F E AT U R E
End Animal Cruelty
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in
the world, with more than 3 million members and supporters.
PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the
most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in
laboratories, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues,
including the cruel killing of beavers, birds, and other “pests” as well as cruelty to
domesticated animals.
PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue,
legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.
PETA collaborates with Petigree Magazine to highlight some major animal cruelty issues taking
place around the world.
Animal Testing 101
Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, primates,
cats, dogs and other animals are locked inside
cold, barren cages in laboratories around the
world. They languish in pain, ache with loneliness
and long to roam free and use their minds.
Instead, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of
the next terrifying and painful procedure that will
be performed on them. The stress, sterility and
boredom cause some animals to develop
neurotic behaviour such as incessantly spinning in
circles, rocking back and forth and even
pulling out their own hair and biting their own skin.
They shake and cower in fear whenever someone
walks past their cages, and their blood pressure
spikes drastically. After enduring lives of pain,
loneliness and terror, almost all of them will be
killed.
Many of these tests are not even required by law,
and they often produce inaccurate or
misleading results. Even if a product harms
animals, it can still be marketed to consumers.
Studies published in prestigious medical journals
have shown time and again that animal
experimenters are often wasting lives, both
animal and human, and precious resources by
trying to infect animals with diseases that they
would never normally contract. Fortunately, a
wealth of cutting-edge, non-animal research
methodologies promises a brighter future for both
animal and human health.
Each of us can help prevent animals from
suffering and dying in experiments by
demanding that our alma maters stop
experimenting on animals as well as by buying
cruelty-free products, donating only to charities
that don’t experiment on animals and requesting
alternatives to animal dissection.
Millions of animals every year suffer and die in
cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetics tests as
well as in biology lessons, medical training
exercises and curiosity-driven medical
experiments at universities. Exact numbers aren’t
available because mice, rats, birds and
cold-blooded animals, who make up the
majority of animals used in experiments, are not
covered by laws in many countries. To test
cosmetics, household cleaners and other
consumer products, hundreds of thousands of
animals are poisoned, blinded and killed every
year by cruel corporations. Mice and rats
are forced to inhale toxic fumes, dogs are
force-fed pesticides and rabbits have corrosive
chemicals rubbed onto their skin and into their
eyes.
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