Written by Jeff Mackey
Floyd was purchased from a California breeder, and like so many of the purebreds sold as mere "inventory" by puppy mills and other animal peddlers, the bulldog puppy's health suffered because the breeder focused on the bottom line rather than proper care.
So Young, So Much Suffering
By mating related dogs, breeders are essentially inbreeders, leading to a host of hereditary defects —it's estimated that one in four purebred dogs suffers from serious congenital health problems. After two veterinarians diagnosed Floyd with congenital kidney disease, his guardian urged the breeder to stop breeding the puppy's parents and notify the other people who had bought puppies from the same litter. The breeder callously dismissed her concerns, so she contacted officials with the American Kennel Club, but they merely suggested that she give the breeder a bad review online.
By the time PETA learned of Floyd's condition, the puppy was desperately ill, vomiting, lethargic, and barely able to eat or drink. Since he suffered from other health problems as well, a veterinarian determined that Floyd was a poor candidate for a transplant, the only treatment for his disease.
PETA's caseworker explained to Floyd's guardian that breeders frequently sell sick dogs and that the law often protects breeders more than the animals and their guardians. Floyd's guardian made the difficult but merciful decision to prevent Floyd from enduring further misery by having him euthanized.
What You Can Do
There is no such thing as a responsible breeder. Aside from the health problems that purebred dogs have, each dog and cat bred and sold by a breeder takes a home away from another animal waiting to be adopted at an animal shelter. Please don't contribute to the animal overpopulation crisis by buying animals from pet shops or breeders—always adopt from a reputable animal shelter or rescue.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
A little-known restaurant in Hermosa Beach, California, must have thought it was being sly. The restaurant was selling a hamburger topped with foie gras when California's ban on the sale of the cruelly produced, diseased duck liver went into effect on July 1. After the ban was in place, the restaurant continued to serve the foie gras burger but tried to be crafty by changing the menu to read that people who purchased the burger would receive a free side of foie gras. But PETA wasn't buying it.
We contacted the Hermosa Beach Police Department, but with a lot on their plates, they haven't gotten around to the case. So we've taken the matter to court, filing suit against the restaurant, called Hot's Kitchen, for engaging in unlawful business practices.
Of course, selling foie gras isn't just unlawful—it's despicable. Every PETA undercover investigation of a foie gras farm has revealed that ducks often choke to death when workers ram hard metal tubes down their throats to force-feed them and that ducks' organs often rupture from the excessive amounts of grain that are pumped into their stomachs. One duck had a gaping hole in his neck that was so severe that water spilled from it when he drank. And two ducks whose organs had swelled so large that they could not move were being eaten alive by rats.
Foie gras production is so cruel that 15 countries have banned it, including the U.K., Germany, and Australia, and more U.S. states will likely follow California's lead. And PETA intends to make sure that greedy restaurant owners won't get away with underhandedly hawking this "delicacy of despair."
Written by PETA
Motorcycle engines roaring, 2,000 bikers gathered to show off their rides, listen to country music … and chow down on some vegan "beef" jerky at the annual Love Ride in California on Sunday. PETA's two sexy Lettuce Ladies could barely keep up with the demand as they handed out pieces of Primal Strips jerky and PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kits.
In addition to coming back for second helpings of delicious vegan jerky, Love Ride attendees were hungry for information about improving their own health and preventing cruelty to animals by adopting a plant-based diet. Don't be left in the dust: Check out our free guide to adopting a vegan diet today!
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Tuesday night, in a vote that met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation, the Irvine, California, City Council made the groundbreaking move to simultaneously ban rodeos, circuses that use exotic animals, and retail sales of cats and dogs, making it the first city in the country to ban all three in one fell swoop.
PETA had notified supporters about the pending Irvine vote and urged them to attend the meeting or contact City Council members, and their input was obviously heard loud and clear. Thanks to Irvine's new laws, elephants will be safe from bullhook beatings, horses and bulls will no longer break their backs after being goaded into bucking, and puppy mills will no longer be paid to churn out litters of sickly, unsocialized puppies.
To help pass similar laws in your community, contact your city council members, or e-mail Info@peta.org. For updates on any proposed animal-related laws in your area, join PETA's Action Team.
After the Sacramento Superior Court ordered the spin doctors behind the blatantly false "Happy Cows" advertising campaign to hand over to PETA thousands of pages of records they wrongfully claimed were "trade secrets," it became obvious why the agencies wanted to keep the documents under wraps.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is required to ensure that the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) doesn’t make baseless (let alone outlandish) marketing claims. However, even though the CDFA searched thousands of records, it couldn't produce so much as a single page that substantiated the ad claims. The CDFA and the CMAB have conspired for years to mislead consumers into thinking that dairy cows in California are somehow spared the horrors of the abusive dairy factory-farming industry.
The documents also show that PETA’s campaign against the "Happy Cows" deception led to the ads' demise, and the records support our claim that the CMAB's newest propaganda, the "Family Farms" campaign, is just as tall a tale. We are working to have those ads pulled and sent into the deep recesses of the CMAB's archives of lies. The judge also ordered the CDFA to pay PETA's attorneys' fees and costs over the wrongfully withheld documents.
Unless California's milk producers are all auditioning for impostor spots on To Tell the Truth, they need to learn the difference between fact and fiction. You can avoid funding their lies by throwing the support of your dairy dollars behind real cruelty-free milks like rice, soy, and almond milk.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
After hearing from PETA and concerned area residents, Glendale, California, Mayor Laura Friedman has proposed changing the city's float entry for the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade from a "circus elephant"—which represents pain and suffering—to one of an elephant in a natural setting.
Check out the draft design idea that PETA submitted to the mayor and city council for an "Elephant Freedom" float:
Please ask the Glendale City Council to support Mayor Friedman's kind position.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Citing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' constant abuse of animals, several influential California humane societies—the Marin Humane Society, the East Bay SPCA, the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, and the Sacramento SPCA—are publicly calling for a boycott of the circus, asking families to stay away from Ringling performances scheduled for the San Francisco Bay Area over the next few weeks.
The elephants used in this production—three of whom are 50 and older—are forced to perform the same silly, repetitive, and uncomfortable tricks year after year. Assan and Baby were born in Asia, were taken from their families, and have been used by Ringling for more than 40 years. At the end of the circus's recent run in Anaheim, an elephant named Sarah, a 54-year-old wild-captured elephant with a history of infection, about whom we have complained, collapsed while being loaded into a railroad car.
Kudos to these humane societies for taking a firm stand against blatant animal abuse. Please, ask your local humane society to follow their example by publicly asking families to stay away from Ringling Bros. Circus and never patronize a circus that uses live animals. Contact our Action Team for help.
Fireworks are being blamed for the recent deaths of 5,000 birds in Arkansas. The professional-grade explosives scared red-winged blackbirds and European starlings out of their nests and sent them into panicked flight. The night-blind birds crashed into houses, signs, and other obstacles, causing blunt-force trauma and death.
As this case shows, fireworks displays are disastrous for animals. Besides being frightening, fireworks produce plumes of smoke that are harmful to animals' respiratory systems and pollute standing water. The California Coastal Commission banned the city of Gualala's fireworks display after a 2006 show caused nesting seabirds to flee their nests and abandon their chicks. Fireworks are also being blamed for the deaths of about 50 birds found dead on a street in Sweden earlier this year. Animal shelters also report an increase in the number of lost animal companions following fireworks displays. Many animals go missing because they panic and jump over fences or break chains; some even jump through plate-glass windows in order to get away from the terrifying sounds.
You can help birds and other animals by asking officials in your town to ban fireworks and switch to laser light shows, which provide all the awe of fireworks displays but are more affordable and kinder to animals and the environment.
Courtesy of California's Department of Motor Vehicles, drivers in the Golden State will soon get a refresher on the importance of not leaving their canine companions in ovens-on-wheels hot cars. Starting next year, the California Driver Handbook will include text warning drivers never to leave dogs in hot vehicles and pointing out that doing so is illegal and can result in fines and jail time (not to mention a dead dog or an expensive vet bill).
California is the first state in the nation to include this warning in its driver's manual—PETA will be pushing other states to follow its lead! And since the dog days of summer are still going strong, let's continue to be watchdogs for animals whose guardians flunked driver's training 101 or have become distracted inside a store.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Mobilized by PETA's Action Team, more than 200 people descended on the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, last night to let Ringling Bros. know that its elephant-abusing act isn't welcome.
The highlight of the evening came when protestors chanted, "There's no excuse for animal abuse—boycott Ringling circus," so loudly that they drowned out a Ringling promoter. At the time, the promoter was talking about Baby Barack—probably in a shameless attempt to hawk show tickets. Even after turning up the volume on his amplified microphone, the promoter was still overpowered and had no choice but to pack up his gear and leave!
PETA isn't alone in opposing Ringling, which allows its trainers to beat elephants with sharp, metal-tipped bullhooks to force the animals to perform; tears baby elephants away from their mothers; and keeps these smart, social animals in chains. In a historic partnership, four Northern California animal protection groups—the Marin Humane Society, East Bay SPCA, Humane Society Silicon Valley, and the Sacramento SPCA—have joined forces to ask everyone to boycott Ringling in response to its cruelty. We can take action, too, by asking officials to seize Ringling's abused elephants and by urging everyone we know to attend only animal-free circuses.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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