Kategorie: Animals

PETA is urging Duke University to stop its agonizing and ineffective decompression sickness experiments conducted on mice for the U.S. Navy, which bankrolls the tests with nearly $1 million in taxpayer funds.

In Duke experimenter Heath Gasier’s tests, mice are forced to run on a treadmill and are electroshocked if they can’t keep up. He also induces seizures in baby mice, confines them to a decompression chamber for up to 60 minutes at a time to induce the “bends,” and injects them with experimental substances before ultimately killing them.

The Navy also funds decompression studies at the universities of San Diego, South Florida, and Maryland. PETA sent letters to the leadership at these institutions urging them to stop conducting the tests and to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro noting that many non-animal research methods are more applicable to humans, including in vitro studies, reanalysis of existing human diver data, machine-learning techniques, and computer modeling. Decompression sickness, commonly called “the bends,” and oxygen toxicity affect species in disparate ways because of major physiological differences between them.

“The Navy can’t claim to be a world leader as long as it continues tormenting animals in barbaric decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity tests that it knows are irrelevant to human health,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is calling on Duke and secretaries Austin and Del Toro to switch to superior, human-relevant methods, as France and the U.K. have done, and stop wasting taxpayers’ money and animals’ lives.”

Last year, the Navy ended its funding of decompression tests conducted on sheep at the University of Wisconsin–Madison up to two years ahead of schedule following a PETA appeal to Del Toro that was cosigned by retired Rear Admiral Dr. Marion Balsam.

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

The post PETA to Duke University: Sink U.S. Navy–Funded Decompression Experiments on Animals appeared first on PETA.

After hearing from PETA, Purple Carrot is ending its contract with its Thai supplier and switching to coconut milk from Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The change came after PETA informed the vegan meal kit company about how the Thai coconut industry abuses monkeys by chaining them and forcing them to climb trees to pick coconuts.

From December 2021 to July 2022, PETA Asia conducted its third investigation into Thailand’s coconut industry, in which chained monkeys are forced to spend long hours climbing tall trees and picking heavy coconuts. In response to international criticism following the release of PETA Asia’s two previous investigations, the Thai government and companies that make coconut products have claimed that monkeys are no longer used in the making of exported products. But PETA Asia’s latest investigation confirmed that rampant abuse of primates is still going unchecked—and that Thai coconut industry insiders are deliberately hiding monkey labor in their supply chain.

If you’re wondering how you can help monkeys used in the coconut industry, the best thing you can do is avoid companies that source canned coconut milk from Thailand. Only buy canned coconut milk from monkey labor–free brands you can find in grocery stores and from meal-delivery companies like Purple Carrot that have made the switch to non-Thai coconut milk.

Here’s a helpful list of meal-delivery companies that don’t support forced monkey labor:

• Boycemode* Ⓥ
• HelloFresh (and its brands Chefs Plate, EveryPlate, Green Chef, and Factor 75)
• Hungryroot
• MamaSezz* Ⓥ
• Mosaic Foods
• Purple Carrot Ⓥ

*These companies are PETA Business Friends.

Ⓥ These companies are vegan.

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Take Action for Chained, Abused Monkeys

Curious, highly intelligent monkeys are denied mental stimulation, companionship, freedom, and everything else that’s natural and important to them—all so they can be forced to pick coconuts.

Help End Forced Monkey Labor in the Thai Coconut Industry

The post After Hearing From PETA, Purple Carrot Ends Contract With Thai Coconut Milk Suppliers appeared first on PETA.

Purple Carrot has confirmed that it will stop obtaining coconut milk from Thailand following a PETA Asia investigation revealing that monkeys are chained, whipped, beaten, and forced to spend long hours picking coconuts from trees. In thanks, PETA is sending the vegan meal kit delivery company a Blue Ribbon Award and delicious monkey-shaped vegan chocolates.

“Purple Carrot’s decision will help prevent monkeys from being kidnapped and sold as coconut-picking machines,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “By cutting ties with Thai coconut suppliers, leaders like Purple Carrot are helping PETA push the industry away from using and abusing monkeys, who belong in nature with their families.”

PETA Asia’s investigation—its third into Thailand’s forced monkey labor industry—documented that a worker struck a screaming monkey, dangled him by the neck, and then whipped him with the tether. A female monkey reportedly used for breeding was kept chained alone in the sun without access to water, while other young monkeys languished in cages. Coconut pickers said that the monkeys sometimes sustain broken bones from falling out of trees or being yanked by their tethers, and a worker confirmed that most of the monkeys were kidnapped from their families in nature, even though the species exploited by the coconut trade are threatened or endangered.

Purple Carrot joins HelloFresh and Performance Food Group in rejecting coconut products from Thailand due to cruel monkey labor, and PETA is urging Whole Foods to follow suit.

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, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Purple Carrot Wins Blue Ribbon for Dropping Coconut Milk Tied to Monkey Labor appeared first on PETA.

In a rare move, the National Institutes of Health officially shuts off the spigot of money flowing to the Colombian organizations at the center of an 18-month PETA investigation. The agency rescinds the eligibility of the Caucaseco Scientific Research Center and the Malaria Vaccine and Development Center to receive U.S. taxpayer money—making it unlikely that these laboratories will ever torment animals in pointless experiments again.

The post NIH Shuts Down Caucaseco Scientific Research Center and the Malaria Vaccine and Development Center appeared first on PETA.

Please see the following statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in response to reports that a 16-year-old worker at a Mississippi slaughterhouse died on Friday from injuries, the latest incident in Mar-Jac Poultry’s history of exploiting minors:

Slaughterhouses are hell on Earth for animals and workers, with breakneck line speeds putting birds at risk of having their throats slit while fully conscious and workers tasked with handling saws, knives, and other sharp tools above surfaces often coated with grease, blood, and offal. This child’s death was tragic and unconscionable, and because children don’t belong inside slaughterhouses any more than chickens do, PETA asks everyone to wipe their hands clean of supporting slaughterhouses by eating vegan.

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

The post PETA Statement on Child Worker’s Death in Slaughterhouse appeared first on PETA.