Meet Cats, Dogs, Goats, Chimpanzees, and Others PETA Helped Rescue in 2023
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6 min read
PETA helps as many animals as we can—including dogs, goats, cats, bears, and chimpanzees—be it on battlegrounds or in backyards. We do everything we can to rescue, treat, and comfort them.
Meet Some of the Animals PETA Helped Rescue in 2023:
- PETA’s fieldworkers rescued kitten Elmer, whose eyes were crusted shut, and nursed him back to health before working to find him a safe home.
- PETA Latino helped free severely neglected dogs Kal and Abigail from deplorable conditions and secured them a loving foster home.
- Thanks to PETA’s damning 18-month investigation, the National Institutes of Health stopped funding two horrible laboratories in Colombia, and local authorities rescued 108 owl monkeys and 180 mice from the sites, and charged the experimenters with several crimes.
- In Ukraine, Lada the dog was covered in fleas and maggots that were eating away at her damaged, infected skin. She couldn’t walk and didn’t have long to live—until a PETA-supported team came to her rescue.
- Edward and Seymour were abandoned at a dog park, but now they’ve been adopted by the purrfect families.
- As pregnant horse Maria painfully discovered when her hoof landed on an explosive device, landmines can’t tell the difference between an animal and a soldier. PETA-supported teams hurried to care for her ghastly wound, even as bombs tore apart her home.
- PETA’s work led to the rescue of four chimpanzees—April, Anna, Lucy, and Cash—from roadsize zoo Union Ridge Wildlife Center in Wilkesville, Ohio.
- After a truck transporting thousands of chickens overturned on the I-5 highway in Portland, Oregon, a PETA staffer was able to rescue one of the birds, later named Milagros, who is now thriving.
- A PETA-supported team helped save 200 terrified animals on a farm in Ukraine from a drone attack.
- A short, heavy chain kept Simon on a concrete slab without adequate shelter before fieldworkers supported by the Global Compassion Fund (GCF) gave his living conditions a revamp.
- Wally looked more like a rhino than a puppy due to a bad case of mange. Fortunately, PETA fieldworkers were able to provide him with veterinary care and a foster home with lots of TLC. He was soon adopted through the Richmond SPCA.
- Alaska the goat had a broken leg with a ghastly abscess growing around it. She made it through an intense surgery and is the GOAT at the PETA-supported clinic for animals suffering in Ukraine.
- PETA fieldworkers found this dog wandering the streets and covered in such severely matted fur that even walking was difficult for him, as the clumps of hair painfully pulled at his skin. The team scooped him up, took him to the local animal shelter, and shaved him to provide him with some relief.
- Penny the dog was found down in the dumps—literally: This sweet girl had been abandoned at a junkyard. Fortunately, she was brought to PETA and now enjoys sniffing in a yard full of flowers.
- Arik the dog miraculously survived a missile strike 54 yards from where he was chained to the side of a house in Ukraine. When a GCF-supported team moved through the area to scoop up injured and abandoned animals, kind Ukrainian soldiers told them not to forget sweet Arik!
- Elmyra the cat was critically ill with an upper respiratory infection when fieldworkers found her. She was so sick—her eyes crusted with discharge, her nostrils bubbling over with mucus—that our staff wasn’t sure she would survive. But little Elmyra beat the odds, and after weeks of antibiotics and careful nursing in a foster home, she made a full recovery.
- The operators of Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, can never again legally own or exhibit captive wild or exotic animals. Following a lawsuit filed by us and concerned citizens, PETA and The Wild Animal Refuge in Springfield, Colorado, rescued the remaining captive animals at Waccatee: a llama, six emus, and two bears (named Care Bear and Shortcake).
- Slurpee was infested with fleas and ear mites, anemic, malnourished, and petrified with fear, but after some veterinary care and TLC, the little cat is thriving. He has since been adopted, and this timid kitten now spends his days cuddling, wrestling, and following after his new feline friend.
- Charik and Graf were rescued from battle-torn Ukraine, thanks to support from the GCF. PETA Germany and Animal Rescue Kharkiv (ARK) will help both dogs find loving families once they have fully recovered.
- After an entire mobile home park was deserted and then caught fire, PETA fieldworkers found that more than homes had been left behind when Fuego the tabby cat trotted out from the debris to greet them. He was brought to the Sam Simon Center (PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters), where he was provided with comfort and care.
- In Ukraine, Hamlet was struck by flying shrapnel and sustained wounds on his legs that began to fester as his health deteriorated. His guardian tearfully hugged her best friend goodbye and pled with PETA-supported ARK to save his life and find him a loving, safe home far from the war.
- When PETA’s fieldworkers met Milo, he was struggling to breathe. Like so many homeless kittens born into a harsh life outdoors, he had contracted an upper respiratory infection. Now he has made a full recovery and enjoys playing fetch—he loves to pick up his toys and carry them in his mouth, but don’t expect him to give them back anytime soon.
- Our Community Animal Project helped thousands of animals in 2023 in Virgina and South Carolina, including by helping to find homes for Fuego, Simon, and others; performing their free or low-cost spay/neuter surgeries; and providing them with food, water, and TLC.
How You Can Help Us Rescue More Animals in 2024
PETA’s GCF helps power animal rescue work, spay/neuter programs, educational campaigns, and more in countries on nearly every continent. You can help us rescue more animals like Hamlet, Care Bear, and Charik by making a donation today:
