PETA to Attorney General McCollum: Charge BP With Cruelty to Animals

Oil Giant Should Pay for Recklessly Causing the Suffering and Deaths of Tens of Thousands of Birds, Turtles, and Other Sea Life in Spill, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
June 18, 2010

Contact:
Jeffrey Kerr, Esq. 757-622-7382

Tallahassee, Fla. -- PETA has sent a letter to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum urging him to bring charges of cruelty to animals against oil company BP and all other culpable parties in the oil geyser that is defiling the Gulf Coast. Untold numbers of animals--including gulls, pelicans, sea turtles, dolphins, and other aquatic wildlife--have suffered agonizing deaths because of the huge leak. In the letter, PETA points out that, according to all indications, BP's "disaster plan" deliberately disregarded possible damage to native species and their breeding and nesting grounds, listed a long-dead expert as a primary contact, vastly overstated the company's ability and readiness to deal with such a catastrophe, and vastly underestimated the extent of the carnage that could occur. According to reports, BP speculated that fish, marine mammals, and birds would effectively escape serious harm in the wake of a spill 10 times greater than the estimated size of the current disaster. As a direct result, tens of thousands of animals have needlessly suffered and died--and there is no end in sight. PETA sent similar letters to the attorneys general of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

"Just as BP is the subject of a federal criminal investigation, causing needless pain and suffering to animals violates each affected state's anti-cruelty laws," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "BP can compensate for the loss of human livelihoods, but it can never make up for the loss of life that it has inflicted on Florida's animals."

Florida's anti-cruelty law provides that any person who unnecessarily causes the torment or death of any animal is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Some oil-soaked birds lose the ability to float and ultimately drown. Others die from hypothermia or hyperthermia after oil destroys the insulating powers of their feathers. Oil contamination in turtles can cause chemical burns, and kidney, liver, and brain damage can result after animals ingest the tar balls and chemical dispersants that have inundated the Gulf. More than a thousand animals--including 333 sea turtles and 41 dolphins and other mammals--have been collected dead along the coast. Countless other species have been witnessed suffering the same fate. 

For more information, please visit PETA.org.