Written by Alisa Mullins
The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2013, which Congress is currently considering, could keep hens used by the egg industry confined to cages forever. The legislation is spearheaded by the industry's trade association, the United Egg Producers, and, if passed, may overturn existing bans on cages for hens and legitimize and engrain so-called "enriched" or "furnished" cages at a time when many people and corporations are advocating for a move away from all cages. We at PETA are pragmatists and support reduced suffering, but even an egg industry lawyer has said that the humane groups who support this bill have "caved":
Misleadingly named "furnished" cages can house as many as 60 birds. The allotted space is still minuscule, the noise is overwhelming, the stress factors are enormous, the privacy a hen seeks in nature for her egg-laying activities is not available to her, and veterinary care is totally lacking. Such cages are not even remotely humane. At best, they are slightly less cruel. It is time for true reform, not industry-fueled deception. Please join us in opposing all cages for hens on egg farms.
What You Can Do
You can help protect hens by e-mailing your representatives and urging them to vote against the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2013.
You can also help by never buying any eggs (even so-called "free-range" eggs usually come from hens confined to filthy factory-farm conditions). Instead of eggs, try scrambled tofu for breakfast, and use egg replacers such as mashed tofu, cornstarch, and ground flaxseeds in your baked goods.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
After he heard about the deadly experiments that the University of Wisconsin–Madison is performing on cats, Randall made a video against it that is so convincing that it could make even the honey badger care.
Randall's buddy Bret Lockett of the New York Jets gave animals an awesome shout-out, too, during an interview with Integral Yoga Magazine:
I don't believe in torturing animals. I've been doing a lot of research and found out about a lot I didn't know, so I joined PETA's 'Ink, Not Mink' ad series urging others to show off their unique tattoos rather than wearing fur. Having played football in New England, where winters are harsh, I knew firsthand that there was no excuse—not even weather extremes—for wearing fur and that there are plenty of other fashionable, warm materials to wear that weren't made by harming animals. I challenged my fans to watch PETA's undercover video footage of fur farms, just like I did. I wanted everyone to know that, for every fur coat, collar or piece of trim, millions of foxes, minks, coyotes, rabbits and even cats and dogs were violently killed with wire nooses. Many of these animals are even skinned alive. The only way to combat this cruelty is by never buying or wearing fur or fur trim.
Bret would likely be pleased with Glamour UK's pick for the best-dressed celebrity: Fervently fur-free Kristen Stewart tops the magazine's list for the second year in a row.
And Perez Hilton graced us with a gallery of the best-undressed celebs: 30 of PETA's hottest nude anti-fur ads.
In the same spirit, here's our gallery of the best celebrity tweets of the week:
Pamela Anderson probably gets asked out via Twitter and other means every day. But she's offering to take a certain fellow out to dinner. Who's the lucky guy? Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Pam wants to talk to the bachelor president about helping to get Mali, the 39-year-old ailing elephant who is alone in the Manila Zoo, transferred to a sanctuary in Thailand.
Fellow screen icon and animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot is making another man an offer he shouldn't refuse. Brigitte joined PETA UK's campaign to get British retailer Fortnum & Mason to stop selling vile foie gras, with a letter to the store's managing director, Ewan Venters, that said, in part, "Tradition is never an excuse for animal cruelty."
You would probably never catch Vanessa Hudgens eating foie gras, but you would catch her grabbing lunch at North Hollywood's Lotus Vegan restaurant.
Where else can you catch your favorite celebs? Tweeting with PETA.
Written by PETA
We adore ESPN sportscaster Neil Everett not just because he loves The Big Lebowski or because he hails from Portland, one of the most vegan-friendly cities on the continent, or for his lovable sense of humor and the fact that he has interviewed a duck. We love him 10 times more because he always roots for the underdog by advocating animal adoption.
Neil stopped by PETA's Los Angeles Bob Barker Building with his canine family members, Pickle and Scooby, to chat with us about shelter "underdogs," giving companion animals the love and attention that they deserve, and the dog and cat overpopulation crisis.
Looks like Pickle and Scooby have hit a home run!
Written by Jeff Mackey
Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) is the last facility in the country that still abuses cats for Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) training, in defiance of modern science and ethics. Now PETA has obtained alarming undercover video footage of cats being subjected to these cruel training exercises in a recent WUSTL PALS course conducted in conjunction with St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Despite the availability of superior, lifelike simulators, which are used instead of animals at all of the more than 1,000 other PALS training facilities in the U.S., WUSTL continues to lock nine cats in its laboratories. Several times a year, trainees repeatedly force hard plastic tubes down the animals' delicate windpipes in a crude attempt to learn to intubate human infants.
The video shows unskilled trainees struggling for several minutes to intubate two helpless cats named Elliott and Jessie, botching the attempts to shove tubes down their windpipes and mishandling metal instruments in ways that could break the cats' teeth. As several participants in the video note, the inadequately anesthetized cats even begin to wake up during the procedure.
A WUSTL veterinarian is seen discussing how each cat is subjected to as many as 15 intubations each session, even though studies show that intubating animals more than five times per session can cause pain and trauma. The veterinarian and course leader also admit that some cats' windpipes are injured during the exercise, which can cause potentially fatal bleeding, swelling, scarring, and collapsed lungs. Each of the cats held captive at WUSTL is subjected to this miserable procedure up to four times a year.
Even the American Heart Association (AHA), which created the curriculum and sponsors the PALS course, confirmed to PETA last month, "We do not endorse or require the use of animals during the AHA-PALS training because of advances and availability of simulation mannequins."
Please urge officials at WUSTL and St. Louis Children's Hospital to stop causing cats to suffer for intubation training and to use effective, non-animal training methods instead.
Musician and songwriter Russ Irwin clearly has talent to spare—in addition to his years as a keyboardist and backing vocalist with Aerosmith (and cowriting the band's 2012 hit, "What Could Have Been Love"), he has performed with many of music's leading acts, including Sting, Cheap Trick, and PETA fave Bryan Adams.
Now, in an exclusive new video for PETA, Russ shows that he has plenty of heart and soul to match his musical skills as he relates how he chose to go vegan out of concern for animals, his health, and the environment:
Russ' new solo album is titled Get Me Home—and you can bring home some of his style of compassion with your own free vegetarian/vegan starter kit from PETA.
Update: You asked for it—you got it. Because of the overwhelming response to this piece, we are publishing it once more to give our supporters a chance to share it on Twitter and Facebook and spread the message about the cruelty of factory farms far and wide.
The following was originally posted on November 9, 2012:
Paul McCartney famously said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian." So an intrepid group of animal advocates found a way to bring the slaughterhouse to the sidewalk. Every Saturday night, volunteers Jennifer Mennuti and Boyd Weidman screen PETA's "Factory Farming in 60 Seconds Flat" for passersby on Miami's busy Lincoln Road.
For many people, it's the first time they are staring into the faces of the animals they call "steak," "ham," or "nugget." There in front of them is the irrefutable evidence that their "entrée" was a cow who coughed and choked as the blood spilling from her slit throat ran down her face and covered the floor below, a pig who screamed and cried as he was burned to death in scalding-hot water, a chicken whose desperate squawks went unheeded as her broken legs were slammed into shackles and she stared past the long line of her comrades to the whirring blades that would end her life. A photographer caught some of the people's reactions, and it seems Paul was right.
PETA supporter Andrew Kirschner, who hosts a radio talk show about animal rights, published the photos on his blog, Kirschner's Corner, accompanied by the real-life experiences of slaughterhouse workers, taken from Gail A. Eisnitz's book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry.
© Serg Alexander/Eyeworks Production
"I could tell you horror stories… about cattle getting their heads stuck under the gate guards and the only way you can get it out is to cut their heads off while they're still alive."
"One time I took my knife – it's sharp enough – and I sliced off the end of a hog's nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt in my hand – I was wearing a rubber glove – and I stuck the salt right up the hog's ass. The poor hog didn't know whether to **** or go blind."
"I've seen live animals shackled, hoisted, stuck, and skinned. Too many to count, too many to remember. It's just a process that's continually there. I've seen shackled beef looking around before they've been stuck. I've seen hogs [that are supposed to be lying down] on the bleeding conveyor get up after they've been stuck. I've seen hogs in the scalding tub trying to swim."
"These hogs get up to the scalding tank, hit the water and start screaming and kicking. Sometimes they thrash so much they kick water out of the tank… Sooner or later they drown. There's a rotating arm that pushes them under, no chance for them to get out. I'm not sure if they burn to death before they drown, but it takes them a couple of minutes to stop thrashing."
"Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in a chute that's had the **** prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole [anus]. You're dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen hams – thighs – completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward."
"Sometimes I grab it [a hog] by the ear and stick it right through the eye. I'm not just taking its eye out, I'll go all the way to the hilt, right up through the brain, and wiggle the knife."
"Pigs on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them – beat them to death with a pipe."
"Only you don't just kill it, you go in hard, push hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit. It would just be looking up at me and I'd be sticking, and I would just take my knife and – cut its eye out while it was just standing there. And this hog would just scream."
"I seen guys take broomsticks and stick it up the cow's behind, screwing them with a broom."
"He'll kick them [hogs], fork them, use anything he can get his hands on. He's already broken three pitchforks so far this year, just jabbing them. He doesn't care if he hits its eyes, head, butt. He jabs them so hard he busts the wooden handles. And he clubs them over the back."
"I've drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs… And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop."
Do people ask why you're vegan? Maybe it's time to share this video with them:
Then perhaps it's time to ask them the real question: "Why aren't you vegan?"
Pretty, pleasant Pia Toscano bears a striking resemblance to another PETA pal—Lea Michele—and the similarities don't stop at their lovely faces, with voices to match and rhyming monikers. Like Lea, Pia jumped at the chance to use her platform to help stop cruelty to animals.
In her debut single, "This Time," Pia bids a powerful adieu to a bad boyfriend. And she thinks it's time that everyone broke up with two businesses that are bad for animals: the fur industry and circuses.
In an exclusive interview with PETA, Pia expounded, "It was very difficult for me to watch the videos on how fur coats are made and how these animals are brutally beaten and skinned alive. There's no excuse for that." And when talk turned to the circus, she was quick to express her disgust. "I'm a performer, and I make a conscious decision every time I get up on that stage to do what I love, but these animals, they don't have a choice, they don't have a voice, and they are not choosing this lifestyle."
Since animals don't get to choose not to be forced to perform or killed for their fur, as Pia notes, it's up to us to add our voices to the ever-growing chorus of people speaking up for them.
How did you celebrate your last birthday? Did you have dinner at a nice restaurant? Take in a ballgame? Go to your friend's house for a surprise party? PETA Foundation staffer Kendall Bryant—aka "The Straw Boss"—would have none of that. She spent her birthday delivering straw bedding to cold dogs in North Carolina with her accomplice Dan "CircusesHurtAnimals.com" Carron. And because Kendall is a talented photographer and videographer, she documented her trip and turned it into a must-see video:
Kendall and Dan met pit bulls Tyson, Diamond, Pretty, and Tiger, who were all struggling to stay warm as best they could during the first snowfall of the winter. You can tell by their furiously wagging tails that they were nearly as thrilled to get some attention as they were to get fluffy straw, a hearty meal, and, in the case of Tyson, a lightweight tie-out to replace his heavy logging chain.
The pair also helped Bear, a golden retriever mix whose drinking water had frozen solid, and a pack of beagles, possibly used for hunting, who eagerly gobbled up the food that they were offered. (Many people don't realize that dogs kept outside in the wintertime burn more calories to keep warm and therefore need more food.)
In total, Kendall and Dan helped 18 dogs, three rabbits, a cat, and a rooster that day. I'd call that a birthday well spent.
Written by Jennifer OConnor
Nearly 10 years after she was liberated from the sweltering hell of a Mexican circus, Alaska, the bear who was the impetus for the eventual seizure of all seven bears held captive by the Suarez Bros. Circus, has died at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Estimated to be in her late 20s—old age for a polar bear—Alaska was euthanized because of kidney failure.
It almost sounds like an Onion spoof—polar bears in a Mexican circus. But it was no joke. The Suarez Bros. Circus—which, coincidentally, is in the news this week after a handler was mauled to death by a tiger—was hauling the dejected bears around Mexico and the Caribbean in cramped cages without access to water for swimming, something that polar bears desperately crave. A whistleblower leaked videotape showing the overheated bears pacing in small cages and panting constantly. The bears where struck and whipped in order to force them to perform ridiculous tricks.
PETA dug into the bears' backgrounds and uncovered evidence indicating that Alaska may not have been born at Zoo Atlanta, as the circus had claimed on her import application. After we reported our suspicions to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the service used DNA testing to prove conclusively that Alaska's identity had been "stolen," a violation of federal law. The FWS fined the circus $120,000 and sent Alaska to the Maryland Zoo, where she lived with fellow polar bears Magnet and Anoki.
When Alaska first arrived at the zoo, she was sick, lethargic, filthy, and, her caretakers soon learned, deaf. Free at last from the cramped cage, she explored her surroundings and swam in a pool for the first time in years. Rancid scraps were replaced with wholesome, healthy food. There were no more frightening and confusing tricks. Alaska's battered body and broken spirit began to heal.
Alaska is an inspiring example of how animals can recover from years of deprivation if given the opportunity. Her courage and dignity should stand as testament to all the animals whose health and sanity are sacrificed in the name of "entertainment" in circuses. May she rest in peace.
Ever wonder what hens would say if they could describe their lives on egg factory farms? Wonder no more:
"For as long as I can remember, I've been locked in this crowded, filthy cage," says the "hen" in the video. "Day after day, month after month, this is my entire life."
Hens crammed into cages on egg farms barely have room to lift a wing, much less take more than a step or two in any direction. But while consumers are increasingly concerned about the way in which they're raised, rather than being rid of cages altogether, hens are in danger of being confined to cages indefinitely. But they don't need slightly larger cages or "enriched" cages—they need no cages.
The only way to ensure that hens escape the hell of being confined to abysmally crowded, filthy cages or huge warehouses is never to buy eggs (even so-called "free-range" eggs).
Instead of eggs, try scrambled tofu for breakfast, and use egg replacers such as mashed tofu, cornstarch, and ground flaxseeds in your baked goods.
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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