Kategorie: Animals

The post Animals Show Love to Their Rescuers on Firefighter Appreciation Day appeared first on PETA.

Ahead of Mother’s Day (May 9), a pregnant PETA member dressed as an avocado will roll up to a busy intersection downtown tomorrow to urge passersby to “avocaGO vegan” and give away vegan burgers and hot “chicken” sliders topped with avocado from Sunflower Cafe.

When:    Tuesday, May 4, 12 noon

Where:    Intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, Nashville

“Whether you’re substituting avocadoes for butter or oat milk for cow’s milk, every vegan choice shows mother cows and other animals a little love,” says PETA Director of Campaigns Danielle Katz. “PETA encourages anyone with a pit in their stomach over cruelty to animal families to go vegan.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that cows in the dairy industry are artificially impregnated through a violating, painful process and then separated from their just born babies. Mother cows have been heard calling for their calves for days. Male calves are shoved into cramped veal crates, while most female calves endure the same fate as their mothers: They’re forced to produce milk until their bodies give out and they’re slaughtered for cheap meat.

PETA 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’s ‘Pregnant Avocado’ to Birth the Vegan Revolution This Mother’s Day appeared first on PETA.

A PETA scientist attended Eli Lilly’s virtual annual meeting today to grill the company about its continued use of the widely criticized forced swim test on mice and other small animals. PETA owns just enough stock in the company to participate as a shareholder. The group’s full question follows:

How does Eli Lilly defend its position on the forced swim test, considering that it is not even reliable for Prozac and that its previous use by our company has not led to any marketable drugs, according to published papers? Why do you insist on “keeping options open”? It’s like insisting on keeping open the option of bloodletting to treat a sore throat.

In the forced swim test, animals are often dosed with a test substance, placed in inescapable beakers of water, and forced to swim to keep from drowning. At some point, they stop swimming and start floating. Experimenters compare the amount of time swimming and floating, purportedly to shed light on human depression and to screen antidepressant drugs. Yet the test has been heavily criticized by scientists who argue that floating is not a sign of depression or despair, as some claim, but rather a positive indicator of learning, saving energy, and adapting to a new environment. The experiment is about as predictive as a coin toss and causes hundreds of mice terror and distress.

“Other big pharmaceutical companies have accepted that the forced swim test doesn’t hold water,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Emily Trunnell. “PETA is calling on Eli Lilly to join them in banning the test and to stop looking to terrified, soaked mice to cure human depression.”

Between 1993 and 2019, Eli Lilly employees published at least 20 papers and submitted at least 11 patent applications describing the use of the forced swim test in experiments involving more than 3,400 mice and rats. Yet the test didn’t reliably predict the success of a single medication. Eli Lilly’s one successful antidepressant that’s known to help humans, Prozac, doesn’t yield consistent results in the forced swim test.

Since November 2018, PETA and more than 325,000 members of the public have contacted Eli Lilly to request a formal policy banning the use, funding, and commissioning of the test. (See this video.) Bayer, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk A/S, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sage Therapeutics, and other pharmaceutical companies all banned it after hearing from PETA.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and supports the use of scientifically and ethically sound testing methods that protect animals, humans, and the environment. For more information, please visit PETA.org; follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram; or click here.

The post Eli Lilly’s Mouse Abuse Faced PETA Heat at Annual Meeting appeared first on PETA.

Looking for the perfect main dish to complete your Cinco de Mayo menu? Vegan tamales are sure to be a hit. In addition to being fun to make, they can be stuffed full of whatever creative animal-free ingredients you can think of. Some tamales are made with lard, which is often the fat of smart, sensitive pigs. Vegan tamales use vegetable sources, including olive oil and vegan butter, which help save the lives of pigs and other animals. We’ve put together some recipes to help you get started, but you can experiment with all kinds of animal-friendly ingredients, including soy chorizo or other vegan meats, dairy-free cheese, or your favorite veggies. We’ve also included some premade options if you need a quick fix.

Homemade Vegan Tamales

Vegan Tamales Unwrapped by Dora’s Table

The ultimate e-book for all things tamales! It includes a step-by-step guide for making the perfect tamales along with recipes for savory and sweet options, including these Vegan Chocolate Tamales:

Chef Jocelyn Ramirez’s Plant-Based Tamales with Jackfruit and Red Chile

Jocelyn Ramirez is the genius behind Todo Verde, a Los Angeles–based food business inspired by her Latin American roots. Her book, La Vida Verde: Plant-Based Mexican Cooking With Authentic Flavor, features her family’s traditional dishes with a vegan twist—including these unique, delicious jackfruit and red chile tamales.

Terry Hope Romero’s Spring Into Cinco de Mayo Olive Oil Tamales

These Cinco de Mayo tamales make use of springtime veggies such as leeks, cremini mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, and fresh herbs.

How to Make Vegan Tamales—2 Ways by Sweet Simple Vegan

Sweet Simple Vegan shows you how to make the best tamales step by step. Fill them with a potato and pinto bean mix or green chili and nondairy cheese, or try these easy Oil-Free Vegan Tamales.

Restaurants and Pop-Ups

Alchemy Organica (Los Angeles)

Chef Denise Vallejo of Alchemy Organica reclaims her indigenous ancestry through food, creating dishes such as the Black Magick Tamalli, which is made with cashew Quesillo, jalapeños, and blue corn masa.

Mama’s International Tamales (Los Angeles)

Vegan flavors at Mama’s International Tamales include Mole with Cactus and Potatoes, Sweet Corn, Cheese Jalapeno, Jackfruit Verde, and Jackfruit Rojo.

City Tamale (New York City)

Located in the Bronx, City Tamale offers a vegan Black Bean & Veggies Tamale with optional toppings including roasted corn, cilantro, avocado, and pickled onions.

Tamale Co. Mexican Street Food (Orlando, Florida)

Tamale Co. offers three vegan flavors: Frijoles Negros, Primavera, and Mex-One.

Tamale Addiction (Various Locations in Texas)

Tamale Addiction offers three vegan varieties: Spinach, Mushroom, and Nopalitos. You can find these at the storefront in Manor, Texas, or at various farmer’s markets and retail locations throughout the Austin and San Antonio areas.

Where to Buy Vegan Tamales

If you don’t live near any of these restaurants or retailers, there are still great options for premade vegan tamales in grocery stores near you or that can be shipped right to your door. Check out these brands:

The Vegan Tamale Company

Donna’s Tamales

Tucson Tamale

Del Real Plant Based Tamales in Red Sauce from Costco

Margarita’s Tortilla Factory Vegan Black Bean Tamales

Amy’s Black Bean Tamale Verde

---

When you go vegan, you help save the lives of many animals while still being able to enjoy all the dishes you already love. Get tips and inspiration:

Order a Free Vegan Starter Kit

PETA is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide websites with a means to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

The post Celebrate Cinco de Mayo With Vegan Tamales (Homemade or Store-Bought) appeared first on PETA.

After the University of Massachusetts–Amherst (UMass) slammed the door on discussions with PETA about replacing studies involving monkeys and other animals with state-of-the-art methodologies, the school is now facing protests, an ad blitz, and federal complaints about ongoing animal welfare violations.

The talks followed PETA’s release—which the university fought for two years—of a shocking video from a UMass study revealing that deeply distressed monkeys circled and paced inside small metal cages. The experimenter who led this study abruptly retired, but UMass’ record of violations and exploitation of fragile marmosets brought Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement Mike Malone to the table with PETA scientists to discuss commonsense suggestions for ending the use of primates and modernizing the institution’s research program.

After a promising initial discussion, in which Subbaswamy and Malone asked numerous questions and pledged to follow up, Subbaswamy backed out, reportedly under pressure from tenured professors who still experiment on animals and are not interested in change.

“Choosing to harm animals rather than challenging the status quo is a kick in the face to modern science,” says PETA neuroscientist Dr. Katherine Roe. “But PETA won’t look the other way while UMass runs what can only be described as an archaic monkey torture chamber.”

UMass imprisons dozens of marmosets, who are susceptible to disease in captivity, to study “hot flashes” experienced by women during menopause. Experimenters at the university have subjected female marmosets to invasive surgeries in which electrodes are implanted in holes drilled into the animals’ skulls, incisions are made to expose neck muscle, and electrode leads from the scalp and the neck are threaded through their abdomens. In another experiment, castrated male marmosets were injected with testosterone and then tested for cognitive functioning.

The university has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the following reasons:

• Severely burning an animal on a heating pad as he was recovering from surgery, leading to his death
• Failing to alert an attending veterinarian about sick animals, including a marmoset named Pat who was shaking and moving slowly
• Permitting a monkey to escape and injuring the animal’s tail during recapture

Just last month, the USDA flagged UMass for failing to ensure unnecessary duplication of experiments.

PETA has been contacted by numerous UMass alumni and donors concerned about the school’s animal welfare violations and continued experiments on monkeys. After PETA protests, Harvard Medical School closed its national primate research center, choosing instead to focus on cutting-edge, non-animal tools. 

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The post PETA Campaign Looms as UMass-Amherst Shuts Down Negotiations on Monkey Experiments appeared first on PETA.