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It’s
the weekend! This little
sloth has a great idea for how to spend it.

As
vegan eating goes mainstream, delicious new vegan products are popping up in grocery stores like dandelions in summer yards. Here are some of our favorites. 

I
would love to put Oscar-nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan up for a VMA, because the gentle giant’s new PETA video, 

in
which he talks about why he went vegetarian and how much he loves animals, is
my hands-down pick for Video of the Year. 

You’ll
fall crazy in love with Kiwi Crazy Love and the other sumptuous smoothies on
new video website BlendedRecipes.com. 

NEW FEATURE

It’s down to
the wire: Which lovely lass and good-looking guy will be named peta2′s Cutest
Vegetarian Alive? Cast
your votes!

NEW ACTION ALERT

We already know that tobacco is harmful
without subjecting more animals to cruel, archaic experiments. Tell the Food and Drug
Administration to remove animal tests from its guide on tobacco product testing, especially
since previous tests have shown that animals don’t even develop the same
diseases that human smokers do. 

Article source: PETA Files

Six—sometimes seven!—days a week, PETA’s
mobile clinics provide animals in Virginia and North Carolina with free to low-cost sterilization
surgeries. In April alone, the mobile clinics spayed or neutered 717 animals, and PETA’s Community Animal Project fieldworkers even transported 29
more to and from the clinics. Here are just a few of the lucky animals “SNIP’ed”
by our fabulous medical team this month:

Fluffy

Blackie Jr.

Layla

Missy

Charlotte

You can help end the animal homelessness crisis by volunteering at a spay-and-neuter clinic in your area or offering to
transport an animal belonging to someone without transportation to a spay or neuter
appointment.

Article source: PETA Files

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Article source: PETA Action Alerts

Over
on one of our other favorite shows, Ellen, Carrie Underwood dished about how her
hubby, hockey player Mike
Fisher, is getting cozy with
vegan cuisine. And since Ellen DeGeneres gave Underwood Vegan Cooking for
Carnivores by her chef, Roberto
Martin, we’re betting things will really
be heating up in the couple’s kitchen.

Ellen, Portia de Rossi, and Roberto also
veganized the Rachael Ray Show. While Roberto and
Portia cooked, Ellen quipped that cheese is so heavy that if you skip it, “there
is more room for cocktails!”

In
the Philippines for a performance, outspoken vegetarian Morrissey (a few chords from Meat Is Murder, anyone?), urged  President Benigno Aquino III to send Manila Zoo’s lone elephant,
Mali, who has spent the last 35 years imprisoned, to a sanctuary that PETA
has secured for her in the U.S.

Captivating actor Marion Cotillard is also against holding animals captive. On the orca training scenes that appear in
her upcoming film, Rust and Bone, she said, “I’ve always had a repulsion going in a place where animals are in
captivity.”

Of
course, celebrities were also tweeting for animals this week, including Jonah
Hill and Mike “The
Situation” Sorrentino: 

To
keep up with what the stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.

Article source: PETA Files

After
tracking down the owners, we learned that they were going once a day to give
the dog food and water but were forcing him to spend his life alone in the
crate, where he also had to relieve himself. We pressured the local police
department and animal control to talk to the couple and convince them to
surrender the dog. Thankfully, they agreed.

The
dog was finally free, but the stress of confinement had left him with
psychological scars. Like many dogs who are crated for an extended period of
time, he had become aggressive and developed other behavioral problems. As it
would have been dangerous to put him up for adoption, he was peacefully euthanized.

Had he not been
deprived of socialization, exercise, affection, environmental stimulation, and
everything else that was important to him, this dog might have been adoptable.
You can help by encouraging the dog guardians in your life to let their dogs do
what social pack animals do best: spend their time surrounded by family, not
stuck in a crate or on a
chain.

Article source: PETA Files

Maternity
B.V.M. Church in Philadelphia, Penn., is giving away live goldfish as prizes at
its parish carnival, scheduled to run through May 18. We’ve asked the church to
do away with this portion of the event, but to no avail.

Fish
kept in captivity require a sizable amount of water, climate control and
filtration, regular cleaning of aquariums, and ample enrichment. When acquired
by those who aren’t fully cognizant of and/or committed to the responsibility
involved (including much time, effort, and expense), the animals suffer.

Please
join us in urging Maternity B.V.M. Church to stop
giving live animals as prizes.

Send polite comments to:

Rev. Paul S. Quinter, Pastor
Maternity B.V.M. Church
9220 Old Bustleton Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19115
215-673-8127
church@maternitybvmchurch.net

Article source: PETA Action Alerts

Taking Stock—of KFC Cruelty

As shareholders of Yum! Brands stock, PETA can attend the company’s annual meeting and ask a
question during the QA. So Yum! bigwigs and stockholders got an earful
from PETA when it detailed how chickens used to supply KFC restaurants spend
their entire short lives mired in their own waste in cramped filthy sheds on factory farms, only to be hung upside down, sustain broken wings and legs, and often end up
scalded to death in slaughterhouse
defeathering tanks. PETA’s representative then asked when the company will make the simple, badly
needed changes that were recommended
by KFC’s own animal welfare advisers (who understandably resigned in frustration).

How You Can Help KFC’s
Chickens

Join Pink, Sir Paul McCartney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the
Black Eyed Peas, and many
others in telling KFC to do right by chickens.

Article source: PETA Files

Angel’s Gate – Animal Suffering and Consumer Deception

Investigation Update and Victory: Susan Marino,
the founder and operator of Angel’s Gate, Inc., has been charged with 22
counts of cruelty to animals and criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Read more here.

Angel’s Gate is a self-proclaimed
animal “hospice and rehabilitation center” in Delhi, New York, that
receives “special needs animals” from all across the U.S. Marino
promises donors and people who send her animals that animals will “live
out their days in peace, dignity and love.” PETA’s undercover investigation found the opposite.

We found that Angel’s Gate was a chaotic hellhole, where animals whose conditions required special, individualized,
round-the-clock care were deprived of basic necessities and quality of life.
PETA’s investigator discovered the following:

• Paralyzed animals dragged themselves until they
  developed bleeding ulcers, even though wheelchair carts were readily available.
  One dachshund suffered a wound so deep that it exposed the bone.
• Animals whose bladders should be expressed every
  few hours were kept in
  the same diaper for up to two days until the diapers were
  urine-logged, and animals suffered from urine scald.
• Animals, even severely dehydrated ones, were
  confined without access to water.
• Animals were kept outside in freezing
  temperatures without access to proper shelter.
• Animals were confined to a bathtub, which they could not climb.
• Animals were confined to bathrooms.
• Small dogs were confined to Marino’s bed,
  several feet off the ground, with no way to leave it.
• Animals were suffering from treatable conditions
  without veterinary examination or care, including open wounds and respiratory,
  eye, ear, mouth, and skin infections. One dog’s infected, rotten jaw snapped in
  half.
• Animals wounded in fights that broke out daily because of stressful, crowded conditions were left untreated.
• Animals suffering from pain, seizures, and
  hydrocephalus (water on the brain) were denied veterinarian-recommended and/or
  prescribed medication.
• Horribly suffering animals on death’s door were
  deprived of the dignity and relief of euthanasia.
• The bodies of dead animals were left out
  for days among live animals.
• Animals were fed rancid, raw meat that had been left
  unrefrigerated. 

View
photos from PETA’s investigation, and read excerpts from our investigator’s notes. 

Despite claiming to provide “hospice care” and
“rehabilitation” to hundreds of animals, Angel’s Gate does not have a
veterinarian on staff. PETA’s investigation found that most animals were denied
veterinary care for a variety of ailments—from simple to terminal—and that some
animals who were examined by a vet
were still left to suffer without treatment. One such animal—an elderly Chihuahua named
Malcolm who was sent to Angel’s Gate by Animal Care and Control in
Brooklyn—was examined but received no treatment and languished for about two
weeks before he finally died. 

In addition to controlled substances and other drugs
haphazardly piled in various bins, PETA’s investigator found medication that
had been prescribed for Shifty, a bulldog suffering from seizures, and Tucker,
a dog with hydrocephalus, untouched almost a week after a veterinarian
dispensed them. A bottle of medicine sent to Angel’s Gate from Kentucky with a paralyzed
pug named Franklin was found a full four
months after Franklin’s arrival at the facility.

PETA’s investigator repeatedly brought to Marino’s attention the respiratory distress of a
miniature horse named Mimi, who was denied veterinary care for days before she finally died. More than four months after Mimi’s death, Marino still solicited sponsorship donations for Mimi’s care on the website of Angel’s Gate. Marino has a spotty history with federal and state regulatory agencies: In 2004, the IRS listed Angel’s Gate as an organization that failed to establish its status as a public charity, and in 2010, Angel’s Gate was listed on the IRS’ list of exempt organizations in New York at risk of having its charity status revoked. Marino did not file her 2006 annual filing for charitable organizations with New York’s Office of the Attorney General until September of 2010, at which time she did not enclose the required $50 fee.

Unfortunately, Marino
has been featured positively on national TV, prompting not just support and
donations (one lottery winner apparently sent $50,000!) but also the false
impression that Angel’s Gate is a good place for animals. Well-meaning people have for
years naively sent ailing and debilitated animals to Marino.

No animal should be kept in the cruel conditions that PETA’s investigator
witnessed at Angel’s Gate, but for animals with special needs, quality of life and
individualized care is especially critical. Elderly animals who are nearing the
end of their lives suffer severe emotional—not just physical—distress when, for
reasons they have no way of understanding, they are abandoned by the family
they have always known and loved. Senior animals must be able to rely on their
guardians to be brave and see them through difficult times, even when that
means saying goodbye.

The animals at Angel’s Gate need your help today!

PETA has
turned over evidence to the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Please
join us in urging Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman to dissolve Angel’s Gate as a nonprofit corporation and ensure
that Marino’s victims are finally seized and helped.

Putting your subject line and letter
into your own words will help draw attention to your e-mail.

Article source: PETA Action Alerts

Image:(c) iStockphoto.com/Eric Isselee

Like
all other animals, horses don’t want to be “actors,” and they are often subjected to stressful and
dangerous situations during the production of films, ads, and TV
shows. The American Humane Association (AHA), the organization responsible for overseeing how animals
are cared for on the set, is funded by the Screen Actors Guild—part of the same
industry that it monitors. The AHA rarely, if ever, files formal complaints
when animals are abused.

We hope our ad encourages producers and directors to protect
horses by calling, “Cut!” on using them in films and television.

Article source: PETA Files

May 17, 2012

Council resolution calls for end to cruel and unsustainable shark fin trade.

Oceana, WildAid, NRDC, Defenders of Wildlife, Shark Savers, Born Free USA, COARE, Shark Research Institute

A coalition of animal welfare, environmental and conservation organizations joined City Council Member Margaret Chin, D-Lower  Manhattan and other city and state legislators for a rally on City Hall steps to announce her resolution in support of the state legislation to end New York’s contribution to the dire collapse of shark populations worldwide.

Resolution 1311 calls upon the New York legislature to enact and the Governor to sign A.7707a/S.6431, which would prohibit the possession, sale, offer for sale, trade, or distribution of shark fins. If enacted, New York will join four Pacific states – California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington – and the U.S. territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands in similar actions to provide critical protection to sharks and preserve the health of the world’s ocean ecosystems. The bipartisan state legislation has the broad sponsorship support of 58 legislators and is championed by Assembly Members Alan Maisel, D-Brooklyn, Grace Meng, D-Flushing, and Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan and Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo.

“I am proud to sponsor this resolution in support of a ban on the sale and distribution of shark fins,” said Council Member Margaret Chin, D- Lower Manhattan. “As we all know, in our country the main consumers of shark fin are Asian American communities. Shark fin soup may be a time honored tradition for a small group of people but it has no place in today’s society. Let’s call this trade what it is: illicit, inhumane and unnecessary. I stand here today to say that I will not support an industry that thrives off cruelty.”

“We must to put an end to the shark fin trade before it is too late,” said Council Member Daniel Dromm, D-Queens. “The practice is both cruel and reckless, and the effects on our ecosystem have been devastating. We cannot continue to allow people to make large profits at the expense of endangering our marine life. I commend Council Member Margaret Chin for her leadership in drawing attention to this pressing issue and I urge my colleagues in government to support this resolution.”

“It is my great pleasure to join with Councilwoman Chin at today’s rally to announce her resolution supporting the legislation that Senator Mark Grisanti and I have introduced,” said Assemblymember Alan Maisel, D-Brooklyn. “We must once and for all stop all activities associated with the barbaric practice of shark finning and make New York State a leader in the protection of threatened species that are an important element of our marine ecosystem.”   

“Shark finning’ is an irresponsible practice that kills millions of sharks every year. Unless we act now, global shark populations will be greatly affected for many years to come, said Assemblywoman Grace Meng, D-Flushing. “As a legislator I will continue to support legislation and efforts that will protect sharks and the overall health of oceanic ecosystems.”

“New York must not be complicit in the practice of shark finning, which has led to the extinction of shark populations around the world and wreaks havoc on our entire oceanic system,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, D-Manhattan. “By adopting this bill, which I am proud to co-sponsor, New York will join other states, including the entire West Coast, in banning the possession and sale of shark fins. New York will no longer be a refuge for those looking to make a profit from the illicit trade of shark fins.”

Statements from each participating organization are included below:

Patrick Kwan, New York state director for The Humane Society of the United States, said: “New York should not be a haven for the cruel, wasteful and unsustainable trade in shark fin. The Empire State has long taken action to protect other threatened and endangered species such as tigers, elephants and bears, now it’s time we start protecting sharks and stop contributing to this cruelty and help end the inhumane and ecologically devastating practice of shark finning worldwide.”

Amanda Keledjian, a marine scientist for Oceana said: “Eating shark fin soup is driving an unsustainable and cruel demand for the slaughter of our sharks.  These incredible animals are critical to maintaining balance within our oceans, and their depletion puts jobs and coastal health at risk.  These finning bans are an important first step in promoting shark conservation and raising awareness about the many threats these creatures face.”

Iris Ho, wildlife campaigns manager of  Humane Society International, said: “Tens of millions of sharks are killed every year to meet global demand for shark fins. Many have their fins sliced off and are then tossed back into the ocean to suffer a painful death. We applaud the humane leadership of Council Member Margaret Chin for championing this historic effort to end cruelty and protect shark populations and ocean ecosystems.”

Peter Knights, executive director of  WildAid, said: “These are ecosystems that have evolved over millions and millions of years. As soon as you start to take out an important part of it, it’s like a brick wall, you take out bricks and eventually it’s going to collapse.”

Sarah Chasis, oceans initiative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “Worldwide, shark populations are in steep decline, threatening a cascade of devastation down the ocean food chain. We know that shark-finning is a significant cause of this decline and we know how to stop it. New York’s shark legislation will eliminate our state’s contribution to the demand that drives the practice of finning.”

Alejandra Goyenechea, international counsel for Defenders of Wildlife, said: “Finning is decimating the world’s shark populations at an alarming rate and now New York has a chance to join the worldwide movement dedicated to halting this practice and ensuring this species’ survival. This is truly an example of ‘Think globally, act locally’.”

Michael Skoletsky, executive director of Shark Savers, said: “Sharks are critically important to a healthy marine environment and divers like me have grown to appreciate sharks as being intelligent and graceful animals. New York should not participate in the deadly shark fin trade that is primarily responsible for devastating shark populations throughout the world.”

Tracy Coppola, program associate for Born Free USA, said: “Born Free USA strongly believes that one cannot effectively protect sharks without eliminating the market for shark fins. Sharks face many threats in today’s oceans, but the practice of ‘shark finning’ is by far the cruelest of all. It is time for New York to speak out against this unspeakably cruel practice.”

Christopher Chin, executive director of The Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education, said: “Sharks are vital for healthy ocean ecosystems, but their populations have declined dramatically the last few decades as a result of human greed and lack of understanding. Animals at the top of the food chain, such as sharks, have few natural predators, so they are slow to mature and have very few young. As a result, they are extremely sensitive to fishing pressures, and are slow to recover from overfishing.”

Marie Levine, executive director of the Shark Research Institute, said: “Much of the shark fin trade uses fins hacked off living sharks. If we found dogs and horses with their legs severed, bleeding and dying, the public outrage would be deafening. The difference is that finning takes place at sea, out of sight. Because the trade is largely unregulated and unmonitored, and finning often takes place beyond national and state jurisdiction, the most effective method to bring an end to this brutal practice is through legislation such as this.”

Facts:

• The fins from up to 73 million sharks are used to make shark fin soup each year.
• Conservation enforcement and finning bans in the U.S. alone are not enough to conserve sharks. A ban on shark fin products, such as A.7707a/S.6431 proposes, is the most effective way to eliminate the demand for shark fins and to eradicate shark finning around the world.
• Shark fin is often the most expensive item on restaurant menus and typically served simply as a symbol of status. It has no nutritional value and is the main driver of the multi-billion dollar international shark fin trade. The dish is highly controversial because of the manner in which shark fins are harvested and the precarious status of many shark populations.
• In 2011, President Obama signed the Shark Conservation Act to strengthen the federal law against shark finning at sea and require that sharks be landed with their fins still attached.

Media Contacts:

Humane Society of the United States, Katie Jarl, 301-258-1483, kjarl@humanesociety.org

Oceana, Dustin Cranor, 954-348-1314, dcranor@oceana.org

WildAid, Eric Desatnik, 415-834-3174, desatnik@wildaid.org

NRDC, Jenny Powers, 212-727-4566, jpowers@nrdc.org

Defenders of Wildlife, Brian Bovard, 202-772-0284, bbovard@defenders.org

Shark Savers, Michael Skoletsky, 917-612-7501, michael.skoletsky@sharksavers.org

Born Free USA, Rodi Rosensweig, 203-270-8929, publicrelations@bornfreeusa.org

COARE, Christopher Chin, 510-495-7875, media@coare.org

Shark Research Institute, Marie Levine, 609-921-3522, marie@sharks.org

Article source: HSUS