Kategorie: Animals

PETA has just learned that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has filed a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals against fisher Charles Mora in response to the group’s complaint and video showing him ripping the mantle—which houses the hearts and other organs—off a live octopus. He was caught doing the same to other octopuses.

“Octopuses feel agonizing pain when they’re ripped apart, and Florida law prohibits such abuse, just as it prohibits mutilating a dog or cat,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel for Animal Law Jared Goodman. “Sensitive animals endure hideous deaths in the fishing industry every day, and PETA urges diners to go vegan and leave all sea life off the table.”

Octopuses use tools, pass their personality traits on to their offspring, and cuddle with one another. In the fishing industry, hundreds of thousands of octopuses and other “nontarget” species are caught or become entangled in fishing nets—like those targeting tuna or shrimp—and are then discarded and left to die.

PETA’s footage was recorded on a vessel that supplied Keys Fisheries—the largest seller of stone crabs in Florida—and showed workers tearing the claws off live crabs and tossing the mutilated animals back into the ocean to suffer and die. PETA argues that this practice also violates Florida’s cruelty-to-animals law. The group has also filed a complaint seeking a criminal investigation after filming a worker slamming a shark against the boat and appearing to carve out chunks of the animal’s flesh.

Broadcast-quality video footage is available for download here.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Fisher Charged With Felony Cruelty to Animals for Ripping Octopuses Apart, Captured in PETA Exposé appeared first on PETA.

The winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby was struck in the face by an outrider shortly after crossing the finish line, and an average of three horses die on U.S. racetracks every day—but rapper Jack Harlow and Drake have chosen to glamorize horseracing with their new “Churchill Downs” video. In response, PETA is calling on the Louisville native to donate the song’s proceeds toward caring for Thoroughbreds discarded by the industry, which exports 7,500 of them for slaughter every year.

“Jack Harlow’s glamorized portrayal of horse racing is missing the whips, drugs, and deaths that run rampant in the industry,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “Profiting from the abuse of others is never acceptable, and PETA is calling on Jack Harlow to pony up and pay for the care of American Thoroughbreds who would otherwise be shipped to foreign slaughterhouses.”

Twenty-four horses died at Churchill Downs last year alone, and in a video narrated by Succession star James Cromwell, PETA reveals that trainers use cocktails of drugs to enhance horses’ performance and force them to run through painful injuries, which increases the risk of catastrophic breakdowns. And when horses stop making money, owners discard them—even previous Derby runners, such as Private Vow, who PETA uncovered was secretly killed at the largest horse slaughterhouse in South Korea. As Cromwell says, “The only sure thing in horse racing is that the horses always lose.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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One hundred fifth graders at Washington Rose Elementary School are in for a special treat on Tuesday, courtesy of TeachKind, PETA’s humane education division: Author Stewart Mitchell will read from his book Liberation Summer, sign students’ free copies, and help dish up delicious vegan chicken sandwiches from The Happy Pig vegan food truck.

When:    Tuesday, June 7, 9:30–10:30 a.m.

Where:    Washington Rose Elementary School, 2 Rose Ave., Roosevelt

Based on Mitchell’s own experiences, Liberation Summer tells the story of a Black teen who gets a job at a fast-food chicken restaurant, learns about the cruel treatment of chickens in the meat industry, and decides to go vegan and advocate for animal liberation. This is the fifth “Meet the Author” event with Mitchell that TeachKind has organized—and each time, students are excited to hear him discuss what it’s like to be an author, how people can improve access to healthy food in low-income communities, how kids of all ages can help animals, and much more.

“Liberation Summer is a gripping read that kids can’t put down, and Stewart Mitchell is a wonderful role model who shows kids that it’s good to be kind and to show compassion to animals,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is delighted to work with him to get young people excited about reading and helping animals at the same time.”

TeachKind offers free resources, presentations, and more to help teachers add compassion to their curricula, including free lessons about Liberation Summer and other animal-friendly books. The pandemic has exacerbated a reading decline in students, with more children now considered “at-risk readers”—those who have only a 20% chance of reading at grade level by the end of the school year—but a groundbreaking study found that students who read TeachKind’s animal rescue stories performed significantly better in reading comprehension on Common Core–aligned tests.

TeachKind—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 TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.

The post Local Kids to Meet Author of Liberation Summer at PETA Event appeared first on PETA.

After PETA received a recording of a recent phone call in which the owner of Tonka, the chimpanzee who went missing from the former Missouri Primate Foundation (MPF) breeding compound nearly a year ago, confessed that he was still alive but would be euthanized on June 2, PETA obtained an emergency temporary restraining order preventing Tonia Haddix from moving or euthanizing Tonka. The group is bringing in an independent veterinarian to evaluate whether Tonka is healthy enough to travel to an accredited sanctuary where he can get the expert care he needs.

A PETA lawsuit over the living conditions of all the chimpanzees at MPF—who had been warehoused in often filthy, virtually barren enclosures—resulted in a court order requiring PETA to rescue Tonka, along with six others, and arrange for their transfer to an accredited sanctuary. However, when PETA came to carry out the court’s order in July 2021, Tonka—who appeared alongside actor Alan Cumming in the film Buddy—had vanished and Haddix claimed that he had “died.”

“After months of searching, Tonka has finally been found and help is on the way,” says PETA Foundation General Counsel for Animal Law Jared Goodman. “He has endured nearly a year of isolation and likely needs urgent care, but if all goes well, PETA will soon arrange for him to be moved to a lush sanctuary where he’ll have a chance for a real life at last.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Missing Chimpanzee Tonka Found; PETA Plans Rescue appeared first on PETA.