Kategorie: Animals

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest federal inspection report, which just became publicly available, the Miami Seaquarium was cited on September 27 for a slew of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act identified in July, including for an incident in which a dolphin had bitten a patron’s hand during an interactive handling session as well as for endangering a dolphin who had ingested plastic and a chunk of concrete in a deteriorating tank; for holding a manatee alone in an enclosure lacking shade; for permitting a dolphin to sustain rib injuries, likely from being confined and unable to escape from incompatible tankmates; and for failing to have appropriate veterinary oversight, including because trainers had been instructed not to contact the veterinarian and because numerous veterinarian and vet tech positions had been left vacant.

Below, please find a statement from PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman:

How many more animals does this hellhole need to torment before it accepts that all the world wants from it is a “permanently closed” sign? Miami-Dade County lawmakers living in fantasyland assured the public that things would change for the better at the Seaquarium, yet this report proves that’s not happening at all. PETA is calling on officials to shut the facility down and ensure that the dolphins and all the animals there are sent to sanctuaries, where they would finally start recovering from their lifetime of trauma and get the care they so desperately need.

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

The post From PETA re Serious New Violations at Miami Seaquarium Revealed appeared first on PETA.

Starting Monday, PETA will bring its eye-opening exhibit “Without Consent,” which explores the troubled history of experiments on animals, to Harvard University—home to experimenter Margaret Livingstone’s terrifying maternal and sensory deprivation tests on monkeys.

To mark the unveiling, a pair of PETA “grim reapers” will gather at Harvard Square wearing masks depicting Livingstone’s face and holding scythes imprinted with the message “Livingstone Kills Monkeys.”

The opening at Harvard comes after the traveling exhibit was vandalized earlier this month at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst—an act that only deepened PETA’s commitment to shedding light on the horrors of animal testing.

When:           Monday, October 30, 12 noon

Where:          Near Harvard Square, 27 Brattle St., Cambridge

Modeled after the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, “Without Consent” will be on display locally for 10 days as part of a national tour. It features 28 panels with descriptions and photographs of nearly 200 animal experiments conducted at U.S. institutions from the 1920s through today. Watch the trailer here. An interactive virtual exhibit is also available here.

“‘Without Consent’ tells the true stories of animals harmed and killed in experiments that they did not and could not consent to,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA is calling on Harvard and all other institutions to embrace modern, animal-free research, because having the power to exploit other species does not give us the right to do so.”

At Harvard, Livingstone has ripped baby monkeys away from their mothers, sewn the infants’ eyes shut for up to a year, and then observed how abnormally their vision developed. In other tests, the motherless baby monkeys are reared by humans wearing welding masks so that the traumatized animals never see a monkey or human face. Then Livingstone immobilizes their heads using head posts, chin straps, and bite bars to test their facial processing abilities or surgically implants electrodes in their brains to record how their deprived brain cells respond to visual stimuli. After years of torment, she kills many of the monkeys and dissects their brains. She has conducted these types of curiosity-driven experiments for 40 years without identifying a treatment or cure for humans.

“Without Consent” also makes the point that vulnerable humans—including orphans in tuberculosis and psychological experiments, immigrant women in gynecological surgeries, soldiers in LSD and poison gas tests, and impoverished Black men in syphilis experiments—were exploited in experiments. Just as society now understands that these experiments were wrong, “Without Consent” shows that we need to let a similar moral awakening guide our conduct today by extending consideration to the 110 million animals killed every year in U.S. laboratories. These animals are individuals who feel pain and fear, yet they’re robbed of their babies, force-fed chemicals, and sickened with diseases, among other atrocities.

Following its debut in 2021, “Without Consent” has traveled to 28 cities and has shared information about the horrors of experimentation with nearly 15,000 visitors. As neuroscientist and Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik describes it, “‘Without Consent,’ PETA’s new traveling exhibit, is a must-see. … Check it out in a city near you and do your part to help create a better future for all!”

After viewing “Without Consent,” more than 2,500 visitors were moved to contact their legislators, urging them to oppose animal testing and endorse the Research Modernization Deal, which offers a strategy for replacing scientifically useless tests on animals with effective, human-relevant research methods.

“Without Consent” will be open to the public at 27 Brattle St. from 12 noon to 4 p.m., October 30 to November 3 and November 6 to 10.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.

The post Harvard Sensory Deprivation Tests on Monkeys Prompt Unveiling of PETA Exhibit on Dark History of Animal Experiments appeared first on PETA.

The Miami Seaquarium was cited over understaffing issues and animal-safety concerns in a damning federal inspection report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that was recently made available following a July 2023 inspection.

Miami-Dade County officials assured the public that things would change at the Miami Seaquarium—where earlier this year the long-suffering orca Lolita died in a tiny tank—yet this latest USDA report proves that animals there continue to suffer.

The feds cited the Miami Seaquarium for creating a stressful environment for humans and other animals.

The notorious facility was cited for apparently doing the following:

• Having vacancies in vital staff positions, including veterinarian and vet tech roles, which left a single veterinarian responsible for the care of almost 50 marine mammals and hundreds of birds, fish, and other animals
• Failing to prevent a dolphin from biting a patron’s hand during an interactive session
• Allowing a dolphin to ingest plastic, sand, glass filtration materials, and a chunk of cement from a deteriorating tank
• Failing to provide a manatee kept in isolation with adequate shade from the sun
• Housing a dolphin with incompatible tankmates, leading to the animal sustaining multiple bilateral rib fractures

PETA is urging Miami-Dade County officials to shut down this abusement park and compel it to send the animals to seaside sanctuaries, where they would finally be able to start recovering from their lifetime of trauma.

Conscientious people should stay far away from the Miami Seaquarium and every other marine park that exploits animals for entertainment.

Urge the Miami Seaquarium to Send Dolphins to a Seaside Sanctuary

Plans to move Lolita to a seaside sanctuary came too late, and she was denied even a minute of freedom to dive deep and feel the ocean’s currents. While it’s too late for Lolita, it’s not too late for the dolphins still suffering at the marine park.

Please politely urge The Dolphin Company—the owner of the Miami Seaquarium—to release the remaining dolphins at the facility to a seaside sanctuary:

Defend Dolphins Now!

The post Feds Cite Miami Seaquarium Over Understaffing, Animal-Safety Concerns appeared first on PETA.

This year, Halloween is black cats’ lucky day: PETA’s mobile veterinary clinics are back and offering a free local spay/neuter special in their honor on October 31 (companion cats of other colors are invited, too).

When:       Tuesday, October 31, check-in at 8 a.m.

Where:      Tractor Supply Co., 3000 Pruden Blvd., Suffolk and Brittingham-Midtown Community Center, 570 McLawhorne Dr., Newport News

Appointments are required (and limited) and can be made by calling PETA at 757-622-PETA (7382), extension 3, or reserving a spot online at PETA.org/SpayNeuter.

“The real fright on Halloween is how many cats could be born into a world bursting at the seams with homeless and abandoned ones struggling to survive on the streets,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA invites everyone with a cat who hasn’t been ‘fixed’ yet to help fight this crisis by spaying or neutering their feline friend free of charge.”

Around 70 million dogs and cats are homeless in the U.S. at any given time. Many animal shelters—under pressure to avoid euthanasia at all costs—are turning animals away and even refusing to accept cats altogether. Many are forced to fend for themselves on the streets, where they may be hit by cars, infected with diseases, or killed by cruel people—and leaving them to reproduce exacerbates the companion animal overpopulation crisis. That’s why PETA urges shelters to accept all animals in need, asks everyone to adopt instead of buying from breeders or pet stores, and advises guardians to keep their companion cats indoors.

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

The post Halloween Spells Good Omen for Black Cats: PETA Offers Free Spay/Neuter Surgeries appeared first on PETA.

Following the devastation and deaths caused by Hurricane Otis, PETA rushed a letter to World Meteorological Organization President Abdulla Al Mandous, pointing out that animal agriculture is a major contributor to the climate catastrophe that’s making cyclones, hurricanes, and tropical storms ever more devastating and urging him to enact a new policy to name storms and hurricanes after beef, butter, cheese, and other animal-derived foods—the proliferation of which contribute mightily to the weather problems now facing humanity. PETA notes that the United Nations states that about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production—with the largest percentage of these gases, particularly methane, coming from the meat and dairy industries—and reports that a global shift toward vegan eating is vital in order to combat the worst effects of the climate catastrophe.

“Deadly storms are sweeping the Earth and will continue to increase in ferocity, devastating communities and causing fatalities, as long as people continue to choose chicken wings, beef burgers, and cheese sandwiches over vegan fare that reduces greenhouse gas emissions,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, a vegan for over 50 years. “PETA is calling on weather officials to put the blame where it rightly lies, call it like it is, and remind everyone to take personal responsibility for our planetary crisis, with PETA ready to provide free vegan starter kits for all.”

PETA points out that growing water-intensive crops just to feed animals raised for food consumes more than half the water used in the U.S. and that up to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon has been caused by the destruction of land to grow animal feed and graze cattle. Vegan foods—such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils—require less land, energy, and water to produce.

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 Hurricane Havarti? Tropical Storm Salami? PETA Calls For Storms to Be Named After Planet-Destroying Animal Ag appeared first on PETA.