With temperatures expected to reach almost 100 degrees tomorrow, PETA sent an urgent letter this morning calling on Grants Pass Downs stewards to suspend all races on June 23—and during every subsequent heat advisory this summer and beyond.
“Horses are pushed to the limit every time they race, and the additional stress of skyrocketing temperatures can cause brain damage, heatstroke, and death,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is calling on Grants Pass Downs officials to prevent tragedy by suspending racing tomorrow and whenever Oregon faces extreme heat.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA’s letter to the Grants Pass Downs stewards follows.
June 22, 2020
Re: Heat Advisory for Grants Pass Downs
Dear Stewards,
I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide to urge you to protect horses by suspending racing at Grants Pass Downs during the current heat advisory and any future advisories.
On June 23, temperatures are expected to reach almost 100 degrees in Grants Pass, and high temperatures put horses at risk of heatstroke, brain damage, and death. An average of three horses die in racing every day, and extreme heat can easily add to this death toll. By suspending racing until temperatures cool, racetracks can help forestall further heat-related deaths. Please take immediate action to protect horses in Oregon.
PETA is changing the fashion industry and making the world a kinder place for animals! After a first-of-its-kind undercover PETA investigation of one of the world’s largest alpaca wool producers revealed that crying alpacas were roughly shorn, cut open, and left bleeding from deep wounds, we persuaded a number of companies to make the compassionate decision to ban alpaca wool. Below, you can find a list of brands that have banned alpaca wool. Be sure to check back, as we’ll update it whenever new companies make the commitment.
PETA’s investigation of the world’s largest privately owned alpaca farm in Peru, Mallkini, shows that workers slammed alpacas—some of whom were pregnant—onto tables. Workers tied them tightly by the legs into a restraining device reminiscent of a medieval torture rack and pulled hard, nearly wrenching their legs out of their sockets.
Terrified of being pinned down, the animals spit, cried out, and vomited in fear as shearers grabbed them by the ears, stole their wool, and threw them to the concrete floor. Their cuts were then crudely stitched up.
Using animals for wool is cruel. Whether it’s stolen from a sheep, an angora rabbit, or an alpaca, wool belongs to animals whom humans have no right to intimidate, beat, or kill. The good news? There are many sustainable vegan fabrics that you can wear instead.
Summer is here, and that means summer school is starting! If you’re holding classes, you may get a little break before you’re thrown back into the daily routine of planning and preparing for the day, teaching lessons, and keeping students fully engaged while thoughts of the beach and other summertime activities dance in their heads. TeachKind has resources for educators, created by educators. Listed below are dynamic activities and lessons that can be carried out in a multitude of ways. We offer humane science lessons for all ages, research and writing-based activities to help students become well versed on various animal rights issues, a feature focused on social and emotional learning for all ages, and much, much more.
Google’s new 3D animals feature gives parents and educators a great opportunity to teach children more about animals, including that they would never want to be confined, forced to do tricks, or taken out of their natural habitats. Check out the tiger, bear, and others, and enhance this exciting virtual reality experience with the animal facts included in the feature.
Keep students occupied with these nine STEM experiments that don’t use animals and that encourage compassion for them. From creating a water pipeline to becoming a game designer, students will be inspired to think innovatively while staying engaged in STEM activities.
After months of coronavirus precautions that have had kids staying at home, pique their interest in discovering something new about their familiar surroundings. Our animal scavenger hunt prompts students to observe and learn about these 15 commonly sighted backyard animals and their unique traits and abilities. TeachKind offers a prize for students who spot all 15!
Have students print out these activity choice boards for the months of June, July, and August. Each board includes 20 activities to get students moving, thinking, and practicing compassion. After they’ve completed an activity, they can color that square in. Challenge them to color in every square by the end of each month!
Tap into students’ interest in real-world issues while they enhance their writing and research skills with TeachKind’s debate kits. We’ve laid out all the tools and resources needed to form a comprehensive argument on an issue. Students could meet up virtually to discuss their findings and arguments—they can even record their meetings using Zoom and send them along to you.
Have students begin by choosing one of these hot topics:
With the world in the grip of a pandemic, it’s important that we keep students up to speed on current events and find ways to inspire them to consider further study and careers in STEM fields. It’s especially exciting to challenge their thinking about non-animal methods of testing with regard to medical advancements by prompting them to write a position paper from the point of view of a scientist who doesn’t subject animals to cruel experiments. Have students start with this podcast highlighting the choice to steer clear of animal testing when developing a vaccine for the coronavirus:
Students can learn new facts about the pandemic and work to draw their own conclusions about “wet markets,” meat consumption, and deadly zoonotic diseases with the resources and activities in this lesson. It also addresses Common Core Learning Standards in reading, speaking, and listening for grades 9–12.
View this documentary as a class, then use the discussion questions included in this feature to help students understand the information and examine the ideas presented. (If you’re teaching virtually, you can use online tools such as Netflix Party, which includes synchronized video playback and group chat, to watch the film with your students online. Or you can have students watch the film independently and then discuss their responses to the questions as a class using popular online conferencing tools like Zoom or Skype. If these tools aren’t available to you or your students, you could have students chat about the film and the discussion questions in an online forum, such as Google Classroom.)
Engage students this summer with a page-turner that will make them think twice about the meat industry. Explain that this novel not only sheds light on the cruelty endured by pigs raised for food but also reveals the exploitation of slaughterhouse workers. Use supplementary resources provided by TeachKind to tackle these important topics with students before, during, and after their reading of this award-winning novel.
Need more inspiration to help you incorporate humane education into your summer school curriculum? Sign up for TeachKind E-News here!
All fields in bold are mandatory.
FormBuilder Form – 3364
By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal info in accordance with our privacy policy as well as to receiving e-mails from us.
