Kategorie: Animals

Earlier today, PETA kicked its campaign urging the Shriners to end their use of wild-animal circuses into high gear by disrupting an event held during the Shriners International Imperial Session, swarming the stage at the Shriners Incoming Potentate Pageant to appeal to new Imperial Potentate James “Ed” Stolze to ban cruel animal acts. Video footage of the scene is available here.

This morning’s disruption comes one day after PETA’s animal allies forestalled Stolze as he exited his car on the dragway of the Shriners Imperial Session’s Fourth of July parade. And on Monday, protesters broadcast a pro-animal protection appeal by descending on the annual Shriners International Imperial Session at the Charlotte Convention Center wearing fez hats and holding aloft bullhooks (a fireplace poker–like object with a sharp hook on one end that’s used to intimidate and strike elephants) and giant inflatable crying elephants. They also entered the Charlotte Oasis Shriners’ Temple as the Shriners and their wives prayed, unveiling signs calling for an end to the Shrine’s animal exploitation.

“PETA is pushing for the day when the Shriners will agree that no elephant should be chained, beaten, or forced to perform in circus shows that are cruel and outdated,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “We’re upping the ante in urging Shiners International to stop promoting big-time cruelty under the big top.”

Animals used in circuses are beaten, whipped, caged, chained, and forced to perform demeaning and stressful tricks under constant threat of punishment. Video footage shows the head trainer for Carson & Barnes Circus—which frequently provides the elephant acts for Shrine circuses—instructing trainers to sink bullhooks into elephants’ flesh and twist them until the animals scream. Carson & Barnes’ appallingly long history of animal abuse includes more than 100 citations for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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 Breaking: Protesters Confront New Shrine Potentate Over Circus Cruelty appeared first on PETA.

The post Victory! Big Cats Moved From Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden to Reputable Sanctuaries appeared first on PETA.

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo regarding Churchill Downs’ extension of its suspension of trainer Bob Baffert through 2024:

Churchill Downs should have the right to keep habitual liars off its track, especially when they are standing on a pile of dead horses. PETA supports Churchill Downs’ decision and urges every other track to follow suit.

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

The post Churchill Downs Extends Baffert Suspension: PETA Statement appeared first on PETA.

Champagne corks are popping at PETA, as The Mirage in Las Vegas has just announced that tigers have been moved from the Secret Garden to two facilities verified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, following PETA’s appeals to Mirage’s owner, Hard Rock International. Below, please find a statement in response from PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler:

What happens in Vegas shouldn’t always stay in Vegas, and that’s certainly the case for the tigers at the Secret Garden, who have now left Sin City for spacious new sanctuary homes in Oregon and Texas. Kind tourists today won’t go anywhere near cruel and archaic animal acts like those from Siegfried & Roy, and these dangerous spectacles have all but done a disappearing act from the Strip.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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 Mirage Moved Tigers to Reputable Sanctuaries Following Push From PETA appeared first on PETA.

On Thursday, a herd of PETA supporters wearing giant camel masks will hoof it to the Egyptian Consulate and demand a ban on using horses and camels to transport tourists at the Giza pyramids. The action follows newly released footage from PETA Asia showing that camels used for tourist rides are routinely beaten and bound at Egypt’s notorious Birqash Camel Market, including one who was tied to the back of a truck and dragged through the street.

When:    Thursday, July 6, 12 noon

Where:    Outside 180 N. Michigan Ave. (near the intersection with E. Lake Street), Chicago

PETA Asia has shared multiple videos of animal abuse with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism—one showing a horse at Giza collapsing while pulling a carriage and being beaten until she managed to stand up again. Other videos show horses with open sores and severe, untreated injuries forced to wait for the next paying customer in the blistering heat without shade or water and trying to subsist by eating trash. The ministry previously pledged to ban the use of horses and other animals at tourist sites and replace them with electric carts but has failed to provide a definite date for implementing such a ban.

“While Egypt’s government drags its feet on banning animal rides, handlers are literally dragging animals through the streets and beating them bloody,” says PETA Asia Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on the Egyptian government to start switching over to eco-friendly electric carts as promised and urges people never to ride an animal at any tourist attraction or anywhere else.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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 Giant ‘Camels’ at Egyptian Consulate to Launch U.S. Protests Over Animal Rides appeared first on PETA.