VICTORY: Utah Hospital Halts Cruel Cat Lab!
We are very happy to report that as a result of pressure from PETA and more than 25,000 of our supporters, Utah’s Primary Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) has announced that it is canceling plans to torment cats in a cruel and archaic training exercise!
As it had in previous years, PCMC planned to offer this animal lab as part of an annual conference that is co-sponsored by the University of Utah. The cats—who would have been purchased from a local animal shelter—were slated to have hard plastic tubes forced down their windpipes and likely would have suffered bleeding, swelling, scarring, and even collapsed lungs. But thanks to the efforts of PETA supporters who took part in a short but vigorous campaign, the cats will now be spared this trauma, and the conference will only use modern simulators for the training.
Since last week, tens of thousands of compassionate people responded to PETA’s e-mail action alert targeting PCMC, and hundreds posted comments on PCMC’s wall on Facebook (prompting the hospital to shut down the page entirely). The owner of Salt Lake City’s all-vegan Cakewalk Baking Company even made and hand-delivered a cake to PCMC’s CEO in protest of the inhumane exercise.
This morning, we asked supporters to call PCMC and urge officials to do the right thing by calling off this exercise. Hundreds did just that, and some of you may have heard the news directly that PCMC was scrapping plans for this cruel laboratory.
While we are thrilled to celebrate this important victory for animals, we ask that you please take a moment to speak out against the cruel actions of North Utah Valley Animal Shelter (NUVAS)—the last shelter in Utah that continues to sell animals for experiments and the facility that would have provided cats to PCMC. PETA’s successes depend on your willingness to take action. Let’s keep the momentum going!
Written by Jeremy Beckham
