Written by PETA
Demi Moore is making a decent proposal to the Fulton County, Georgia, Board of Commissioners. The actor is urging boardmembers to vote in favor of a proposed ban on bullhooks tomorrow. In her letter, Moore explained how elephants used in circuses are beaten bloody with the sharp instruments to force them to perform tricks that are unnatural and meaningless to the animals.
Today, elephant sanctuaries and most zoos―including Zoo Atlanta―never use bullhooks or other weapon-like tools to punish elephants ... I hope you will extend that inherent decency to elephants used in circuses. I urge you to ban bullhooks. The elephants deserve our kindness, respect, and protection.
Join Demi Moore in showing the Fulton County Commissioners that there is widespread disgust over cruel bullhooks.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
While serving as the honorary crueltymaster ringmaster at a performance of the Atlanta-based UniverSoul Circus, Clayton County Commissioner Eldrin Bell made a grand mistake by making a grand entrance on an elephant. It seems as though the commish might need a refresher on state law, because riding an elephant is illegal in Georgia.
Now the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is investigating UniverSoul Circus and the company that leased it the elephant. Not surprisingly, UniverSoul's animal suppliers have repeatedly failed to meet the minimum standards for animal care required by the Animal Welfare Act. Apparently, one of the conditions of UniverSoul's state exotic-animal permit is not allowing anyone to ride an exotic animal. Possible penalties for breaking the rules include fines and revocation of permits. Can we vote for both?
Maybe this will teach Bell to limit his elephant rides to Dumbo The Flying Elephant at Disney World.
A beluga whale named Nico died this week at SeaWorld San Antonio, where he was being temporarily housed while the Georgia Aquarium underwent renovations. This marks the third time in the last three years that a beluga whale from the Georgia Aquarium has died.
The cause of Nico's death has not yet been determined, but according to aquarium officials, he was already ailing when he was obtained from a Mexican aquarium along with another beluga whale, Gasper, who died in January 2007. The aquarium's two surviving whales, Maris and Natasha, are on loan from the New York Aquarium. A third beluga whale from New York, Marina, also died in 2007.
In a chirpy news release announcing the arrival of Maris, Natasha, and Marina in 2005, the aquarium expressed the hope that "we soon [will] have baby beluga whales."
In the same news release, the aquarium announced the arrival of Ralph and Norton, two whale sharks who—you guessed it—are now dead. Seeing a trend here?
Instead of swimming freely in the sea, animals at aquariums are relegated to a world that's measured in feet instead of fathoms. Beluga whales are extremely social animals who—when left to their own devices—play, chase each other, and interact in extended pods. They have been called "sea canaries" because of their complex vocalizations, which they use to communicate with each other.
In captivity, these whales have little room for exercise and are cut off from their natural social groups. While they might not have to face natural enemies, the stress of captivity is apparently the scariest "predator" of all.
Written by Alisa Mullins
As hard as it is to believe, animal shelters in some states—including Georgia and North Carolina—continue to kill unwanted animals in gas chambers, with all the accompanying horror that such an image conjures. Fortunately, legislation has been introduced in both states to ban these horrendous contraptions for good.
It can take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes for animals to die in gas chambers. Oftentimes, they bark, meow, howl, whine, gasp for breath, fight to claw their way out of the chamber, vomit, convulse, and/or urinate and defecate in terror. Animals sometimes have to be gassed repeatedly before they die. Some animals—like Davie, the North Carolina bill's namesake—have been known to "wake up" later after being put in a freezer or dumped at a landfill.
To get a better idea of the horror that these animals go through, just look at these pictures of some of the gas chambers that are currently being used:
Linda Cordry, an animal control officer in Liberty County, Ga., has written in support of Georgia's bill. "I know from firsthand experience that the gas chamber is a barbaric piece of equipment," she says. "I can say without qualification that being killed in a gas chamber is terrifying for the animals and heartbreaking for the humans involved. It is the ultimate nightmare, and no horror film could even come close to depicting the experience."
Both Georgia's and North Carolina's laws would require that animal shelters use only intravenous injections of sodium pentobarbital to euthanize animals. This is key because, in addition to using gas chambers, some animal shelters in rural areas still shoot unwanted animals. No, I'm not making that up. I wish I were.
If you live in North Carolina, click here to find your representative so that you can speak up about this legislation. Time is of the essence—the Georgia bill will be killed if a Senate version isn't introduced by March 12, so if you live there, click here to find your representative's contact info. If you don't live in North Carolina or Georgia, you can leave a comment below in support of these new bills.
A 5-year-old girl in Thomasville, Georgia, has died of her injuries after she was reportedly attacked by her family's pit bulls while she was playing on a trampoline.
Carol Jones, the executive director of the Thomas County Humane Society, missed the point when she responded to this attack by telling people to "be cautious of their family pets. They can turn on you at any time, and it doesn't matter what kind of dog." It's ridiculous to suggest that people be constantly suspicious of Fido when the real reason for this tragedy can be found elsewhere in the article—the part where it says the dogs attacked the child when they "broke free of their chains."
Leaving dogs chained outside creates a risk of injury for children or anyone else who might wander into the yard. Chained dogs kill more children than do fireworks accidents and falls from trees and playground equipment combined, according to a 2002 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dogs who spend a lot of time alone or chained are more prone to become aggressive and bite, while dogs who are socialized and enjoy life with their human "pack" are generally protective of their guardians without being a danger to the community.
January is "Unchain a Dog" month. Chained dogs everywhere experience stress and confinement that put them in danger of going mad and attacking someone, and many dogs suffer and die every year during winter's bitter cold and summer's blistering heat. Please make a promise to all dogs who are trapped at the end of a chain in your neighborhood that you will do something—anything—to help them.
Written by Jeff Mackey
1. The dude speaks, like, five languages. 2. That actually was him and his drummer Tommy Larkins doing the musical interludes in There’s Something About Mary.3. Jonathan Richman is a vegan. I confirmed this indirectly when I ran into him at the amazing vegetarian restaurant The Grit (yet another reason why Athens is the greatest town in the country) and mumbled incoherently at him. Here’s what he says in a 2004 interview:
Do you identify yourself as a vegetarian? JR: It’s a great question. Right now I identify as vegan. I’m not strict, 100%. Every once in a while in some country, someone’s mother will make somethin’ and I’m not gonna ask grandma...you know like she’s there, she’s got her apron on and she spent four hours and I’m a guest at her house. I’m not gonna say, “Excuse me is there oleo Margarine and is there hydrogenated this-and-that. Nah, I eat somethin’. You know, I do the best I can. Left to my own devices I’m mostly a vegan.
Right on, Jonathan. No need to get vegan police-y with the grandmas. Anyway, here he is, doing his thing. Enjoy.
This is pretty rad. It's a website that gives experts in various fields a forum to explain their point of view on a wide array of topics related to their specific area of knowledge. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has a page of video responses to questions that run the gamut from what the biggest misconceptions are about the animal rights movement to where human rights and animal rights diverge. I've posted a video below on the topic of why PETA uses graphic imagery to get the message across, and you can see the rest of Ingrid's video interviews (there are, like, 30 of them) here. Good stuff.
In case you missed it last night, here’s PETA President Ingrid Newkirk on Colbert talking about everything from her plans for her will to her recent book Making Kind Choices. Best Colbert Report ever, if you ask me.
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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