Following PETA’s appeal for humane rodent control amid an influx of rodents at Park Place Waco—an apartment complex popular with Baylor University students—owner Park7 Group has adopted new deterrents that will protect mice, rats, and residents alike. The New York–based property management company has sealed off entryways into the building, asked tenants to dispose of any cruel glue traps they may have, and discouraged residents from leaving out food or trash.
“Soon after learning from PETA that humane deterrents work to keep rodents away, Park7 Group took action to protect mice and rats from needless suffering,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s two billboards will remain up to remind other property managers to follow Park7 Group’s example and treat rodents kindly.”
Wildlife—including birds, snakes, mice, rats, and squirrels—who get stuck in glue traps struggle desperately to escape, sometimes chewing off their own limbs before succumbing to shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. Deadly measures also fail as a long-term solution because they neglect to address the source of the problem: As long as food remains accessible, more animals will move in to take the place of those who have been killed.
PETA’s billboards appear at 1226 Speight Ave. and 825 La Salle Ave. in Waco.
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 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.
On September 31, a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) official and his longtime associate were reportedly arrested on felony charges of “promoting and furthering dogfighting,” following FBI raids on both men’s houses. Hopefully, this action by law enforcement rings the death knell for an allegedly notorious Mid-Atlantic dogfighting organization.
Frederick Douglass Moorefield Jr. and Mario Flythe allegedly promoted dogfights through The DMV Board, a network of private group chats reportedly used to coordinate dogfights across Washington, D.C.; Maryland; Virginia; and other states since at least 2015.
Investigation Revealed Decades-Long History of Dogfighting
The investigation into Moorefield was reportedly launched in 2018 by Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control after two dogs’ corpses were apparently found dumped in a dog food bag allegedly containing mail addressed to him. The search for more information became a joint effort among the local agency, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
During the raid, federal agents reportedly found a total of 12 dogs languishing in enclosures and seized all of them. But this seems to have only scratched the surface of Moorefield and Flythe’s alleged dog abuse, as investigators have reportedly found additional evidence seemingly dating Moorefield’s involvement with dogfighting back to 2002.
The DOD has reportedly confirmed that following this bombshell revelation, it no longer employs Moorefield but has refused to elaborate further. If convicted of their currently reported charges, Moorefield and Flythe face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
Instruments of Torture: What Did the Feds Find During Their Raid?
During the FBI’s raid of Moorefield’s home, agents reportedly discovered mountains of chilling evidence, including the following items:
A crude device made for killing dogs by electrocution
A medical staple gun, likely used to close dogs’ gaping wounds
Veterinary steroids
Equipment, such as weighted collars, commonly used to condition dogs for fighting
Training schedules
A phone with access to the encrypted chats used to coordinate dogfights and associated activities
A device made for forcibly inseminating female dogs
Bloodstains on walls, carpeting, furniture, plywood, and other materials consistent with dogfights
The DMV Board Continues to Unravel
The DMV Board chats were allegedly used to organize fights and conduct sales of dogs bred to be used in fighting. They were also reportedly host to conversations about killing dogs who lost fights, exchanging videos of fights, evading law enforcement, and sharing abusive training methods.
Several people connected with The DMV Board have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for their crimes within the past year. ABC News reported that a known dogfighter aided law enforcement in the investigation against Moorefield, and apparently claimed that Moorefield trained dogs for fighting and bet on fights, in addition to his alleged activity as a promoter.
Dogfighting Is a Despicable Blood ‘Sport’—and a Felony
Dogs should be treated as family by their human guardians. Instead of being cherished and loved, dogs who are used for fighting are treated as meaningless objects. They’re chained, taunted, and starved in order to trigger extreme survival instincts and encourage aggressive behavior. Dogs who refuse to fight or who lose in fights are often used as “bait” animals, and sometimes they’re even abandoned, tortured, set on fire, electrocuted, shot, drowned, or beaten to death.
Survivors of these hellish operations are often too traumatized and potentially dangerous to be considered for placement adoption.
Several professional athletes have come out with PETA in opposition to dogfighting, including “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Lamon Brewster, and Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves. Fighting is only a sport when participants consent, which is something dogs can’t do.
Tethering, Chaining, and Caging Dogs Outdoors Is Abuse
Dogfighters and all others who chain and tether dogs traumatize them by depriving them of love, respect, security, and their basic physical necessities.
Dogs kept chained and/or penned outside—often called “backyard dogs”—are deprived of adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care. Their physical, social, and emotional needs are ignored.
These dogs are completely vulnerable to the elements—countless chained dogs are left to freeze to death during cold snaps or die of heatstroke on sweltering summer days. Still others struggle to survive rising floodwaters from severe storms.
If you witness dog tethering, animal fighting, or any other kind of animal abuse, report it right away. Your report can make the difference between a life of suffering and life-changing rescue.
If you were a ’90s kid with a passion for animals, you might have found yourself the object of unflattering comparisons with a certain redheaded, overzealous cartoon character with a bad habit of wanting to love—and hug and squeeze—all manner of animals a little too much. But little Elmyra, who was recently rescued by PETA’s fieldworkers, had the opposite problem of those so eagerly embraced by the toon she was named after.
This tiny black kitten had no one to love and care for her when she was discovered by our fieldworkers. She was weak, critically ill with an upper respiratory infection, and abandoned. She was so sick—her eyes crusted with discharge, her nostrils bubbling over with mucus—that our staff weren’t sure she would survive. For the first 24 hours, her fate was far from certain. Although she received the best care possible, it appeared that help may have come too late.
But little Elmyra beat the odds, and today, after weeks of antibiotics and careful nursing in a foster home, she has made a full recovery. Although one would be remiss not to attribute her spectacular turnaround to her rescuers’ quick thinking and expert veterinary attention, we suspect her sheer spunkiness of spirit also had something to do with it.
Now Elmyra is pure, unadulterated kitten commotion. She may be petite, but her personality is anything but small. Chances are that at any given moment, she is—dare we say it—making mischief, from batting around and chasing toys (and her feline foster brothers) to climbing her “cactus” cat tree. These days, she’s as healthy, sweet, and playful a kitten as you could hope to find—the very definition of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. (Well, maybe minus the bushy tail.)
Elmyra is about 4 months old and would make the perfect addition to any family willing and able to give her the care, respect, and adoration she deserves. She is exceptionally social, purrs nonstop, and is ready to make a friend out of everyone she meets.
Is your life lacking in good-natured chaos and sufficient levels of cuteness? E-mail Adopt@peta.org to learn more about this comeback kitten.
