Kategorie: Animals

This afternoon, PETA dispatched a letter to Industrial Commercial Properties—the Cleveland-based property development firm that purchased the former SeaWorld Ohio property and has said that its design will “pay homage to the history” of the site—encouraging the company to do the right thing by including a memorial to the 10 dolphins who died prematurely at the park during its operation.

“As this site embraces a future that’s free of animal abusement parks, the memory of the captive dolphins who lost their lives there mustn’t be lost to the past,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is offering to help design a memorial that would pay tribute to their years of suffering and to the more than 100 dolphins who are still trapped in SeaWorld’s concrete tanks elsewhere.”

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

PETA’s letter to Industrial Commercial Properties Chief Operating Officer Chris Salata follows.

November 10, 2020

Chris Salata

Chief Operating Officer

Industrial Commercial Properties LLC

Dear Mr. Salata:

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide following the news that Industrial Commercial Properties bought the former SeaWorld Ohio property in Aurora. As you transform this land for new businesses and homes while paying homage to its history, will you please include a memorial to ensure that the animal suffering and deaths at the abusement park won’t be forgotten? We’d be pleased to collaborate with you on such a project.

When SeaWorld Ohio was still in business, it confined highly intelligent and social animals to cramped, chemically treated tanks and deprived them of opportunities to swim far, dive deep, and choose their own mates. Ten dolphins died during this time—many prematurely—from causes such as systemic infection, lung disease, and gastrointestinal disease.

While animals are no longer held captive at this location, hundreds of dolphins and other animals are still suffering at SeaWorld parks across the country. Dolphins and whales are being forcibly impregnated—sometimes after being drugged—and used as breeding machines to create generations of suffering animals, and 140 dolphins are squeezed into just seven small tanks, where they can’t escape attacks from other frustrated, aggressive animals.

In the midst of the global pandemic and growing awareness of injustice to others, people are searching their souls and examining their impact on society. For most organizations, this societal reckoning includes reflecting on all the deeply disturbing ways in which animals have been and still are being violated. We hope you’ll agree that a memorial to the dolphins who died at SeaWorld would go a long way toward ensuring that others don’t endure the same fate in the future.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Melanie Johnson

Manager, Animals in Entertainment Campaign

The post Former SeaWorld Site Should Include a Dolphin Memorial, Says PETA appeared first on PETA.

As part of its campaign to compel Publix to reconsider its relationship with Thai brand Chaokoh—which a PETA Asia investigation revealed uses monkeys who are chained for life to pick coconuts—PETA is posting a billboard near a local Publix store urging shoppers to leave the products of cruel monkey labor on the shelf. PETA’s campaign to persuade the grocery chain to do the right thing also includes sending deliveries of humanely picked coconuts to the company’s CEO.

“Every can of Chaokoh coconut milk on Publix’s shelves harms the company’s reputation,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on Publix to reject its role in these monkeys’ misery and reconsider its relationship with the brand.”

PETA Asia’s investigation revealed that monkeys are chained, isolated from their peers, transported in cages, and forced to climb trees in order to collect coconuts day in and day out. The captive animals display stereotypic types of behavior, such as circling endlessly, that are indicative of severe mental anguish.

Costco recently told PETA that it would join the more than 25,000 stores around the world—including chains Walgreens, Giant, and Food Lion—that have pledged not to sell coconut products obtained through monkey labor. Publix is one of the last remaining holdouts still selling cruelly produced coconut products.

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

The billboard is located at 5121 Florida Ave. S., at the intersection with S. Lakeland Drive, less than 1 mile from a Publix store.

The post New PETA Ad Targets Publix Over Coconut Milk Produced With Forced Monkey Labor appeared first on PETA.

Armed with damning U.S. Department of Agriculture reports documenting that hundreds of guinea pigs were forced to live in filth and denied potable water at a breeding mill near Mifflintown, PETA sent a letter today to the Pennsylvania State Police urging them to investigate, with a veterinarian in tow, and, as appropriate, pursue cruelty-to-animals charges against those responsible for causing animals to suffer.

“These reports reveal a hellhole where hundreds of guinea pigs were being kept amid piles of waste, which contaminate their water,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “This abject neglect is exactly why PETA urges everyone never to buy animals from pet stores or breeders and always adopt from shelters.”

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

PETA’s letter to Lt. David A. Surra, commander of the Criminal Investigation Section, Troop G of the Pennsylvania State Police, follows.

November 10, 2020

Lt. David A. Surra

Commander

Criminal Investigation Section, Troop G

Pennsylvania State Police

Dear Lt. Surra:

PETA requests that your agency promptly investigate and, as appropriate, file criminal charges against those responsible for keeping hundreds of guinea pigs amid their own feces and denying them potable water earlier this year at a breeding mill near Mifflintown operated by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) licensee Ammon Lapp. A USDA veterinarian documented the neglect and squalor detailed in the attached reports. We urge your agency to have an independent veterinarian with expertise in guinea pig health and welfare with you when you visit the facility to identify any animals in need of care and opine on the conditions of and for the animals there.

On October 6, the federal veterinarian found that a majority of the cages confining 273 guinea pigs contained so much feces and debris that the animals’ bedding was barely visible, which she noted can cause disease in the animals and attract “pests.” The veterinarian instructed Lapp to sanitize the cages at least once every two weeks.

In February, the same USDA agent found that most of the 357 guinea pigs on the property at the time only had access to water that was contaminated with their own feces. She warned Lapp about the dangers of failing to provide the animals with potable water.

This systemic neglect appears to violate 18 Pa.C.S. § 5532, which makes it a crime to deny animals clean and sanitary shelter as well as potable water. Action by the USDA doesn’t preclude criminal liability under state law for federally licensed facilities and workers who perpetrate acts of cruelty against animals there. If you’d like to learn more about the USDA’s findings, please see the relevant contact information for the Riverdale, Maryland, office here. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Daniel Paden

Vice President of Evidence Analysis

cc:        Trooper Christopher Fox, Public Information Officer, Troop G

The post Feds Find Neglect at Guinea Pig Mill—PETA Urges Police to Act appeared first on PETA.

PETA members wearing bright-yellow hazmat suits and gas masks will descend on the Oregon State Capitol on Tuesday to call on Gov. Kate Brown to act quickly and close all fur factory farms in the state. The protest follows Denmark’s plan to kill every mink in the country—up to 17 million—after the novel coronavirus, which was transmitted from workers to the minks, mutated and went on to infect other humans. The legislation is being debated right now. Countries are beginning to bar entry to Danish travelers, and fur farms elsewhere have detected infections, too, including in more than 10,000 minks in Utah and Wisconsin.

When:    Tuesday, November 10, 12 noon

Where:    Oregon State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., Salem

“Filthy fur factories packed with sick, stressed animals are hotspots for COVID-19, and the virus then mutates, rendering vaccines unlikely to be effective,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is asking Gov. Brown to save the lives of humans and other animals by shutting these dangerous places down.”

The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a live-animal market. Such markets represent a public health risk similar to that posed by fur factories—animals are confined right next to each other in wire cages, and disease can easily spread through inhalation, urine, excrement, pus, and blood. COVID-19 cases in minks have also prompted authorities in the Netherlands to shut down such operations.

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

The post Hazmat Suit–Clad PETA Protesters to Demand Fur Farm Shutdown appeared first on PETA.

Damning federal reports of cruelty to animals documented at Jones Meat & Food Services, Inc., has prompted PETA to issue a consumer advisory: Buying meat from the slaughterhouse’s local store supports an operation that has unlawfully shot pigs, a lamb, and a steer in the head and left animals to bleed and suffer for minutes before ending their pain.

The reports reveal the following:

• On October 20, after the slaughterhouse owner indicated that he was going to shoot a lamb with a rifle, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agent saw that the animal was still conscious and bleeding from the head, nostrils, and mouth. A second shot to the head finally rendered the lamb unconscious.
• On July 15, a worker shot at a steer twice with a rifle, hitting him once in the head and leaving him conscious and crying out and kicking. He suffered for three minutes before a third shot from a larger caliber firearm finally stunned him.
• In January 2018, a worker shot a pig in the head with a captive bolt gun, which left the animal bleeding from the head and conscious until the employee shot the pig again with a rifle.
• In November 2017, a USDA veterinarian found a pig who was bleeding from a hole in the skull trying to escape a restraining box. Approximately two minutes passed before a worker shot the pig a second time.

“Shoppers, beware: Meat sold by Jones Meat & Food Services could come from animals who endured agonizing botched slaughters,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “The only sure way to keep cruelty off your shopping list is to go vegan, and PETA stands ready to help everyone make the switch.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit filled with recipes and tips for making the transition.

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

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