In the final chapter of a case we’ve been following for some time now, the Knoxville Zoo has agreed to pay a $9,000 fine stemming from the death of elephant handler Stephanie James, who was crushed by Edie, a female African elephant. The zoo was initially cited after PETA urged the Tennessee Occupational Safety and … Read more »
Soon, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers will begin driving dogs on a grueling 1,150-mile journey through frozen Alaskan terrain. Injuries Abound After being forced to run an average of 100 miles a day for two weeks, many dogs will be suffering from conditions such as pneumonia, hypothermia, bruised and lacerated paws, upper respiratory infections, … Read more »
As the U.S. Congress considers the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would permanently ban the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments and retire all 600 federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries, Rampart star Woody Harrelson has written a letter to one of his California senators, Barbara Boxer, on behalf of PETA imploring her … Read more »
After hearing from thousands of animal advocates, the owners of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier have canceled their plans to hold horse-diving shows, in which horses would be marched up a narrow ramp and out onto a platform and then forced to jump, plummeting many feet into a pool below. We know from past horse-diving events … Read more »
Do you sometimes get down in the dumps about cruelty to animals? Me too. But to change that, we need to be gung-ho go-getters, not teary-eyed tissue-wetters. And it has never been easier to initiate changes for animals without even leaving home. Getting active online takes just a few clicks of the mouse, and since … Read more »
Remember those stomach-churning scenes from PETA’s undercover investigation at a horse slaughterhouse? Horses, discarded by the racing industry, were slaughtered and hacked into pieces. On the heels of that horrific case, we went to the one organization that deals with every thoroughbred breeder in this country—The Jockey Club, which handles all foal registrations—and asked why … Read more »
In what will now stand as the case that future generations will look back on as the one that broke legal ground for animals, captive orcas were represented in a U.S. federal court in a lawsuit that PETA filed against SeaWorld seeking to establish that five wild-caught orcas deserved protection under the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, … Read more »
It was a landmark day in the U.S. District Court in San Diego today. For the first time ever, a federal court is considering whether or not the 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery, applies to five orcas—Tilikum, Katina, Kasatka, Ulises and Corky—who are now incarcerated at SeaWorld amusement parks. PETA, three marine-mammal experts, and two former … Read more »
If you saw CareerBuilder’s latest Super Bowl ad, you probably thought it was as lame as we did, which is why we came up with an ad of our own in response. Unfortunately, we received a “thanks, but no thanks” from Clear Channel Outdoor in CareerBuilder‘s hometown of Chicago, after we asked to place this … Read more »
PHOTO OF THE DAY Dawn Forsythe and Herman the Chimp This cartoon comes to us courtesy of Dawn Forsythe and her friend “Herman the Chimp.” Ms. Forsythe, whose father was a chimpanzee trainer at the Detroit Zoo, is an outspoken critic of the use of great apes in entertainment—be sure to visit her blog at … Read more »
PETA has named CareerBuilder the 2012 “Ass-Backwards” Corporation of the Year. The job-search company earned this (dis)honor for proving that it’s obliviously behind the times, having decided to run yet another Super Bowl ad that features exploited infant chimpanzees—even though it knows how great apes suffer at the hands of the “entertainment” industry. Face: © … Read more »
For two horses on the new HBO series Luck—which is set in and around the horse-racing industry—it was only bad luck. While filming the show’s pilot, a horse suffered a severe fracture after falling during a race sequence and was euthanized. Another horse was killed while filming a later episode. Two horses died for a … Read more »
Chadica| cc by 2.0 There’s good news today in a case we told you about in May 2010: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has hit the Texas Biomedical Research Institute—formerly the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research—with a fine of more than $25,000 over serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The facility has repeatedly allowed … Read more »
At PETA’s urging, a major thoroughbred auction company has made a crucial change at this month’s sales event that could reduce the risk of injury to horses forced to participate in “under tack shows“—dangerous sprints that thoroughbreds are forced to run just to impress potential buyers. A PETA undercover investigation documented that 2-year-old horses—whose bones … Read more »
Animals have voices. They cry out when they are being skinned alive for their fur, being beaten and forced to perform painful tricks, or having their throats cut before being hacked apart for their flesh. Animals express their pain, but often, people don’t understand or they choose not to listen. As animal advocates, we must … Read more »
