PETA

By Heather Moore

2011 was tough—when people weren’t bemoaning budget cuts, lining up outside job fairs or fretting over the stagnant housing market, they were listening to worrisome news about the war in Afghanistan, political shootings and natural disasters. But things weren’t all bad. There were signs of progress and reasons to be positive, especially when it comes to issues that impact animals. As we head into the new year, let’s reflect upon some of the things that made 2011 memorable for animals.

Eight of the nation’s largest financial institutions, including MetLife, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial and U.S. Bank, stopped using glue traps after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) explained that animals who get stuck in them often suffocate and die slowly. The Social Security Administration, Georgia Institute of Technology and Toronto District School Board—the fourth-largest school district in North America—also agreed to use more humane methods of rodent control.

While this is hardly revolutionary, it is indicative of a larger social movement to reform practices that harm animals. Many people are now less likely to accept activities that cause suffering—and it shows in our laws and business practices.

In 2011, West Hollywood became the first city in the U.S. to ban the sale of fur. City council members in Toronto and Irvine, Calif., banned the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores. Rodeos and circuses that feature exotic animals were also prohibited in Irvine, and Fulton County—the most populous municipality in Georgia—banned the use of bullhooks, sharp steel-tipped devices that are commonly used to beat, jab or yank on elephants.

The American Zoological Association (AZA) announced that bullhooks will be forbidden at all AZA-accredited zoos by 2014. The Toronto Zoo decided to close its elephant exhibit and send its remaining elephants to a facility that does not use bullhooks. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture slapped Feld Entertainment, the owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which routinely uses bullhooks to “discipline” captive elephants, with a $270,000 fine—the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history—for repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Also in 2011, eight top advertising agencies pledged never again to feature great apes—who are often torn away from their mothers shortly after birth and beaten in order to force them to perform on cue—in their advertisements. Capital One pulled an ad featuring a chimpanzee and pledged not to use nonhuman primates in its advertisements again. The blockbuster film Rise of the Planet of the Apes featured CGI animation to create realistic-looking apes without exploiting and abusing animals.

U.S. Army officials announced that monkeys will no longer be used in a cruel chemical nerve-agent attack training course at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The University of Michigan, Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City and Naval Medical Center San Diego began using sophisticated simulators instead of live cats for intubation training. And the world’s largest tea-maker, Unilever—maker of Lipton and PG tips—stopped experimenting on pigs and other animals just so that it could make health claims about its tea.

Aspen, Colo., became the first city in the U.S. to launch a comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign—local restaurants, schools, hospitals and businesses are now promoting plant-based meals on Mondays. The board of commissioners in Durham County, N.C., also signed a “Meatless Mondays” resolution, and several more celebrities, including Russell Brand, Eliza Dushku and Ozzy Osbourne, went vegan in 2011. The Rev. Al Sharpton also ditched meat from his diet.

Many of these developments were brought about, at least in part, by PETA, but everyone can bring about change simply by resolving to be kinder, greener and healthier in the coming year. By taking simple steps such as buying cruelty-free products, choosing meatless meals, wearing animal-friendly fashions and enjoying animal-free entertainment, we can all help make 2012 even better than 2011.

Heather Moore is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation.

Dale the Turkey Is Among Top Rescued Fowl in Thanksgiving Competition

Mendon— Dale would have joined the millions of turkeys who become Thanksgiving dinner every year if Maple Farm Sanctuary hadn’t rescued him from a local turkey farm and given him a lifelong home. Now, the handsome, white-feathered Dale spends his time with his mate, Daphne, of whom he is very protective. Dale is vocal and friendly and loves to show off—so he’ll relish the attention that comes with being named the second runner-up in PETA’s first-ever Turkey of the Year contest for rescued birds. Starting this week, Dale will be among the rescued turkeys featured on PETA.org.

“Thanksgiving is murder on turkeys, but compassionate rescuers like Maple Farm Sanctuary give lucky birds like Dale something to be thankful for,” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “Rescued turkeys have been given a second chance at a life free from suffering on crowded factory farms—and that’s the real prize.”

More than 250 million turkeys are killed in the U.S. every year—including more than 40 million for Thanksgiving dinners alone. In nature, turkeys are protective and loving parents as well as spirited explorers who can climb trees and run as fast as 25 miles per hour. But most turkeys slated to be killed for food are crammed into filthy warehouses, where disease, smothering, and heart attacks are common. Turkeys are drugged and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight.

The winner of PETA’s contest, Jake, lives in North Carolina. Dale’s fellow runner-up, Tomas, lives in Rhode Island.

By Heather Moore

America just got a little bit greener. Earlier this month, Aspen, Colo. — John Denver’s “sweet Rocky Mountain paradise” — became the first city in the U.S. to launch a comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign. Local restaurants, schools, hospitals, charities and businesses, including the Aspen Valley Hospital, the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Aspen Elementary School, have signed on to promote plant-based meals on Mondays.

For our own health and the health of the planet, the rest of us should go meat-free as well—at least for one day a week.

According to Dawn Shepard, who is heading Aspen’s Meatless Monday campaign, Aspen is a very health-conscious community, and residents are also concerned about the environmental costs of meat production. A 2010 United Nations report revealed that meat and dairy products require more resources and cause higher greenhouse-gas emissions than do plant-based foods. Click to continue »

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

The White House recently announced that its annual Easter Egg Roll event will feature “green” eggs. They’ll come in a variety of pastel colors, but they’ll all be “green” because they’ll be made from Forest Stewardship Council–certified hardwood and packaged in environmentally friendly materials. Not only are these eggs better for the environment, they’re also better for chickens. Everyone who celebrates Easter can follow the White House’s lead and be green, not mean, by choosing faux eggs instead of chicken eggs this spring.

For hens who are forced to lay eggs, Easter is nothing to celebrate. Most of the eggs that Americans dye and decorate for the holiday come from chickens who are confined to filthy factory farm sheds containing row upon row of tiny, multitiered wire cages.

These hens spend their lives crammed into cages with four to 10 other birds. Each bird’s average living space is smaller than a letter-sized sheet of paper. Hens on egg factory farms never breathe fresh air, feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or engage in any of their natural behaviors.

They can’t even stretch a single wing.

The birds are crammed so closely together that these normally clean animals are forced to urinate and defecate on one another.

The stench of ammonia from the accumulated feces under the birds saturates the air and burns the birds’ feathers. Disease runs rampant in the filthy, cramped sheds. Many birds die, and the survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cagemates, who are sometimes left to rot.

Due to extreme crowding, stress and boredom, the miserable hens peck at the only thing available: each other. Farm workers “solve” this problem by slicing off a portion of each hen’s sensitive beak with a hot blade—without giving the birds any painkillers. Many birds, unable to eat because of the pain, die from dehydration and weakened immune systems.

The light in the sheds is constantly manipulated in order to maximize egg production. Periodically, the hens’ calorie intake is restricted for two weeks at a time in order to force their bodies into an extra laying cycle. When hens are “spent” and their egg production drops at about two years of age, they’re sent to slaughter, where their throats are cut open while they’re still conscious.

Meanwhile, male chicks are considered worthless to the egg industry because they don’t produce eggs and are too small to profitably be used for their flesh. So every year, millions of male birds are thrown into macerators and ground up alive or tossed into trash bags to slowly suffocate.

Luckily, kids don’t care whether their Easter eggs came from a chicken. Having fun and spending time with family and friends is what matters, and neither of these requires real eggs.

Most craft stores sell paper or wooden eggs that are perfect for painting or decorating with crayons, stickers, glitter or markers. They are mess-free and won’t crack if dropped, and kids can display them for as long as they’d like because, unlike real eggs, they won’t rot. For kids who are dying to dye something, making tie-dyed T-shirts is always a hit.

Brightly colored plastic eggs are ideal for Easter egg hunts. They can be filled with candy, small toys, coins, stickers, love notes or any other small surprise you can imagine. They are inexpensive, can be reused year after year and are much more exciting for kids to find than a hard-boiled egg.

Real eggs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. This Easter, why not follow the First Family’s lead and have a first-class Easter celebration—without harming hens.

Lindsay Pollard-Post is a staff writer for The PETA Foundation.

By Martin Mersereau

A West Virginia man named Jeffrey Nally Jr. is facing 29 charges of cruelty to animals after he allegedly used various tools—including a crossbow, a drill, saws and hammers—to torture and kill at least 29 dogs and puppies over several months. Nally is also charged with allegedly holding his former girlfriend captive for months, physically and sexually abusing her, forcing her to watch him torture the animals and then making her clean up the mess. According to reports, Nally told police that he got the dogs from ads in the local newspaper and that the animals were all advertised as “free to a good home” or sold for a few dollars.

It’s tempting to push this horrific case of cruelty out of our minds as quickly as possible, but we can help save other animals—and humans—from suffering similar fates by learning from the lessons it holds. Nally’s alleged abuse of both dogs and his ex-girlfriend points to the link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans, and his apparent pattern of acquiring the animals he tortured from newspapers highlights the dangers of giving away animals or placing them without a proper adoption fee, pre-adoption home evaluations and follow-up visits. Click to continue »

By Dan Paden

Most of us knew very little about hoarding until reality TV shows took us inside homes filled with mountains of trash, piles of clothing, bags and boxes of unused items and more. Many of these homes are so disordered that there isn’t even a path from one room to the next—occupants must literally climb over piles of clutter.

Hoarding “things” is bad enough. The filthy conditions in these homes can threaten the physical health of those who live there, and the seemingly endless stacks and piles, which often block doors and windows, pose a serious safety risk. But as a new PETA undercover investigation reveals, when people compulsively accumulate large numbers of animals, often under the delusion that they’re “saving” them, the situation quickly becomes abusive or even deadly. It’s up to all of us to prevent this from happening. Click to continue »

Boston –  Following more than a year of vigorous campaigning by PETA, NASA has quietly shelved plans for cruel radiation experiments on dozens of monkeys that would have cost $1.75 million, and we are over the moon!

In the proposed NASA-funded experiments that were to be conducted by an experimenter at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, dozens of squirrel monkeys would have been exposed to a harmful dose of radiation and then isolated in cages and subjected to years of behavioral experiments in order to measure the damage caused by the radiation. Such damage likely would have included cancerous tumors, cataracts, brain damage, loss of motor control, and early death.

Thanks to tens of thousands of letters, phone calls, protests, and tweets by PETA supporters, this misguided plan has been grounded, and monkeys will be spared this cruelty.

In addition to PETA members, our campaign also received support from Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Barker, and Alicia Silverstone. Even former astronauts, NASA engineers, and the European Space Agency spoke out on our side and against NASA’s ill-conceived plan to torment squirrel monkeys.

Thank you!

PETA OFFERS WORCESTER RESIDENTS URGENT INFORMATION FOR SAFEGUARDING ANIMALS DURING WINTER WEATHER

Group Warns Against Leaving Animals Outside in Freezing Temperatures

Every year, PETA receives complaints about people who leave dogs outside in the cold. Although they are equipped with fur coats, dogs and other animals can still suffer from frostbite and exposure, and they can become dehydrated when water sources freeze. Cold weather spells extra hardship for “backyard dogs,” who often go without adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinary care. The winter months can also pose challenges for wildlife.

With your area facing snow and extremely low temperatures this week, will you please consider sharing the following information with your audience now and through the winter in order to help protect animals?

· Keep animals inside. This is especially important to remember when it comes to puppies and kittens, elderly animals, small animals, and dogs with short hair, including pointers, beagles, pit bulls, Rottweilers, and Dobermans. Short-haired animals will also benefit from a warm sweater or coat on walks.

· Don’t allow your cat or dog to roam freely outdoors. During winter, cats sometimes climb under the hoods of cars to be near warm engines and are badly injured or killed when the car is started.

· Wipe off your dogs’ or cats’ legs, feet, and stomachs after they come in from the snow. Salt and other chemicals can make your animals sick if they ingest them. You should also increase animals’ food rations during the winter because they are burning more calories to keep warm.

· Keep an eye out for strays. Take unidentified animals inside until you can find their guardians or get them to an animal shelter. If strays are skittish or otherwise unapproachable, provide food and water and call your local humane society for assistance in trapping them and getting them indoors.

· When you see dogs who have been left outdoors, provide them with proper shelter. Details on how to provide housing can be found here.

· When temperatures fall below freezing, birds and other animals may have trouble finding food and water. Hang bird feeders from trees or spread birdseed on the ground. Provide access to liquid water by filling a heavy water bowl and breaking the surface ice twice a day.

Editor’s note: PETA does amazing work on behalf of animals all over the world. Animal abuse of all sorts – from pitbull fighting to  exotic animals in circuses or other traveling freak shows – PETA is on it! Hauling factory farms to court, saving Beagles in labs, making life easier for India’s beasts of burden, caring for the street dogs of Puerto Rico – and educating the world about animals and their complex/wonderful lives.

The insanity mankind inflicts on animals never seems to end. Thankfully, PETA is there to help.

Please support this incredible organization by buying cool, funky PETA stuff for the holidays.

Choose the gift that you want to give. Personalize the e-card with a special message. Celebrate knowing that your tax-deductible donation will immediately go to work to fight animal suffering and abuse. You’ve seen what a vegan diet does for the Lettuce Ladies. Now let’s see what it can do for your family and friends. Help PETA activists hit the streets to protest the use of animal skins for fashion. Action kits include educational leaflets, anti-fur stickers, and “props” for interactive demonstrations. Protect an outside dog who is chained to a tree or fence and has little to no protection from the rain, wind, snow, or sweltering heat.