Kategorie: Animals

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Close Encounters on Your Campus: It’s PETA’s ‘Abduction’ Experience!

You’ve seen it in horror movies—aliens abducting humans and using them in experiments. But imagine if you were the one on the table, helpless, unable to control what was happening to you, and unable to communicate or fight back as you were poked and prodded for “research.” Pretty terrifying, right?

Well, this is exactly how animals must feel when used in cruel, needless experiments in laboratories on campuses all around the country. For them, the nightmare is real.

That’s why we’re bringing this nightmare to life for students with the launch of Abduction, a unique virtual reality experience soon landing on college campuses that house laboratories where animals are imprisoned and tormented.

In this eerie experience, visitors will enter a mysterious truck and put on a virtual reality headset. They’ll seemingly find themselves stranded in the desert with friends, abducted by aliens, taken aboard a spaceship, and subjected to a terrifying experience similar to what animals endure in laboratories: They’ll watch as their friends are subjected to experiments inspired by real tests conducted on animals, knowing that they’ll be next.

Abduction, which was filmed in VR180 with assistance from the virtual reality creation studio Prosper XR, will stop at several college campuses, including the following:

  • George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), where experimenters drilled holes in the skulls of baby mice in order to inject tumor-causing cells into their brains
  • Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey), where experimenters cut into the heads of sensitive and intelligent monkeys, carved out a portion of their skulls, implanted a recording chamber, and inserted electrodes into their brains before forcing them to respond to images on a screen in exchange for a “reward” of juice
  • University of Massachusetts–Amherst (Amherst, Massachusetts), where experimenters drill holes in the skulls of monkeys and implant electrodes, zip-tie the animals into restraining devices, and overheat them with hand warmers in order to simulate hot flashes associated with menopause, which they don’t even experience

Studies show that 90% of all basic research, most of which involves animals, fails to lead to treatments for humans, which is why PETA is pushing universities to pivot to sophisticated, human-relevant research methods.

text reads abduction over image of aliens and huddled humans

Check Out Abduction and Help PETA Free Our Fellow Animals From Labs

Find out more about Abduction, and request that it visit your school’s campus. If you want to help PETA end the imprisonment of animals in laboratories, support our Research Modernization Deal, a roadmap to replace experiments on animals with modern, human-relevant research.

The post Close Encounters on Your Campus: It’s PETA’s ‘Abduction’ Experience! appeared first on PETA.

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PETA to Harvard: Release ‘Eyes Sewn Shut’ Documents and Let’s See Who’s ‘Misleading’

Please see the following statement from PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe regarding Harvard Medical School’s attempt to defend experimenter Margaret Livingstone’s indefensible experiments on infant monkeys. For 40 years, Livingstone has been depriving infant monkeys of their ability to see the world, allegedly to try to understand visual processing. Her experiments include removing infant macaques from their mothers at birth and then sewing one or both of their eyelids shut or never allowing them to see a face in order to determine how this affects the visual cortex. For example, the “Materials and Methods” section of this 2019 paper states, “Two of the hand-reared monkeys (M5 and M6) were raised under conditions of visual form deprivation via eyelid suturing for the first year.” In a 2020 paper, the “Materials and Methods” section reads: “Four of the hand-reared monkeys (M12, M13, M16, M17) were raised by laboratory staff wearing welders’ masks that prevented the monkey from seeing the staff member’s face.” Livingstone’s own website states, “[W]e prevented the development of face domains by raising monkeys while we wore welders masks so the monkeys never saw faces.”

Photos from one of Livingstone’s own papers are posted at the top of PETA’s webpage on these studies. For perhaps obvious reasons, Livingstone has released neither videos nor photos of the monkeys whose eyelids have been sutured shut. PETA posted its iconic video—clearly labeled as such—of Britches, the blinded infant monkey who was taken from a California university laboratory in 1985. That case along with several others involving abusive monkey laboratories led to significant amendments to the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Margaret Livingstone and Harvard Medical School are profoundly ignorant about who monkeys are and how their brains develop. Now they’ve resorted to lies to excuse her atrocities. The information on PETA’s webpage, including the photos at the top of the page, comes from Livingstone’s own publications that are available in the public domain. Don’t be fooled by her sanitized language: “Hand-rearing” means that infant monkeys have been permanently removed from their mothers, “monocular deprivation” means that one eye has been sewn shut, and “binocular deprivation” means that both eyes have been sewn shut.

Livingstone’s 40-year track record—paved over the bodies of dead cats and monkeys—demonstrates that she doesn’t understand that taking baby monkeys from their mothers has a profound effect on the developing brain, rendering any data questionable. It is impossible to draw meaningful, translatable conclusions about vision without taking into account the development of the brain. Not only are the experiments cruel, they are also scientifically flawed.

Harvard should shut this atrocious laboratory down now and release all photos, videos, veterinary-care records, and necropsy reports related to the monkeys immediately.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—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 PETA to Harvard: Release ‘Eyes Sewn Shut’ Documents and Let’s See Who’s ‘Misleading’ appeared first on PETA.

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Feds Find Thousands of Chickens Killed in Wreck, Others Drowned; PETA Seeks Criminal Charges

Following recently obtained federal reports documenting that approximately 3,000 chickens died when an employee-operated truck crashed and others drowned or burned to death at the Sanderson Farms Inc. slaughterhouse near Hammond, PETA fired off a letter today to 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott M. Perrilloux, calling on him to investigate and file applicable criminal charges against those responsible.

According to the reports, on June 7, a trailer hauling more than 3,000 chickens overturned at the slaughterhouse—“likely” due to the driver’s error—evidently causing almost all the birds to suffocate and be crushed to death under one another as the heat index reached 97 degrees. On June 27, Sanderson employees left chickens hanging upside down with their heads “totally submerged” in electrified water in the slaughter line, causing them to drown. This incident follows a similar one on April 22, in which two chickens remained conscious, looking around with their “eyes open,” while being plunged into a tank of scalding-hot water, in which they drowned or burned to death.

“These disturbing reports show that thousands of chickens experienced terrifying deaths in a trailer crash and that others endured agonizing pain as they were drowned or scalded to death,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling on the district attorney to step in and prevent more illegal suffering by investigating and bringing appropriate charges—and we’d like to remind everyone that the only humane meal is a vegan one.”

PETA points out that chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, and other animals feel pain and fear and value their lives, just as humans do. The group is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse and neglect such as those at Sanderson since at least 2007.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—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.

PETA’s letter to Perrilloux follows.

October 17, 2022

The Honorable Scott M. Perrilloux

District Attorney

21st Judicial District

Dear Mr. Perrilloux:

I’m writing to request that your office (and a local law-enforcement agency, as you deem appropriate) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the workers responsible for killing 3,000 chickens in a trailer crash—and leaving others to drown and/or be scalded to death while conscious—at the Sanderson Farms Inc. slaughterhouse located at 13111 Hwy. 190 W., near Hammond. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incidents in the attached reports, which the agency just made available to the public.

According to the reports, on June 7 a trailer confining more than 3,000 live chickens overturned at the above address, “likely” due to the error(s) of a then-Sanderson truck driver. A federal agent—only notified of the incident 80 minutes later—apparently found that birds had been crushed and suffocated under one another, as the heat index reached 97 degrees. Approximately 3,000 birds were killed, and only 20 animals survived the incident.

On June 27, during a stoppage in the slaughter line, an FSIS agent found that Sanderson personnel had left chickens hanging upside down with their heads in electrified water. The animals died there, likely of drowning, even though the water vat could have been drained in approximately 1 minute when the line stopped.

Finally, on April 22 FSIS staff saw two still-conscious chickens being conveyed into a tank of scalding water, where they were drowned and/or burned to death.

This conduct does not represent the otherwise-exempt “standard … processing of agriculture products” and thus may violate LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 14:102.1. Please note that FSIS’ simple reports on the matters carry no criminal or civil penalties and don’t preempt criminal liability under state law for cruelty to animals. Thank you for your time and consideration and for the important work that you do.

Sincerely,

Daniel Paden

Vice President of Evidence Analysis

Cruelty Investigations Department

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Carly the Robotic Cow Wants to Hoof It to Troutman Elementary

Students at Troutman Elementary School will be in for a treat—free vegan ice cream sandwiches from TeachKind, PETA’s humane education division—if the school accepts the group’s offer of a visit from Carly, PETA’s life-size mechanical cow voiced by Alicia Silverstone.

In a letter sent to Principal Kimberly Cressman today, TeachKind notes that Carly—who tells an age-appropriate story of being used by the dairy industry, having her calves taken from her so that her milk could be sold instead of nourishing them, and escaping with two cow friends to a sanctuary—would serve as a counterpoint to the school’s recent dairy industry–backed presentation that included a live cow. Among other facts, TeachKind would share that the dairy industry faces criticism over its production of methane and other greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe and that up to 50 million Americans, including 80% of African Americans, can’t digest cow’s milk, which is also a leading food allergen among children.

“PETA had a cow when it heard that Troutman Elementary School students were only getting the dairy industry’s side of the story, which leaves out how dairy production tears cow families apart, pollutes the planet, and makes many people sick,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “With a little help from Carly the mechanical cow, TeachKind can equip Troutman students with the facts they need to decide for themselves whether to join the millions of Americans who are switching to vegan milk.”

TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. The group offers free presentations, lessons, and other resources to help teachers add compassion to their curricula.

For more information, please visit TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.

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