Atlanta Philanthropist to Be Honored by PETA

Department That Busts Animal Abusers Internationally Named After Anna J. Ware in Special Ceremony

For Immediate Release:
September 13, 2013

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. – Atlanta-area resident Anna J. Ware has always looked out for those who are less fortunate. Ms. Ware—whose family donated $1.4 million to PETA in 2010 and who is a major supporter of PETA’s round-the-clock, 365-days-a-year cruelty hotline and investigations unit—will unveil a plaque at PETA’s Sam Simon Center national headquarters in Norfolk, Va., this afternoon, inaugurating the anna j. ware Cruelty Investigations Department (CID).

“Anna Ware uses her good fortune to help those at the bottom of the barrel, and sadly, those are abused animals with nothing and no one to care for them,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “While PETA is honoring one of the best friends abused animals ever had, in reality the honor is all ours.”

From working with police to charge animal abusers with criminal offenses to sending undercover investigators to get the goods on secretive animal-abusing industries, CID is driven by direct action. CID caseworkers gather evidence of legal violations, testify in high-profile court cases, speak up for animals in the international media, and perform hands-on rescues of beaten, shot, sexually molested, starved and abandoned animals. CID has also had a hand in two recent landmark animal-seizure cases: Its investigation of international exotic-animal dealer U.S. Global Exotics prompted the seizure of nearly 27,000 neglected and abused animals—the largest known animal seizure in history—and CID’s investigation of Global Captive Breeders in California led to the largest seizure of rats in U.S. history and the largest-ever seizure of animals in that state.

Ms. Ware’s donations have also gone toward exposing the hideous abuse of baby elephants used in circuses as well as the purchase of one brand-new mobile spay/neuter clinic with another on order, serving impoverished areas of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.