Heart 4 Animals

I was heartened to receive these good news from the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). More work needs to be continued to be done for all the other animals suffering in the world. I’d like to share with you the following message I received this morning:

Dear Supporter,

I’m pleased to share some good news about PETA’s campaigns to stop animal abuse. Your generous support has played an important role in these successes, so thank you!

Factory Farmers Charged With Cruelty to Animals

Factory Farmers Charged With Cruelty to AnimalsSix charges of cruelty to animals have been filed against a worker at Murphy Family Ventures—a North Carolina pig-breeding farm that supplies Smithfield Foods—as a direct result of PETA’s 2007 undercover investigation. Another worker, who is still at large, will face a charge—if he returns to North Carolina—based on video footage obtained during our investigation. The dedicated PETA investigator documented numerous abuses, including that workers beat pigs with metal gate rods, poked pigs’ eyes, and hit pigs in the face with boards.

For decades, the idea that factory farmers could face charges under cruelty-to-animals statutes was almost unheard of. PETA’s investigations of factory farms and slaughterhouses have helped create new legal precedents in recent years, including the first-ever felony indictments of farm workers for cruelty to animals. PETA is helping court officials and lawmakers realize that abusing a pig or a chicken is no more acceptable than abusing a dog or a cat—a sea change that has the meat industry reeling!

Winn-Dixie Takes First Step Ever to Improve Farmed-Animal Welfare

Winn-Dixie Takes First Step Ever to Improve Farmed-Animal WelfareFollowing five months of discussions with PETA, Winn-Dixie has just agreed to make improvements for some of the chickens and pigs raised and killed for its 520 stores. The large Southern U.S. grocery chain will give purchasing preference to the following suppliers:

* Turkey and chicken suppliers that use or switch to controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—the least-cruel method of bird slaughter
* Pig-meat and egg suppliers that don’t confine pregnant pigs to gestation crates or egg-laying hens to battery cages

Winn-Dixie will also increase the amount of cage-free eggs, crate-free pig meat, and CAK poultry that it purchases.

Winn-Dixie now joins other grocery and restaurant companies—including Safeway, Harris Teeter, and Burger King—that have agreed to make reforms to improve the living and dying conditions of animals slaughtered for their consumers.

Four Strikes Against Elephant Abuse

Four Strikes Against Elephant Abuse The New Hampshire Motor Speedway canceled a pre-race elephant show, and an international hotel chain ended its promotion of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. According to a local activist, Circus Vazquez has been banned by Puyallup, Wash., officials from taking elephants to the local fairground. Hunter Fan also pulled its advertisement depicting an elephant who is forced to balance on a ball.

Decision-makers made these incredibly important changes because they were persuaded by PETA’s documentation of elephant abuse. PETA’s undercover video footage documents that trainers beat elephants with steel-tipped bullhooks to make them perform. The footage also shows that elephants are kept in boxcars or shackles for the majority of each day, and they are deprived of the social bonds that elephants need. An increasing number of companies are recognizing that there are better ways to promote their businesses than subsidizing animal abuse.

Animal Tests Replaced With Far Better Methods

Animal Tests Replaced With Far Better MethodsAfter PETA provided the National Taiwan University College of Medicine—Taiwan’s leading medical school—with information about sophisticated non-animal teaching methods, the school canceled its pharmacology experiments. In the experiments, students were asked to inject the toxic chemical strychnine into mice, watch the animals convulse in agony, and record the animals’ times of death. The school also canceled an experiment in which mice were injected with a poison that causes loss of muscular control before they were forced onto a balancing rod. Brain surgeries on living frogs were canceled as well. We are now working on persuading the school to join more than 100 other medical schools that have completely ended the use of animals for undergraduate medical training.

Auburn University Penalized for Abusing Dogs

Auburn University Penalized for Abusing DogsA PETA undercover investigation of experimental kidney operations on dogs has led the Morris Animal Foundation to audit and subsequently bar two experimenters at Auburn University from receiving grant funds ever again. PETA investigators revealed that many dogs vomited for days after the surgery, and they experienced swollen and aching legs, bloody diarrhea, and so much pain that they sometimes couldn’t even lie down. None of these dogs survived, but the experimenters never fully explained the risks as they eagerly took up to $14,000 per surgery from people who were desperate to save their beloved dogs from kidney failure. As a result of this investigation, the Morris Animal Foundation, a large grant-making charity, has stated that it will also increase its scrutiny of animal welfare enforcement for all universities that submit grants. Decisions like this one mark a significant change from the days when many experimenters could do exactly as they pleased to animals with little to no consequences.

I hope that you take pride in knowing that your financial support has helped PETA achieve all these important victories (and more!) for animals. Thank you!

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President
People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals