Anjelica Huston Urges Feds to Seize Chinchillas After PETA Exposé

For Immediate Release:
June 1, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Oscar winner Anjelica Huston is intervening in behalf of the chinchillas suffering at Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR) near Chatfield, where a recent PETA exposé revealed animals with open wounds, exposed bones, and other painful injuries.

In a letter sent on PETA’s behalf this morning to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Huston points to MCR’s nine-year record of dozens of animal welfare violations and writes, “Please, end this relentless suffering by seizing all the chinchillas at MCR and permanently revoking its license. PETA stands ready to help remove every chinchilla from this mill and to transport them for care to appropriate rescue facilities and loving homes.”

PETA’s undercover investigation showed that nearly 1,000 chinchillas on the premises were confined to small, exposed wire cages. One chinchilla died after being deprived of veterinary care for a raw, bloody wound, and another died after the breeder’s dog attacked her and she suffered overnight without care. Yet another had a large mass under the chin. The mill owner admitted to killing this chinchilla and others by breaking their necks, which does not cause a painless or quick death.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Huston’s letter to Kevin Shea, administrator of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, follows.

Dear Mr. Shea:

My friends at PETA informed me that they are concerned about the nearly 1,000 animals at Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR) in Minnesota. I’m writing to implore the USDA to confiscate all the chinchillas at MCR immediately and permanently revoke its license.

I understand that since 2013, the USDA has cited MCR more than 100 times for failing to meet the standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act and that you also filed a complaint alleging that the facility’s owner and operator, Daniel J. Moulton, has willfully violated federal law—yet PETA’s recent investigation makes it clear that nothing has improved for these animals. Chinchillas were denied veterinary care for a severed leg and exposed bones, abscessed mammary tissue, and injured eyes. I’m told that Moulton even admitted to breaking chinchillas’ necks—a crude and inhumane killing method that denies animals a painless release from their suffering, and he mocked a USDA veterinarian just for questioning it. How is this allowed to continue?

Please, end this relentless suffering by seizing all the chinchillas at MCR and permanently revoking its license. PETA stands ready to help remove every chinchilla from this mill and to transport them for care to appropriate rescue facilities and loving homes.

Sincerely,

Anjelica Huston