Good News for Animals
I’m happy to share with you good news for these animals, thanks to the hard work of the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals. Quoting a letter from PETA:
Animals No Longer Given Away as Carnival Prizes
When someone contacted us about a Dalhart, Texas, carnival in which live rabbits, ducks, and chicks were being given away as prizes at a ring-toss booth, PETA was on the case right away. Many of these animals were reportedly being drowned, run over, tossed off Ferris wheels, and dumped alive into trash cans by the people who won them. PETA convinced the carnival operator to adopt a permanent policy against using animals as prizes, and the ring-toss vendor’s contract was terminated.
You might think that a case like this is rare, but it isn’t at all. PETA handles hundreds of individual cruelty cases just like this one every month—and every time, we do whatever we can to get positive results for the animals involved. > A blog entry about this issue
Verizon Pulls Ad With Harmful Message About Pit Bulls
Telecommunications giant Verizon is no longer running a cell phone commercial that featured two growling, chained pit bulls—whose ears were cut in a “fighting crop”—guarding a junkyard. Pit bulls are possibly the most abused breed of dogs, and this commercial sent the message that it is acceptable to chain them to junked cars and use them as cheap security devices. According to animal behaviorists (and common sense), chained dogs often become agitated, frustrated, and aggressively protective of their tiny territories. When chained dogs break free, children are most often the victims of their aggression.
PETA contacted Verizon about the ad’s damaging message, but Verizon failed to respond. So PETA issued an action alert to our members, which generated more than 7,000 e-mails to two company executives! Two days after PETA contacted Verizon, the ad was gone! With your help, PETA continues to work to get anti-chaining ordinances passed and to quash the cruelty of using dogs as disposable toys and living burglar alarms.
This little case is the latest example of PETA pressure that has caused a major corporation to drop an ad that uses live animals in a disrespectful manner or depicts animals in any way that could contribute to their suffering. Subaru, Honda, and PUMA are just a few of the other companies we’ve changed for the better.
Anjelica Huston Helps Expose Cruelty to Great Apes
PETA’s exposé on the abuse of great apes by the film, television, and advertising industries was recently distributed to all major U.S. studios. Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston narrates our powerful video, which urges people in the entertainment industry never to use great apes. She describes how newborn chimpanzees and orangutans are taken away from their highly protective mothers and often beaten with fists and blackjacks—and even kicked in the head—during terrifying training sessions.
The video features undercover footage taken by a PETA investigator at a pseudo-sanctuary where we found a chimpanzee who reportedly had been used in the filming of Planet of the Apes. This poor old chimpanzee was living in an underground cement pit strewn with rotted food and feces. Many “performing” chimpanzees suffer similar fates; they are simply discarded or sold away to shoddy roadside zoos or given to pseudo-sanctuaries when they grow too strong to be handled. The video received a hearty endorsement by the Los Angeles Times and is making waves throughout the entertainment industry.
This is the latest salvo in our campaign to help great apes—and it’s working. As a direct result of PETA’s efforts, great apes are no longer used in ads run by numerous companies, including Honda, PUMA, Subaru, MovieTickets.com, furniture chain HomeUSA Warehouse, Keds, Yahoo!, and car dealership Malouf Ford. That’s great news!
None of these important victories for animals could have been won without the support of PETA members like you. Thank you for giving PETA the power to fight and win the battle against animal abuse!
Kind regards,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President
Source: People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals