Written by Jennifer OConnor
Update: After a PETA staffer swore out a complaint against Henry Hampton, Lazy 5's owner, Hampton finally made arrangements to trim two giraffes' painfully overgrown hooves. Because he delayed the critical procedure and caused one giraffe to suffer for more than a year, PETA is calling for prosecutors to pursue cruelty-to-animals charges against him. However, PETA is open to dropping the charges if Hampton promises the court that he'll adhere to a continual regimen of appropriate hoof care.
The following was originally posted December, 14, 2011.
North Carolina's Lazy 5 Ranch should be the last place that schools take children on field trips, unless the trip is meant to teach children about how cruelly animals are treated in roadside zoos. But visiting Lazy 5 is exactly what some local schools are doing.
In the last year and a half, federal authorities have cited Lazy 5 for 21 violations of animal welfare laws, and the feds have also opened a formal investigation into the roadside zoo. One giraffe's hooves are so overgrown that she has to walk on her heels. She has suffered this painful, debilitating condition for more than a year.
The zoo has also been cited for leaving a deer to languish with a hernia for more than a month after euthanasia was recommended, failing to properly care for a deer with a large wound that was infested with flies, failing to shear sheep who were left panting in heavy fleece in 86-degree weather, and allowing dangerous, unsupervised public contact with animals. The list goes on and on, and PETA is appealing to all local schools to stay away.
If your local school takes children on field trips to the zoo or circus, click here for tips on reaching out to your principal to get these cruel field trips off the list.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
It never hurts to brush up on answers to questions about animal issues—even seasoned protesters can get a stumper from passersby now and then. See if you know the answers to the following five questions that often pop up in discussions about animal rights:
What's wrong with eggs and dairy products from "free-range" animals? There are no standards for what "free-range" means, so animals on such farms may still spend most of their time in filthy, crowded sheds. Cruel practices such as searing off hens' beaks with a hot blade and relegating male calves to veal crates occur, and when the animals stop producing enough eggs or milk, they are sent to the same slaughterhouses as factory-farmed animals.
If we don't test on animals, what other methods are available? Computer simulations, cell cultures, human cadavers, and clinical trials are just some of the many options researchers can use instead of animal testing to obtain more accurate and cost-effective results.
davedehtre|cc by 2.0
What's wrong with wearing wool? In Australia—where most of the world's merino wool comes from—sheep have been bred to have excessively wrinkled skin in order to produce more wool. The wrinkles collect moisture, which attracts flies, so many farmers resort to "mulesing," a gruesome and cruel procedure in which huge chunks of skin and flesh are cut from lambs' backsides in a crude attempt to prevent flystrike.
Should we put endangered animals in zoos? Endangered animals bred in zoos are rarely released into the wild. Instead, they will spend their lives "warehoused" in cramped enclosures that cannot come close to replicating their natural habitats. As a result, many develop stereotypic behaviors such as pacing, rocking from side to side, and self-mutilation. The only humane and effective way to combat extinction is to protect animals' habitats.
What's wrong with using a choke or prong collar on my dog? As their names imply, choke and prong collars inflict discomfort and pain, and they can severely injure dogs' necks and throats. Far safer and more humane options are no-pull harnesses and halters like the Easy Walk, Halti, or even a standard figure-H harness. For cruelty-free dog-training tips, check out celebrity dog trainer Tamar Geller's video series for PETA.
Have another animal rights question that you've always wondered about? Visit PETA's Frequently Asked Questions page.
Update: Animal friend and philanthropist Bob Barker is paying the entire cost of shipping Toka, Thika, and Iringa from Toronto to the PAWS sanctuary in California.
The following was originally posted on November 25, 2011:
To thank the three members of the Toronto City Council who spearheaded the vote to send the three elephants at the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary, we sent them each a box of vegan chocolates and a Compassionate Legislator Award certificate. The City Council voted 31 to 4 to allow Iringa, Toka, and Thika to leave the freezing Canadian winters behind and spend the rest of their days roaming with other retired elephants at California's spacious Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary.
Elephants in Canadian zoos—including Lucy, the lone elephant in the Edmonton Zoo—spend much of their time indoors since they cannot tolerate the winter cold and snow. They often suffer from arthritis and other painful ailments as a result of the lack of exercise and standing on hard surfaces for prolonged periods. While the compassionate city councillors recognized the need to send the three Toronto elephants to a sanctuary, zoo officials were battling to send Iringa, Toka, and Thika to another zoo. But last night the zoo voted to send the three elephants to PAWS.
Please click here to send a polite email to the Toronto Zoo thanking them for their compassionate decision to send Iringa, Toka and Thika to the PAWS sanctuary.
© Zebra: deste / sxc.hu | Ribbon: Elize / sxc.hu
Fading director Cameron Crowe is using wild animals as "actors." In his new movie, We Bought a Zoo, he used lions, bears, and other wild animals who are at great risk for abuse because of their strength and instinctive aggression.
PETA repeatedly reached out to Crowe and Fox Studios before and during production and warned them about how wild animals used for films are often subjected to food deprivation, beatings, and jolts with electric-shock devices during pre-production training and urged them to use high-tech computer-generated imagery instead, like that used in the blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Animals rented out for use in movies aren't often abused on the set—that usually takes place when no one is around to see it. PETA undercover investigations at wild-animal training facilities documented that lions and tigers were repeatedly beaten and psychologically abused by trainers intent on showing them "who's boss." When animals grow too old or too large to be controlled, they often spend the rest of their lives at decrepit roadside zoos or backyard menageries.
Please skip this movie and tweet that animals belong in the wild, not on the big screen, @WeBoughtAZoo.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
When students at China's Guangdong University of Foreign Studies bustled onto campus for open day, little did they know that their education would begin on the sidewalk.
Armed with hundreds of leaflets and stickers courtesy of PETA Asia-Pacific, an enterprising group of students flooded the campus with messages about protecting animals and the environment using the slogan "We all live under the same sky."
Considering how eagerly their receptive classmates grabbed information about factory farming, zoos, and other animal rights issues, it's safe to say that these students opened the school year with a bang.
If you know students who want to get active for animals, let them know that they can "take charge" by visiting peta2.com
Written by PETA
Matthew Tosh | cc by 2.0
A female African elephant named Umoya was found lying on the ground with severe injuries Thursday morning at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She died shortly thereafter. Umoya was one of seven elephants ripped from their home in Swaziland in 2003 and shipped halfway around the world to the California zoo. PETA and other animal protection organizations had filed a lawsuit to try to prevent their capture and had even offered to pay to move the elephants to another part of Africa.
Since no caretakers were present when Umoya was injured, no one knows exactly what happened to her, but it's likely that her injuries were sustained during a fight with another elephant. Umoya's babies, Phakamile, 4, and Emanti, 18 months, are now orphaned, just as their mother was when she was taken from her homeland. Umoya's family said goodbye and paid their respects, and her babies were the last to leave.
Elephants share intensely close bonds, and they nurture and protect each other. While playful roughhousing is common, aggression and fights are exceedingly rare. In a study reported in the journal Nature, behaviorists found that elephants with traumatic experiences during their formative years—like baby elephants who see their families slaughtered during culls, which is what happened to Umoya and the other seven elephants the zoo took from Swaziland, or are taken from their home and hauled thousands of miles away to a strange and frightening environment—often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. If one of the elephants snapped from the stress of captivity and attacked, Umoya, of course, had no way to escape.
Every ticket purchased to a zoo helps perpetuate this cruel cycle. It is time to close elephant exhibits, leave elephants in Asia and Africa where they belong, and move those in zoos now, like poor, lonely Lucy in Edmonton, to a sanctuary.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
After four dozen animals were shot and killed in Ohio last week, PETA has reached out again to director Cameron Crowe, asking that he insist that 20th Century Fox producers put a disclaimer on his upcoming film We Bought a Zoo, stating that keeping wild animals as pets is dangerous for both people and animals. The movie's trailer recklessly implies that all it takes is heart to operate a zoo—reinforcing the irresponsible idea that anyone can own and properly care for tigers, bears, lions, and other wild animals.
Even The Wall Street Journal calls into question the film's marketing following the mass slaughter in Ohio. Experts have already appealed to the director to stop using animals in his films.
Don't forget to ask the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to exercise its authority to declare emergency regulations to prohibit the keeping of wild animals, seize all such animals over which it has jurisdiction, and ensure that they are placed in reputable sanctuaries.
UPDATE: Represented by renowned attorney Clayton Ruby, PETA, Zoocheck Canada, and Tove Reece, president of the Edmonton-based Voice for Animals Humane Society, have asked the Supreme Court of Canada to allow a lawsuit against the city of Edmonton to force Lucy's transfer.
The following was originally posted September 8, 2011
Heartened by an Alberta Court of Appeal judge's lengthy dissenting opinion in favor of hearing our lawsuit regarding what we believe are abusive and illegal living conditions for Lucy, the lone elephant at Edmonton Valley Zoo, PETA and Zoocheck Canada will ask the Supreme Court of Canada to hear her case.
In her opinion, which took up more than three-fourths of the entire ruling, Chief Justice Catherine Fraser wrote that PETA and Zoocheck Canada have shown "a prima facie case of the City's unlawful conduct vis-à-vis Lucy."
Lucy has been in solitary confinement for more than three years and, not surprisingly, is showing signs of "zoochosis," including pacing and repetitive swaying, that indicate severe psychological distress. She also suffers from arthritis, obesity, chronic foot ailments, and upper respiratory problems—all of which are aggravated by Edmonton's frigid climate and the fact that Lucy, who is native to Asia's tropical jungles, must spend most of the year confined to a barn. Recent zoo records indicate that Lucy is more obese than ever, despite supposedly getting more exercise during the summer.
Contrary to the zoo's claims, elephant experts consulted by PETA and Zoocheck Canada who have seen Lucy and her medical records say that there is no reason to believe that she cannot be moved safely to a sanctuary in a more temperate climate. Indeed, they say that her health will continue to decline if she is not moved.
You can help by sending a polite e-mail to the Edmonton City Council asking members to free Lucy before she has to face yet another winter confined to a dark, depressing barn.
Written by Alisa Mullins
If you needed another reason not to do drugs, consider that it's causing misery for countless tigers, lions, monkeys, birds, and other exotic animals coveted by Mexican drug cartel kingpins as symbols of power. Mexican authorities have seized thousands of exotic "narco pets" from the estates of busted drug lords, and they're running out of room to place the animals. Many go to zoos, which are operating at capacity, so some animals are turned over to breeding operations.
When security forces arrested Sinaloa cartel leader Jesus "The King" Zambada, they confiscated more than 200 animals, including peacocks and ostriches. The animals are regarded primarily as status symbols, and many are denied proper nutrition and veterinary care. Some big cats are cruelly defanged and declawed. The cartels have also used exotic animals in the same manner as human "mules" by stuffing condoms filled with cocaine into their bodies before the animals are shipped to the U.S.
The ideal solution to this problem would be a universal ban on owning captive exotic animals. Until that happens, we can take an important step toward protecting captive tigers here in the U.S. by closing a loophole that limits protections under the Endangered Species Act for "generic" tigers—ones who are a mix of more than one sub-species of tiger or are of unknown heritage. Please take a moment to write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and ask the agency to protect all tigers equally.
Written by Joe Taksel
It's hard to imagine a more terrifying way to die than being trapped in a cage as flood waters rise around you. Yet that was the fate of Ryan and Esther, two bison at Pennsylvania's ZooAmerica who died when they were left to fend for themselves after torrential rains flooded the zoo. "The two bison that were in the enclosure, their heads were barely above water and they were panicking," describes a witness.
Even though local officials had issued warnings about the coming flood, Ryan and Esther were simply moved to "higher" ground. Esther drowned, and Ryan was shot to death when it became clear that rescue was impossible.
Please join PETA in asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a formal investigation into Ryan's and Esther's deaths.
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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.