It Took a Village to Save This Cat

Winter has come early this year—much of the U.S. and Canada is already experiencing subfreezing temperatures. New England had its coldest Thanksgiving on record. Buddy, a Doberman pinscher belonging to a homeless man in Montréal, reportedly froze to death in the man’s arms.

So when a cat named Pumpkin’s guardians had the same argument that they had every year about allowing her to come indoors during cold weather, her “dad” decided that he couldn’t bear to watch her shiver on the porch through another winter and knew it was time to give her a chance at a better life.

Pumpkin, a senior cat rescued by PETA

There was just one problem: Garysburg, the tiny North Carolina town where they live (population: 943), doesn’t have an animal shelter for cats—just like many other small towns.

Rescued senior cat Pumpkin licking her chops

Call it a Christmas miracle, but Pumpkin had the good fortune to wind up at Garysburg Town Hall, and PETA’s fieldworkers frequently assist officials there with spay/neuter and other animal control services. A kind city staffer took pity on Pumpkin and held onto her until a PETA fieldworker was able to drive down to pick her up and deliver her to a foster home.

Rescued senior cat Pumpkin being held by PETA staffer

Pumpkin’s foster mom reports that the 10-year-old cat is just as sweet as the pie she’s named after. Like a jack-o’-lantern, the goofy faces she makes always light up a room. We know someone out there is eager to give this gourdgeous girl a place where she can put down some roots. If that someone is you, drop us a vine, er, line at [email protected].

Rescued senior cat Pumpkin looks out the window at PETA headquarters

 

All fields in bold are mandatory.

Become a PETA First Responder (optional and available only to mobile users in the United States)

  I agree to the texting T&Cs. Message and data rates may apply.
Processing…

By submitting this form, you are agreeing to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal info in accordance with our privacy policy as well as to receiving e-mails from us.

After Discovering She Was Wearing Fur, This Actor Ditched It on the Spot

Anything can happen on the streets of New York City.

Just ask actor Bojana Novakovic, who chose compassion and ditched her fur trim on the spot after encountering an anti-fur demonstration outside the Dolce & Gabbana store in Soho over Thanksgiving weekend.

Bojana documented her experience on her personal Instagram page, showing how activists can truly make an impact by engaging the public. She says a demonstrator approached her and asked whether her hood was made from fur. Like many well-meaning consumers, she had assumed that it was faux—so when she found out that the trim was made of real fur, she allowed the person to remove it on the spot.

Bojana wrote that the demonstrator “also told me I could donate the fur trim … and it would go towards making beds for animals in shelters. I told her that sounded like a great idea and she offered to take it for me. So I let her.”

Bojana currently stars in the CBS drama Instinct—which means that we can now count two animal allies on the show, as she shares the screen with animal advocate and PETA friend Alan Cumming. We’re thrilled to see her promoting animal-free fashion and having the courage to share her story with fans.

Just because a coat doesn’t appear to be made of fur doesn’t mean that animals didn’t suffer for it. Many consumers who wear Canada Goose or other winter jackets are completely unaware of the horrors that take place behind the scenes. Although just a small part of the coat, the fur trim that lines the hoods comes from wild coyotes who were trapped, killed, and skinned. And let’s not forget the geese who were crushed and suffocated at a Canada Goose down supplier.

Looking to make a difference for animals like these dedicated protesters did? Join PETA’s #FurChallenge and help expose the cruelty behind every fur coat, trim, and accessory.

In her post, Bojana also recommends some of PETA’s favorite compassionate brands, including HoodLamb by Hemp Tailors and PETA Business Friend NOIZE, to help you stay warm—and cruelty-free—this winter. And if you’re a faux-fur fanatic, check out some of PETA’s favorite brands that use innovative faux-fur materials to create stylish, fur-free looks.

New Book Calls for a Paradigm Shift Away From Animal Use in Science

Written by PETA | December 3, 2018

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) is hosting a launch event for a groundbreaking new book titled Animal Experimentation: Working Towards a Paradigm Change. The book, that will be available through open access early next year, reviews current animal use in science, covers innovative non-animal methods to address urgent scientific questions and offers a roadmap towards the continuing replacement and eventual elimination of animals used in science. It  is a collaborative effort of 51 international experts, one of them being PETA’s vice president of international laboratory methods, Shalin Gala.

The book covers many topics, from the scientific problems with animal experiments to how much money the United States wastes on them and from ethical issues with confining animals in laboratories to modern, non-animal testing and teaching methodsShalin, along with simulation experts from Harvard Medical School and the University of Florida College of Medicine–Jacksonville, co-authored the chapter titled, “Modernizing Biomedical Training: Replacing Live Animal Laboratories with Human Simulation.” It discusses the new wave of high-tech human medical simulation technology, which improves learning, reduces laboratory costs, and prevents animals from being subjected to painful and deadly classroom experiments around the world.

PETA has donated 119 lifelike TraumaMan human-patient simulator models valued at nearly $3 million to Advanced Trauma Life Support programs in 22 countries. The programs have all replaced the use of animals in surgical training with simulators that are more anatomically realistic for teaching human trauma management and allow trainees to repeat procedures until they feel comfortable performing them.

PETA persuaded the U.S. Army to scale back its use of animals drastically in favor of simulators for trauma training exercises and to stop poisoning animals in cruel chemical-warfare exercises. We also successfully encouraged the Department of Defense to order all military branches to replace the use of animals in six different medical training areas, got the Coast Guard to end all use of animals in trauma training drills, and supported a new bipartisan law that—for the first time—makes human-simulation technology the new gold standard for trauma training.

You can help by urging your congressional representatives to support the Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act, which would phase out the use of animals in all military trauma training drills.

Another Fashion Victory! Chanel Bans Fur and Exotic Skins

Written by PETA | December 3, 2018

Breaking news! The champagne corks are popping at PETA, thanks to Chanel’s announcement that it’s kicking fur and exotic skins—including crocodile, lizard, and snake skin—to the curb. For decades, PETA has called on the brand to opt for luxury, cruelty-free fashion that no animal had to suffer and die for.

Chanel is the first luxury fashion brand to join other labels such as Ann Inc., Arcadia Group (which owns Topshop), ASOS, bebe, H&M, L Brands (which owns Victoria’s Secret), Nike, Nine West, Overstock.com, PUMA, and numerous others that’ve already banned exotic skins.

The brand also joins Coach, Donatella VersaceMichael KorsGucciBurberry, and countless others in committing to not using fur in its designs.

Tell Other Brands to Get With the Times

There’s nothing trendy about using stolen skins of tormented animals for clothing or accessories. Recent advancements in textiles have made faux fur and vegan leather nearly indistinguishable from animal pelts and skins, far more sustainable, and infinitely customizable, making the breeding and killing of animals for fashion entirely unnecessary.  It’s clear that the time has come for all companies, including Louis Vuitton, to follow Chanel’s lead and move on to innovative materials that spare countless animals from a miserable life and a violent, painful death.

Click the button below to join PETA, Chanel, other top designers, and countless compassionate shoppers in opposing the suffering caused by the cruel exotic skins industry:

Why Real Feminists Should Stop Eating Eggs

The human egg is tiny, undetectable to the human eye—and yet it’s a powerful, life-giving force that is still polarizing nations. Such an innocuous little ovum, yet it holds such an immense power to divide—and to divide people.

As the battle for control over women’s fertility and reproductive rights wages on, feminists are rising up against abuse and exploitation.

So what does it mean, then, when women take another female’s eggs from her without a thought and readily pay money for her eggs, knowing that she was imprisoned, her reproductive cycle was controlled and manipulated, and she was forced to bear young on someone else’s timetable?

Can we really call ourselves “feminists” if we eat eggs?

Some are quick to dismiss the suffering of female members of other species as unimportant. But let’s recall that human females, too, have been dismissed as not important, valuable, intelligent, or worthy of consideration. The justifications that people give for being unconcerned about chickens’ suffering and denying their basic rights are strikingly similar to the justifications that have been given for disregarding women’s suffering and denying their basic rights, all of which are false.

Chickens are inquisitive, and they can complete complex mental tasks, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and pass down cultural knowledge. In some aspects, their cognitive abilities exceed those of cats, dogs, and even primates. Like all animals (including humans), they love their families and value their own lives. They look out for their relatives and the other chickens in their group. They have complex social structures, well-developed communication skills, and distinct personalities, just as we do. If you’ve ever talked about a “pecking order,” “hen fest,” or “mother hen,” you were describing behavior that we have observed in chickens.

But chickens are arguably the most abused animals on the planet.

In the United States, approximately 305 million hens are exploited for their eggs every year. The vast majority spend their entire lives in intensive confinement—from the moment they hatch until the day they’re killed. They never get to scratch in the grass, feel the sun on the backs, or breathe fresh air. They spend day and night in a feces- and ammonia-filled warehouse with the bodies of many of their dead and dying friends and family members lying on the floor or crammed inside a filthy cage so small that they can’t stretch even one wing.

Farm workers manipulate hens’ reproductive system using light and food to induce extra laying cycles, forcing them to produce as many as 300 eggs per year—far more than their ancestors used to produce in nature. Because of this, the birds often suffer from cysts, infections, ovarian carcinomas, and reproductive tumors, and sometimes multiple eggs become lodged inside them. Their bones often shatter from osteoporosis because their bodies are forced to produce massive quantities of eggshells.

Farms don’t see chickens as individuals—they see them as egg machines to be used, manipulated, and pushed beyond their biological limits in order to make money.

Chickens crowded into small space, patches of feathers missing
© iStock.com/takobchaiprakobkit 

If treated well, a hen’s life expectancy is about 10 years. On an egg farm, her body will typically give out after just two, if that. When her egg production drops, she is considered “spent” and is thrown into a truck full of other “spent” females, shipped to the slaughterhouse, and strung up by her legs so her throat can be slit or else gassed to death. Her body will likely be turned into chicken soup or food for companion animals, because her flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for anything else.

The hen has been turned into an egg machine. In previous eras, she embodied the essence of motherhood.The Roman historian Plutarch admired these animals’ mothering instincts, writing that he observed hens “drooping their wings for some to creep under, and receiving with joyous and affectionate clucks others that mount upon their backs or run up to them from every direction; and though they flee from dogs and snakes if they are frightened only for themselves, if their fright is for their children, they stand their ground and fight it out beyond their strength.”

The Renaissance writer Ulisse Aldrovandi said that mother hens present, in every way, “a noble example of love for their offspring.” These females represent the best qualities that any of us can hope to possess: selflessness, generosity, compassion, courage, and unconditional love. Shouldn’t we, as humans, be capable of the same?

PETA encourages everyone to stand up to the systematic abuse of females of all species. Widening our circle of compassion doesn’t hurt anyone—It only serves to end the cycle of oppression and suffering that results when one group seeks to exploit another that it has deemed inferior.