Contrary to Its Claims, Ethiopian Airlines Breaks Laws: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Washington –

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo in response to claims by Ethiopian Airlines CEO Mesfin Tasew that the company does not violate the law:

Ethiopian Airlines is a lawbreaker, full stop. Recent claims to the contrary by company CEO Mesfin Tasew are just lies. The company has racked up four citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in the past 18 months alone. Instead of lying about it, Ethiopian Airlines needs to get out of this bloody business immediately.

The USDA cited Ethiopian Airlines for these incidents:

·         In March 2024, for shipping two dogs from Ethiopia to John F. Kennedy International Airport with loose, sharp wires in their cages that could injure them

·         In March 2024, for the same shipment of two dogs in cages that weren’t properly designed to allow adequate ventilation for the animals on the 7,000-mile flight

·         In July 2023, for improper feeding and watering of 336 monkeys left in their own waste to bake in Georgia’s summer heat for 95 minutes

·         In January 2023, for failing to ensure that its intermediate handler maintained copies of health certificates for 584 monkeys shipped into the U.S., which made it impossible to track whether the monkeys carried one or several of a plethora of pathogens that can infect humans. The USDA appears to have withdrawn that citation.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.