nytimes/Creative Commons After years of urging from PETA, the Alaska Zoo just announced that they will be sending Maggie, a 27-year-old African elephant, to the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California! Maggie was captured in Zimbabwe in 1981 during a cull, and likely watched as her entire family was slaughtered. She has lived at … Read more »
As lawyers go, Ringling Bros. has some pretty fancy, expensive ones, but despite their best efforts last week, they couldn’t keep the circus from being dragged into the courtroom once again, this time on charges of (surprise, surprise) elephant abuse. Judge Emmet Sullivan announced Thursday that a last ditch attempt by Ringling’s attorneys to hold … Read more »
Editions/Creative Commons Hans Ruesch, author of the bestselling book against animal experiments Slaughter of the Innocent, has died at the age of 94. Born in Italy, Ruesch shared a love of auto racing with PETA’s president: Between 1932 and 1937 he won 27 Grand Prix races. In 1937 he wrote the novel Gladiators, which was … Read more »
PETA’s Circus Specialist RaeLeann Smith, and former Ringling employee Archele Hundley, just got back from the National Conference of State Legislators, where they spoke with over 80 state legislators who heard Archele’s account of daily abuse at the circus. The pair also distributed over 400 Training & Tragedy DVDs to this influential group. One high … Read more »
I’ve never understood the whole carriage horse attraction. Setting aside the animal rights thing for a second, I just don’t get how people could possibly construe riding around a loud busy city in a non-air-conditioned buggy while smelling horse crap the whole time as even the slightest bit romantic. I’ve always found it totally absurd. … Read more »
comicbookmovie/Creative Commons So the Wachowski Brothers (the geniuses behind The Matrix) have been holed up for a while working on a live action version of the ’60s cult cartoon Speed Racer. Sounds pretty awesome, except that they’ve made the decision to use a real chimpanzee to portray Speed Racer’s simian friend Chim Chim. And, as … Read more »
Check out the gaggle of nearly naked PETA members who converged on the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. yesterday in a warm up for PETA UK’s sixth annual Running of the Nudes in Pamplona, Spain, to protest the cruelty of the Running of the Bulls. OK, so I guess this demo is more like the … Read more »
Jason Bayless, our Lead Circus Monitor (i.e., the dude whose nerve-wracking job it is to follow Ringling Bros. around everywhere and document their abuse of animals), is about to embark on tour with the circus next week, so we fitted him out with a nice new set of wheels that will let circusgoers know exactly … Read more »
Spotlightingnews/Creative Commons A photo snapped by paparazzi of everyone’s favorite ex-Spice Girl, Victoria Beckham, buying a copy of Rory Freedman’s Skinny Bitch has sparked a massive spike in sales of the diet book that has been described as “a no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous.” … Read more »
We caught up with Weeds star Kevin Nealon last week to shoot a little PSA in our veggie testimonial series, in which vegetarian celebrities talk about what got them to make the switch to a meatless diet. At the end of the shoot, Kevin wanted to take a few moments to talk about the ridiculous … Read more »
Just a quick bit of good news for you to start off your Tuesday: According to last week’s Taipei Times, a new amendment to Taiwan’s Wildlife Conservation Law means that animal circuses are on the way out in Taiwan. When interviewed about the progressive new law, legislator Tien Chiu-Chin said, “Circuses do not need animals … Read more »
Hope you’re having a good “Be Kind to Animals Week” Thursday. Remember the Hawthorn elephant campaign from a couple of years ago? If not, the short version is that after extensive negotiations over many months, a circus operation called the Hawthorn Corporation agreed to relinquish twelve elephants to a sanctuary, resulting in the single largest … Read more »
Many of you will be familiar with PETA’s “March of Crimes” Campaign, which was launched a number of years ago to promote a simple message: Harming animals, whatever your ultimate intention, is harmful to people too. Sadly, charities like March of Dimes, which have a laudable goal of preventing birth defects, also have an ugly … Read more »
Well, through no particular design, the last couple of posts have been a little heavy—a lion mauling and a dead, angry chicken—so I figured we were long overdue for a bit of light relief here, which arrived in my inbox this morning in the form of a few beautiful photos of an anti-fur demonstration organized … Read more »
What an awful story all around. This shocking video shows a lion in a circus somewhere attacking and mauling a trainer. The lion wound up being shot and killed, and the trainer is totally messed up as well. I’m afraid it’s just another sad example of why wild animals don’t belong behind bars . . … Read more »
