Kategorie: Animals

After Canada Goose announced a multiyear partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the annual All-Star Game, which is already at the center of controversy for being held during the pandemic, PETA fired off a letter today to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, urging him to reconsider this partnership with the notoriously cruel fur- and feather-peddling retailer.

“No league should welcome a partnership with a company whose name is synonymous with cruelty,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges the NBA not to team up with an overpriced all-star animal abuse supporter like Canada Goose and instead score a partnership with a modern vegan outerwear company.”

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

PETA’s letter to Silver follows.

March 5, 2021

Adam Silver

Commissioner

National Basketball Association

Dear Mr. Silver:

Considering all the controversy already surrounding the NBA’s decision to hold its All-Star Game this weekend in Atlanta despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19, we were surprised to learn that the league is now announcing a new partnership with Canada Goose. In the middle of a devastating pandemic during which record numbers of Americans have lost their jobs and even their homes, it makes the NBA appear even more tone deaf to be hawking overpriced outerwear (which mostly only the players and team owners can afford) from an infamously cruel company with an international campaign against it. I urge you to prove to your fan base that you prioritize their interests over money by replacing Canada Goose as an outerwear partner of the annual NBA All-Star Game.

Perhaps you are unaware that aside from its exorbitant price tags, Canada Goose is well known for humane washing its coats while continuing to support the slaughter of coyotes and birds for fur and down. Coyotes can suffer in traps indefinitely from broken bones and bleeding wounds before hunters kill them for their fur. If trappers don’t bludgeon, shoot, or kill them in some other horrific way, they can also die from blood loss, shock, dehydration, frostbite, gangrene, or attacks by predators. At slaughterhouses everywhere, it’s standard practice to hang ducks and geese exploited for their feathers upside down, stun them, and slit their throats. Canada Goose attempts to convince caring consumers that they’re buying compassionately produced goods, but no matter what a supplier’s standards are, no animal wants to be killed for their skin.

If the NBA promotes Canada Goose, it will send a message to your millions of fans that you support the cruel fur and down industries. Many ethical vegan businesses would better represent the NBA and its fans across the country.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman

Executive Vice President

The post PETA Urges the NBA to Drop Canada Goose Partnership appeared first on PETA.

As chain restaurants continue to add vegan options, it’s never been easier to find convenient vegan food wherever you live. Some rapidly growing chains don’t serve meat and dairy at all. At these vegan chains, you can find loaded burgers, vegan chicken sandwiches, filling salads, and so much more, all made without ingredients that harm animals. Cows, chickens, pigs, fish, and other animals used for food never get the chance to live the way nature intended. Instead, they are kept in cramped and filthy cages, genetically manipulated to grow larger or produce more milk, and slaughtered by the billions each year.

Veggie Grill

Veggie Grill is a fast-casual spot with locations throughout California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington. Its menu features delicious sandwiches, salads, and bowls, including the Buffalo Chickin’ sandwich, Classic Romaine Caesar salad, and the Tuna Melt. Look for seasonal specials, too.

Native Foods

Meat-free since 1994, Native Foods is an all-vegan chain with modern comfort food favorites like the Gastropub Burger and chef’s specials like the French Dip. You can find locations in Colorado, Oregon, Southern California, and elsewhere.

Plant Power Fast Food

Plant Power Fast Food has several drive-through locations in California, where it sells veggie burgers, “chicken” sandwiches, fries, milkshakes, and more. Some locations even serve breakfast, including the “Chicken” & Waffle Sandwich and “Sausage & Cheese” croissant sandwich, which can be served with a fried vegan egg.

Modern Love

Modern Love is a vegan restaurant with locations in Brooklyn and Omaha, Nebraska. It’s run by vegan chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz, who is known for her blog, “Post Punk Kitchen,” and her many cookbooks. Specials here include house-made versions of fast-food favorites—like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch—alongside warming comfort foods and sweet treats.

by CHLOE.

This chain, founded by vegan chef Chloe Coscarelli, serves healthy burgers, sandwiches, salads, and sweets. Be sure to try the Air Baked Fries, served with a beet ketchup, or get your greens in with the Kale Caesar, which is topped with shiitake bacon, avocado, almond Parmesan, maple croutons, and cherry tomatoes. It has 14 locations in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Loving Hut

One of the largest vegan chains, Loving Hut has restaurants in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. It serves a variety of dishes, from pad Thai and chow mein to burgers and BLTs.

Cinnaholic

Cinnaholic’s gourmet cinnamon rolls can be customized with 17 flavored frostings and 24 toppings, including its brownie bites, cookie dough, and vegan caramel sauce. It also sells brownies, cookies, and scoops of cookie dough. This chain is growing quickly, with 50 locations across the U.S. and Canada.

Café Gratitude

Café Gratitude is a restaurant chain known for its upbeat, healthy vibe. Some of its signature dishes include the “I Am Dazzling” Little Gem Caesar salad, the “I Am Glorious” Blackened Tempeh Wrap, and the “I Am Grateful” Café Gratitude Community Bowl. Visit one of its five Southern California locations.

Globally Local

Grab some vegan grub at this Canadian chain, where you can find stacked burgers, “ChickUn” sandwiches, gyros, milkshakes, and much more. It has locations in London, Toronto, and Windsor, and more are planned.

HipCityVeg

If you’re in Philadelphia or Washington, D.C., you can find vegan goodies at fast-casual chain HipCityVeg. Its Broad Street and Dupont Circle locations even serve breakfast daily, with items like the Breakfast Maple Crispy Chick’n.

VeganBurg

VeganBurg boasts that it’s Sir Paul McCartney’s favorite place for a vegan burger, and we’re not surprised—this joint has tons of creative and delicious options. With locations in San Francisco and Singapore, VeganBurg hopes to expand to locations across the U.S. and worldwide.

Beyond Sushi

With five locations in New York City, Beyond Sushi has everything from creative sushi rolls to savory finger foods, dumplings, pasta, and desserts.

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If you don’t live near any of these chains, keep an eye out as they expand to new locations. In the meantime, you can find vegan options at chains and fast-food restaurants across the country. You can also make grocery shopping and meal planning simple with our guides to Costco, Sobey’s, Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and others. Go vegan today and start making a difference for animals, the environment, and your own health:

Send Me a Free Vegan Starter Kit

The post Vegan Fast Food Is Fabulous: Check Out These Chains appeared first on PETA.

The animal experimentation industry exists in the Land That Time Forgot. While the world keeps spinning and technology leaps forward—pushing humanity to rapidly increasing advances previously thought impossible—animal experimenters cling to the rusty past.

Why Animal Experiments Belong in the Trash Heap of History

Humanity can now play with remote control cars that we put on Mars—on Mars!—but animal experimenters still strap monkeys into restraint chairs developed in the 1950s, when people made phone calls by sticking their finger in a hole and pushing a plastic dial around. 

Cruel animal experimenters use the same metal poles, barren cages, and even guillotines to torment and kill animals that they have used since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. They torture animals in experiments cooked up in the deepest of fever dreams, despite knowing full well that more than 90% of basic research, most of which involves testing on animals, will fail to do any good for humanity.

Here’s a case in point: Elisabeth Murray, a National Institute of Mental Health experimenter whose experiments on monkeys are as medieval as they are pointless, has been carving into monkeys’ skulls, scrambling their brains, and then subjecting them to their worst fears for more than 30 years. No cure or treatment for humans has come from it—nothing.

Better Methods and New Technology Exist

This is not the 1400s. Each of us carries around a powerful computer in our pockets that has 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed humans on the moon, for goodness’ sake. Murray could use one of several safe, reliably tested, non-animal methods to study brain activity for exactly the types of behavior she is trying to measure in monkeys. 

Experimenters Must Join the 21^st Century

In today’s world, you can stream a live video feed from space to check in on International Space Station astronauts and order a to-go coffee from your favorite java hut—simultaneously. Our technology is more advanced than ever, while animal experimenters have not kept pace. Murray must stop killing monkeys and pretending it’s science. Doing so would not only end the misery of untold hundreds of monkeys but also advance research that actually stands a chance of helping people who desperately need it. 

Humans did not walk on the moon by continuing to do the same things we had done 30 years before. A bold, new path was charted, one that was previously unheard of and thought impossible. If science is truly meant to be a learning experience, a journey of discovery, then animal experimentation—including Murray’s experiments—has already told us what we need to know: It’s time to move on.

Take Action Now for Monkeys Tortured in Labs!

The post Animal Experiments Are Coal in a Solar World: Join the 21st Century! appeared first on PETA.

PETA is overcome with joy about the news from Down Under: New South Wales, Australia, has made the compassionate decision to ban the breeding and importation of captive dolphins in the state. Following a government inquiry and a long public consultation in which many PETA Australia supporters took action, the new regulations will prevent future generations of dolphins from suffering under the guise of entertainment.

While New South Wales–based Dolphin Marine Conservation Park continues to explore the idea of a seaside sanctuary for its existing captives—Zippy, Bella, and Jet—this new rule means that no new dolphinariums are allowed to open in the state. The three dolphins currently there will be the last ones forced to perform for noisy, gawking crowds in New South Wales.

But there’s still an elephant in the room a dolphin in the tank: SeaWorld. The abusement park needs to follow the example set by Dolphin Marine Conservation Park—which didn’t complain that its dolphin-breeding days are over—and stop breeding dolphins. SeaWorld already ended its sordid orca-breeding program, so why is it acting as though other dolphins aren’t equally sensitive, intelligent, and deserving of bodily autonomy?

It’s 2021, and SeaWorld is still ignoring the growing groundswell of public condemnation as it continues to bolster its inventory of dolphin victims through breeding. Canada banned whale and dolphin captivity in 2019, and France has made it illegal for marine parks to abduct or breed orcas and other dolphins. No informed, compassionate person thinks it’s acceptable to breed, imprison, and exploit marine mammals.

In case you missed it, in SeaWorld’s dolphin-breeding program, unwilling male bottlenose dolphins are masturbated and females are forcibly removed from the water, sometimes after being drugged to prevent them from fighting back, after which staff shove tubes filled with semen into their vaginas and uteruses.

In one study, scientists at SeaWorld describe how handlers stimulated the animals into exposing their penises and gave them an erection. Then, staffers made the dolphins ejaculate by hand. They do this repeatedly until they feel they’ve collected enough semen. We’re secondhand embarrassed for SeaWorld because of its depraved behavior. It’s time to stop breeding dolphins and forcing them to perform.

Urge SeaWorld to Stop Breeding Dolphins and Whales and Send Them to Seaside Sanctuaries!

The post New South Wales Bans Dolphin Breeding! Now Help PETA Flip SeaWorld appeared first on PETA.

March is Women’s History Month, and PETA is celebrating not only women but also females of all other species! No social justice issue stands alone, and the pursuit of equal rights for women must be intersectional if we want to see a real shift in society. For those of us who identify as a feminist (and everyone should), it follows to support equality for all and avoid contributing to the exploitation of female bodies this Women’s History Month and beyond, no matter the species.

Here are five ways you can take action to help end the oppression of exploited animals this Women’s History Month:

1. Go Vegan

Animals used for food are forcibly impregnated and exploited for their reproductive systems. A mother pig is locked in a gestation crate or farrowing crate for a large portion of her adult life and repeatedly inseminated, only to see her babies torn away from her. A mother cow’s baby is kidnapped shortly after birth, and she’s assaulted for her milk. A hen is caged in a filthy shed, and all her eggs are stolen from her. Once these animals can no longer be used for profit, they’re deemed worthless and slaughtered.

Ditching meat, dairy, and eggs means taking a stand against the exploitation of animals for their reproductive system. After all, we’re animals, too, and we wouldn’t want anyone doing these things to us.

Get a Personal Vegan Mentor Today

2. Help Shut Down the National Primate Research Centers (NPRC)

Every year, each of the seven NPRCs receives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars via the National Institutes of Health. They spend the money on taking infant and juvenile monkeys from their mothers—causing immeasurable anguish for both—and using them in invasive, painful, distressing, and very often deadly experiments. NPRC experimenters cut open animals’ skulls in brain studies, starve them in diet studies, infect them with Zika and other diseases, and worse. Not only are these experiments unethical, they’re also failing to lead to any treatments or vaccines.

Take Action to Help Shut Down the NPRCs

3. Adopt Companion Animals—Never Buy Them

Dog breeders churn out litter after litter to make money. Imagine being forced to be pregnant and give birth, only for your babies to be kidnapped a few weeks after they’re born. Siblings who would’ve spent their lives together if given the chance are separated and sent home with anyone holding a credit card. When you put yourself in the place of the mother dogs used for breeding, it’s obvious why treating them like baby-making machines is so wrong—especially with 70 million homeless cats and dogs in the U.S., partially as a result of negligent owners’ failure to have their animals spayed or neutered.

Spread the Word: 10 Reasons Not to Buy a Dog

 4. Ditch Wool and All Other Animal-Derived Materials

In the wool industry, shearers have punched, kicked, cut, and stomped on sheep—we’ve got it on video from 117 farms in six countries on four continents. All wool operations are bad, because no wool is ours to take, and the cruelty that’s so rampant in this industry makes it even worse.

In 2015, an eyewitness working on a farm in South Australia saw a supervisor slamming a lamb against a wooden floor and throwing the young animal in a paddock to die. One worker kicked a sheep in the face; said to the animal, “You lay down again, you cunt, I’ll kill you”; and jammed his finger into the anuses of two other sheep to drive them up a ramp to the shearing stand. In another instance, shearers called sheep “cunt” and “slut.” A shearer told a lamb he would “shove [the shearing clippers] up your [ass].” This is how wool-industry workers are accustomed to treating female bodies. In Victoria, Australia, one sheep was likely in labor when a shearer cut her on her vaginal prolapse—which was the size of a melon—with sharp metal clippers. When he was done with her, he used her own wool to wipe her blood off the floor. Workers impregnate female sheep against their will to keep the victims flowing, and consumers pay for wool products, perpetuating the vicious cycle of abuse and exploitation. Don’t contribute to it.

Urge Allbirds to Drop Wool Immediately

5. Never Go to SeaWorld or Other Marine Parks

SeaWorld has zero respect for mothers, babies, or families. Katina, an orca who was separated from her mother, Katerina, at age 2, was repeatedly forced to give birth. Only two of her seven children survived, one of whom she produced with her own son (Taku). Luna, a beluga whale who’s been imprisoned by SeaWorld for over two decades, has been repeatedly impregnated and has given birth to three calves. In order to make her conceive her first calf, workers sexually abused her by forcibly impregnating her with the sperm of Nanuq, another beluga whale who was a victim of SeaWorld’s sordid breeding program. Nanuq was abducted from his ocean home at age 6 and was removed from the water roughly 42 times by semen-thirsty SeaWorld workers who used his sperm to make 13 babies—six of whom died at birth or shortly after. Female bottlenose dolphins are still being torn out of the water and sometimes drugged so that they can’t fight back while staff force tubes filled with semen into their uteruses. Orcas, other dolphins, and beluga whales are highly intelligent mammals who love their babies, form complex and meaningful relationships, and stay close to their families. SeaWorld is nothing but an abusement park company built on the exploitation of animals.

Tell SeaWorld to Stop Breeding Dolphins and Whales

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Social justice must be inclusive—and since the desire for freedom isn’t a human-specific trait, our activism and pursuit of equal consideration must include animals, too. Women deserve equal rights, just as other species deserve freedom, equal consideration, and autonomy over their own bodies and lives. Let’s make history by standing up to dismantle the systemic sexist exploitation of all female bodies this Women’s History Month and every day after.

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