Kategorie: Animals

Today, after learning that three inadequately protected Barbary sheep and a wallaby were all attacked and killed by dogs who had dug under a fence at Spring River Park & Zoo, PETA fired off letters to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Mayor Timothy Jennings, pushing for the revocation of the facility’s exhibitor license and the closure of the roadside zoo, respectively, as these are not the first fatalities there.

In its letters, PETA points out that inadequate fencing and housing at the roadside zoo led to the deaths of five animals in 2022, including the four killed by dogs, as recently as December 28. The group also notes that the USDA cited Spring River Zoo over an elk who had to be killed after her leg became caught in a piece of broken fencing, “multiple breaches” with large gaps in its fencing, and multiple escapes, including those of a black bear, and a beaver who was never found.

“The numerous fatalities and escapes at Spring River show that it either can’t or won’t provide animals with necessary care,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet. “It’s high time for the local or federal government to shut down this miserable roadside zoo and send the animals to reputable facilities before the body count gets any higher.”

Spring River’s history of animal welfare failures also includes USDA citations for failing to treat a stumbling and underweight longhorn steer with overgrown hooves, having no exercise plan for a wolf-dog hybrid, lacking any environmental enrichment plan for ring-tailed lemurs, and keeping inadequate records for the transfer of two black bears and a mountain lion. PETA notes that Spring River confines bears to an antiquated concrete pit and houses many animals in cramped enclosures as if they were objects rather than sentient beings.

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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Animal Deaths at Spring River Park & Zoo Have PETA Working to Shut It Down appeared first on PETA.

Following a push from PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has terminated the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license of Florida-based exotic-animal dealer Jimmy Wayne Hammonds (aka “The Monkey Whisperer”), blocking him from legally selling primates for the pet trade for at least the next year. The decision stems from Hammonds’ guilty pleas to federal charges related to the illegal sale and transport of primates—including his notorious sale of a capuchin monkey to singer Chris Brown.

PETA had submitted a complaint to the USDA pointing out that the agency had cause to terminate Hammonds’ license as his convictions include felony conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking and three counts of violating the Endangered Species Act, prompting the USDA’s enforcement action.

“Exotic animals are not pets, playthings, or props for celebrities, and they’re not business transactions either,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Michelle Sinnott. “PETA is celebrating the USDA’s decision to strip this felon of a license before he could exploit additional vulnerable animals.”

In 2017, PETA alerted California officials to Brown’s unlawful possession of the capuchin, which resulted in the animal’s seizure by the state and two misdemeanor charges levied against Brown. According to the search warrant affidavit, it was PETA’s complaint regarding Brown that triggered law enforcement to investigate Hammonds. The affidavit also indicates that officials believed that Hammonds had sold two spider monkeys to rapper Swae Lee. PETA also alerted California wildlife officials to Lee’s unlawful possession of these spider monkeys, which led to the seizure of at least one of them.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. A copy of PETA’s complaint to the USDA is available here. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Chris Brown’s Monkey Dealer Gets License Terminated by Feds appeared first on PETA.

Two weeks after Moolah Shriners were caught on video assaulting two nonviolent protesters—and following months of protests—the organization announced that it will no longer feature elephant acts in its circus, which had already ended the use of big cats and bears. Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman:

It took appeals from more than 60,000 PETA supporters and the bravery of peaceful protesters—who were assaulted by aggressive Shriners—but PETA is celebrating the news today that the Moolah Shrine Circus is finally giving up its elephant acts. Let this be a lesson to every other holdout Shrine that it’s time to stop fist-fighting the future and start switching to animal-free circuses that dazzle audiences with human talent.

PETA will continue to advocate on behalf of the elephants who live at the deceptively named Endangered Ark Foundation. This facility in Oklahoma is operated by Carson & Barnes Circus—a longtime partner of the Moolah Shrine Circus that has been cited for more than 100 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and whose head trainer was caught on video beating elephants. The Endangered Ark Foundation chains “retired” elephants, breeds them, and exploits them for lucrative public feeding photo ops and other forms of entertainment.

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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or  Instagram.

The post Statement: Moolah Shrine Ends Elephant Acts; PETA Celebrates appeared first on PETA.

The animal trucking company involved in a high-profile Pennsylvania crash last year has shut down after PETA submitted evidence to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that the company appeared to be illegally transporting monkeys to laboratories.

The owner of Quebedeaux’s Transport, Jeff Quebedeaux, announced the closure on LinkedIn, and it was confirmed to PETA by the DOT. The move follows Quebedeaux’s failed attempt to turn a defunct Louisiana human prison into a quarantine facility that would house hundreds of monkeys imported into the U.S. for use in laboratories.

“PETA’s persistence has flushed Quebedeaux’s Transport—and its plan to build a massive monkey quarantine facility at a dilapidated human prison—down the drain where it belongs,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “We are now calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end the importation of monkeys destined for laboratories.”

After last January’s crash spilled dozens of crates holding monkeys—who had not yet been quarantined to rule out zoonotic disease infections—onto the highway, allowing several to escape, PETA uncovered evidence that the company appeared to have illegally transported hundreds of long-tailed macaques and was planning to expand to include the quarantine facility in Bunkie, Louisiana.

PETA sent complaints to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA and provided local and state officials with information about the potential hazards of warehousing monkeys in a decrepit prison. Quebedeaux was denied the licenses needed to warehouse monkeys, and the local and state agencies cracked down on his proposal for a quarantine facility.

PETA’s request to the DOT to investigate Quebedeaux also revealed that Inotiv’s Orient BioResource Center, a commercial monkey importer already under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice as a co-conspirator in an alleged monkey-laundering scheme, had falsely listed Quebedeaux as the transport company on multiple shipments to facilities in 2022.

For years, Quebedeaux’s trucks crisscrossed the U.S. carrying some of the tens of thousands of monkeys imported and used for experimentation. The vast majority of the monkeys transported were long-tailed macaques—one of two species of monkeys pushed to the brink of extinction by experimenters’ demands. These monkeys—who can harbor diseases transmissible to humans—land at U.S. airports and travel on U.S. highways, often for thousands of miles, before reaching quarantine facilities.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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