Kategorie: Animals

Residents of the town recently designated as the “unhealthiest city” in the U.S.—in a state that holds the record for the most Dairy Queen locations—will get some serious food for thought as PETA launches a messaging blitz on city buses urging residents to steer clear of cow’s milk, which is chock-full of cholesterol and cruelty.

Credit: PETA

“Dairy is laden with cholesterol and fat, which is fine for the calves meant to consume it but disastrous for human health,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, a vegan for over 50 years. “PETA stands ready to help with free downloadable vegan starter kits full of recipes and tips.”

Cows used for dairy are forcibly inseminated (sexually assaulted)—workers insert an arm into the cow’s rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into her vagina—and their beloved calves are torn away from them so that the milk meant to nourish their babies can be used by humans. Once their bodies wear out after repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter. Each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals each year and improves their own health, since vegans are less prone to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and strokes.

The ads are running on 25 buses through the end of the month.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

The post ‘Unhealthy’ Brownsvillians Warned to Be Wary of Dairy in Bus Blitz, Courtesy of PETA appeared first on PETA.

Who among us wouldn’t agree that abuse and oppression are wrong? Racism is wrong. Sexism is wrong. Speciesism is wrong. But what are we doing about it? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asked, “What are you doing for others?” and gave a reminder that “[a] time comes when silence is betrayal.” By rallying for civil liberties and speaking out against inequality, he exemplified his own words, showing that “[t]he time is always right to do what is right.” Taking his statements and calls to action to heart, PETA speaks out against violence and oppression because every animal is someone.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PETA (@peta)

Opposing injustice isn’t a matter of choosing a single issue and ignoring all others. It is acting on principle against all injustice. Picking which ugly “-isms” to stamp out, like plucking this grape and that from a bunch, will never be how social justice reform works. Ableism, homophobia, sexism, speciesism, racism, and transphobia are all linked by one common theme: a supremacist attitude.

Martin Luther King Jr. reminded everyone that we should fight all injustice, not limit ourselves to a single issue. #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/hXl94mgzDw

— Ingrid Newkirk (@IngridNewkirk) January 17, 2022

Biases are born of ignorance. We discriminate against others who may not look exactly the same as “we” do but, if we are honest, clearly demonstrate that if you burn them, they scream just as we do; that they experience maternal love just as we do; and that they desire freedom just as we do.

It may be useful to look at acts of abuse committed today and imagine them through the more critical eyes of future generations or to put ourselves in the shoes of the oppressed, because if we believe what Dr. King famously said—that “[i]njustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”—we must do exactly that.

Most people, when shown how their actions support cruelty and given options, will make compassionate choices. How else would PETA have all but obliterated cosmetics testing on animals, ignited an explosion of vegan options at grocery stores and restaurants, started a fur-free revolution, and forced SeaWorld to end its sordid orca-breeding program and to stop allowing trainers to stand on dolphins’ faces and backs? We wouldn’t have—not without the willingness of supporters and activists to challenge bigotry always and in all ways, even (or perhaps especially) when they were just witnesses and not victims.

“[T]here comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right,” Dr. King said.

Dr. King summoned up his courage and did and said what was right. We must do that, too, if we are to heed his call. Animal rights is not some poor cousin of other rights movements any more than women’s rights is a lower cause than others. All struggles to achieve social justice are equally important to support. “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people,” said Dr. King. In his honor and for those who are oppressed, speak out against all forms of discrimination—often and with pride.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to speak up to usher in change. Reach out to your representatives and urge them to pass animal- and human-friendly legislation. You can start by asking your local, state, and national representatives to support PETA’s food justice campaign, an initiative to redirect subsidies from the meat, egg, and dairy industries toward incentives to grocers in food deserts to stock vegetables, fruits, and other healthy vegan foods. Follow our simple guide to letter-writing to start making your voice count:

PETA’s Guide to Contacting Your Legislator

The post Honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy: Let Freedom Ring for ALL appeared first on PETA.

Picture this: Rural North Carolina. Christmas Eve 2023. Three PETA fieldworkers are wrapping up a heartrending but fruitful day. It’s dark, they’re hungry, and tomorrow’s a holiday—but this all means nothing when a call to the local emergency pager comes through about a sick newborn kitten with a possibly broken leg. The fieldworkers, perhaps a bit like Santa’s elves, wasted no time in heading to the scene, intent on performing a Yuletide miracle. But upon arrival, they discovered that the “newborn” kitten was actually roughly 9 weeks old and the “broken leg” was in fact quite intact.

Figgy’s rescue story and transformation are almost unbelievable, but the proof is in the pudding.

The kitten, who was promptly named Figgy by her rescuers (as in everyone’s favorite traditional Christmas pudding—the vegan version, of course), was indeed in need of some TLC. She was thin, covered with fleas, pale, and scared. And who wouldn’t be scared if they were forced to live outside in all weather conditions—including rain, wind, thunder, lightning, and below-freezing temperatures—and among predators, poisons and toxins, potentially malicious humans, and all the other horrors of the not-so-great outdoors? The three fieldworkers crawled under a porch to rescue the hesitant orange tabby.

“Orange” you glad PETA fieldworkers rescued Figgy?

Deciding that no one should spend Christmas Eve alone, one member of PETA’s rescue operation took shy but sweet Figgy home, where it was safe and warm and there was cat food aplenty.

“Once [Figgy] was bathed, she began to purr and ravenously ate an entire can of wet food.”

—Figgy’s rescuer and foster guardian

Figgy, although nervous at first, has done nothing but blossom in a loving indoor home. “She has really come out of her shell,” her fosterer reports.

Safe with her foster guardian, Figgy’s been “pudding” her best paw forward.

If you’ve got treats and a crinkle ball, you’ve got a friend in Figgy.

Figgy is inquisitive, food-motivated, playful, and—above all else—adores other cats. This adoptable kitten is in search of a loving, permanent home in which she’ll have at least one other friendly feline to call family.

From barely surviving on the streets to all the crunchy treats.

Figgy has been vaccinated and will be spayed prior to adoption. If you think you’re the one who this 3-month-old shorthaired kitten wants tabby with, we’d like to hear from you. E-mail Adopt@peta.org.

Learn More About Figgy and Other Adoptable Animals

The post New Year, New Figgy! This Adoptable Cat Is ‘Pudding’ Her Best Paw Forward appeared first on PETA.

Prompted by Mark Zuckerberg’s out-of-touch announcement that he and his family, including his young children, have begun raising cows to be killed for their flesh on his ranch in Hawaii, PETA is rolling out a nationwide platform that empowers people not to think of all living, feeling beings as there for the taking, to dominate and exploit, but to recognize the similarities in everyone around them rather than their differences in nationality, religion, gender, or species. Called “Every Animal Is Someone,” it draws attention to the fact that humans are just one animal among many, and PETA notes that in these times of war, climate catastrophe, and increasing polarization, our world needs empathy for all.

PETA’s new Empathy Kits—designed for the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, who urgently need a lesson in being considerate—are being sent to the family at their ranch in the hope that his daughters will read the lessons about empathy in them. To quote Henry Bergh, who founded the first SPCA in the United States and prosecuted the first cases involving cruelty to children and animals, “If you teach a child to be kind to a mouse, you do as much for the child as you do for the mouse.”

“Every Animal Is Someone” asks people to exchange hate and fear for empathy by looking into the eyes of the individuals around them—whether a cow staring down the slaughterhouse knife, a displaced person, or a lonely neighbor—and recognize that each one experiences love, grief, joy, pain, and the desire to stay alive and that each one of us has inherent worth. That message will be incorporated into all that PETA does and will include a TV spot titled “Seeing Eye to Eye,” which will begin airing in Zuckerberg’s home state of Hawaii on January 12 and, later, in cities across the country.

“The world is in urgent need of more empathy, and that begins with seeing the individual, understanding that we’re all animals, and realizing that every animal is someone, with each one of us deserving of respect,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “In 2024, PETA is calling on everyone, including billionaires who often feel everything and everyone exists for their use, to help build a more compassionate world for all.”

The campaign, which builds on PETA’s motto that “animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way,” will include celebrity videos, starting with a Super Bowl ad starring Edie Falco. PETA plans to send Empathy Kits to other public figures and world leaders who need guidance on how to open their hearts to others and has made them available to download here for people to share with relatives who eat meat, neighbors who chain their dogs outside 24/7, coworkers who carry crocodile-skin bags, and anyone else who needs a step-by-step guide to understanding others’ perspectives and experiences.

PETA is also sending Zuckerberg a letter asking him to see cows for who they are—individuals who mourn the deaths of their loved ones and devoted mothers who form deep bonds with their calves and search frantically after their babies are taken away from them to be sold as veal or beef—and send the cows on his ranch to a sanctuary instead of exploiting them for food.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Mark Zuckerberg’s Cockamamie Cattle Project Prompts PETA to Launch National Empathy Plan appeared first on PETA.

Diners at the McDonald’s on High Street might grimace at their grub this month as a cow, a chicken, and a fish loom overhead with a moving message: “We Feel, Just Like You.” The sky-high appeal, courtesy of PETA, landed near the Ohio State University campus just in time for the new year to encourage Generation Z—and everyone else—to go vegan for animals in 2024.

“Every burger, nugget, and filet served at McDonald’s was once part of a thinking, feeling being who valued their life, just as we value ours,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA encourages everyone to see the individuals behind the entrées and eat vegan in 2024 and beyond.”

Billions of cows and chickens live short, miserable lives in the U.S. meat industry, where they’re subjected to extreme crowding, routine mutilations without pain relief, a terrifying trip to the slaughterhouse, and a violent, painful death. Farmed fish spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy enclosures, and many suffer from parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating injuries. Conditions on some farms are so horrendous that millions of fish die before workers can kill them for food. Each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals each year and reduces their own risk of suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and strokes.

Until McDonald’s heeds the popular call to roll out a vegan option, those looking to turn over a new leaf in the new year can order PETA’s free vegan starter kit.

PETA’s billboard is located at the intersection of N. High Street and 18^th Avenue.

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, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

The post ‘We Feel, Just Like You’: Animals Make Vegan Plea Over McDonalds, Courtesy of PETA appeared first on PETA.