About PETA

It's very comforting to know that exists this organization committed in helping to stop cruelty against animals worldwide. They're are doing an amazing job.

http://www.peta.org

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 2.0 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world.

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

PETA's History: Compassion in Action

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an international nonprofit charitable organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, with affiliates in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and the Asia-Pacific Region.

Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA educates policymakers and the public about animal abuse and promotes kind treatment of animals.

PETA’s animal protection work brings together members of the scientific, judicial, and legislative communities to stop abusive practices. Aided by thorough investigative work, congressional involvement, consumer boycotts, and international media coverage, PETA achieves long-term changes that improve the quality of life for, and prevent the deaths of, countless animals.

Historic Cases
PETA has been responsible for such breakthroughs as closing the largest horse-slaughter operation in the United States, shutting down a military laboratory where animals were shot, and stopping the use of cats and dogs in all “wound” laboratories. The Philadelphia Daily News reported, “PETA has done more to lessen animal suffering than nearly any other organization.”(1)

The following are some of PETA’s major accomplishments:

•PETA first uncovered the abuse of animals in experiments in 1981 and launched the precedent-setting “Silver Spring monkeys” case. This resulted in the first arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter in the United States on charges of cruelty to animals, the first confiscation of abused laboratory animals, and the first U.S. Supreme Court victory for animals in laboratories.
•PETA released 70 hours of graphic video footage that documented the appalling treatment of primates at the University of Pennsylvania head-injury laboratory, resulting in government fines and the loss of funding for the cruel study.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of a huge contract testing laboratory in Philadelphia and our subsequent campaign led to Benetton’s permanent ban on animal tests—a first for a major cosmetics company. Other leading companies, such as Avon, Revlon, and Estée Lauder, followed suit. Gillette announced a moratorium on animal tests after PETA’s 10-year campaign. PETA now lists hundreds of companies that do not test products on animals. Please visit CaringConsumer.com for details.
•After negotiations with PETA, juice-makers POM, Welch’s, and Ocean Spray agreed to stop funding animal experiments.
•PETA was victorious over the General Motors Corporation, which ended its use of animals in crash tests.
•PETA released investigators’ photographs and videotaped footage taken inside Carolina Biological Supply Company, the nation’s largest biological supply house. PETA documented that animals were removed from gas chambers and injected with formaldehyde without being checked for vital signs, as well as cats’ and rats’ struggling during embalming and employees’ spitting on animals. The company was charged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
•With the help of celebrities like Ewan McGregor and Martin Sheen; U.S., German, and Canadian government officials; and activists worldwide, PETA was able to secure the release of polar bears who had been suffering for years in the Suarez Bros. Circus. The bears are now recovering and thriving in more appropriate climates.
•PETA distributed an undercover videotape that showed Las Vegas casino “entertainer” Bobby Berosini beating orangutans with a metal rod. The U.S. Department of the Interior revoked Berosini’s captive-bred-wildlife permit, making it illegal for Berosini to buy or sell orangutans.
•An undercover investigation of painful scabies experiments on dogs and rabbits at Ohio’s Wright State University led to charges by the USDA of 18 violations of the AWA. The experiments were stopped.
•After being pressured by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and PETA, the American College of Surgeons replaced animals with simulations at its training conferences and is now urging medical schools to adopt non-animal training alternatives.
•PETA released undercover photographs and videotapes that showed ducks’ being violently force-fed on a foie gras farm in New York, resulting in the first-ever police raid on a U.S. factory farm. After learning the gory details of foie gras production, many airlines and restaurants dropped the so-called “delicacy” from their menus.
•Undercover investigations at pig-breeding factory farms in North Carolina and Oklahoma revealed horrific conditions and daily abuse of pigs, including the fact that one pig was skinned alive, leading to the first-ever felony indictments of farm workers.
•In another precedent-setting case, a California furrier was charged with cruelty to animals after a PETA investigator filmed him electrocuting chinchillas by clipping wires to the animals’ genitals. The American Veterinary Medical Association denounced the killing method, saying that it causes animals to experience the pain of a heart attack while they are still conscious. In another undercover exposé, PETA videotaped a fur rancher’s causing minks to die in agony by injecting them with weed-killer. Both farms agreed to stop these cruel killing methods.
•After exposing the National Air and Space Administration’s Bion experiment, in which straitjacketed monkeys were to be implanted with electrodes and then launched into space, PETA succeeded in pressuring the U.S. to pull out of the project.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of a Florida exotic-animal “training school” revealed that big cats were being beaten with ax handles, which encouraged the USDA to develop new regulations governing animal training methods.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of Boys Town National Research Hospital’s experiments, in which researchers cut into kittens’ heads and starved cats in order to study deafness, spurred the National Institutes of Health to issue a report condemning Boys Town’s animal care and use program. The USDA found that Boys Town had failed to comply with the AWA.
•PETA convinced Mobil, Texaco, Pennzoil, Shell, and other oil companies to cover their exhaust stacks after showing how millions of birds and bats had become trapped in the shafts and were burned to death.
•After two years of negotiations and more than 400 demonstrations worldwide, McDonald’s became the first fast-food chain to agree to make basic welfare improvements for farmed animals. Burger King and Wendy’s followed suit within a year’s time, and within two years, Safeway, Kroger, and Albertson’s had also agreed to adopt stricter guidelines in order to improve the lives of billions of animals slaughtered for food.
•Thanks to PETA’s long campaign to push PETCO to take more responsibility for the animals in its care, the company agreed to stop selling large birds in all its stores and to make provisions for the millions of rats and mice in its care.

Other Projects
Since its inception in 2001, PETA’s mobile clinic, SNIP (Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please), has sterilized tens of thousands of dogs and cats at a reduced cost in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, preventing the births of tens of thousands of unwanted animals.

PETA has also participated in the production of three animal rights albums (Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA, Tame Yourself, and Animal Liberation) featuring artists such as Chrissie Hynde, Howard Jones, Indigo Girls, Michael Stipe, Belinda Carlisle, and Good Charlotte. PETA has also held several “Rock Against Fur” and “Fur Is a Drag” benefit concerts featuring The B-52s, k.d. lang, and other prominent performers. Long-time supporter Sir Paul McCartney invited PETA to set up literature tables on his world tour.

Through its Fur Is Dead campaign, PETA has exposed the cruelty of the fur industry and convinced retailers like J.Crew, Wet Seal, Forever 21, and Ann Taylor to stop selling fur in their stores—and top designers such as Ralph Lauren, Marc Bouwer, and Stella McCartney have banned the use of fur in their designs. American Idol judge Simon Cowell and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron both appeared with dogs in our “If you wouldn’t wear your dog, please don’t wear any fur” ads, and Pamela Anderson, Christy Turlington, and Kim Basinger have all posed au naturel for PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads. Martha Stewart stopped wearing fur after seeing PETA’s anti-fur videos and even hosted one of her own, exposing the horrors of the industry. Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor narrated a video for PETA about the gruesome dog and cat fur trade in China.

PETA convinced 40 companies, including Adidas-Salamon, Gap Inc., Eddie Bauer, Nike, and Reebok, to refuse to use Indian leather in their products after our investigation of the Indian leather industry revealed horrific abuses that take place during the illegal transport of cows to slaughter. “We found the treatment of animals, as documented by PETA, to be totally unacceptable and not in keeping with the image or standards of our company,” said the CEO of Florsheim.(2)

“Meet Your Meat,” a video produced by PETA and narrated by Alec Baldwin, is a powerful look at each stage of life of animals raised for food. It was distributed to every member of Congress along with a letter from Baldwin that encouraged them to “protect animals from the array of abuses that are standard in the farmed-animal industry.”(3)

Additionally, PETA staff members speak to students, from those in elementary school to those at the university level. In just one year, PETA distributed information packs to every elementary school in the U.S., reaching millions of young people. PETA and actor Alicia Silverstone launched a national “Cut Out Dissection” campaign, educating students about their right not to dissect. The peta2 Street Team’s young activists spread the “do unto others” message in their communities, and our peta2.com Web site—the primary communication tool of PETA’s Youth Division—receives more than 375,000 visits per month.