Update: In one of the pettiest pieces of pork-barrel politics we've seen in a long time, North Carolina state Rep. Roger West, who just so happens to be a sponsor of Brasstown's annual New Year's Eve Possum Drop, has introduced Senate Bill 60, also sneeringly known as "The Opossum Right-to-Work Act."

At face value, the bill appears to be simply a way to skirt a judge's recent ruling that outlawed the cruel event. But it's actually far more insidious than that—it would also strip other wildlife protections and would allow wild animals to be held in captivity for unspecified periods of time, put on display for profit or publicity, and exploited for some unspecified "other purpose." The bill even seeks to exempt some activities from the state's anti-cruelty law. TV icon Bob Barker has sent a letter to members of the North Carolina Senate urging them to reject the bill, and if you're a North Carolina resident, we hope you will do the same and get all your neighbors to weigh in, too. 

Originally posted on November 14th, 2012:

After the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC), despite an objection from PETA, issued a made-up permit to Clay Logan to possess an opossum for his cruel annual New Year's Eve "Opossum Drop"—in which a terrified opossum is abducted, held captive, then suspended and lowered into a horde of boisterous revelers—at his general store in Brasstown, PETA took the matter to court. Now the verdict's in, and the animal with the gray fur scored a victory over the folks with the red faces—and necks.

That's right, y'all: Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr. ruled in PETA's favor, finding that in North Carolina, citizens "are prohibited from capturing and using wild animals for pets or amusement" and that the "WRC has no authority to issue any permit to Logan for the unlawful public display of a native wild animal at the Opossum Drop Event." As a result, the WRC may not "issue any permit or license for possessing and publicly displaying a live opossum for use in an 'Opossum Drop' event or for any other public display of a live opossum or other native wild animal."

Each year, several weeks prior to New Year's Eve, Logan has captured an opossum from the wild and confined the animal before hoisting him or her high into the air on New Year's Eve, and then, with a raucous crowd cheering and the noise of fireworks, live music, and the firing of muskets and cannons, lowered the frightened animal into the fray. Opossums are shy animals who are terrified of humans—their primary predator—and vulnerable to stress-related conditions because of captivity, including capture myopathy, which can result in death days or even weeks after release back into the wild.

What You Can Do

Causing animals pain or distress should never be cause for celebration. Learn more about entertainment that doesn't harm animals as well as how to live in harmony with wildlife.

In a rousing victory for animals, a county planning commission in the U.K. has denied a notorious chicken factory farm a spot within its borders. 

Harrison Farms had asked the Shropshire Council for permission to build an intensive factory farm in which 330,000 chickens at a time would be tightly crammed into dark sheds until the time came to slaughter them. But after hearing from PETA U.K. and almost 5,000 of PETA U.K.'s members and supporters, the council denied the application.

The animal advocates explained to the council how factory farms dose chickens with massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive in the cramped, filthy conditions and to make them grow so large so fast that many of them become crippled under their own weight or experience organ failure. They also relayed how the farms cut off the ends of chickens' sensitive beaks with a searing-hot blade to stop the frustrated birds from pecking at each other and how the only time the chickens see grass or feel the warmth of the sun is when they are being shipped to the slaughterhouse to have their throats slashed and be dunked in tanks of scalding-hot water. They also gave the council information on how factory farms are among the main contributors to climate change. 

 Congratulations to everyone who wrote in!

Sometimes, even compassionate people seem to disregard fish. I know: I was one of them. Years after I stopped eating meat, I identified as a vegetarian but would still have a little sushi. It was a long time before I realized—thanks to PETA—that fish are sentient beings who feel pain acutely and struggle against death. Perhaps a few other people are having their own "aha" moment right now, thanks to PETA Germany's recent victory for fish. 

Acting on a tip, two PETA Germany investigators joined some tourists on a crab fishing boat operating along the northern coast. The crab fishing itself wasn't illegal, but the way the anglers were tormenting their "bycatch," fish, certainly was. Under German law, fish must be instantly killed or placed in water after being caught. But these anglers were catching several fish in their crab traps and leaving the unwanted animals to asphyxiate to death on the boat. They even laughed about the animals' struggle to breathe before they died.

The investigators shot video evidence and began throwing suffering fish back into the water. Then they filed a complaint with the Hamburg District Attorney's Office, and the court slapped the owner of the boat with a fine of 400 euros (about $540). He and his crew will likely be taking fish protection laws more seriously now.

If you know someone who claims, "I'm a vegetarian, but I still eat fish," perhaps you can mention this story as a way of illustrating that fish feel pain and, like every other animal, deserve to be free from suffering. 

After PETA filed multiple complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) at Chief Saunooke Bear Park, the bear pit must now surrender its exhibitor license. What's more, the license will remain suspended until the dismal facility is able to prove that it's compliant with AWA regulations—if it ever can.

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians joined PETA in meeting with the USDA to detail the problems at the Cherokee, North Carolina, roadside zoo. Following our complaints and meeting, the USDA charged the bear pit with more than a dozen violations. Now, the park has agreed to pay a fine and surrender its license in order to settle the case. It's probably a smart move, considering that in a 62-page report that PETA gave to the USDA, bear experts who visited the facility documented that, among other violations, the park was failing to maintain adequate barriers between bears and the public, leading to at least two attacks on visitors thus far. According to the experts, the park also failed to supply food for its public feedings that met the bears' nutritional needs and instead allowed visitors to feed them cat food and Lucky Charms cereal. Among many other abuses, the facility also failed to provide the bears with veterinary care and forced them to eat from filthy, unsanitary food containers.

Barely a month ago, a PETA investigation revealed that staff members were deliberately depriving bears of food and that the animals are so stressed from being constantly confined to small, concrete pits that they pace repeatedly and gnaw at the metal cage bars. Our investigation also uncovered drug use, racism, wage-law violations, and more.

Please ask the USDA to take the next step and confiscate the abused bears. 

Update:

We're happy to report a favorable development in this case: A court has denied a motion by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to dismiss the lawsuit brought against the agency by PETA, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), and two Fayetteville-area residents seeking to overturn the USDA's renewal of Jambbas Ranch Tours' license to continue to operate the wretched roadside zoo that has racked up dozens of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The ruling comes in the wake of the recent high-profile rescue of Ben the bear, who now resides in a spacious habitat at a sanctuary in California, thanks to the ruling in the earlier lawsuit mentioned below.

PETA's challenge to the licenses will move forward, but the animals at Jambbas have no time to lose—please urge USDA officials to revoke Jambbas' license immediately and offer these animals the chance to live out their lives with the kind of comfort and dignity that Ben now enjoys.

Originally posted on April 19th, 2012:

Citizens of Cumberland County, North Carolina, who are sickened by Jambbas Ranch Tours' pervasive neglect and abuse of animals have joined PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over its renewal of Jambbas' license despite chronic violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The AWA allows an animal exhibitor or dealer to have his or her license renewed only if the person's business operates in accordance with AWA regulations. But the USDA has repeatedly renewed Jambbas' license despite the fact that every single inspection of the roadside zoo between October 2006 and January 2012 resulted in citations for AWA violations including the following:

• Failing to provide animals with veterinary care—dead goats were also found lying near live ones
• Allowing bison to be swarmed by flies until their skin was so irritated that they licked and bit at it, exposing raw flesh
• Forcing potbellied pigs to live in enclosures with "excessive accumulation of feces"
• Forcing goats to live in enclosures covered with a "layer of feces," which left them with no clean place to lie down.

This is the second pending lawsuit involving Jambbas Ranch. The other suit seeks to have an abused bear named Ben removed from Jambbas and relocated to a sanctuary where PETA has made arrangements for him to live. In this sad video, Ben paces in his barren cage, bites the chain-link fencing, pushes against it, and tries to reach under it—behavior a bear expert has identified as a cry for help:

In asking the USDA not to renew Jambbas' license, PETA also pointed out several violations of the AWA that relate to Ben, including a lack of adequate space, which is likely causing his repetitive, abnormal behavior.

Jambbas is clearly not qualified to possess an AWA license. We will keep you updated as the lawsuit progresses.

For decades, PETA has been calling for an end to the cruel and irrelevant use of chimpanzees in experimentation. We’ve made significant progress over the years bring an end to this national disgrace, and now the government is finally taking concrete steps to do the same.  

© Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

An Historic Decision

At a historic meeting this afternoon, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) committee recommended that the agency cut funding for seven of the nine current taxpayer-funded grants for biomedical experiments on chimpanzees and fully or partially cut funding for 12 of 13 behavioral studies. With regard to the fate of these 360 NIH-owned chimpanzees, the committee stated that "the majority of NIH-owned chimpanzees should be designated for retirement and transferred to the federal sanctuary system. Planning should start immediately ...."

The NIH's momentous move follows the landmark 2011 finding of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that "most current biomedical research use of chimpanzees is not necessary." After the report's release, the NIH formed a committee to determine, among other things, which taxpayer-funded projects should be ended and how many chimpanzees should be retired.

Persistence Pays Off

PETA submitted recommendations calling for a complete end to experimentation on chimpanzees to both IOM and NIH during these deliberations—and that's just one part of the extensive groundwork that led to this exciting development. Every step of the way, PETA has relentlessly pursued any and all avenues to uncover abuse to chimpanzees in laboratories and has advocated for the creation of stronger federal policy and legislation to protect chimpanzees from being tormented in experiments. 

PETA has exposed cruelty in laboratories, filed complaints against laboratories that experiment on chimpanzees, reached out to Members of Congress, organized demonstrations, gained celebrity support, filed shareholder resolutions, launched online advocacy campaigns, and called for an end to this barbaric practice in popular and academic publications.

What You Can Do

The end is in sight, but we must not stop until all chimpanzees are out of laboratories. Please sign PETA's petition asking Congress to retire all federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries.

We have very exciting news to share. Earlier this week, a representative from United Airlines phoned PETA to say that the airline will no longer transport primates for use in experiments anywhere in the world! In order to ensure that animal experimenters get the message loud and clear, United even posted the new policy on its website, and it leaves no one in doubt: The airline "do[es] not book, accept or transport primates to or from medical research facilities."

United's compassionate stance means that there isn't a single commercial airline based in North America that is willing to transport primates to a cruel death in laboratories. This will make it much more difficult for experimenters to get their hands on primates in order to lock them away from their families and poison, cut up, and kill them.

©iStockphoto.com/luxiangjian4711  

YOU helped make this possible! Last year, after we organized demonstrations against the airline at its offices around the world and purchased stock in the company with the intention of introducing a shareholder resolution this year, we encouraged our members and supporters to contact the company. Hundreds of thousands of you flooded United's inboxes and Facebook wall with messages demanding that the airline stop profiting from cruelty to animals. One supporter even interrupted a United senior vice president at a trade conference, took over the microphone, and announced to attendees that United was the last U.S. airline that was still transporting primates to be abused and killed.

United's new policy means that only four major international airlines remain in the world that are willing to shuttle primates off to years of torment in exchange for a few dollars in revenue. Let's make that number zero. Please take a moment to tell Air France, China Eastern Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines that you won't be flying with them until primates don't either.

Companies that test their products on animals needn't bother trying to ship them to Israel, because, starting New Year's Day, the country banned the import, sale, and marketing of animal-tested cosmetics, toiletries, and household cleaners. Previously, in 2007, the Israeli government had banned using animals to test personal-care and household products within the country. But with the new law, which was passed in 2010 and came into effect January 1, 2013, lawmakers have one-upped themselves, blocking products that have been tested on animals in other countries from even crossing Israel's border.

PETA and our affiliates are working to end the testing of cosmetics and household products on animals in countries around the world, and Israel has proved that a full ban on such vile products is not only possible but also ethically responsible. The EU had passed a similar ban, which was also scheduled to take effect in 2013, but lawmakers are now considering extending that deadline. PETA and PETA U.K. have been pushing hard to get the EU to uphold the original end date. In addition, PETA India is trying to get a similar ban implemented in that country, and the effort has a lot of momentum. PETA and PETA Asia have been helping Chinese scientists switch to in vitro cosmetics testing methods and are encouraging the Chinese government to accept the results in place of the animal tests that it currently requires. And in the U.S., PETA has been purchasing stock in companies that conduct animal tests so that we can propose shareholder resolutions to switch to humane testing methods.

But despite all the legal hullabaloo, we can at least designate our homes cruelty-free areas. It's easy to select personal-care and household products that weren't tested on animals by glancing at PETA's new global Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide, the latest complete list of companies that refuse to conduct or pay for any animal tests anywhere in the world. 

Some exhilarating news from our neighbors (aka "neighbours" or "voisins") to the north: The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) will allow Air Canada to ban shipments of primates destined for pain and misery in laboratories. 

This leaves United Airlines as the only North American airline—and one of the few left in the world—to continue this bloody business.)

Following pleas from PETA, other organizations, and members of the public, Air Canada first sought the CTA's permission for the ban last year, stating that the proposed ban was "both to align our policies with those of many other major international carriers and in response to widespread public concern." Following objections from animal experimenters, the CTA initially did not approve the ban and scheduled a hearing on the issue. PETA immediately filed comments as a "party of interest," which were included in the official record, in support of Air Canada's proposed ban.

The CTA just released its decision in this matter, ruling entirely in favor of Air Canada and against the animal tormenters. In its lengthy decision, the CTA pointed out that the airline had received "over 47,000 letters from the public protesting its practice of transporting non-human primates for research purposes" and that Air Canada "cannot ignore the overwhelming volume of letters in opposition to the transport of non-human primates destined for research."

What You Can Do

As the CTA decision makes clear, this victory was made possible because of the appeals of concerned people—including the almost 19,000 PETA supporters who took action through this website. That's why it's so critical to make sure that your voice is heard—please join PETA in urging the few remaining airlines still willing to ship primates to laboratories to stop contributing to this cruelty.

Circuses are running into more and more places where they can't force elephants and other exotic animals to perform, as localities ban the use of bullhooks—sharp metal weapons that resemble fireplace pokers—and other cruel devices. Trainers use them to beat, hook, and gouge elephants on the most sensitive parts of their bodies, like behind their ears and knees. In Florida alone, Pompano Beach, Clearwater, Hollywood, and Margate have already enacted bans, and now we can add Hallandale Beach to the list of dozens of compassionate communities across the country that are saying, "Not on our watch."

Thanks in part to the help and hard work of local group Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF), the City Commission of Hallandale Beach, just north of Miami, voted to ban circuses and rodeos from using bullhooks, whips, and other cruel devices to beat animals. Since threatening elephants, tigers, and other animals by showing them a bullhook or whip is the only way that circus trainers can make them stand on their heads, jump through rings of fire, or perform other frightening, confusing tricks, circuses will have to leave exotic animals out of their acts if they want to entertain in Hallandale Beach. 

PETA is sending the Hallandale Beach city commissioners a box  of vegan chocolates to thank them for being elefriends. 

Los Angeles is also considering a bullhook ban. Let the City Council know that you (and elephants) would love to see Los Angeles become known as the City of Angels to Animals by passing the ban.