in the meantime, make sure your own kitchen doesn't look like a murder scene by going vegan.
Written by Karin Bennett
If you prefer Atari to Wii or have dreams of getting your name on the Galaga Top Ten High Score Table, We'd like to introduce you to what could easily become your new addiction: Escape From the Slaughterhouse.
Created by Mikael Romlin, this game is for the "old skool" gamer in all of us. It has a Crystal Castles feel, but instead of collecting gems and trying to escape Berthilda the Witch, you are searching for cages in each level in order to set your friends free and trying to escape from the slaughterhouse. You'll encounter butchers along the way (whom you can defeat by jumping on their heads), and you have to be careful not to fall into the meat grinders.
I'm going to give you a heads-up and say that this game isn't easy (even our resident gaming expert, Joel Bartlett, only made it to the first boss), but the rewards are worth it. Freedom for all? Yes, please!
And for those of you looking for some gaming on the go, check out Mikael's Hunt the Hunter. It's a cell-phone game in which you take shots at fox hunters before they can shoot vulnerable foxes.
After you've played the game, how about giving Mikael a little love in the comments below for his retro games?
Written by Shawna Flavell
The findings of a new report from Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) should come as no surprise to anyone with an ounce of sense: Abuse and exploitation run rampant in meat factories, no matter the victim's species.
One in three workers interviewed by the EHRC claimed to have heard or been the victim of verbal abuse by superiors, and one in five admitted to "being pushed, kicked, or having things thrown at them." The report contains testimony from employees who claimed to have had frozen burgers thrown at them by managers and states that workers with bladder conditions admitted to urinating on themselves after they were denied bathroom breaks.
It doesn't take a great leap of logic to understand that the callousness required to hang gentle animals by chains and shackles, cut their throats while they are still conscious, and begin to skin them while they are still blinking will bleed into employee relations, and it's no coincidence that the hardships endured by humans are eerily similar to those endured by animals. If you want to stop human and animal exploitation, the answer is easy: Go vegan.
Written by Logan Scherer
One whistleblower's powerful testimony about the abuse of pigs and calves in slaughterhouses throughout the country may bring about a serious overhaul in the U.S. government's monitoring of slaughterhouses.
Dean Wyatt is a veterinarian and supervisor of the Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS), which is a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Last week, Wyatt told the members of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee that time after time, his warnings about unsafe slaughterhouse practices went ignored. Two of the slaughterhouses he worked with—one in Oklahoma that allegedly mishandled pigs and one in Vermont that he ordered to shut down three times for mistreating calves—ignored his directives to stop abusing animals. And a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday supports Wyatt's claims, admitting that the FSIS has a history of unsuccessfully regulating slaughterhouses and that it is lax in its enforcement of humane slaughtering standards:
Now governmental officials are saying that they will take steps to improve the agency's enforcement standards. So does this mean that we'll see more stringent enforcement anytime soon? We hope so. But in the meantime, there's no reason to support the massacre of animals or to jeopardize your health: Go vegan!
When your full-time job is extracting brains from pigs' heads, irreparable trauma and polyradiculoneuropathy are all in a day's work. Polyradic … huh?
Polyradiculoneuropathy is a painful nerve disorder that attacks the peripheral nerves and the spine nerve roots. Earlier this month, a study revealed that 24 slaughterhouse workers had developed the disease after inhaling pig-brain tissue mist.
We always knew that working at a slaughterhouse messes with your head, but now we can say it actually attacks your brain.
If you can, pick up a copy of this week's New Yorker. There's a review of Jonathan Safran Foer's new book, Eating Animals, along with a photograph of a very powerful painting by artist Sue Coe—the same painting that Coe gave to PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. Ingrid is not ashamed to say that she burst into tears the first time she saw the painting, and she often talks about how powerfully it reminds people of the truth and horror of the slaughter business so casually supported by the majority of people.
The painting is very Coe-esque—dark, haunting, and surreal. It looks like a nightmare put on canvas, and in fact, it is—a real-life nightmare. When Sue Coe was growing up, she lived next door to a hog factory farm and a block away from a slaughterhouse. In an essay she wrote for Ingrid's book, One Can Make a Difference, Coe describes the events that inspired the painting:
One day, a small pig escaped the slaughterhouse, and she ran in and out of the traffic, desperate to get away. Men in white aprons, covered in blood, ran after her. Small groups of people congregated to watch, and they started to laugh and point. I asked my mother why this was so funny, and she said it was not funny, the pig was going to be caught and killed. . . . When it came time to slaughter the pigs, which happened every six months or so, there would be a terrible noise at night. They'd whip the pigs to get them into the truck, and they would go down the road to the slaughterhouse. . . . When I was about ten years old, I went with my friend to the door of the slaughterhouse and demanded to be showed around, as I wanted to know what was happening. The workers in the slaughterhouse … showed us everything that happens in the process of slaughter. The vision of the escaped pig couldn't be ignored; she became louder and louder in my mind …. This experience as a child sent me on my lifetime's mission that was to be an artist, and to reveal what was being concealed. To get into places that have closed doors, and to give art the potential of changing the world, not just reflecting it.
One day, a small pig escaped the slaughterhouse, and she ran in and out of the traffic, desperate to get away. Men in white aprons, covered in blood, ran after her. Small groups of people congregated to watch, and they started to laugh and point. I asked my mother why this was so funny, and she said it was not funny, the pig was going to be caught and killed. . . .
When it came time to slaughter the pigs, which happened every six months or so, there would be a terrible noise at night. They'd whip the pigs to get them into the truck, and they would go down the road to the slaughterhouse. . . .
When I was about ten years old, I went with my friend to the door of the slaughterhouse and demanded to be showed around, as I wanted to know what was happening. The workers in the slaughterhouse … showed us everything that happens in the process of slaughter. The vision of the escaped pig couldn't be ignored; she became louder and louder in my mind ….
This experience as a child sent me on my lifetime's mission that was to be an artist, and to reveal what was being concealed. To get into places that have closed doors, and to give art the potential of changing the world, not just reflecting it.
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is. Even though we aren't all gifted artists like Sue Coe or talented writers like Jonathan Safran Foer, there is still plenty that we can do to give animals a voice.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Who needs a spa treatment when you can rejuvenate your soul by nuzzling 800-pound piggies at an animal sanctuary?
Well, a group of us kids from PETA and the PETA Foundation were lucky enough to do just that over the weekend. An hour north of D.C. lies a spectacular oasis called Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary. It consists of 400 acres devoted entirely to the rehabilitation of abused and/or neglected animals. This past Sunday, Poplar Spring hosted its annual Open House and Fundraiser. I don't think anyone could turn down yummy vegan nosh and cuddle time with the cuties pictured below, do you?
This is Bobby and yours truly. Before coming to the sanctuary, he and his friend Harry had lived their entire lives in cages and were used in insulin experiments. When they arrived at Poplar Spring, both of them were white as snow because they had never seen a single ray of sunshine. The first thing they did when they arrived at Poplar? They dove into a mud pool and stared up in amazement at the trees and stars. What a lucky guy, and such a looker too!
I'm telling you, folks, I highly recommend finding your nearest animal sanctuary and visiting. Or better yet, volunteer! With Thanksgiving coming up, most farm sanctuaries have special Thanksgiving celebrations that honor their turkeys. If my picture doesn't convince you, maybe these will.
Written by Missy Lane
When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Katie. We slept over at each other's houses, hung out during recess, and wore the same clothes, pretending to be twins. I was so ready to give her the other half of my best-friend necklace—but then I heard her talking smack about me in the lunch room. Backstabber.
The CEO of Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, is a lot like Katie. While the aquarium's mission is supposedly "to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the Pacific Ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems," CEO Dr. Jerry Schubel has just launched a new program called "Seafood for the Future"—which encourages people to eat specific kinds of fish in order to qualify for a free ticket to the aquarium.
If Dr. Schubel really knew what was best for fish, he'd know that eating them isn't an option. Fish communicate and develop relationships with one another. They experience fear, show affection by gently rubbing against other fish, and even grieve when their companions die. When they are dragged from the ocean's depths, they undergo excruciating decompression, which often causes their internal organs to rupture.
Encouraging aquarium visitors to eat fish seems a little bit like serving poodle burgers at a dog show. Wouldn't you think the best way for visitors to safeguard and respect the ocean's sea life is to adopt a vegan diet? We've fired off a letter to Dr. Schubel asking him to cancel this program immediately.
Is it obvious yet that aquariums really don't care about the animals they're supposedly protecting?
Written by Liz Graffeo
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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