Kategorie: Animals

As part of its effort to urge President Joe Biden to appoint a visionary leader to the helm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), PETA has placed a full-page ad in today’s Washington Times emphasizing the need for a director who will stop squandering tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year on irrelevant, curiosity-driven animal experiments that fail to produce cures or treatments for the American public—and will instead embrace modern, non-animal research methods in order to bring the flawed agency into the 21^st century.

The group is calling on NIH to adopt the Research Modernization Deal, developed by PETA scientists, which outlines the overwhelming failure of animal experiments to lead to treatments or vaccines for HIV, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and a host of other ailments. It provides a strategy for phasing out the use of animals and implementing high-tech, cutting-edge, animal-free methods that are more likely to yield results relevant to humans.

“NIH’s disastrous record of futile and expensive animal experiments has not only harmed animals but also put our country at risk of falling behind other nations,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Emily Trunnell. “PETA is urging President Biden to nominate a leader committed to learning from past mistakes and prioritizing superior, modern, human-relevant research.”

Under the misguided leadership of its previous director Francis Collins, who resigned last December, NIH squandered nearly half its annual budget on animal experiments—$21.1 billion in 2021—even though 95% of new drugs that test safe and effective in animal tests fail in human clinical trials and 90% of basic research, most of it involving animals, fails to lead to treatments for humans.

PETA has previously sent supporters dressed as dinosaurs to tail Biden at major events in order to remind him that appointing another NIH “dinosaur” director would cause the U.S. to fall behind the rest of the world in biomedical research.

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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Video Nov 13 2022, 7 09 27 PM (1)Video Nov 13 2022, 7 09 27 PM (1)

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Universal Studios Hollywood in California will finally end its “Animal Actors” attraction in early 2023. The attraction forces dogs, birds, and other animals to perform tricks in front of a crowd and to live at the theme park, a loud and stressful environment.

The closure of the attraction reflects the fact that audiences no longer find the use of live animals in shows acceptable or entertaining, likely due to the many investigations into the suffering inflicted on animals in the entertainment industry.

Where Did the ‘Animal Actors’ at Universal Studios Come From?

The animals for Universal’s “Animal Actors” have been supplied by Birds & Animals Unlimited (BAU) for decades. PETA’s 10-month investigation into BAU revealed that animals were denied adequate veterinary care for illnesses and injuries, forced to live in filthy enclosures, and denied food so that they would be hungry while being trained to do tricks. Following PETA’s exposé, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited BAU for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Punky the pig, one of the animals whose condition PETA’s investigation revealed, had severely overgrown hooves. While she was kept at Universal Studios Hollywood, she reportedly lived on a concrete floor—a far cry from the grass, dirt, and mud a pig needs in order to engage in natural behavior. At BAU, the eyewitness saw her limping, and the facility’s consulting veterinarian later prescribed arthritis medication for her. Five months after the photo above was taken, the facility was cited by the USDA for failing to provide adequate veterinary care, because Punky’s hooves were not getting trimmed often enough.

Is This the Start of a Kind New Era for Universal Studios? PETA Hopes So

The Universal Studios parks in Hollywood and Orlando, Florida, were the last exhibitors in the U.S. to force orangutans to perform on stage. Thankfully, they officially removed all primates from live shows in 2014, after five years of PETA campaigns.

We urge Universal to make sure the attraction that will replace “Animal Actors” doesn’t use live animals, and we also encourage it to end live-animal acts at its Orlando location.

To help animals forced into the entertainment industry like those used in the “Animal Actors” attraction, never attend a show that uses live animals.

Report Animal Abuse in the Entertainment Industry

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