Kategorie: Animals

Today, PETA Foundation counsel representing 30 barn owls used in deadly, taxpayer-funded brain experiments at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) filed a more than 13,000-word brief in a U.S. district court, in response to the federal government’s motion to dismiss the group’s historic lawsuit. PETA’s first-of-its-kind litigation, initially filed in April, is challenging the exclusion by the 2002 Helms Amendment of the barn owls imprisoned at JHU—along with other birds, mice, and rats born in laboratories—from the minimum protections of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) as an unconstitutional death sentence.

PETA’s groundbreaking lawsuit names U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Administrator Kevin Shea as defendants, as they ensure enforcement of the AWA. Because of the Helms Amendment, JHU experimenters—including students—are free to perform invasive tests on owls without having to adhere to any AWA-mandated protections that are afforded to other animals. When the birds’ brains are damaged beyond use, the owls are killed.

Therefore, the Helms Amendment acts as the owls’ death sentence—and the lawsuit points out that the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits congressionally imposed death sentences via the Bill of Attainder Clause. In addition to advocating for the abolition of the Helms Amendment, PETA Foundation counsel is urging the federal government to require rigorous inspections and humane treatment of the owls in JHU’s laboratory, and of the tens of millions of other species—including birds, mice, and rats born in laboratories—who currently endure lethal experiments in labs around the country without AWA protections.

“Owls’ brains are being turned to mush in a Johns Hopkins laboratory with no federal oversight or protection because of an unconstitutional loophole to the federal Animal Welfare Act,” says PETA Director of Litigation Asher Smith. “The Constitution is clear that Congress can’t use legislation to inflict punishment on anyone, and since inanimate corporations enjoy this right, surely, it should also apply to living, breathing animals.”

Joining the lawsuit as next friend to the barn owls are a recent JHU graduate, a former Maryland secretary of health, and animal rights activist and actor Evanna Lynch.

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

The post PETA Slams Feds’ Argument in Owl Constitutional Lawsuit appeared first on PETA.

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The post SHOP-Single Column-Living-Chocolate Sale-082021 appeared first on PETA.

This week’s scorching temperatures—expected to reach the upper 90s in the Norfolk area—will put dogs at high risk of enduring heat prostration and dying, so PETA is issuing an urgent warning to anyone with a dog. Please be sure to do the following:

• Touch the pavement before walks to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
• Be alert to a long, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs cannot sweat as humans can and heat builds up inside their bodies.
• Walk only in the shade or on earth or grass, and never leave animals inside parked vehicles.
• Never leave dogs outdoors in the heat. It’s not just deadly—it’s illegal. Virginia law prohibits keeping dogs tethered outside when the temperature is above 85 degrees or during a heat advisory.

In May, PETA fieldworkers discovered the body of a dog who had died after being left chained up in the hot sun, and similar reports nationwide are starting to roll in. Recently, a law-enforcement officer mistakenly left his patrol car with a dog inside it, and the K-9 succumbed to heat prostration and died. This year, 28 dogs have been reported dead from heat-related causes. (Figures are far likely higher, as most heat-related companion animal deaths go unreported.)

Anyone who leaves animals outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted for cruelty.

The post Urgent: PETA Warns That Dogs May Die in Heat Wave in Virginia—Vital Tips Here appeared first on PETA.

A toddler died in a hot car in Cowley County recently, and this week’s high temperatures will put dogs at high risk of enduring heat prostration and death, so PETA is issuing an urgent warning to anyone with a dog. Please be sure to do the following:

• Touch the pavement before walks to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
• Be alert to a long, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs cannot sweat as humans can and heat builds up inside their bodies.
• Walk only in the shade or on earth or grass, and never leave animals outdoors in extreme heat or inside vehicles.

In May, PETA fieldworkers discovered the body of a dog who had died after being left chained up in the hot sun, and similar reports nationwide are starting to roll in. Recently, a law-enforcement officer mistakenly left his patrol car with a dog inside it, and the K-9 succumbed to heat prostration and died. Last year, more than 31 dogs were reported dead from heat-related causes. (Figures are far likely higher, as most heat-related deaths go unreported.)

Anyone who leaves animals outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted for cruelty.

The post Urgent: PETA Warns That Dogs May Die in Heat Wave in Kansas—Vital Tips Here appeared first on PETA.

A woman was recently arrested for leaving her baby inside a hot car in Vallejo, and similar reports about dogs being left inside hot cars nationwide are rolling in at an out-of-control rate. For some dogs, including a K-9 who recently died after being left behind in a patrol car, help comes too late. This year, 28 dogs have been reported dead from heat-related causes. (Figures are far likely higher, as most heat-related companion animal deaths go unreported.)

This week’s high temperatures put dogs at a high risk of enduring heat prostration and dying, so PETA is issuing an urgent warning to anyone with a dog: Never leave them inside vehicles, and please be sure to do the following.

• Touch the pavement before walks to ensure that it won’t burn dogs’ foot pads.
• Be alert to a long, curled-up tongue and heavy panting, as dogs cannot sweat as humans can and heat builds up inside their bodies.
• Walk only in the shade or on earth or grass, and never leave animals alone (On Memorial Day weekend, PETA fieldworkers discovered the body of a dog who had died after being left chained up in the hot sun.)

PETA thanks police and other rescuers in Vallejo for taking action and urges everyone to support the Hot Cars Act of 2021, which would require automakers to install technology in vehicles to detect the presence of an animal or a child and alert drivers when someone is in the backseat.

The post Nationwide Crisis as Dogs Are Left in Hot Cars—PETA Provides Urgent Tips Here appeared first on PETA.