Kategorie: Animals

With thousands of slaughterhouse workers having already tested positive for COVID-19 and many dying, PETA has purchased stock in Tyson—along with other major U.S. and Canadian slaughter companies—in order to attend annual meetings, correspond with other shareholders under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, and directly urge CEOs to convert all slaughterhouses to produce and pack only vegan meats.

“This crisis has shown that raising and killing animals in filthy factory farm conditions and butchering them in ill-regulated slaughterhouses creates breeding grounds for infectious diseases,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is pushing Tyson and all other major meat companies to shut down the slaughter lines and switch to plant-based meats that never cause a pandemic.”

The novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese “wet market,” where live and dead animals are sold for human consumption; swine flu began on a U.S. factory farm; and other deadly influenza viruses have been traced to chickens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that approximately 75% of recently emerged infectious diseases affecting humans originated in other animals. Health experts say that the next pandemic is inevitable if we don’t change how we treat animals.

Meanwhile, grocery store sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal-derived products have grown 29% in the past two years to $5 billion. Most meat companies already produce or invest in vegan meats, such as Tyson’s Raised & Rooted plant-based nuggets. Other slaughterhouse owners targeted in PETA’s stock purchase include Hormel, Sanderson Farms, Maple Leaf Foods, Kraft Heinz (parent company of Oscar Mayer), and Chinese-owned WH Group (owner of Smithfield).

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—recently placed a full-page ad in The Washington Post urging Americans to move away from meat.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

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The recent “monkey snatches toddler” video might induce surface-level laughs, but the story behind it is just another upsetting example of the way animals suffer when they’re used for tawdry amusement.

LOOK CLOSER — THIS IS NOT FUNNY.

The monkey is being pulled by a rope. They're likely clinging onto this toddler in a desperate attempt to escape the abuser on the other end of the leash.

Animals who are forced to perform are often abused and exploited.pic.twitter.com/DRPtbLCWD7

— PETA (@peta) May 6, 2020

At first glance, the video appears to show a monkey riding a small motorbike pulling up to a toddler sitting on a bench, grabbing the child, and then attempting to drag him away. Some called the incident a “kidnap” attempt. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that there’s a rope fastened around the monkey’s neck—he or she isn’t abducting the toddler, the animal is holding on to the child to try to escape whomever is tugging on the other end of the rope. The monkey was likely just as terrified as the toddler.

The upsetting incident reportedly occurred in the East Java capital of Surabaya, Indonesia, where such exploits are apparently “a traditional form of street entertainment.” According to the Indonesia Expat, horrified bystanders called out to the primate’s handler, urging them to stop the abuse. Other reports alleged that the handler “beat the monkey with a gamelan mallet” after the stunt. The toddler, according to ABC7, was spooked and sustained a few scratches but was otherwise unharmed.

Although certainly upsetting, this exploitative event and the details surrounding it aren’t terribly shocking.

In Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia, monkeys are often kept as “pets” and used for human amusement. Indonesian law doesn’t protect all primate species, although topeng monyet (the type of “street entertainment” seen in the video) was reportedly banned in East Java in 2018. Training monkeys for topeng monyet can apparently include torture, and performances increase the risk of zoonotic diseases—like COVID-19—being transmitted.

In their natural habitats, Old World monkeys—like the one abused in this video—spend much of their days on the ground. These primates, who are native to Africa and Asia, have pads on their hind regions that become calloused because of the time they spend sitting to rest or snack on leaves and grasses. Childcare is strictly a female responsibility among them—mothers often carry their babies on their stomachs …

… while the babies of New World monkeys, who are indigenous to the Americas, typically ride on their mothers’ backs.

But monkeys like the one in this video are commonly torn away from their mothers’ protective sides and their natural habitats.

There are reportedly hundreds of monkeys for sale in Indonesia, if not more—and the more that people buy them, the more these animals will be taken from their native homes. As “pets,” they’re denied familial bonds and the opportunity to forage for food. As “entertainers,” they endure horrific abuse and put members of the public at risk, as this “monkey snatches toddler” incident demonstrates.

Captive monkeys—who have been robbed of the opportunity to live in their natural habitat—should be cared for by wildlife experts who understand their physical and psychological needs. They belong in reputable sanctuaries that will let them live in natural social groups—not with a “pet” owner and certainly not in the hands of a handler who will treat them as nothing more than a prop.

Monkeys and other exotic animals are not “pets,” and they’re not props.

Whether you’re in the U.S., Asia, or elsewhere, please, never buy animals, and support legislation that would make owning exotic animals illegal. Take action for primates now:

Primates Used for Entertainment Need Your Help

The post Why That Viral ‘Monkey Snatches Toddler’ Video Is the Opposite of Funny appeared first on PETA.

To help fuel workers at Scripps Mercy Hospital—which is caring for dozens of patients from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border who are afflicted with COVID-19—PETA Latino will deliver delicious, healthy vegan burritos from Chipotle as well as scrumptious vegan ice cream generously donated by Baskin-Robbins to doctors, nurses, and support staff in the hard-hit facility’s intensive care unit and other departments. The donation will take place during lunchtime on Thursday, May 7. Photos and videos will be available upon request following the event, as the media is not currently allowed on the hospital’s campus.

“Healthcare workers at Scripps Mercy Hospital and around the world are heroes who deserve tasty, immune-boosting vegan food,” says PETA Latino Senior Manager Alicia Aguayo. “PETA Latino hopes this lunchtime delivery will brighten their tough day and remind everyone that tofu, unlike flesh from abused animals, never caused a pandemic.”

PETA Latino—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese “wet market,” where live and dead animals are sold for human consumption; swine flu began on a U.S. factory farm; and other influenza viruses have been traced to chickens. Factory farms and slaughterhouses are as filthy as live-animal markets—their floors are covered with blood, urine, feces, and offal, creating a perfect breeding ground for pathogens that can cross the species barrier.

In addition to helping prevent future catastrophic global pandemics, each person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals every year and significantly reduces their own risk of suffering from health problems, including strokes, obesity, cancer, and heart disease.

PETA Latino opposes speciesism, the belief that humans’ lives matter more than the lives of other animals. For more information, please visit PETALatino.com.

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In response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to allow companies to skip required tests on animals and head straight to human trials in the search for COVID-19 therapies, PETA sent a letter to the agency applauding the move and urging it to move away from animal experiments completely.

“The novel coronavirus has thrown the inadequacy of cruel, costly, misleading, and time-consuming animal experiments into sharp relief,” says PETA Regulatory Testing Department Science Adviser Jeffrey Brown. “PETA is urging the FDA not to revert to the wasteful status quo and to take this opportunity to prioritize human-relevant, non-animal research methods only.”

Of all new medications that test safe and effective in animals, 95% fail in human clinical trials. PETA’s Research Modernization Deal provides a detailed strategy for replacing the use of animals in experiments with superior, humane scientific research, which would save the lives of millions of animals every year and accelerate drug development for humans suffering from diseases.

The group’s letter to the FDA is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

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