ING’s Groundbreaking New Animal-Welfare Policy Nets PETA Prize

Financial Group Now Prohibits Funding Experiments on Nonhuman Primates, Cosmetics Tests on Animals, and the Fur Industry

For Immediate Release:
February 29, 2016

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

In a historic move for animal rights, financial giant ING has announced that it will not fund many activities that harm or kill animals. For this courageous decision, PETA is giving the banking conglomerate its Compassionate Business Award.

Under the groundbreaking new policy, ING will no longer finance tests on animals for cosmetics, the use of endangered species for commercial purposes, experiments on nonhuman primates or endangered species, bullfights or any type of animal fights for entertainment, fur farms, or the trade and manufacture of fur products, among other practices.

“With its decision, ING has acknowledged that industries that exploit animals are a bad investment,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is recognizing ING for setting a precedent for kind, forward-thinking financial groups everywhere.”

On fur farms, animals spend their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages before they are poisoned, bludgeoned, electrocuted, or even skinned alive. Monkeys and other primates used for experiments are caged, poisoned, cut into, and killed, while rabbits and other animals used for cosmetics tests have chemicals rubbed into their eyes and abraded skin. During bullfights, bulls are speared and stabbed and have their spinal cords hacked apart. Investment in any businesses that engage in these practices is now prohibited under ING’s new guidelines.

ING will receive a framed certificate from PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to … wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org or PETA’s blog.