FaceMePLS/cc by 2.0 Finally—a measure of justice for Tina and Jewel. The U.S. District Court in Beaumont, Texas, has slapped Cole Bros. Circus with a $150,000 fine and four years of probation for illegally selling the two elephants to former employee Wilbur Davenport in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The court also handed Cole Bros. owner … Read more »
… to sunny California. Not content with campaigning to get an ailing elephant named Lucy out of Edmonton’s Valley Zoo, the tireless Bob Barker is now speaking out on behalf of Toka, Iringa, and Thika, the three elephants at the Toronto Zoo. Bob joins Toronto City Councilor Shelley Carroll, who is calling for the elephant … Read more »
mampajama97/cc by 2.0 A federal inspector determined that a tiger named Tatiana was provoked before she leapt out of her enclosure and attacked three young people—killing one—at the San Francisco Zoo in 2007. The inspector noted in her initial report, “With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot imagine a tiger trying to jump out of … Read more »
In the space of just one week, three giraffes have died at zoos in the Southwest. Zookeepers found Slim, an 18-month-old baby giraffe dead when they showed up for work at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas. After only four months at the Hillcrest Park Zoo in Clovis, New Mexico, a giraffe named Jay … Read more »
2e14/cc by 2.0 Barack, a 2-year-old elephant calf who was at one point traveling with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, is being treated (again) for elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV). The scientific literature recognizes that stress is strongly associated with EEHV. Ringling has been subjecting baby Barack to the stress of transport, cruel “training,” … Read more »
On Super Bowl Sunday, a wave of 50 protestors crashed onto SeaWorld San Diego’s main entrance shouting, “Shame on you—free Shamu!” Then four “orcas” made their way into the intersection Beatles-style and lay “beached” for half an hour until they were dragged away by police and arrested. Orca Road All we are saying is give whales … Read more »
Did you ever wonder what happens to the chimpanzees CareerBuilder uses in its Super Bowl ads when the company is done exploiting them? The lucky ones end up at the Center for Great Apes sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida, which took in Bella, Ellie, Kodua, and Mowgli, all veterans of CareerBuilder’s 2005 Super Bowl ad campaign. Bella … Read more »
paul kehrer/cc by 2.0 Anyone who’s ever watched a racehorse being flogged down the home stretch can see the obvious: It’s animal abuse. Jockeys routinely strike thoroughbreds 15 to 20 times before they cross the finish line. Now, thanks to a new study from the University of Sydney, we know that whipping doesn’t even make … Read more »
You’ve probably never heard of elephant polo, and now that Guinness World Records has agreed to stop documenting records for wins in elephant polo matches, perhaps you never will again. The publishing giant made the move after learning from PETA U.K. that captive elephants forced to perform in such matches in India and Thailand are … Read more »
Two former trainers at SeaWorld have released a report that includes firsthand information about the stress that killer whales endure in captivity—stress that the ex-trainers feel led to the deaths of at least two SeaWorld employees. Jeff Ventre (now a doctor) and John Jett (now a biology professor) worked at SeaWorld Orlando and knew trainer … Read more »
ViNull/CC by 2.0 One zoo employee has been killed and another maimed in incidents at two separate zoos on the same day. At Riverside Discovery Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, a chimpanzee bit a worker on the hand, severing two of her fingers and injuring a third. At the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, elephant handler Stephanie … Read more »
After nine grueling years, an elephant named Mariappan is finally free of the chains that bound him by all four legs so tightly that he could not take a single step in any direction. Mariappan was chained inside a filthy, dark shed at the Arulmigu Mariamman Temple in Samayapuram, India, until a local activist, with the … Read more »
PETA asked for your help in picking the naughtiest person of 2010, and boy, did you guys come through—to the tune of more than 2.7 million lumps of coal! And the “winner” is … Ronald McDonald. The cruel clown got a run for his (blood) money from the CEO of SeaWorld, but in the end, … Read more »
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t think much about what racing greyhounds do when they’re not running around tracks. The greyhound advocacy group Grey2K USA recently managed to sneak a video camera past the tight security at Tucson Greyhound Park in Tucson, Arizona, and revealed the depressing, dungeon-like conditions that these dogs spend … Read more »
After allowing a lion named Casimiro—who had spent nearly three decades in captivity—to suffer an agonizingly slow and painful death, a zoo in Maturín, Venezuela, is now reportedly planning to acquire several new lions to “replace” Casimiro. This would sentence another generation of lions—smart and sensitive animals who long to be free—to the frustration, boredom, … Read more »
