Because areas in Pennsylvania are under a flash flood warning including Cambria, Clearfield, and Somerset counties, animals could die if left behind in the event that evacuations are ordered.
Never leave animals outdoors, tied up, crated, caged, in hutches, or confined in any other way, as they will be unable to flee rising waters. Anyone who sees animals in distress and is unable to help should note their locations and alert authorities immediately.
Anyone who evacuates and intentionally abandons animals to fend for themselves may be prosecuted.
Because areas in West Virginia are under a flash flood warning including Clarksburg, Elkins, Fairmont, and Morgantown, animals could die if left behind in the event that evacuations are ordered.
Never leave animals outdoors, tied up, crated, caged, in hutches, or confined in any other way, as they will be unable to flee rising waters. Anyone who sees animals in distress and is unable to help should note their locations and alert authorities immediately.
Anyone who evacuates and intentionally abandons animals to fend for themselves may be prosecuted.
Through a records request to the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission, PETA has obtained graphic video of race horse trainer Amber Cobb screaming at, cursing at, and beating a terrified, tied-up young filly with a plastic pitchfork—and the group is demanding that all U.S. and Canadian racing jurisdictions ban her.
Records reveal that the beating took place earlier this year in New Jersey. The video shows that the filly was so terrified that she flipped over and fell hard on the floor as she tried desperately to escape the blows. Cobb left her upside down and tied to the wall, unable to get up. Finally, a jockey entered the stall and untied her. Cobb’s racing license was suspended for just two months in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and she was ordered to attend anger management classes—a “punishment” hardly commensurate with the abuse nor a sufficient deterrent to protect other horses from Cobb.
“Amber Cobb should never be allowed near a horse again,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “There must be zero tolerance for assault, especially on a totally vulnerable individual, and PETA is asking all racing jurisdictions to show that they get that by banning Cobb from all tracks.”
Cobb has a history of racing violations, including for illegal possession of filled syringes and having an “altercation” in a public area at a track in New York. A former employee alleged that Cobb punished a horse by withholding food from the animal for four days. She has raced in Delaware, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
A detailed description of the incident was also published in the Paulick Report.
PETA 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.
While families are deciding how to spend their Labor Day weekend, a new PETA video released today offers a stark warning about fishing—and how it can hurt more animals than many people realize. The video follows PETA fieldworkers as they respond to a call about a great blue heron hanging on a fishing line from a tree alongside the Elizabeth River in Norfolk. While they were able to paddle to the scene and free the heron, the badly injured bird died on the way to emergency veterinary care—and countless other animals endure similar fates as a result of discarded fishing tackle.
“This heron’s story shows how abandoned—or snagged and not retrieved—fishing litter can be a death sentence for unintended victims, like water birds and turtles,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA urges fishers to take up a new hobby and asks people to help make waterways safe for wildlife by collecting discarded hooks and line whenever they see them.”
In addition to hooking gentle animals through their sensitive mouths, watching them slowly suffocate, and sometimes even gutting them while they’re still alive, anglers inflict debilitating injuries on millions of animals who swallow fishhooks or become entangled in fishing line. Some 640,000 tons of fishing “ghost gear” enter the world’s oceans every year.
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.
