San Diego County Chinchilla Farm Lawsuit Dismissed

Yesterday afternoon, the San Diego County Superior Court in Vista, California, dismissed in its entirety the baseless lawsuit brought against PETA by the former owner of a chinchilla farm who had threatened to kill more than 400 chinchillas if she couldn’t sell the business. The court’s decision makes clear that the lawsuit had no basis in fact or law and was an improper attempt to infringe on PETA’s right to expose what was done to the chinchillas.

“There was no justification for bringing this legal action, which arose from a case of suffering animals, who have since been rescued, and an ugly business, which is now thankfully closed,” says general counsel to PETA Jeffrey Kerr.

PETA bought the chinchillas to prevent them from being killed by the owner’s years-long practice of crude and painful electrocution of fully conscious animals. The owner had also admitted to amputating chinchillas’ legs by giving the animals a few drops of brandy and then cutting the limbs off with wire snips.

Jeffrey Kerr, general counsel to PETA