PETA Global 2019 Issue 1

TAIWAN

CHINA

USA

USA

‘Happy’ Turkeys? Wake Up, Shoppers!

TAMU Can’t Silence PETA

PETA Asia’s animatronic talking bear, Bobo, has a new home: the National Zoological Museum of China. Voiced by actor Janine Chang, the bear has traveled the country and now has pride of place at the museum’s busy main entrance, where she tells visitors about being kidnapped, abused, and eventually rescued from a circus. As one little boy’s mother said, “I feel guilty and angry because I was fooled by the circus.” She and her son – along with thousands of other compassionate people – have pledged to boycott circuses after hearing Bobo’s moving story. Beijing Museum Welcomes Bobo the Bear

PETA Versus Deadly Pigeon Races

Just before the holidays, PETA released eyewitness video (watch it at PETA.org/HeritageTurkeys ) revealing the suffering of so-called “happy” and “heritage” turkeys, who are sold for exorbitant prices and have been featured by Vogue and Martha Stewart. The footage shows workers at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Kansas grabbing and yanking the birds by the neck, wing, or leg and shoving them into filthy, cramped cages for a 12-hour trek to slaughter, without food or water. The ordeal was so stressful that some turkeys didn ’ t survive it. Truly happy turkeys? That would be the 16 in Utah PETA helped save from slaughter, who will live happily ever after in sanctuaries.

A groundbreaking PETA exposé of Taiwan’s notorious pigeon-racing clubs led to gambling charges against 164 racers – the greatest number of individuals ever to face prosecution as a result of a PETA investigation. As a PETA billboard at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport highlights, the vast majority of the birds – who have to fly hundreds of miles over the ocean to reach land – drown or die of exhaustion. In the races that took place last summer and fall, only 147 of 12,423 pigeons survived. If they somehow manage to make it through but don’t win any lucrative prizes, the greedy gamblers typically break their necks. Cheating is also common: In China, two men tried to rig a race by smuggling four pigeons on a bullet train to the finish line. The animals were then killed in an effort to conceal the crime.

After colluding to quash PETA’s right to protest painful muscular dystrophy (MD) experiments on dogs, Texas A&MUniversity (TAMU) and its local police department clearly need a free-speech refresher course. A PETA staffer was arrested and banned from school property for writing “Shut the Dog Lab Down Now” in chalk on a public sidewalk, another was taken to court for projecting a PETA ad onto a building near the university, and Johnathon Byrne, who has MD, protested at an alumni event, was thrown out by police, and then was shaken down at the airport on his way home to the UK. PETA has successfully challenged two of these cases so far, and 500 physicians – including 100 who have treated human patients withMD – are urging the school to end the cruel experiments. Take Action Now Please visit PETA.org/TAMU to urge the university to close its MD dog laboratory, stop breeding these dogs, and release all those in its possession

Dolphins: © iStock.com/KeongDaGreat • Taiwan Ad: Pigeon: © iStock.com/Alex Potemkin • Plane: © iStock.com/ggyykk • Smoke: © iStock.com/ChiccoDodiFC • Background: © iStock.com/HadelProductions

Take Action Now Please visit PETA.org/Pigeons and urge the Taiwanese government to ban cruel pigeon races.

CANADA

UK

for adoption into good homes.

USA

USA

‘LOVE ISLAND’ STARS JUMP INTO ACTION Love is in the air! Laura Anderson, Laura Crane, and Samira Mighty – stars of the British reality dating show Love Island – joined the ever-growing movement against fur by calling for a ban on fur sales outside Parliament. “Like PETA, I think that killing animals for their fur is totally unjustifiable and unfair,” says Mighty. “With so many amazing, warm, and stylish cruelty-free options out there, there’s just no need to buy fur from a fox, a rabbit, a coyote, or any other animal!” Although the UK banned fur farming in 2000, Britain continues to import and sell fur. A petition signed by more than 100,000 people triggered a parliamentary debate, during which many MPs expressed support for a ban on all fur sales. UK readers, please visit PETA.org.uk/FurFreeBritain to sign PETA UK’s petition and keep up the pressure.

Roadside exhibitors don’t get much worse than Wildlife in Need, an Indiana facility that flouted federal law by declawing tigers and other big cats (two of whom died afterward). PETA sued to stop a veterinarian who was illegally performing the mutilations, and a historic federal consent order declared that performing declawing surgery on protected cats without medical necessity violates the US Endangered Species Act. The facility’s owner told the media that he would keep maiming big cats anyway, but the court’s ruling will make it hard for him to find a vet willing to carry out the procedure. PETA will keep up the pressure until all the animals there are moved to safe, reputable sanctuaries. Victory! PETA Declaws Reckless Roadside Exhibitor

Victory! Air Canada Bids SeaWorld Adieu When 113,000 PETA supporters speak up, companies listen. Air Canada certainly did. After the airline’s inbox was inundated with e-mails asking that it stop selling tickets to SeaWorld, it gave the orca abusers the boot. There’s more good news, too: The company’s compassionate decision was followed by passage of a bill by the Canadian Senate that would make it a crime to keep whales and dolphins in captivity.

PETA Shakes Up World Dairy Expo Armed with bandoliers full of carrots and raising the rallying cry “Dairy Is Revolting – Revolt!” PETA’s “commandos” stormed the World Dairy Expo inWisconsin to protest the horrors of dairy farming. “Revolt against the imprisonment, rape, kidnapping, and slaughter of cows and their calves,” they urged passersby. Take Action Now The way humans view animals and food is changing fast. Dairy sales are drying up as plant-basedmilks, ice creams, cheeses, and yogurts fly off the shelves. Join the revolution! Visit PETA.org/Revolt for shareable videos and other actions you can take to help cows.

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