Kategorie: Animals

Just in time for Fourth of July festivities and the National Cherry Festival, tomorrow PETA will point to animal agriculture as a leading cause of the climate catastrophe with a flying banner that reads, “Getting Hot? So Is the Planet. Go Vegan.” According to the United Nations, about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production, and the largest percentage of those emissions come from the meat and dairy industries.

“Raising and killing animals for food drives the climate catastrophe in ways that growing cherries never will,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “This Independence Day, PETA is asking everyone to remedy the planetary crisis with eco-friendly vegan eating.”

PETA notes that growing water-intensive crops just to feed animals raised for food consumes more than half the water used in the U.S. and that up to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon is linked to meat production, either for grazing or for growing food for cattle. Vegan foods—such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils—require less energy, land, and water to produce, and going vegan would help drastically reduce humans’ negative impact on the environment.

Every person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals each year daily suffering and terrifying deaths and reduces their risk of developing heart disease and cancer. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.

PETA’s banner will take off from Cherry Capital Airport around 12 noon and circle local beaches for four hours.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—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 It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Time to Go Vegan! PETA Takes to the Skies for July 4 appeared first on PETA.

Following reports that two University of Buffalo football players face charges now that video has emerged of the two allegedly beating a small dog named Kobe with a leather belt, please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch:

“Thanks to the tipster who reportedly alerted authorities to this vicious dog-beating video, Kobe the dog is now safe and his alleged tormentors face criminal charges. PETA is urging the district attorney to seek a ban on contact with animals for these men if they are convicted and urges everyone to speak up whenever they witness cruelty to animals, for the sake of the victims and all animals in the community, because animal abusers are often repeat offenders.”

PETA’s letter to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn is available here. 

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

 

The post Statement: PETA Calls for Ban on Owning Animals in Case of Buffalo Students’ Arrest Over Dog-Beating Video   appeared first on PETA.

Please see the following statement from PETA primate scientist Dr. Lisa-Jones Engel regarding a paper by Dr. Matthew Luskin et al. from the University of Queensland’s School of the Environment, which claims that monkey populations in Southeast Asia are booming:

Papers like this play into sensationalism and dangerously undermine scientific integrity. The research is flawed—and largely funded by universities in China, where long-tailed macaques are imported from Southeast Asia and used extensively in laboratory experimentation. The authors’ population projections  are based on pockets of long-tailed and pig-tailed macaque populations found next to human settlements. The densities in these areas can’t be extrapolated to the entire forest. The paper is rife with incorrect statements. These two species can’t be lumped together, because they have different ecologies, behaviors and distribution. Macaques in Asia are not reservoirs for monkeypox, and these species cannot reproduce rapidly—they have at most one offspring a year. Nor do the authors mention that nearly a year before this paper was published, the International Union for Conservation of Nature assessed populations of long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques and reclassified them as endangered based on assessments by scientists with expertise in macaque ecology and distribution. This present publication serves only to undermine science. It should be retracted immediately, or the consequences for these very fragile populations of monkeys could be devastating.

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: Journal Should Retract Flawed Monkey Population Paper appeared first on PETA.

With summer in full swing, PETA is issuing an urgent warning and reminder that it’s illegal to tether a dog outside unattended in Virginia when the temperature is 85 degrees or above. Dogs left tethered outdoors unlawfully may be seized by police, and their owners could face cruelty-to-animals charges. Dogs must be kept indoors or in a securely fenced-in area with continuous access to water, shade, and shelter. Already this year, 47 animals have reportedly died from heat-related causes across the country. (The actual figure is likely far higher, as most deaths go unreported.)

On the heels of a recent tragic incident in Roanoke in which a pair of dogs were left in a hot car, leading to the death of one of them, PETA is also urging people to be on the lookout for dogs who are in need of assistance, including those who may be experiencing heatstroke symptoms, and advises everyone to do the following:

• Take notice when a dog exhibits an extended, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs can’t sweat as humans do, so heat builds up inside their bodies.
• Touch the pavement before walks to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
• Walk only in the shade or on earth or grass, and never leave animals outdoors in extreme heat or inside vehicles at any time.

PETA fieldworkers regularly come across and hear about dogs who have suffered and died from heat-related causes. Last year, police in Bedford seized four dogs who were tied up outside in the heat with inadequate shelter and no water. Authorities are primed to take similar action to enforce the state’s anti-tethering ordinance this summer.

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

The post Tethering Dogs Outside During Heat Wave Is Deadly and Illegal—PETA Offers Vital Tips appeared first on PETA.

With temperatures expected to rise—putting dogs kept chained or penned outdoors at high risk of enduring heat prostration and dying—PETA is issuing an urgent warning and reminder that it’s illegal to leave a dog outside without access to adequate food, water, and shelter. PETA fieldworkers regularly find and learn of dogs who have suffered and died from heat-related causes. Already this year, 47 animals have reportedly died from heat-related causes across the country, and the actual figure is likely far higher, as most deaths go unreported.

PETA urges people to be on the lookout for dogs who are in need of assistance, including those who might be experiencing heatstroke symptoms, and advises everyone to do the following:

• Take notice when a dog exhibits an extended, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs can’t sweat as humans do, so heat builds up inside their bodies.
• Touch the pavement before walks to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
• Walk only in the shade or on earth or grass, and never leave animals outdoors in extreme heat or inside vehicles at any time.

Anyone who leaves animals outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted for cruelty.

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

The post Urgent: PETA Warns That Dogs Will Die in Heat Wave—Vital Tips Here appeared first on PETA.