Written by PETA
Update: After meeting with PETA and reviewing our evidence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected Triple F Farms and confirmed our findings of multiple Animal Welfare Act violations. The USDA's inspection report details, among other atrocities, that newborn ferrets fell through gaping wire cage bottoms and that ferrets were denied adequate food, water, and veterinary care and subjected to major surgeries performed by improperly trained lay employees in unsanitary conditions. Triple F is now under federal investigation. Read the full report to learn about the rest of the USDA's findings.
Original Blog posted September 2nd, 2011:
Personnel with the USDA have inspected Triple F Farms, Inc., a massive ferret-breeding factory farm near Sayre, Pennsylvania, based on evidence that PETA recently presented to the agency following a nearly four-month-long undercover investigation that blew the lid off sickening abuse and neglect of thousands of ferrets there. Bradford County District Attorney Dan Barrett’s office reviewed a complaint filed by PETA and has now begun an investigation of Triple F.
PETA found that Triple F's owners, supervisors, and workers left ferrets with bleeding rectal prolapses, gaping wounds, herniated organs, painful mammary gland infections, and ruptured, bleeding eyes to suffer and die without veterinary care. Triple F forbade workers, including PETA's investigator, to rescue thousands of newborn and young ferrets—who had fallen through wire cage bottoms 3 feet to the concrete floor below—from accumulated piles and puddles of waste, where the animals were left to perish.
Day after day, at least 6,000 ferrets were confined to filthy, severely crowded cages in stifling-hot barns, with hundreds denied food and water. PETA's investigator witnessed workers who stepped on ferrets, buried them in feces, and threw them into an incinerator alive. Triple F employees cut organs and anal sacs out of inadequately anesthetized ferrets, who cried out in pain.
The animals who make it out of this hellhole alive face even more misery because Triple F sells ferrets to laboratories around the world for experimentation as well as to pet shops, including Petland. Triple F has had recent contracts worth nearly $2 million with federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Navy.
PETA is calling for appropriate criminal charges. We've also filed complaints with five other federal and state agencies, including one regarding Triple F's routine exposure of live ferrets to ferret carcasses.
Please help these ferrets by asking CDC director Thomas Frieden to investigate Triple F and determine whether the agency wishes to continue to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into abusive animal mills like Triple F. Check back for more updates as this case unfolds.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
After a three-year PETA India campaign, one of India's top medical schools, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has agreed to let six monkeys retire to live out the rest of their lives in a sanctuary. The monkeys have been confined to tiny, filthy wire cages in AIIMS' laboratory for up to a decade.
PETA India's campaign received an outpouring of high-profile support from the likes of Pamela Anderson, Indian celebrities Cyrus Broacha and Celina Jaitly, and former Indian health minister Shatrughan Sinha.
AIIMS has also informed PETA India that it is considering retiring even more monkeys. In the meantime, the remaining monkeys have been moved to more spacious runs and group housing, and AIIMS has halted all experiments on monkeys until it improves conditions further. PETA India has offered to work with AIIMS to implement more animal welfare improvements and to explore modern testing methods in order to replace all experiments on animals.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Because the University of Utah (the U) still doesn't want to 'fess up about exactly how experimenters are tormenting and killing dogs, cats, monkeys, and other animals behind the doors of its laboratories, PETA has filed a lawsuit against the U for withholding records.
We originally requested the records—which the school is required to release under Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA)—following our 8-month undercover investigation at the U, but the school repeatedly sought ways to stonewall and delayed releasing the documents for nearly a year.
PETA persisted, and school officials begrudgingly turned over 1,300 pages of records related to the animals locked inside the university's laboratories, but with much of the key information deleted. They also charged us $2,420 for the records. This attempt to keep PETA from exposing the truth is not only unethical but also illegal. Under GRAMA, if the university wants to redact any information in a document, it is required to cite a legitimate reason for every single redaction, which the U failed to do. PETA now seeks to obtain the complete set of documents and force the U to repay some of the exorbitant fee it charged for the redaction-riddled records.
PETA's 2009 investigation revealed that, among other abuses, a cat had holes drilled into his skull and electrodes inserted into his brain; week-old kittens had chemicals injected into their brains, causing painful fluid buildups; dogs had their chests cut open and devices implanted on their hearts; and sick and injured animals were left to die with no veterinary care. The investigation led Utah to repeal an archaic law requiring animal shelters to sell homeless animals to laboratories for use in experiments. It also prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cite the U for violations of animal welfare laws.
You might remember that last month, we successfully settled a similar lawsuit that we filed against Davis County, Utah, in order to force the county to turn over its documents regarding animals its shelter had sold to the U. Our suggestion: The school should take a cue from Davis County, save itself some trouble and legal expense, and hand over the information, which the public has a legal right to see.
In case anyone needed another reason never to spend a cent at Petland or other stores that sell live animals, Animal Planet is airing a special report tonight showing how puppies suffer even before they end up in Petland stores. According to Animal Planet, an investigation of puppy mills that supply animals to Petland uncovered "more than 140 dogs housed in chicken-wire kennels, water bowls encrusted with mold and containing green water, … and one breeder's confession that she kills healthy dogs because of their less-than-stellar looks."
This appalling cruelty is business as usual at the hellholes that supply animals to Petland. At Sun Pet Ltd., a PETA undercover investigator recently found that animals were crammed en masse into tubs and that a worker bashed hamsters against a table in an attempt to kill them, among other horrors. At U.S. Global Exotics, another Petland supplier, PETA's investigator found that hundreds of thousands of animals were cruelly confined for days or weeks in pillowcases, shipping boxes, or soda bottles and that sick and injured animals were left in freezers to slowly die.
The only reason why animals continue to suffer for Petland and other stores is that people continue to buy them, so let's all get our friends and families to watch this important exposé with us on Animal Planet tonight at 10 p.m. EDT/PDT!
This just in: In response to PETA's undercover investigation of animal experiments at the University of Utah (the U) and the complaint that we filed with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U has been cited for nine violations of federal animal protection laws, including the following:
Today, Mercy for Animals (MFA) released a new undercover investigation into New York's largest dairy factory farm, Willet Dairy. The footage that the group's investigator captured is strikingly similar to what we uncovered less than six months ago at a Land O'Lakes dairy farm and provides even more evidence that animals who are exploited for their milk suffer through sickening amounts of cruelty and neglect.
After watching this video, animal welfare experts and veterinarians have denounced the treatment of cows revealed in MFA's investigation, which include the following:
The truth about milk can be hard to swallow, but people owe it to themselves—and animals—to see what really goes on in the dairy industry. Tonight, ABC World News and Nightline will air footage from the MFA investigation as well as our Land O'Lakes investigation. Help us expose the dairy industry's "fairy tale" for what it really is—an unhappily-ever-after existence for cows and calves, from the moment they're born until they are slaughtered—by telling as many people as you can via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter to tune in to what is sure to be a heart-wrenching exposé.
Written by Karin Bennett
Ladies—if KFC's cruelty to chickens hasn't convinced you to (as the company suggests) "UnThink the Wing," this wing-induced woe for women might wipe away any cravings for the Colonel's unhealthy offerings.
ScienceDaily.com reports that researchers have found a link between the consumption of E. coli-contaminated chicken flesh, which is available in abundance at supermarkets and restaurants such as KFC, and urinary tract infections (UTI).
For anyone who has ever suffered from an awful UTI, KFC's Web site currently features a chilling reminder of the burning pain (be sure to turn up your computer's volume before visiting the site): Flames light up the screen while a woman sings screeches, "Fire … Fire … Fire."
Could it be that a woman who has to go feels that way because she already went to KFC?
Victory Update: Following a national PETA campaign against Brookstone's sale of Frog-O-Spheres —tiny plastic boxes containing two African dwarf frogs—the retailer has discontinued the sale of these little frog prisons in its stores. Learn more about this victory for frogs.
Since we announced the disturbing findings of our recent undercover investigation inside Wild Creations—the supplier of frogs for Brookstone's Frog-O-Spheres—we've seen Wild Creations shut down its Facebook page in less than a day (that's got to be some kind of record!), and thousands of people have taken action to get Brookstone to stop selling Frog-O-Spheres forever.
Here are five simple, sure-to-be-successful things you can do to help fight Brookstone:
If all our readers take action on the digital, viral, and cellular fronts, we can win this battle. Do your part, and I’ll save you a seat at the victory celebration!
Written by Logan Scherer
Want some stomach cramps, fever, and vomiting with that Frog-O-Sphere?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this Monday that a national salmonella outbreak has afflicted at least 48 people in 25 states—many of whom say they've been in contact with frogs like the ones Brookstone imprisons in its filthy Frog-O-Spheres. Huh, that's strange … the illnesses began in June, the same month Brookstone started selling Frog-O-Spheres, and officials warn that African dwarf frogs are among the believed causes of these infections. Brookstone markets the Frog-O-Spheres as an educational product for kids. Seventy-seven percent of the people infected with this salmonella strain are children under 10, so I'd have to say that it's evident that Brookstone doesn't care about animals or people.
Our recent undercover investigation inside Brookstone's Frog-O-Sphere supplier revealed thousands of frogs trapped in unfiltered water ridden with excrement and molted skin. And many of the plastic tubs that housed frogs shipped to customers contained the bloated, fungus-covered remains of decomposing frogs. That seems like a breeding ground for infectious bacteria to me. Now, I'm not a biologist, but Clifford Warwick—one of the experts who viewed footage of our Wild Creations investigation—is, and here's what he had to say about the bacterial potential of Frog-O-Spheres:
[P]otential pathogens are so frequently carried and shed by frogs that it should be presumed that all frogs and every drop of water in the cube, as well as the cube itself, may potentially be harbouring microbes that may cause disease in many animals and humans.
Want to help prevent the spread of potentially lethal diseases? Take a minute to urge Brookstone to stop selling Frog-O-Spheres immediately.
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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.