Kategorie: Animals

Today, Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) introduced Assembly Bill 2640, the CLASS (Compassionate Learning Advancements for Science Students) Act, sponsored by PETA, Social Compassion in Legislation, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The CLASS Act would modernize science education in the state of California by requiring teachers to present sourcing and environmental concerns about animal dissection to students as well as inform them of their right to choose a non-animal replacement. This bill would support more inclusive, trauma-informed classrooms and prevent the needless and agonizing deaths of millions of animals each year.

Dissecting animals is costly, exposes students and educators to carcinogenic chemicals, and hurts the environment. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 10 million animals are killed for dissection. Frogs are taken from the wild (a practice that disrupts ecosystems), fetal piglets are cut from the wombs of their mothers, and cats who end up on dissection trays could be someone’s lost companion. Other animals are routinely drowned or suffocated.

“Cutting open animals for cruel and archaic dissection can be traumatizing for compassionate young people and can deter those with ethical objections from pursuing careers in science,” says PETA TeachKind Science Program Manager Samantha Crowe. “PETA is calling on lawmakers to protect vulnerable students and animals by reinforcing their right to opt for superior, humane, non-animal methods.”

“Dissection is an outdated, dangerous and inhumane practice that California needs to put behind us. Digital technologies offer a much better understanding of animal anatomy, and spare children being exposed to formaldehyde, a known carcinogen,” says Judie Mancuso, Founder and CEO of Social Compassion in Legislation. “There is nothing in current law that requires teaching dissection. It’s an easy choice for schools to transition to an approach that is safe, inexpensive, modern and humane.”

Studies show that students who use non-animal methods perform as well as, if not better than, peers who dissect animals, according to a systematic review published in The American Biology Teacher, a leading, peer-reviewed science-education journal. Non-animal methods—such as eMind digital dissection software and synthetic dissectible models—also cut costs and reduce waste. Top academic programs, including the International Baccalaureate, the Next Generation Science Standards (which California adopted in 2013), and the College Board’s Advanced Placement program, don’t require—or even mention—animal dissection in their curricula.

PETA’s humane science education division, TeachKind Science, works with educators to replace the use of animals in the classroom with interactive dissection software and realistic models.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Assembly Bill Seeks to Bolster Students’ Right to Opt Out of Animal Dissection appeared first on PETA.

PETA Asia Investigates: Gucci’s Parent Company Connected to Gruesome Snake Killings  

How Do Brands Like Gucci Get ‘Exotic Skins’? PETA Asia Will Show You 

VIDEO: Some Big Name Brands Support the Unthinkable to Get Reptiles’ Skins 

Gucci Makes Headlines Again—Watch PETA’s Video to Find Out Why 

What Are Brands Like Gucci Hiding From Customers? PETA Video Tells All 

What a Rip-Off: You Won’t Believe Which Brands PETA Asia Just Exposed 

PETA Asia Video Exposes Just How Cold-Blooded Gucci and Other Brands Can Be 

The post Gucci Makes Headlines Again—Watch PETA’s Video to Find Out Why appeared first on PETA.

Hot dawg—victory! Following years of PETA campaigns, Oscar Mayer will be releasing vegan wieners and vegan sausages. NotHotDogs and Italian- and bratwurst-style NotSausages—from a collab between TheNotCompany (NotCo) and Oscar Mayer—will be available nationwide in grocery stores this spring. The products consist of ingredients like pea protein, bamboo fiber, and mushrooms. PETA relishes applauding this major mark of progress after persistently urging the company—behind the scenes and publicly—to make vegan versions of its products.

Chasing Wienermobiles: Urging Oscar Mayer to Make Vegan Hot Dogs

PETA’s campaign pushing Oscar Mayer to offer vegan products has included chasing the company’s Wienermobiles for years. Animal advocates in pig masks have caused them to pack up and dash off from events early, but after the catalytic converter was stolen from one of the vehicles, we offered to replace it—if the company would offer vegan wieners.

The Wienermobiles traverse the country, enticing people to try Oscar Mayer meats, which can set them on the road to developing life-threatening health problems. Long before the flesh-carrying conveyance nearly brought about its own demise by crashing into a suburban home, we trailed it around the country as it conducted a talent search for children to sing the Oscar Mayer theme song. At one stop, our “pig” even managed to clamber aboard the mobile meat mover, and he was poised to take the fiberglass frank for a spin when he was apprehended by the authorities.

We also own stock in Oscar Mayer’s parent company (Kraft Heinz) and have spoken up at its annual shareholder meetings, urging it to shut down its dirty, cruel slaughterhouses and convert to producing vegan foods. Nearly 70,000 people signed our action alert urging the company to make vegan hot dogs.

The compassionate collab between NotCo and Oscar Mayer is, frankly, a definitive victory: Our constant campaigning for Oscar Mayer to make this move paid off.

Why Oscar Mayer Must Keep Offering Vegan Choices

Every year, Oscar Mayer sells countless hot dogs made from the flesh of cows and pigs raised in horrific conditions and violently killed in slaughterhouses.

Every living, feeling cow or pig is someone, not something. Cows are intelligent, have good memories, and develop close friendships. They mourn the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes shedding tears over their loss. The bond between mother cows and their calves is particularly strong, and there are countless reports of mother cows who continue to call and search frantically for their babies after workers take them away.

Pigs are clever, friendly, loyal, and intelligent. They’re clean individuals who avoid soiling their living areas, and, given the opportunity, they love playing for hours, lying in the sun, and exploring their surroundings with their powerful sense of smell. But when pigs and cows are exploited in the meat industry, they’re robbed of everything that’s natural and meaningful to them.

What You Can Do

It’s easy to make kind choices, including buying vegan hot dogs and vegan sausages. Try PETA’s free vegan starter kit:

Order a Free Vegan Starter Kit

The post Chasing Wienermobiles: PETA’s Role in Creating Oscar Mayer’s Vegan Hot Dog appeared first on PETA.

Leather, cashmere, sheep’s wool, alpaca wool—can you name a material obtained from exploiting and killing animals that Reformation doesn’t sell?

This retailer markets itself as a “sustainable” company and claims that animals shouldn’t be harmed for its clothes, yet it continues to sell products made from animals’ skins, hair, and wool. No matter how many meaningless and misleading labels are used in marketing these items, producing animal-derived materials is cruel and destructive to the environment. Please join us in calling on Reformation to end its greenwashing and stop selling products made from animals!

Vegan materials are significantly less damaging to the environment than animal-derived ones. From the degradation of grassland ecosystems caused by cashmere production to the substantial methane emissions—a whopping 7 million tons annually—produced by exploiting sheep for their wool, animal-derived materials have a massive negative impact on the environment. According to the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, leather made from the skin of cows contributes more to global warming, water pollution, water depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions than synthetic or plant-based leather.

Cows, goats, alpacas, and sheep are intelligent, sensitive animals who can feel pain and fear—just like humans. They develop complex emotional relationships and mourn the deaths of their friends. When they’re used by the fashion industry, they endure immense cruelty during their short lives.

PETA has released dozens of investigative videos revealing that sheep and alpacas are hit, kicked, restrained, and mutilated for their wool; goats are pinned down and their hair is ripped out with sharp metal combs for cashmere; and cows are burned, electroshocked, beaten, and slaughtered for leather. Whenever animals are part of a supply chain, their welfare takes a back seat to an industry’s bottom line.

A growing number of clothing companies now use vegan materials to create luxurious fashions. More than 1,000 companies use the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo to highlight vegan alternatives to leather, fur, silk, feathers, bone, and other animal-derived materials.

What You Can Do

It’s time for Reformation to operate based on its purported values. Animal-derived materials can never be sustainable or humane. Please urge the company to stop supporting animal suffering by ditching leather, cashmere, sheep’s wool, alpaca wool, and all other animal-derived materials!

Send a polite e-mail to:

Hali Borenstein, CEO
Reformation
hali@thereformation.com

The post Urge ‘Reformation’ to Stop Greenwashing Animal-Derived Materials appeared first on PETA.

Ahead of the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, PETA sent a letter to Dr. Jill Biden today asking the first lady to modernize the celebration by replacing eggs with dyed Easter potatoes. PETA notes that an annual “White House Potato Roll” would please everyone who doesn’t eat these cholesterol bombs for health, cultural, religious, or environmental reasons or because they don’t want to support filthy factory farms, where hundreds of millions of hens are confined to cages smaller than a letter-size sheet of paper, unable to stretch even one wing. In starch contrast, potatoes are cheaper and healthier than eggs and leave birds in peace.

“Children love animals and would be sad to learn that the eggs used for fun and games at the White House come from tormented hens whose lives are spent in cages that afford them less space than a standard sheet of typing paper,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Easter should be a time of renewal and joy for all sentient beings—and that means hens, too.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Dr. Biden follows.

March 11, 2024

Jill Biden, Ed.D.
The White House

Dear Dr. Biden:

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world’s largest animal rights organization, with more than 5 million members and supporters in the U.S., to respectfully suggest an appeeling way to modernize the White House Easter Egg Roll—one that would be truly inclusive and welcomed by every tot who doesn’t eat eggs for religious, cultural, or environmental reasons or because they object to the way animals, including hens whose reproductive systems are exploited for eggs, are raised and killed these days. Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries, will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?

Easter is not a time of renewal or joy for chickens on egg factory farms. It can take up to 36 hours in typically hellish conditions for a hen—who spends her entire life in a cage smaller than a letter-sized sheet of paper—to produce just one of the thousands of eggs slated to be used at the White House Easter Egg Roll. In starch contrast, a potato roll wouldn’t exploit any sentient beings and would encourage empathy and kindness to animals while supporting potato farmers in the U.S. Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the country and can be safely dyed, allowing for spudtacular traditional activities, such as rolling them, seeking for them, and decorating them. You could even hold potato sack races and games of hot potato!

Amid the worst avian flu outbreak in history, in which almost 82 million birds—most of them egg-laying chickens—have been slaughtered, and during a period of rising egg prices, we’re rooting for you to leave a legacy of kindness by starting this new Easter tradition.

We wish you and your family a very happy Easter and look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk
President

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