PETA Global 2018 Issue 3

PetSmart

Edie Falco

Guinea pig: © Shutterstock.com/borsmenta • Price tag: © iStock.com/colevineyard

PETA: How did your awareness of animal rights issues come about? Edie: I started rescuing little animals when I was a kid. A guy I knew from the neighborhood was petting his cat, and he realized that the cat’s leg felt just like a chicken leg, and he had this awakening: The “why do we pet one and eat the other one?” idea hit him. He started this awakening for me about animal welfare, which had always been on my radar, but he put a fine point on it. PETA: You’ve been to the US Capitol on PETA’s behalf several times to meet with members of Congress about stabbing, shooting, and cutting the limbs off goats in military trauma training. What has that been like? Edie: Talking to people who agreed with me about the issues was heartening, but hearing the perspective of those who didn’t was impactful. As far as making change, I want to know what’s standing in the way of that change, how to get to the change, what we have to do, how … we have to approach the problem. PETA: Do you see animal rights as being on a par with other social justice movements? Edie: I do. It may well be our downfall that we do not take care of the most vulnerable around us: animals, people in war-torn regions, [the] poverty-stricken, women with the #MeToo movement. It’s time to face the fact that we are a part of a large, living, global society, and we all deserve respect and must care about each other. PETA’s 2015 Humanitarian Award winner, Edie Falco, is no shrinking violet. From her award-winning roles on The Sopranos and Nurse Jackie to her defense of animal rights, she speaks her mind on screen and off. She has spoken passionately against the way baby elephants are separated from their mothers in circuses and trained using force as well as the miserable lives of orcas kept for decades in SeaWorld tanks. She also urges everyone to steer clear of horse-drawn carriages because of the way the horses are exploited – in New York City or anywhere else. ‘It’s Our Job to Try to Take Care of Those Who Can’t Take Care of Themselves’

‘A HORRIBLE PLACE FOR ANIMALS’ PETA Busts Managers Who Prize Bonuses Over Sick Animals

Edie Falco: © Andrew Goldstein Photography Inc.

T o “keep costs down” and ensure that they got their bonuses, managers at pet-supply giant PetSmart denied veterinary care to sick, injured, and dying animals. At a store in Nashville, Tennessee, PETA discovered that employees opted not to seek help for severely ill animals, including a guinea pig named Faron, who suffered from an abscessed wound on his back, dehydration, and gastrointestinal stasis. PETA rescued him – as well as Townes, another guinea pig, who had an abscessed knee joint that had infected his heart and brain. When the managers refused to have the second animal treated, PETA’s eyewitness rushed him to a veterinarian. Left Alone in a Hurricane In Brandon, Florida, animals were left in containers on the shelves as Hurricane Irma pummeled the area: When workers returned four days later, some animals had escaped from cages, more than two dozen had no water, and some had died. Workers there also failed to seek veterinary care for Valencia, a critically ill parakeet, for at least five days – and he slowly died of starvation and dehydration. A hamster named Sybil apparently tried to chew off her own leg after it got caught in a water-bottle holder. Secrets and Lives At a PetSmart in Peoria, Arizona, which is minutes from company headquarters, a supervisor brushed aside

concerns about hamsters who were fighting as a result of extreme crowding with a joke about squeezing the animals “as hard as you can.” Most hamster species are solitary, but PetSmart often houses them together. A mouse named Ninetails wasn’t taken to a veterinarian for a pus-filled growth the size of a blueberry. He, too, was rescued by PETA’s eyewitness and now lives in a loving home. “I’m not going to take it to an emergency vet to get put down. … There’s no point in me paying that for a $15 animal.” – PetSmart store manager Management instructed PETA’s eyewitness not to tell customers that the store was selling fish from tanks in which the populations were found to be harboring a highly contagious disease. The company also stocked animals with diseases that are transmissible to humans, such as ringworm and coccidiosis. Managers Convicted of Cruelty Acting on evidence provided by PETA, Nashville’s Metro Animal Care & Control, assisted by police, raided

the store and seized six gravely ill mice and guinea pigs. Three managers pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals and were ordered to pay the animals’ medical bills. After being treated by a veterinarian for infections and skin problems, the animals reportedly showed improvement within just one week. Marketing Gimmicks With Whiskers These cases aren’t unusual. PETA has investigated other PetSmart stores and suppliers, each time revealing neglect and abuse. At one supplier, rats were thrown into plastic tubs, mice were crammed into filthy bins, and hamsters deemed unsaleable were put in a plastic bag and slammed against a table to kill them. PetSmart, which rakes in $7 billion a year, still supports this cruelty by selling small, inexpensive animals because it uses them as incentives to get customers to spend money on cages, tanks, and other “hard goods.”

PETA: We know that you attended the march against gun violence … Edie: I went with Lisa [Lange] and others from PETA. My favorite slogan was on my shirt. It said, “Vegans Against All Violence.” I love that slogan, because violence begets violence. Violent people are going to be violent against anyone weaker, and animals fall into that category. Sometimes angry people who can’t get back at their abuser will take it out on an animal. You raise a kid with violence in the house, chances are he’s going to be a violent kid – it’s just the way it is. It’s our job to try to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. PETA: How do you reach people with animal rights issues? Edie: One thing I do is try to lead by example. I’m vegan. Of course, I’ve never worn fur, and my fantastic, very fashionable coat is from a vegan company called Vaute Couture. What’s done to geese to get down is abominable, and this is a down alternative. It’s the warmest coat I’ve ever had in my life. Animals need our buying power and our voices!

One store supervisor summed it up: PetSmart is “a horrible place for animals.” That’s the truth.

Take Action Now PetSmart’s harmful business model is standard practice among big-box pet stores,

I T-shirts available at PETACatalog.com .

including Petco. Never buy anything, not even cat litter, from any store that sells animals. Instead buy supplies from businesses that don’t sell animals, such as Target or PetFlow.com. Watch and share PETA’s video exposé at PETA.org/PetSmart . Global 9

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SAVING ANIMALS LIKE A BOSS