Kategorie: Animals

For fearlessly stepping up for animals at every turn and helping PETA achieve major victories for dogs and monkeys in laboratories, open people’s eyes to the myth of “humane meat,” and pressure Starbucks to end its vegan milk upcharge, Succession star James Cromwell is PETA’s 2022 Person of the Year. In honor of his incredible contributions to animal rights and because his empathy knows no bounds, PETA is naming its Los Angeles event space The James Cromwell Empathy Center.

Cromwell’s fire for animal rights was sparked decades ago by his role in Babe, which inspired him to go vegan. Now in his 80s, he’s bringing about change and racking up victories with the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager. Notches in his belt include persuading Air France to end its shipments of monkeys to laboratories by folding his 6-foot-7-inch frame into a shipping crate at Los Angeles International Airport and helping to shut down Texas A&M University’s deplorable canine muscular dystrophy laboratory. Cromwell was arrested and carted off to jail for protesting the lab’s tests, and this year, Texas A&M made the seismic announcement that it would be putting the remaining nine dogs, who had been transferred to another laboratory, up for adoption.

Most recently, Cromwell superglued his hand to the counter at a Starbucks café in New York to protest the company’s surcharge on vegan milks, and if his record is anything to go by, it’s only a matter of time until the chain buckles and agrees to price vegan and dairy milks equally.

“James Cromwell has compassion for all animals in every fiber of his being,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “He’s PETA’s Person of the Year for being the secret weapon in our hard-fought campaigns on behalf of animals who are kept hidden away in cages, exploited, and killed.”

PETA is also releasing a rapid-fire Q&A video featuring Cromwell and Lange, in which the actor reveals a hidden cheeky side, sharing that his last meal would be magic mushrooms, that his cat makes him laugh harder than anyone, and that today’s generation of animal activists needs to be “implacable and confrontational”—qualities he’s demonstrated in spades when sticking up for animals.

The James Cromwell Empathy Center is located in Echo Park, just down the road from PETA’s Bob Barker Building, and hosts a variety of PETA events geared toward furthering respect, justice, and compassion for all sentient beings, regardless of species, race, religion, ability, or gender.

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

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For fearlessly stepping up for animals at every turn and for helping PETA achieve major victories for dogs and monkeys in laboratories, opening people’s eyes to the myth of “humane meat,” and pressuring Starbucks to end its vegan milk upcharge, Succession star James Cromwell is PETA’s 2022 Person of the Year.

In honor of Cromwell’s extraordinary contributions to animal rights and because his empathy knows no bounds, PETA is also naming its Los Angeles event space The James Cromwell Empathy Center. This space hosts a variety of PETA events geared toward furthering respect, justice, and compassion for all living, feeling beings, regardless of species, race, religion, ability, or gender.

“James Cromwell has compassion for all animals in every fiber of his being. He’s PETA’s Person of the Year for being the secret weapon in our hard-won campaigns on behalf of animals who are kept hidden away in cages, exploited, and killed.”

—PETA President Ingrid Newkirk

Cromwell’s fire for animal rights was sparked decades ago by his turn in Babe, which inspired him to go vegan . Now in his eighties, he’s bringing about societal change and racking up victories with the energy and enthusiasm of a teenager.

Cromwell’s bold actions for animals include the following:

• He wore a shirt proclaiming, “SeaWorld Sucks,” and led a group of PETA supporters in a takeover of the marine park’s “Orca Encounter” show, during which Cromwell and other protesters were arrested. Soon after, SeaWorld permanently canceled the shows.
• He helped persuade Air France to end its shipments of monkeys to laboratories by folding his 6-foot, 7-inch frame into a shipping crate at Los Angeles International Airport.
• He was arrested to help call attention to cruel brain experiments on cats, which have long since ended, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At the time, prosecutors declined to bring criminal disorderly conduct charges against him—as well as against the PETA staff member who was arrested with him—for pointing out that the experiments were unethical and must be stopped.
• He helped shut down Texas A&M University’s deplorable canine muscular dystrophy laboratory. Cromwell was previously arrested and carted off to jail for protesting these cruel and useless tests. The school made the seismic announcement this year that it would be putting the last nine healthy dogs transferred from the laboratory up for adoption.

Most recently, Cromwell superglued his hand to the café counter at a Starbucks location in New York to protest the company’s surcharge on vegan milks. If his record is anything to go by, it’s only a matter of time until the chain buckles and agrees to price vegan and dairy milks equally.

Cromwell also sat down with PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange for a rapid-fire Q&A video, in which the actor revealed a hidden cheeky side. He shared that his last meal would be magic mushrooms, that his cat makes him laugh harder than anyone, and that today’s generation of animal activists need to be “implacable and confrontational”—qualities he’s demonstrated in spades when sticking up for animals who are used and abused.

Past winners of PETA’s Person of the Year Award include Billie Eilish, Joaquin Phoenix, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and Anjelica Huston.

Feeling Inspired by James Cromwell’s Passion to Help Animals? Pledge to Go Vegan

By going vegan, you’ll spare the lives of nearly 200 animals each year. You can also become healthier by consuming foods that don’t contribute to heart disease, cancer, and strokes. Plus, you’ll help reduce the effects of the climate catastrophe and world hunger. It’s never been easier, thanks to hundreds of delicious vegan products, restaurants, and “accidentally vegan” foods you probably already love.

It’s plain and simple: Going vegan is the best resolution you can make. We have plenty of resources to help you go vegan, so take the pledge today!

It broke records on Twitch, inspired countless animal shelter fundraisers, and showed thousands of players that the “great outdoors” is a perilous place for cats, and now, PlayStation Game of the Year Stray has just garnered PETA’s 2022 Company of the Year Award for its publisher, Annapurna Interactive.

Stray follows an orange cat nicknamed Little Outsider, whose appearance and movements were based on the game designers’ own feline companions, as he journeys through a post-apocalyptic landscape to find his way home. Along the way, he battles some of the same threats faced by real roaming cats, including disease and attacks from predators.

“Stray gives players a cat’s-eye view of the illness, violence, and danger lurking behind every corner outdoors,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Annapurna Interactive gets two paws up from PETA for inspiring empathy for ‘strays’ and encouraging everyone to find their next feline companion at their local animal shelter.”

At the game’s release, Annapurna, streamers, and fans organized numerous giveaways and fundraisers for animal shelters and other cat-related charities in the U.S. and the U.K., raising thousands of dollars and, as the company’s marketing director put it, “bring[ing] more awareness to adopting and not shopping for a new pet.” Stray drew more than 62,000 players concurrently on Steam, became the most-downloaded game on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and attracted more than 285,000 concurrent Twitch stream viewers.

Around 70 million cats and dogs are homeless in the U.S. at any given time. Many animal shelters—under pressure to avoid euthanasia at all costs—are turning animals away when they inevitably reach capacity and even refusing to accept cats altogether, leaving the most vulnerable animals with nowhere to go. Like Stray’s Little Outsider, many end up abandoned on the streets, where they may be hit by cars, infected with diseases, or hurt by cruel people, and those who reproduce make the companion animal overpopulation crisis worse. That’s why PETA urges shelters to accept all animals in need, asks everyone to adopt instead of buying from breeders or pet stores, and advises guardians to have their animal companions spayed or neutered.

Past winners of PETA’s Company of the Year Award include Good Catch, Support + Feed, Save the Duck, WeWork, Netflix, Beyond Meat, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Bangkok, Daiya, and Emulate. Stray’s designer, Blue Twelve Studio, previously won PETA France’s “Cat Champions” Award for its work on the game.

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

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From bears to beagles and from cats to chimpanzees, 2022 was the biggest year yet in animal rescues for PETA entities around the world—and a new video shows some of the dramatic transformations of animals whose lives have changed for the better, including the playful pup Mabel (one of 4,000 beagles saved from a now-shuttered laboratory supplier) enjoying her first Christmas with a family and Sallie the bear enjoying baths at a spacious sanctuary following PETA’s largest-ever roadside zoo rescue, of 72 animals.

It isn’t every day that PETA Germany’s rescuers see military tanks roaming the streets, but that’s exactly what they encountered as they worked to get cats, dogs, and other animals out of harm’s way in Ukraine. Freedom from neglect came for Tonka, the chimpanzee who appeared alongside Alan Cumming in the film Buddy—he was imprisoned in a basement cage but now gets to enjoy feeling the sun on his back and the grass beneath his feet. Capping off 2022’s rescues, nine dogs who had previously languished in cages at Texas A&M University will be safe and warm in new homes by the end of the year.

PETA’s fieldworkers have saved hundreds of other animals, including Duke and Sandy, two of the Bertie 5 dogs who were kept chained up outside 24/7. They’re getting to spend the holidays indoors, warm and showered with treats, just like Ruthie and Rosie (seen at the start of the video), two of 39 dogs seized by authorities and placed for adoption after PETA’s investigation into a seedy breeding operation.

“This year meant new beginnings for thousands of animals and many legal wins for PETA, and all that was only possible because of the care, patience, and hard work put in,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “Everyone should make a resolution to help animals in 2023, whether that means adopting instead of buying from breeders or pet stores, never going to roadside zoos, or calling PETA to report cruelty.”

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