Kategorie: Animals

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Utah County Attorney David Leavitt, asking that he add cruelty-to-animals charges to those that investigators have proposed against Cory Allan Martin for allegedly igniting the Springville fire, which has ravaged 60 acres and undoubtedly caused animals to burn to death—including the spider Martin was reportedly attempting to burn with a lighter.

The group writes in its letter that causing animals to suffer and die painfully, as was likely the case in this fire, needs to be recognized as a violation of Utah’s animal protection laws, even though spiders are not covered under the state’s anti-cruelty statute. The letter notes that a “vast number of other species, from mule deer to yellow-bellied marmots” resided in and around the area burned and that prosecutors in California and Oregon added cruelty-to-animals charges in similar wildfire cases, resulting in convictions on those charges.

“Beginning with this spider, an untold number of terrified animals likely burned and died in agony,” says PETA Vice President Daniel Paden. “These victims deserve acknowledgment, and PETA is asking that as additional victims are identified, the person responsible face charges for causing so much suffering.”

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.

PETA’s letter to Leavitt follows.

August 9, 2022

The Honorable David O. Leavitt
Utah County Attorney

Dear Mr. Leavitt:

I hope this letter finds you well. I’m writing to request that your office add cruelty-to-animals charges, as appropriate, to the reckless burning and related charges that investigators have proposed against Cory Allan Martin in connection with the Springville fire.

Although no humans lost their lives, the many wild animals who resided on the approximately 60 acres of land destroyed in the fire were undoubtedly less fortunate—including the spider whom Martin reportedly told police he was attempting to burn with a lighter when the surrounding brush ignited. Such catastrophic fires inflict terror and suffering on countless animals and cause them to endure prolonged, agonizing deaths.

Utah Code § 76-9-301 states that a person who “recklessly, or with criminal negligence … injures an animal” is guilty of cruelty to an animal and that a person who “kills an animal or causes an animal to be killed without having a legal privilege to do so” is guilty of aggravated cruelty to an animal. Although as an invertebrate, the spider Martin allegedly tried to burn to death wasn’t protected by Utah’s anti-cruelty statute, the mountains around Springville are home to a vast number of other species, from mule deer to yellow-bellied marmots, who are protected.

Given that Martin is accused of recklessly causing a fast-burning wildfire that surely led to serious injuries and death for an untold number of animals—and that such conduct does not qualify as lawful hunting, fishing, or trapping practices that exempt wild animals from protection against cruelty—I respectfully ask that investigators and your office add cruelty-to-animals charges to those the defendant already faces, as prosecutors in California and Oregon did in similar cases—both of which resulted in convictions on those charges.

Thank you for your consideration and for the difficult work you do.

Sincerely,

Sarah Deffinger

Senior Evidence Analyst

Cruelty Investigations Department

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The post Urge the City of Perham, Minnesota, to Nix Turtle ‘Racing’! appeared first on PETA.

EGYPTAIR has informed PETA U.S. that it is no longer in the business of transporting monkeys from Africa and Asia to laboratories in the U.S. and elsewhere. This follows a three-month intense campaign by PETA entities around the world, which included protests in the U.S.—at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York and Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.—and at airports in Frankfurt, London, Manila, and Paris; e-mails from more than 100,000 supporters of PETA entities; hundreds of phone calls; and online advertisements. PETA Asia also sent T-shirts and coffee mugs—emblazoned with artwork calling on the airline to stop cruel monkey shipments—to EGYPTAIR’s executives and sent an open letter to its CEO to company employees. Other organizations, including Action for Primates in the U.K., Stop Camarles in Spain, and One Voice in France, also campaigned to end the shipments.

Airline industry insiders first alerted PETA to a shipment of 720 macaques flown by EGYPTAIR from Cambodia to JFK on April 30. Records show the airline has flown 5,000 monkeys into the U.S. since March.

“EGYPTAIR’s decision will prevent thousands of monkeys from being ripped from their families, shoved into tiny boxes, and shipped around the globe to endure misery and death in laboratories,” says PETA Vice President Dr. Alka Chandna. “Any other airline considering getting into this trade should think again—PETA is watching.”

In January, Kenya Airways announced it was ending its transport of monkeys to laboratories just 24 hours after discussions with PETA, and in June, Air France banned the practice after a decade-long campaign by PETA.

The macaque wildlife trade is steeped in violence and disease. A vast monkey-abduction pipeline has been funneling hundreds of thousands of wild-caught monkeys into the U.S. One species of monkey transported by EGYPTAIR was the long-tailed macaque. Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded the conservation status of long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques from “vulnerable” to “endangered.” The exploitation of these once-plentiful species as part of the international wildlife trade involving experimenters in the U.S. is a major factor in their dramatic population crash.

PETA notes that the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) admit that 95% of all new drugs that test safe and effective in animals are either unsafe or ineffective in humans. PETA scientists’ Research Modernization Deal provides a strategy for replacing animals with modern, human-relevant research methods. PETA supports the FDA Modernization Act, which would eliminate the agency’s mandate to require tests on animals in drug testing.

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 VICTORY! EGYPTAIR Ends Transport of Monkeys to Laboratories After International PETA Campaign appeared first on PETA.

The post VIDEO: Eyewitness Reveals Bloody Attack of an Orca at SeaWorld San Diego appeared first on PETA.

Today, just one day after orca Nakai died at SeaWorld after being held there for 21 years, PETA received eyewitness footage from a SeaWorld visitor revealing a violent attack among orcas this morning, resulting in a serious wound to at least one of the animals. In response, PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), calling on the agency to investigate the abusement park for apparent federal Animal Welfare Act violations over housing incompatible animals together, a practice the company has been warned against in the past.

PETA points out that Nakai was involved in a similar incident when he was kept in a tiny concrete tank with incompatible orcas in 2012 and sustained puncture marks and lost a chunk of his jaw in an attack by two of them.

The SeaWorld visitor told PETA, “We all immediately saw blood soaking the water which triggered my [nine] year old daughter to start crying. We would see bite marks [and] fresh wounds all over the side of the whale. Every couple seconds two more orcas would jump out of the water to continuing [sic] attacking the hurt orca.” In the video—which appears to show the injured orca beaching themself to get away from the aggressors—a child can be heard asking, “How is [the orca] still alive?” and “I thought they hug each other, not fight each other.”

“In two days, one orca has died and another has been attacked by other frustrated, closely confined orcas, resulting in a serious injury—and young children were witnesses to the carnage,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the USDA to investigate SeaWorld for holding animals in conditions so stressful they would lead to horrific attacks and reminds families to stay away from any park that imprisons orcas or other animals.”

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” and opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit SeaWorldOfHurt.com or follow PETA on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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