PETA Wants Cruelty-to-Animals Charges for Accused ‘Fawn Fire’ Starter

For Immediate Release:
September 30, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie A. Bridgett asking her to add cruelty-to-animals charges, as appropriate, to those that Alexandra Souverneva currently faces for allegedly igniting the Fawn fire, which has ravaged more than 8,500 acres, decimated animal habitats, and undoubtedly burned countless animals to death.

PETA notes that causing suffering and painful deaths to animals, as likely happened in this fire, needs to be recognized as a violation of California’s animal protection laws.

“An untold number of terrified animals saw their world disappear and many were surely burned to death in this devastating blaze,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “PETA hopes that as these victims are identified, the person responsible is also charged for causing them so much suffering.”

Bridgett’s office expanded its criminal investigation into PG&E’s role in the Zogg fire to include the loss of animals’ lives after previously hearing from PETA, while a prosecutor in Oregon who heard from PETA charged an accused arsonist with eight counts of first-degree animal abuse for allegedly causing the deaths of a sheep, a canary, a lamb, a goldfish, chickens, and a raccoon.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.