Kategorie: Animals

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Local High School Teacher Is PETA’s Runner-Up Teacher of the Year

Just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week (May 8–12), TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—has named San Fernando Senior High School educator John Grilli a 2023 Teacher of the Year Runner-Up for finding innovative ways to bring animal rights lessons into his senior economics and political science classroom.

Grilli became interested in animal rights when he was in high school, and now he includes it in lessons and discourse with his students. As a cultural historian, he teaches about how humans have exploited other animals for power and profit throughout history, pointing to current examples such as the coconut industry’s use of forced monkey labor. Thanks to his encouragement, his students have been inspired to clean up their local beaches, care for homeless animals at their local animal shelter, and even take on causes of their own. After learning about the many ways rats are exploited, a group of his students petitioned—on their own—another teacher at their school to give her rats in her classroom a cozy, permanent place to live at her own home.

“John Grilli inspires his students to demonstrate kindness to animals whenever possible, from volunteering in their community to speaking up for animals in their own school,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is thrilled to recognize this outstanding teacher for proving that compassion belongs in every classroom.”

In celebration, Grilli will receive a framed certificate and a gift basket from TeachKind.

TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. The group offers free resources, presentations, lessons, and more to help teachers add compassion to their curricula. For more information, please visit TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Local High School Teacher Is PETA’s Runner-Up Teacher of the Year appeared first on PETA.

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What Can Dog Breeders Get Away With? Take a Look at What PETA Asia Found

Breaking Exposé: Dog Breeders Are Even Worse Than You Thought

You’ll Never Set Foot in a Pet Store Again After Seeing What These Breeders Did

What Can Dog Breeders Get Away With? Take a Look at What PETA Asia Found

How PETA Asia Just Exposed One of the Largest Breeding Companies in Vietnam

WATCH: See Why One of the Biggest Breeding Companies in Vietnam Was Just Exposed

VIDEO: What Do More Than 10 Vietnamese Dog Breeders Have in Common?

PETA Asia Showed a Video of Dog Breeders to an Expert: Here’s How They Responded

Here’s What a Veterinarian Had to Say After Seeing Footage of Dog Breeders in Vietnam

 

Investigators visited more than 10 Vietnamese dog breeders—including some certified by the Vietnam Kennel Association. This is what they found.

The post What Can Dog Breeders Get Away With? Take a Look at What PETA Asia Found appeared first on PETA.

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Feds Still Funding Controversial EcoHealth Alliance and Colombia Group Raided by Authorities: PETA Asks Why

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President of International Laboratory Methods Shalin Gala urging the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to stop funding scofflaw foreign companies after the agency renewed grant money for EcoHealth Alliance, which funded experiments on bats at a Wuhan, China, facility that may have been the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only in a fever dream would it make sense for NIH to continue writing checks to rogue organizations around the world when the agency has no oversight mechanisms in place for foreign organizations that receive American taxpayer money.

In Colombia, NIH inexplicably continues to fund the experiments of husband-and-wife duo Sócrates Herrera and Myriam Arévalo, whose filthy, decrepit facilities were recently raided by authorities and from which all the suffering animals—including 108 monkeys—were removed in the largest animal rescue operation of its kind in the country. This followed PETA’s exhaustive, 18-month investigation into the fraudulent operation that still receives more than half a million dollars in NIH funding.

The Colombian group is at the center of several research papers—published in Nature Communications, Redox Biology, Vaccine, PLOS One, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and others—that are problematic because of apparent lack of appropriate ethics approvals, as reported by Retraction Watch and Science.

Between 2011 and 2021, NIH gave around $2.2 billion to approximately 200 foreign organizations to fund 1,177 grants and 180 contracts involving experiments on animals. This taxpayer money went to 45 countries, including Brazil, China, Colombia, Kenya, and Russia, even though the agency has no oversight of the facilities it funds outside the U.S. It’s time to bounce these checks and put that money into modern, human-relevant, animal-free research by adopting PETA’s Research Modernization Deal.

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 Feds Still Funding Controversial EcoHealth Alliance and Colombia Group Raided by Authorities: PETA Asks Why appeared first on PETA.

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AARP Dumps Dog-Sled Promotions After Appeal From PETA

It’s a fact of life that aging can slow you down, and after hearing from PETA that dogs in the dog-sledding industry deemed too old or not fast enough have been shot, bludgeoned to death, or abandoned to starve, AARP removed dog-sledding excursions from its website and pledged not to promote the cruel activity again. In thanks, PETA is sending the organization delicious dog-shaped vegan chocolates.

“PETA commends AARP for joining the growing list of entities that don’t want their name attached to a blood sport that treats old dogs like dirt,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Anyone who cares about dogs should avoid dog-sledding excursions as if lives depended on it, because they do.”

Many dogs used for tourist sled rides are also forced into races like the deadly Iditarod, in which more than 150 dogs have died. The leading cause of death for dogs in the Iditarod is aspiration pneumonia—caused by inhaling their own vomit—and the race’s official death toll doesn’t include those who were killed simply because they weren’t fast enough or who died during the off-season while chained next to dilapidated boxes or plastic barrels in the bitter cold, a practice exposed in a PETA undercover investigation.

Among the companies that have stopped supporting the dog-sledding industry are Costco, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Safeway, State Farm, and Wells Fargo.

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 AARP Dumps Dog-Sled Promotions After Appeal From PETA appeared first on PETA.

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Cruelty-Free Beauty: Surprising Finds You Can Feel Good About

Did you know that a lot of famous beauty and personal-care products are animal test–free? While brands like The Honest Company and KVD are known for their cruelty-free status, other animal-friendly products are hiding on the shelves at your local store. You don’t have to head to a fancy boutique!

By using cruelty-free products ranging from deodorants to makeup, we can look and feel exceptional without harming animals. If you haven’t already made some ethical upgrades, why not do so? You may be surprised by how easy it is to shop with compassion.

Check out these popular brands, which sell vegan products that are certified by PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies as animal-free.

  • Secret Aluminum Free Deodorant: Looking for a deodorant that’s kind to your underarms and other animals? Look no further than Secret. By purchasing PETA-certified products like Secret deodorant, you can help spare rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, rats, and other animals excruciating tests and a lifetime of suffering.

  • Dove Body Wash: Did you know that some personal-care products contain insect vomit, cow lard, or lanolin extracted from sheep’s oil glands? Regardless of your skin type or budget, there are plenty of cruelty-free soaps on the market. Dove Body Wash is animal test–free and vegan, so you can lather up with kindness.

  • Herbal Essences: Looking for hair care that’s kind to other animals? Herbal Essences makes the cut! The products’ animal test–free formulas are infused with natural ingredients, leaving your hair looking and feeling fabulous. Some of Herbal Essences’ products contain honey and beeswax, so stick with the vegan products to avoid harming hardworking bees.

  • Physicians Formula: Yes—Physicians Formula’s makeup is 100% animal test–free, and many of its products are vegan. This well-loved brand will leave you looking and feeling fabulous—and happy knowing that no animals were harmed in the process. Not only is animal testing inhumane, it’s also unnecessary—especially since many non-animal models are available. Why not give your skin and your conscience a treat with Physicians Formula instead?

  • e.l.f. Cosmetics: By choosing vegan company e.l.f., you can slay your makeup look while also being a friend to other animals. So treat yourself to some guilt-free glam with e.l.f.—your mirror (and other animals) will thank you.

  • wet n wild: When you flip your wet n wild product over, you may well see PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies logo.

  • NYX Professional Makeup: This brand’s products can be found in thousands of stores. Plus, the easy-to-use vegan product filter on its website helps customers stay confident in knowing that they are using cruelty-free products.

Using animals for product testing involves subjecting them to harmful and often painful experiments. By purchasing vegan products, you are encouraging the well-being of other animals and taking a stand against cruelty to animals. Our Bunny Free app makes it easy to determine whether a company is cruelty-free while you’re shopping.

The post Cruelty-Free Beauty: Surprising Finds You Can Feel Good About appeared first on PETA.