With a bull named Barney still on the loose in Suffolk County, PETA and Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION) are seeking to place a billboard in the area proclaiming, “Help Others Escape the Slaughterhouse: Go Vegan.” LION is on the ground in the area trying to get Barney to a sanctuary, where he can live out the rest of his days in peace.
“This bull is fighting hard to gain his freedom, just as any of us would be doing if someone were after us with a knife,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard will remind each of us that we can honor his bravery and win freedom for all animals, from bulls to birds, by keeping them off our plates.”
Each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals a year from daily suffering and a terrifying death. Cows in the meat industry are often confined to cramped, filthy feedlots without protection from the elements. At the slaughterhouse, workers shoot them in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, and cut their throat—often while they’re still conscious.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
A dog left inside a hot car in Mobile was rescued by police recently, and similar reports 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. Already this year, 22 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 neverleave 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 Mobile police and other rescuers 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.
Anyone who leaves animals in hot cars or outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted for cruelty.
After talks with PETA and Kindness to Animals (KiTA) in Taiwan, Vitalon Foods Group—the third-largest health food company in Taiwan and the maker of Super Supau, Taiwan’s best-selling brand of sports drink—banned all animal tests not explicitly required by law.
Vitalon Foods and its subsidiary YEC Biotechnology Co. conducted and/or funded at least 12 animal experiments from 2005 to 2019 that involved at least 1,038 animals, in attempts to make human health claims for marketing products such as green tea and royal jelly. After hearing from PETA and KiTA, Vitalon Foods has established a new policy stating, “Vitalon Foods Group while adapting to international scientific and animal welfare trends will not conduct, sponsor, or entrust/outsource to third-parties to conduct animal testing unless expressly required by regulations.”
“No animals should be bled, sickened, and killed in cruel and unreliable tests simply to try to establish health claims for marketing foods and beverages,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “Vitalon Foods’ kind decision to ban these tests on animals will help PETA push other Taiwanese food-industry experiments in a more effective, ethical, economical, animal-free direction.”
PETA has written to 20 health food companies in Taiwan—including its largest food and beverage conglomerate, Uni-President Enterprises Corp., and Nestlé licensee AGV Products Corp.—calling on them to end needless animal experiments that have entailed force-feeding, electroshocking, drowning, starving, bleeding, poisoning, dissecting, and/or killing more than 8,000 animals over the past two decades. Vitalon Foods now joins Standard Foods Group—the largest health food company in Taiwan—in banning such tests, none of which are required by law.
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.
Because the Dixie fire is threatening Tehama County and evacuations have been ordered, animals must be kept indoors and will die if abandoned. This information will undoubtedly save many animals’ lives and avoid much human remorse.
Residents in areas affected by smoke and falling ash should keep animals indoors and avoid all outdoor activities, such as running with dogs. If visibility is less than 5 miles, smoke has compromised the air quality and reached unsafe levels. Anyone who sees animals in distress and is unable to help should note their locations and alert authorities immediately.
Trapped horses and other animals can’t outrun wildfires. They should never be locked in their stalls or confined in any way so that they’re unable to flee.
PETA has issued a wildfire-preparedness public service announcement featuringDean Winters. It will remind everyone to make plans to ensure the safety of animal companions in advance of trouble in order to avoid being caught unprepared. PETA also offers a video about keeping animal companions safe during fires.
There are two easy ways you can use your individual retirement account (IRA) to support animals.
Making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) From Your IRA
If you are 70½ or older and have an IRA, you may be able to help animals while lowering your taxes. And if you are 72 or older, making a donation from your IRA to PETA can also help fulfill your required minimum distribution.
Benefits of Making a QCD From Your IRA
Transferring funds from an IRA to PETA through a QCD is a simple yet effective way to make a powerful difference for animals right now. These are some of the benefits:
Your donation can help you save on taxes. When you take funds from your IRA, it counts as taxable income. But QCDs are excluded from taxable income, making them an attractive, tax-efficient way to make a charitable gift, particularly if you claim the standard deduction on your tax return.
Your gift can help you fulfill your required minimum distribution. After you turn 72, you must distribute funds annually from your IRA or you may be penalized. Your QCD can help fulfill your required minimum while making a world of difference for animals.
How to Make a QCD Gift From Your IRA
Thanks to our partnership with FreeWill, you can make your QCD gift quickly and hassle-free through our online forms. You can also choose to print out and complete blank forms by hand or to make the gift by phone directly through your financial custodian.
Tim Enstice
Vice President of Legacy Gifts
757-962-8213 Legacy@peta.org
Naming PETA as a Beneficiary of Your IRA Account
Did you know that you can also name PETA as a beneficiary of your IRA account so that the remaining assets (or a portion that you designate) can be distributed to support our vital work for animals for years to come? To learn more or to notify us of your gift, please contact Tim Enstice at Legacy@peta.org.
Learn about other ways you can leave a legacy for animals and request free resources.
“PETA is in the forefront of putting an end to cruelty to animals, which is why I chose to support PETA through a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from my IRA. The process is easy, and donating helps me meet my minimum distribution requirements. I also appreciate the tax benefits. The fight to end animal cruelty is far from over and to make sure that I help in the continuation of this fight I have also stipulated that part of my estate be distributed to PETA after I am gone. I am truly dedicated to the elimination of animal cruelty in the present as well as the future.”
—Al Smith, PETA Augustus Club and Vanguard Society member
