January 2009 PETA received calls from concerned Clearwater, Florida, residents about an exhibitor named Philip Dolci who forced a chained capuchin monkey to perform in photo opportunities during the nightly Sunsets at Pier 60 Festival. We immediately contacted the organizers to let them know that the chaotic atmosphere of a festival is no place for an … Read more »
January 2009 PETA received complaints about a donkey basketball fundraiser scheduled for Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Missouri. After PETA contacted hospital administrators to inform them about the risk of injury to human players and the harm caused to donkeys when participants pull, yank, and shove them across slippery gym floors, the CEO agreed to … Read more »
January 2009 After being inundated with complaints about a scheduled donkey basketball fundraiser at Laurel High School in Pennsylvania, PETA called the district superintendent and principal to voice our concerns. School administrators were worried about supporting activities that would be cruel to animals and assured PETA that they wanted students to treat animals humanely and with … Read more »
January 2009 PETA met with executives at Young & Rubicam–a powerful and respected advertising agency–to alert them to the abuse that great apes endure when used for the advertising industry. After learning about the cruelty, they immediately called upon their creative directors worldwide to never use great apes in any future advertising campaigns.
January 2009 After an incident in which a chimpanzee attacked a woman and left her with life-threatening injuries, PETA reached out to Levi Strauss & Co., which had featured an orangutan in a viral video in 2008. After learning about the abuse suffered by great apes and other exotic animals who are forced into the entertainment … Read more »
January 2009 After learning that clothing chain Urban Outfitters was selling a fur-trimmed wrap, PETA wrote to the company privately to ask it to pull the item and adopt a fur-free policy. When the company didn’t respond, peta2 urged people to write the company and encourage it to become fur-free. After receiving nearly 4,000 e-mails from … Read more »
January 2009 When PETA discovered that D’Agostino, a New York grocery-store chain, was distributing coupons for discounted Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus tickets to its patrons, we contacted company executives to share information about Ringling’s history of cruelty to animals. We explained that Ringling beats elephants with sharp, metal-tipped bullhooks to force them to … Read more »
January 2009 After learning about Heineken International’s recent advertising campaign, which stated that animals “belong on a plate,” PETA Europe immediately contacted the company to express concern. After learning about the abuse that animals on factory farms suffer, Heineken International pulled the advertisement from circulation permanently.
January 2009 After PETA provided Skadaddle Media–an up-and-coming ad agency–with information about the abuse that is suffered by great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry, the agency immediately pledged never to use great apes in its advertising campaigns.
January 2009 When concerned citizens alerted PETA that Ohio State University was recruiting dachshunds to compete in a race on the ice rink during halftime at a hockey game, we immediately called school officials to let them know that dachshunds are prone to back, hip, and leg injuries and that running them on slippery surfaces could … Read more »
October 2008 In response to a complaint from PETA, the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute ordered the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) to return more than $65,000 in federal grant money in January 2008. The money had been used in the laboratory of David Waitzman for experiments that violated animal welfare laws. Waitzman … Read more »
October 2008 PETA helped call attention to the suffering of mice in federally-funded experiments at University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) and prompted government sanctions for violations. In response to a complaint from PETA, in April 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ordered UCHC to reverse $14,000 in charges to a federal grant as a … Read more »
October 2008 Following months of pressure from PETA and our supporters, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has enacted two new regulations to lessen the suffering of racehorses. On September 22, the commission voted to ban harness racing snappers–whips with flails on the end that cause welts–as well as a practice called side whipping, in which the … Read more »
October 2008 PETA was notified by concerned citizens that a Jackson, Tenn., merchant’s planned festivities for its National Day of the American Cowboy celebration included a cruel greased-pig contest. This “family fun” event would have involved slathering terrified pigs in grease and letting children pull and chase them around. We immediately contacted event organizers to let … Read more »