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The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and the final harvests are upon us in the U.S. At this time, the veil between life and death thins—at least, that’s what many of us believe.

People from many cultures, faiths, and backgrounds use this opportunity to the fullest, taking up rituals in remembrance of deceased family members, friends, and others who inspired them during their time on Earth.

But what about those who are forgotten?

Remembering—and Honoring—Victims of Exploitation

Often, the victims of normalized exploitation fall by the wayside in our memories. When it comes to the nonhuman victims of human atrocities, they’re lucky even to get a passing thought.

Enter Corky the Orca

The marine park industry took everything from Corky. The orca lost her family in 1969, when she was violently taken from her mother in the waters off British Columbia. She lost her freedom when she was sold into captivity. And during her imprisonment, she lost every one of her seven babies, all within an agonizing decade of her life.

In the absence of altars, incense, and other means to help guide their spirits closer to our world, please hold Corky’s seven dead babies in your memory. They were all needless victims of the animal entertainment industry.

Corky’s Calves

From 1977 to 1986 at the now-defunct Marineland of the Pacific in California, Corky was used as a breeding machine. She was bred with her own cousin six times. Then, after she was sent to SeaWorld San Diego in 1987, she suffered a miscarriage.

Here’s the story behind every baby she had.

• February 28, 1977: Corky gave birth to the first live calf born in captivity. The male calf failed to nurse, and he died of pneumonia in about two weeks.
• October 31, 1978: Corky’s second calf, named Spooky because he was born on Halloween, was born. He also failed to nurse and died of pneumonia. It’s believed that the formula he’d been fed was contaminated.
• April 1, 1980: Corky gave birth to an eight-week premature stillborn calf.
• June 18, 1982: Corky’s longest surviving baby was born. She lived for just 46 days and also failed to nurse. After about a month, Marineland reportedly feared for the calf’s safety as Corky became increasingly rough with her, so the calf was put in a separate tank. She died a couple of days later.
• July 22, 1985: Corky gave birth to a female calf who survived for about a month.
• July 27, 1986: Corky’s last pregnancy at Marineland of The Pacific ended in a miscarriage.
• August 1987: Corky miscarried her last baby, who was found dead at the bottom of her tank at SeaWorld. After suffering this miscarriage, Corky stopped ovulating and was unable to have any more children.

Corky Likely Remembers Her Calves—We Should, Too

After she went through her devastating series of pregnancies, Corky spent a lot of time close to a young female orca named Orkid when they shared a tank at SeaWorld. Orkid’s presence may have filled an aching hole in Corky’s heart, but that peace didn’t last.

One day, Orkid’s mother, Kandu, attacked Corky. While forcefully charging at her, Kandu broke her own jaw, severing arteries in her head. It took 45 minutes for Kandu to die, as her own calf watched.

Never Again

If she had been left in her ocean home, Corky might have had grandchildren of her own. If she had stayed with her family, she’d likely be with her brother and sister Fife and Ripple, who are still swimming free. So then we mourn not only her babies who died but also her potential for a better life, dashed by violent, selfish humans.

Her calves may be dead, but Corky lives on. Please urge SeaWorld to send her to a seaside sanctuary, where she could live out her days in peace and experience some semblance of the life that she has been denied for so long.

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.

Never chain a dog outdoors. Learn more about the struggles chained dogs face and how you can help them.

Be a Hero: Report Cruelty to Animals!

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 have a “gut feeling” that going vegan will help your bowel movements, you’re not wrong. Among all the wonderful benefits of being vegan—like sparing animals, reducing your environmental footprint, and protecting yourself from heart disease, cancer, and other health issues—there’s another major plus-side: curbing constipation.

It may be taboo to talk about poo, but constipation is a widespread issue. Studies show that up to 20% of Americans suffer from chronic constipation, accounting for millions of doctors’ visits each year. Since 1997, the number of patients admitted to the hospital primarily for constipation has more than doubled. If left untreated, chronic constipation can lead to painful heath ailments such as hemorrhoids, rectal prolapse, and other related diseases that affect your overall health.

Talk About a Pain in the Butt

So what’s causing America’s constipation epidemic? Nutritionists are blaming a serious lack of dietary fiber—something that many vegan foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, are rich in. Research shows than only 5% of Americans are getting enough fiber daily—an issue nutritionists call the “fiber gap.”

Do Vegans Really ‘Go’ More?

They say that beans—the “magical fruit”—are the number one food for going number two, but you can enjoy a variety of nutritious, fiber-rich vegan foods that promote good digestion by reducing the amount of sugar your blood absorbs.

Eating fiber-rich vegan foods has been linked to more frequent bowel movements and softer stools. And because vegans may consume up to twice as much fiber as meat-eaters do on average, they’re less likely to suffer from constipation and other related complications. A University of Oxford study found that vegans had more frequent bowel movements than vegetarians, who had more frequent bowel movements than meat-eaters.

Listen to Your Gut—Go Vegan!

Going vegan won’t just help you with constipation issues—it could improve your overall health. Studies have shown that vegans enjoy a lower risk of heart disease, lower cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower overall cancer rates. Research has also found that going vegan can enhance your immune system.

Additionally, going vegan helps the countless animals who are exploited and killed in the meat, egg, and dairy industries. Cows, chickens, pigs, fish, and other animals used for food are intelligent, complex living beings who deserve our empathy and compassion. Be kind to them and yourself by going vegan today.

Need Resources for Being a Healthy Vegan?

Check out PETA’s simple guide for meeting your nutritional needs with vegan foods, tips for vegan gut-friendly foods, and easy, healthy vegan recipes. Our vegan starter kit comes with everything you need to make the switch:

 

If you wouldn’t barbecue a dog, why put a cow, pig, or chicken on the grill? That’s the question PETA Latino and Animal Heroes supporters—complete with chef hats and aprons—asked this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in three cities across Mexico.

BBQ Dog, Anyone?

The demonstrators served up some food for thought in Guadalajara, León, and Querétaro by “barbecuing” a lifelike “dog” and vegetables while other animal defenders handed out vegan starter kits and held signs reading, “End Speciesism—Go Vegan!”

Cows, goats, lambs, chickens, and pigs are the same as our beloved animal companions in all the ways that matter: They’re physically sensitive and emotionally complex, they have individual personalities, and they all have the capacity to suffer or thrive depending on how they’re treated.

Anyone disturbed by the idea of cooking a canine should think about extending their compassion to all animals and choosing to live vegan.

Animals Suffer Immensely in Mexico’s Food Industry

Millions of animals are slaughtered for food in Mexico every year. Most of them are raised on filthy, severely crowded feedlots or in dark, cramped sheds. Workers dehorn cows and goats and castrate the males, often without pain relief.

At Mexican slaughterhouses, young, terrified animals are slashed across the throat, often while they’re still conscious. It’s standard industry practice to hurt and kill animals during the slaughter process in ways that would be illegal if done to a dog or cat.

Choosing to Live Compassionately: It’s for Everyone

Did you know that you could spare nearly 200 animals daily misery and a horrific death every year just by going vegan? That’s right—being vegan saves lives.

And get this: Going vegan protects the Earth’s climate by slashing harmful emissions from animal agriculture and helps keep workers out of slaughterhouses, packing plants, leather tanneries, and other dangerous places. Choosing to go vegan helps everyone enjoy a better life.

For those ready to make the switch, PETA’s free vegan starter kit has everything from recipes and tips on eating out to health information:

Ahead of Canada’s Thanksgiving on October 9, PETA is inviting Canadians to join in our “ThanksVegan” festivities by choosing a compassionate holiday feast. As a reminder that gentle, sensitive turkeys don’t want to be killed for a Thanksgiving meal, we’re placing billboards in three Canadian cities—Edmonton and Spruce Grove, Alberta, and London, Ontario—with the message “She Did Not Consent.”

Every year, Canadians kill and consume millions of turkeys for Thanksgiving. Before ending up on someone’s holiday plate, many of these birds endure short, miserable lives on farms, where workers cram them into dark sheds with barely any room to move. To prevent crowded turkeys from injuring each other—likely out of extreme stress—workers often cut off portions of the birds’ toes and upper beaks with hot blades.

‘She Did Not Consent’: Animal-Derived Products Are the Result of Sexual Assault

As PETA’s thought-provoking billboards point out, consent isn’t just a human issue. While investigating farms and slaughterhouses in the U.S., PETA eyewitnesses uncovered horrific abuse, including that workers sexually assaulted birds. In one instance, at a Butterball slaughterhouse, a PETA eyewitness documented that a worker shoved his finger into a turkey’s cloaca (vagina) for “fun” during a break while the slaughter line was stopped. During an investigation into Plainville Farms, which claims to provide a “stress-free” environment for turkeys, PETA’s eyewitness saw a worker pick up a hen by her injured neck and mimic sex acts with her before dropping her on the floor, kicking her, and leaving her to die.

On many farms, genetic manipulation—or causing turkeys to grow much larger than they ever would in nature—is standard practice. It leaves them unable to breed normally, so workers typically manually extract semen from the males and impregnate the females by repeated forced artificial insemination.

PETA’s “She Did Not Consent” turkey ads will be placed near popular grocery stores to urge shoppers to choose vegan options instead of cruelty.

Do Right by Turkeys This Thanksgiving

Turkeys are smart, loyal, and fiercely protective of their young. In nature, they spend their days caring for their loved ones, building nests, foraging for food, taking dust baths, grooming themselves, and roosting high in trees—all things they can’t do on farms that raise them for slaughter. Show turkeys and all our fellow sentient beings the empathy and respect they deserve this Thanksgiving by pledging to go vegan.