Kategorie: Animals

Following years of pressure from PETA, the Wisconsin Historical Society has just announced that the elephants it has been forcing to perform will be “retired” after summer 2023—but that “animals will continue to be a vital part” of its shows. Below, please find a statement in response from PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare Debbie Metzler:

After exposing the suffering of elderly elephants at Circus World, speaking at Wisconsin Historical Society meetings, running eye-catching ads, and more, PETA welcomes the news that these elephants’ days of being exploited in the museum’s tawdry shows will soon end. While this is a baby step forward, PETA is calling on Circus World to take a jumbo one: End all animal acts now, and stop forcing elephants to perform even one more day.

The elephants will reportedly live at an Oklahoma facility operated by Carson & Barnes Circus, which chains “retired” elephants, breeds them, and exploits them for lucrative public feeding photo ops and other forms of entertainment. Court records reveal that a woman was left permanently disfigured and disabled after being attacked during a photo op with an elephant at the facility.

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 Elephants to ‘Retire’ From Circus World: PETA Welcomes ‘Baby Step’ appeared first on PETA.

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In a step toward ending cruel and dangerous monkey importation and transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited notorious experimentation giant Charles River Laboratories for transporting monkeys from its Reno facility to the University of Utah without veterinary inspections required under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The citation stems from a PETA complaint filed in April urging the agency to investigate Charles River and other primate laboratories for flouting a federal law designed to protect animals and the public from dangerous diseases. Under the law, monkeys transported between laboratories or breeding facilities must be examined by a veterinarian within 10 days of shipment to ensure that they’re healthy and not showing signs of disease that could infect humans or other monkeys. But documents show that at least 1,881 monkeys who had not been examined within the required dates were trucked across multiple states, including Nevada, at the behest of Charles River and other laboratories.

The USDA also cited one of the transport companies involved in PETA’s complaint—JKL Secure Freight Lines—for violating this federal requirement on 14 separate occasions. Other laboratories named in PETA’s complaint are Labcorp Drug Development, the National Institutes of Health, Orient BioResource Center, PreLabs, and Primera Science Center.

“If Charles River and other laboratories can’t even manage to conduct timely veterinary inspections, it begs the question of what other basic requirements they’re failing to fulfill,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is urging officials to keep cracking down on this notorious monkey business for the sake of tormented animals and an at-risk public.”

Charles River’s long history of animal welfare violations reads like a criminal indictment: It has failed to offer adequate veterinary care, failed to provide suffering animals with pain relief, failed to ensure the psychological well-being of primates, and pathologically neglected animals, resulting in horrific deaths. A monkey was scalded to death when her cage was run through a high-temperature mechanical cage washer while she was still locked inside, and the company was fined $10,000 after 32 monkeys were baked to death at its Nevada laboratory when a thermostat malfunctioned and no one noticed.

Monkeys who can carry tuberculosis, deadly diarrheal pathogens, West Nile virus, malaria, Chagas disease, herpes B, and other diseases and infectious agents that are transmissible to humans are in U.S. laboratories right now and have been transported via truck throughout the country. During fiscal years 2019 to 2021,  407 shipments brought 92,430 monkeys to the U.S. from other countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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.

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The post Feds Cite Charles River Laboratories for Illegal Monkey Transport After PETA Complaint appeared first on PETA.

After a PETA exposé of Florida’s stone crab industry revealed workers tearing claws off live crabs and tossing the mutilated animals back into the ocean, PETA is hitting local radio airwaves with an emergency plea to choose compassionate vegan seafood instead. The 30-second spot will run through Sunday, September 18, on 93.9 MIA and Y100 Miami, reminding listeners that “crabs feel pain and fear, have thoughts, and value their own lives.”

“Crabs are hauled out of the water, torn apart, and tossed overboard to endure a painful death without the claws they need to defend and feed themselves,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to stand up for crabs, keep sea life off their plates, and make the switch to vegan crab cakes instead.”

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has “found a very high mortality rate associated with declawing,” discovering that 40.8% of crabs died after one claw was torn off and that 62.9% died after both claws were torn off. An Everglades National Park Service study found that more than three-quarters of stone crab deaths caused by this cruelty occurred within 24 hours. Many more crabs, unable to defend themselves or obtain necessary food, will suffer and die.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that today, many healthy and delicious vegan options exist, from Sophie’s Kitchen’s Plant-Based Crab Cakes to Good Catch’s plant-based tuna and New Wave Foods’ new plant-based shrimp.

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

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