Animals – Seite 58 – Global-Affair.net

After learning that Lebanon plans to host the Lebanon Bologna Drop, PETA fired off a letter today to Mayor Sherry Capello pointing out that cows are gentle, curious, and clever animals who don’t want to be ground up into bologna to be used as a prop in a festival and is offering to supply free vegan bologna for the city to use instead.

“The clock is ticking down on Lebanon’s tone-deaf old habit of dangling slaughtered cow parts from a disco ball,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges the city to ring in 2024 with a tasty alternative that everyone can feel good about—one that will be positive for animals, the planet, and the health of those who eat it.”

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.

PETA’s letter to Capello follows.

December 27, 2023

The Honorable Sherry Capello
Mayor of Lebanon

Dear Mayor Capello:

Greetings! I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, and PETA U.S. is the largest animal rights organization in the world. It has come to our attention that Lebanon is planning to host the Lebanon Bologna Drop this year. We would like to offer vegan bologna free of charge if the city ends the ugly tradition of using the dead body parts of gentle cows for a New Year’s stunt that is frankly a load of bologna. Will you please celebrate the new year by upgrading to vegan bologna for the upcoming Bologna Drop?

Cows are gentle, curious, and clever animals, and they don’t want to be ground up into bologna. To become the sausages dangling from a disco ball, these sensitive beings are shipped to feces-filled feedlots, where they’re crammed together by the thousands in all weather extremes. They’re then packed onto trucks for a frightening journey to a slaughterhouse, where they face a cruel and painful death. Many government slaughterhouse inspectors refuse to eat meat after witnessing these awful, filthy conditions.

Raising animals to eat is now recognized as an environmental calamity, as it requires colossal amounts of land, food, energy, and water. And processed meats, like bologna, are bad for animals, the planet, and our arteries—as well as a known carcinogen implicated in the risk of developing cancer. And since eating vegan foods reduces deforestation and loss of biodiversity, vegan bologna is the sustainable star that the Lebanon Bologna Drop deserves.

We hope you’ll accept our offer to have two vegan bolognas descend on the disco ball this New Year’s Eve. Thank you for your time and consideration. May your celebration be filled with joy, compassion, and a touch of mirror-ball magic.

We eagerly await your response.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President

The post Drop It! PETA Has ‘Beef’ With City’s Bologna Drop, Offers Vegan Upgrade appeared first on PETA.

2023-12-27

How Are ‘No-Kill’ Shelters Failing Animals Everywhere? ‘The New Yorker’ Reveals

An article in The New Yorker by bestselling novelist Jonathan Franzen is lifting the veil on how “no-kill” policies at animal shelters—even those funded by taxpayer money—are causing cats and dogs to suffer.

How ‘No-Kill’ Policies Are Harming Animals

As Franzen explains in the article, many shelters prioritize “save rates” over spay rates. Facilities are focused on keeping animals out of their euthanasia statistics even if it means that they suffer and die on the streets. But many shelters aren’t doing nearly enough—if anything—to prevent animals from being born into a world already bursting at the seams with unwanted ones and ending up homeless in the first place.

Some facilities warehouse dogs for weeks, months, or even years and turn away other animals. Many refuse to accept cats altogether, condemning them to abandonment on the streets as “community” cats—a particularly egregious policy, given a new study revealing that cats allowed to roam outdoors terrorize, maim, and kill more than 2,000 species of animals.

These “slow-kill” policies leave the most vulnerable animals with nowhere to go, leading to abandoned dogs and cats not only reproducing and creating even more unwanted animals but also suffering and/or dying of starvation, traumatic injuries, disease, or abuse. Facilities with “no-kill” policies enjoy positive public relations—advertising “90% save rates” that are misleading at best and dishonest at worst—while open-admission shelters, which never turn away animals in need (and are therefore most in need of funding), are vilified.

“A long-serving animal-control officer, who asked not to be identified, described to me a system intensely pressured by No Kill to keep animals moving through it—dangerous dogs and frightened feral cats being placed with unsuspecting adopters, abusive or psychologically disturbed people being given animals without even a basic background check, because there aren’t enough good homes for all the animals. ‘No Kill sounds great,’ the officer said. ‘But it’s a myth.’”

—Jonathan Franzen

**Shelters Should Keep Their Doors Open to All Animals in Need**

Animal shelters are meant to serve as safe havens. There should be no waiting lists, no admission fees, and no excuses to keep animals out.

If your local shelter has harmful policies and turns away animals, please speak up and encourage humane, responsible “socially conscious sheltering.” The basic steps are simple: Document your experiences, gather support, and make your case. Your involvement could make a world of difference to the companion animals in your community who need you the most.

Learn More About How to Help

The post How Are ‘No-Kill’ Shelters Failing Animals Everywhere? ‘The New Yorker’ Reveals appeared first on PETA.

2023-12-27

Animal Testing Is a Drag! Alaska Thunderf*ck, Heidi N Closet, and Kim Chi Star in PETA Cosmetics Campaigns

Oh no she better don’t wear makeup that hurts animals! As everyone prepares to glam up and go out for New Year’s Eve, Alaska Thunderf*ck, Heidi N Closet, and Kim Chi are starring in a pair of PETA campaigns that urge everyone to turn a look with makeup that’s fierce, not fatal—meaning never tested on animals and containing no animal-derived ingredients.

In an accompanying video, Alaska and Heidi discuss the nasty ingredients that can sneak into makeup—namely, lanolin, beeswax, biotin, and carmine, which is made of crushed-up beetles—and how PETA’s Bunny Free app can help shoppers find animal-friendly products. “[S]ome companies test the hell out of animals,” Alaska says. “Instead of testing on animals, I know a few queens they could test it on instead,” Heidi says jokingly.

In her video, Kim Chi encourages everyone to avoid mink-fur lashes, too. “I’m all for being extra, but not at the cost of someone else’s life,” she says. “Join me and say no to mink lashes and yes to being fierce and ethical.”

While most lashes are vegan, some companies use fur from minks, who are confined to filthy, cramped wire cages until they’re killed and skinned, sometimes while they’re still alive. PETA’s Bunny Free app notes which companies are vegan—free of fur and other animal-derived ingredients—and that are among the more than 6,000 companies around the world that have banned all animal tests, in which substances are applied to animals’ eyes and shaved skin, sprayed in their faces, or forced down their throats.

Alaska, Heidi, and Kim join a long list of celebrities—including Victoria Scone, Lady Bunny, Art Simone, Lypsinka, Courtney Act, Elvira, Jennifer Coolidge, and Pamela Anderson—who have teamed up with PETA entities to promote kindness to animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on, wear, or abuse in any other way”—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.