Milwaukee Man Is One of PETA’s Top Animal Rescuers of the Year

End-of-Year Honor Goes to Kind Bus Driver for Tense Turtle Rescue

For Immediate Release:
December 20, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

PETA is marking the end of 2019 with a first annual roundup of kind people who went out of their way to help animals in dangerous predicaments this year—and Milwaukee County Transit System employee Yaghnam Yaghnam has been named one of PETA’s Top Animal Rescuers for his heroic rescue of a turtle who was moments away from being hit by a bus.

In May, Yaghnam was making his final stops near Milwaukee Area Technical College when he spied a turtle in the middle of the road—and he didn’t hesitate to stop his bus, jump out, and scoop up the turtle just seconds before an oncoming bus approached. He made sure that the animal was safe on the side of the road in the direction in which he or she had been heading before waving the bus through.

“Mr. Yaghnam’s quick act of compassion made all the difference for a vulnerable animal,” says PETA Vice President Tracy Reiman. “All of PETA’s top rescuers are setting an example of the right way to treat animals in the new year and beyond.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—asks everyone to keep an eye out for animals in need and to alert authorities if the situation cannot be easily resolved. Being a hero to animals can be as simple as encouraging a neighbor to take their chained dog indoors, freeing an animal stuck in fishing line or a discarded container, or adopting an animal companion from a shelter instead of buying one from a breeder or pet store.

Other top rescuers include Tanya Krasuin of Mission, British Columbia, Canada, for freeing a skunk whose head was stuck inside a plastic Burger King cup; Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Tolliver of Orange County, Florida, for pulling a puppy out of an abandoned flooded car during Hurricane Dorian and then adopting her; and Chloe Dorsey of Stone Mountain, Georgia, for rescuing a deer who got stuck between the metal bars of a fence—twice. A complete list is available here.

Each of the rescuers will receive an award certificate; a Merry-Mint Cocoa and Mug Gift Set; PETA’s 2020 “Rescued” calendar; a reusable, collapsible straw from FinalStraw; and a box of Divine Treasures’ Divine Kingdom vegan chocolates.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.