Written by Alisa Mullins
Authorities in Texas and Oklahoma are acting on complaints from PETA that a "kill buyer"—someone who purchases horses and transports them to slaughterhouses or feedlots—falsified forms certifying that horses who were being transported to slaughter were free of a deadly equine disease.
Twice last year, a PETA investigator rode along with the kill buyer as he moved dozens of horses he had purchased in Iowa through Missouri and Kansas to feedlots and transfer points in Oklahoma and Texas. The kill buyer was caught on tape admitting that the veterinary forms he carried "certifying" that the horses in his trailer were free of deadly equine infectious anemia (EIA)—a potentially fatal viral disease with no known cure or preventive vaccine—were actually those of other horses, not those on board his truck.
PETA alerted the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry and the Texas Animal Health Commission that the kill buyer, by his own admission, was bringing horses into the states without valid EIA paperwork, risking the health of hundreds of other horses when potentially infected horses were unloaded onto crowded feedlots.
The latest allegations in Oklahoma are part of a wider horse slaughter investigation involving allegations of stolen property, concealing stolen property, transporting stolen property across state lines, and other crimes.
What You Can Do
Obviously, this kill buyer needs to be brought to justice, but he is just one piece of a large and corrupt industry. This case is just more evidence of the pressing need to pass the Safeguard American Food Exports Act, which would make it illegal to slaughter horses in the U.S. and to transport them to slaughter in Canada and Mexico. Please contact your representatives today and urge them to support this vital bill.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Less than a year after a security guard reported the abuse of a chained elephant by a bullhook-wielding Ringling Bros. circus handler in Colorado, an employee at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum—a venue where PETA captured Ringling bullhook use on video as part of a 2009 undercover investigation—has reported more bullhook abuse during Ringling's March 2013 tour there.
PETA's 2009 investigation of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus found that workers were beating, whipping, and hooking elephants and striking tigers.
Based on the whistleblower's affidavit, PETA has submitted a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with an urgent request for the agency to inspect Ringling while it remains in New York (through April 3). The arena staffer—who also noted that she saw no exercise pens set up for the tigers—complained to the Nassau County District Attorney Office's animal-cruelty unit, which is investigating.
Hasn't being slapped with the USDA's largest-ever penalty against a circus for violations of the Animal Welfare Act deterred Ringling from abusing elephants? Please politely urge USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to finally seize Ringling's suffering elephants and transfer them to a reputable sanctuary.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Update: The New Mexico legislature adjourned without voting on the proposed "ag-gag" bill, effectively killing it for this year. Four other states are still considering making it a crime to record video on farms, so residents of Nebraska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania should let their legislators know that they oppose these unconstitutional bills.
The following was originally published on March 14, 2013:
Not content to stop after his successful campaign to get Wyoming's "ag gag" bill thrown out, Bob Barker has set his sights on the other proposed "ag gag" bills in New Mexico, Nebraska, Arkansas, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.
© StarMaxInc.com
As a longtime animal advocate and vegetarian, Bob knows that by making it illegal to record video on factory farms, such measures would threaten efforts to document workers' abuse of animals and to provide evidence that authorities need to win cruelty convictions. The lifelong Republican has written to fellow members of the GOP to let them know why the Grand Old Party needs to give these bills the old heave-ho. In a letter to state legislators, Bob wrote:
Since there is no government inspection of factory farms for cruelty violations and workers who report abuse to supervisors are routinely ignored, evidence from undercover investigations is critical to exposing abuse and helping officials prosecute abusers. … Americans today want better treatment of animals killed for food, not for their legislators to hide illegal cruelty on farms behind locked doors.
Bob's name certainly carries a lot of weight, but animals who are suffering on factory farms need all the help they can get. People who live in states where "ag gag" bills are currently on the floor should let their legislators know that they support the constitutional rights of whistleblowers to expose abuse.
After all, animal abusers—not whistleblowers—are the ones who should be treated like criminals.
PETA's investigation into the cruel pigeon-racing racket spanned many states and revealed rampant illegal gambling, in violation of state and federal laws—including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and felony gambling and tax laws—with stakes of $200,000 or more per race. One of those states was Oklahoma, and as a result of the criminal investigation that followed, the Oklahoma City district attorney has charged three race organizers—including the executive director of the American Racing Pigeon Union—with felony commercial gambling and conspiracy to violate the state's anti–commercial gambling act.
Until PETA's investigation broke, the shadier aspects of pigeon racing had attracted little attention, but it's a blood sport that deserves to be as condemned as cockfighting or dogsled racing. In a typical race, 60 percent of the birds will never make it back to their lofts and mates because of extreme weather, predators, electric lines, foul play, and exhaustion.
Out of more than 1,500 baby pigeons shipped to Oklahoma City for just one event attended by the investigators, the 2010 American Racing Pigeon Union race, a little more than 1,000 birds survived training. Of those thousand birds entered into the final race, a mere 420 made it back from Arkansas by nightfall—and many of those who returned still likely had their necks wrung if they failed to finish "in the money." As one pigeon racer told investigators, when starting out in pigeon racing, "The first thing you have to learn—how to kill pigeons."
There's nothing sporting about forcing animals to risk—and often lose—their lives so that someone can win a prize, a title, or some money. Please never attend or support these sadistic blood sports, and if you witness cruelty, never be silent.
The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act died last year when the congressional session ended and, along with it, our hope of permanently ending the slaughter of American horses for food in 2012. But we're getting another chance.
Senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle have come together to sponsor the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act. The SAFE Act would prevent horse slaughter in the U.S. and would slam shut the loophole that currently allows horses to be shipped to Mexico and Canada to be slaughtered.
Last year, more than 160,000 horses were crammed onto transport trucks and sent on grueling journeys across the border. A PETA undercover investigation of one such transport revealed that horses—including thoroughbred horses formerly used for racing—who were being shipped to Canada spent 36 hours on a truck in subfreezing conditions and were not given rest, food, or even a sip of water. Inside the slaughterhouse, workers shot the horses in the head with a captive-bolt gun, but at least 40 percent of them were still conscious after the first shot and had to be shot several times. Then they were strung up by one leg, and their throats were slit.
A full 80 percent of Americans oppose horse slaughter. But just feeling that way won't help. Please, let this be the thing that you do to help animals today. Urge your senators and representatives to support the SAFE Act.
Actor and PETA pal Jenna Dewan-Tatum has added her name to those of the tens of thousands of compassionate people calling on Riverside County, California, District Attorney Paul Zellerbach to file felony cruelty charges against those responsible for the horrific neglect of animals at Global Captive Breeders, LLC (GCB).
Following PETA's undercover investigation of Lake Elsinore, California–based GCB, which revealed the systemic, daily neglect and shocking abuse of thousands of rats and reptiles, more than 30,000 of you have signed on to PETA's petition urging Zellerbach to take action.
On December 12, based on PETA's evidence, law-enforcement officials mounted the largest-ever seizure of animals in California at GCB. The facility reeked of death, decay, and ammonia from accumulated urine and feces. Snakes and other reptiles at GCB were so neglected that, in many cases, even their deaths went unnoticed by management—for days, leaving enclosures and rotting carcasses teeming with maggots.
Rats were routinely grabbed by the tail and slammed against hard surfaces when workers decided to kill them. Then they were thrown into trash bins or into a reptile's cage while still alive and convulsing. Tubs used for housing flooded frequently, drowning countless rats and leaving hundreds of others—exhausted, shivering, and terrified—to struggle to keep their heads above the water as it rose. As Jenna explains in her letter to Zellerbach:
As an expectant mother, I was particularly heartbroken to see photos of ailing mother rats with open wounds on their bodies who stood guard protectively over their dead or dying babies in the filthy plastic tubs that they were confined to without access to adequate food, water, or even moderately fresh air to breathe… Justice must be served for the unspeakable suffering endured by countless animals at GCB.
Please join PETA and Jenna Dewan-Tatum in politely urging Zellerbach to file criminal charges against all appropriate parties without further delay.
Update: Thanks to all of you who responded to PETA's action alert, New Hampshire House Bill (H.B.) 110 has stalled in committee, meaning that investigators can continue to uncover cruelty on factory farms in the state. H.B. 110 is likely to come up again this fall, so please keep checking back here to learn how you can help PETA continue to defeat this and other attempts to shield abusers from exposure!
Originally posted on January 31st, 2013:
How badly do corporate animal abusers want to keep the public from knowing what happens on factory farms and in slaughterhouses? Bad enough to enlist accomplices in government to try to stop any efforts to document their cruelty. But after a New Hampshire state legislator reportedly made a false allegation about PETA in support of his bill to block undercover investigations, we're more determined than ever to make sure that animal suffering can be documented and the abusers are held accountable.
PETA has written Rep. Robert Haefner, the sponsor of House Bill (H.B.) 110, New Hampshire's "ag gag" bill (which would require evidence of abuse to be turned over to authorities in 24 hours, shutting down long-term undercover investigations), asking him to retract a false statement that he reportedly made about our Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., investigation. PETA turned over evidence of animal abuse from its investigation of Aviagen's West Virginia turkey factory farms two business days after the end of the investigation—not 13 months, as Haefner allegedly claimed at a public hearing on the bill last week. Within three months of receiving the video footage, grand jurors issued the first-ever felony indictments for cruelty to turkeys on factory farms. All three former Aviagen workers were later convicted. At the hearing, Haefner used this false claim to justify to New Hampshire citizens his proposed bill to stop long-term undercover investigations on factory farms, according to witnesses.
Investigations conducted by PETA and other organizations on factory farms have been instrumental in opening people's eyes to the cruelty inherent in intensive animal agriculture and have led to successful prosecutions of the perpetrators, but Haefner's bill would make it practically impossible for whistleblowers and undercover investigators to secure sufficient evidence to show a pattern of cruelty, as preferred by police and prosecutors.
Ever wondered what it's like to take part in one of PETA's undercover investigations? Tune in to the Discovery Channel tonight, January 28, at 8 p.m. Eastern time for an episode of Extreme Smuggling that shines a light on the trafficking of exotic and endangered wildlife and the investigative work that's crucial to fighting this cruel and illicit trade in living beings.
The program will feature PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch, who will discuss PETA's seven-month undercover investigation of a massive international wholesale dealer of exotic animals, U.S. Global Exotics, Inc. (USGE). PETA's investigation led to the immediate closure of USGE, the largest animal seizure in U.S. history, and the pursuit of USGE's owner Jasen Shaw on federal charges of smuggling, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. Shaw remains a wanted fugitive.
Hundreds of thousands of animals of all kinds were cruelly confined, severely crowded, and denied basic necessities such as food, water, space, heat, and veterinary care during their time in USGE's filthy warehouse. Most animals' ultimate destination was stores such as PetSmart and PETCO, massive commercial chains that sell wild animals stolen from their native homes, imported into the U.S. from breeding warehouses overseas, or bred and sold by massive mills such as Atlanta-based Sun Pet and Rainbow World Exotics, a Texas-based dealer that bought animals from USGE and supplied animals to PETCO and PetSmart stores.
PETA's investigation led to the rescue of more than 26,000 animals from the USGE hellhole.
Animals sold by PetSmart, PETCO, and other pet stores are wild-caught or bred in horrific conditions, leaving countless animals to endure a miserable life in captivity, deprived of all that is natural and important to them. Please buy your animal-care supplies only from stores that do not sell any live animals.
Update: Great news! The hellhole formerly known as "Angel's Gate, Inc.," has been shut down for good!
After PETA provided evidence that Angel's Gate had persistently failed to comply with reporting laws for nonprofits, the New York Attorney General's Office filed suit to dissolve Angel's Gate for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in donations without accounting for any of those funds, in alleged violation of state law.
The lawsuit's settlement prohibits Angel's Gate founder Susan Marino from caring for or harboring any animals other than her own “pets” and from being an officer or a director of an organization that holds charitable funds for 10 years. The settlement also requires that Angel's Gate provide all outstanding financial reports. The documents are to be closely examined to determine whether the money that well-meaning people sent to the organization was ever actually used to help animals or instead was misused.
PETA's undercover investigation of the Delaware County, New York, facility found shocking, systemic, severe, and fatal neglect of ailing and debilitated animals—but now, no animal will ever suffer again at Angel's Gate, as Tuxie, Malcolm, Scrappy, Mimi, Casey, Marley, Lexus, and countless others did over the years.
Originally posted on November 7th, 2012:
There's some good news to report about the criminal prosecution of Angel's Gate founder Susan Marino on cruelty-to-animals charges following PETA's undercover investigation of the misery-filled hoarder warehouse, which posed as a "hospice and rehabilitation center." On November 7, Kortright, New York, Town Justice Yvonne Pagillo prohibited Marino from having any animals for six months, during which time the case is adjourned.
Since August 29, Marino and Angel's Gate have been banned from taking in any more animals or contributions, thanks to a lawsuit brought against them by the New York State Attorney General's Office. Let's hope the lawsuit's resolution shuts down Angel's Gate for good and that this hellhole's finances will be gone through with a fine-tooth comb for evidence of misuse of charitable funds.
Angel's Gate is not the only hellhole at which PETA investigators found suffering, death, and cruel conditions. Caboodle Ranch, Inc., was also a self-proclaimed "sanctuary" with a website that gives well-meaning people a false impression. Please help ensure that not another hard-earned dollar goes to cause, not relieve, animal suffering by urging the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to cancel the ability of Caboodle Ranch to solicit contributions.
When you mess with bears, sometimes you get hurt. Of course, PETA's "bear" didn't actually harm a hair on the heads of the animal abusers at Chief Saunooke Bear Park (CSBP) during a protest last weekend, but he and about two dozen of his friends did bite back against the cruelty at the vile roadside zoo.
PETA's protest comes less than a week after the release of the findings of our undercover investigation of CSBP that unearthed evidence of systemic neglect and abuse of bears (including shooting and eating one of them), threats of violence, illegal drug use, sexual harassment, and racism by the park's staff. We are calling for the closure of the hellish bear pits and the seizure of the surviving animals.
If you didn't make it to the demonstration, don't worry—you can still help the bears suffering at CSBP by asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to confiscate all animals from the shabby roadside zoo immediately and place them in a suitable sanctuary.
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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