Animal Protection

Will farmed animals forced into a life they didn't choose lose their protections in the Volunteer State? Not if PETA and music legend Emmylou Harris have anything to say about it!

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With your help, PETA has been able to kill off six state "ag-gag" bills, designed to prevent undercover investigations on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, this year alone. In fact, one such proposal (which had already been gutted and declared unconstitutional) just died in Indiana—despite attempts to revive it in the final hours of the session—after Mary Matalin, Bob Barker, No Doubt's Tony Kanal, and many more concerned folks pressed legislators to oppose the bill.

But an "ag-gag" bill in Tennessee has passed both houses and now sits on the governor's desk, so we asked PETA pal Emmylou Harris to raise her (unforgettable) voice in behalf of farmed animals. In response, Emmylou sent the governor an urgent letter calling on him to veto the measure, Senate Bill 1248, explaining:

Instead of protecting animals on farms from abuse, Senate Bill 1248 is a thinly veiled attempt by the agriculture industry to paralyze the efforts of those concerned about the treatment of animals to collect evidence of a pattern of routine cruelty, which has helped officials win convictions against animal abusers around the country, by forcing them to turn over evidence of single instances of abuse almost immediately. … Because there is no government inspection of farms for cruelty violations and because workers who report abuse are frequently ignored, investigations are often the only way to hold farm workers and managers accountable to existing laws. 

Although this is a state bill, meat from slaughtered animals crosses state lines, so it becomes a national issue. Even if you don't live in Tennessee, you can help stop this bill. The governor needs to hear that concerned people everywhere are watching. Please join Emmylou Harris, Miley Cyrus, Carrie Underwood, Wynonna Judd, Tish Cyrus, and many others by speaking up against Tennessee's "ag-gag" bill today. 

We adore ESPN sportscaster Neil Everett not just because he loves The Big Lebowski or because he hails from Portland, one of the most vegan-friendly cities on the continent, or for his lovable sense of humor and the fact that he has interviewed a duck. We love him 10 times more because he always roots for the underdog by advocating animal adoption.

Neil stopped by PETA's Los Angeles Bob Barker Building with his canine family members, Pickle and Scooby, to chat with us about shelter "underdogs," giving companion animals the love and attention that they deserve, and the dog and cat overpopulation crisis.

Looks like Pickle and Scooby have hit a home run!

When Tommy Lee hits the stage tonight in Calgary, Alberta, there may be a special guest in the audience to watch him drum upside down: Alison Redford, the premier of Alberta. Tommy invited her to the Mötley Crüe concert so that she could experience a "really wild show" that doesn't involve injuring and killing animals. He hopes to convince the premier to use her influence to put a stop to the deadly chuckwagon races at the annual Calgary Stampede. 

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In the races, teams of horses are made to pull "pioneer wagons" around a track at breakneck speeds. They often collide with each other or the wagons, and more than a dozen horses have died in the event since 2009. Even after Calgary Stampede officials passed new rules last year that were intended to make the races safer for horses, three horses still sustained crippling injuries and had to be euthanized. Tommy is all for having a wild and crazy time but not when animals have to die for it.

The horses forced into the chuckwagon races die of heart attacks, broken necks, broken legs, and other injuries," he wrote to Redford. "It'd be easy to get off on western tradition without this bloody spectacle. Dude, it's the old west, not ancient Rome!

What You Can Do

Join Tommy Lee in asking Redford to put the brakes on the chuckwagon races and save horses' lives. 

The National Marine Fisheries Service has found that the information provided in a petition submitted by PETA, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Orca Network may warrant the inclusion of lonely orca Lolita in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing of the Southern Resident orcas, the family she was taken from more than 40 years ago.

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Orcas are members of the dolphin family. They are also the largest animals held in captivity. In the wild, orcas stay with their mothers for life.

The cruel exclusion from the safeguards against harm and harassment afforded by the ESA has allowed the Miami Seaquarium to hold Lolita in the smallest orca tank in North America without any others of her species for company. The agency will now have nine months to determine whether Lolita's illegitimate and inexplicable omission from her family's listing should be reversed.

The decision to review Lolita's exclusion is an important step toward ensuring that she will finally receive the same protection offered to her family members, which could eventually lead to her being reunited with her pod in the ocean, where her mother still thrives at more than 80 years of age. Otherwise, the government must provide a legally permissible reason why it won't include her, which it failed to do previously—and which PETA believes doesn't exist.

How You Can Help

Orcas, dolphins, and other marine mammals belong in the sea, not the Seaquarium. Please never visit any marine park or aquarium where these smart, social, and sensitive animals are held captive.

Canada has tried every trick in the book to get around the European Union's ban on seal fur. But it isn't having much luck.

The most recent ruse was to try to convince the General Court of the European Union to overturn the ban on the grounds that it hurt the Inuit people's livelihood—even though the EU ban makes a very clear exemption for the Inuit, who kill a tiny fraction of seals in Canada.

The group that brought the court case was led by the Fur Institute of Canada. As the case progressed, the group also used a number of deceptive tactics to try to rope PETA into weighing in on the Inuit's actions in a thinly veiled bid to try to make us say something inflammatory that it could use to bolster its weak court case. Among other things, it pretended to be documentarians and reporters, requested PETA speakers at schools, and directly contacted some of our volunteers. But we didn't want to jeopardize this historic ruling, so we kept mum. That's not easy for PETA to do, but it paid off!

This recent court victory may also help the World Trade Organization (WTO) as it considers yet another challenge that Canada has brought against the EU ban. The WTO will have its final hearing on the case in a few days and will return a decision soon afterward. But compassionate people around the world, including Jude Law and Pamela Anderson, are urging the WTO to honor Europeans' wishes and uphold the ban.

Perhaps instead of spending millions of dollars to prop up the fading sealing industry and millions more trying to force countries to resume buying cruel products that they obviously don't want, Canada should devise a practical exit strategy: a government buyout.

Here's how you can help. 

Why are the staffers at the Sam Simon Center—PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters—having a hard time getting their work done right now? Because two little pups are making for one big distraction.

Daisy and Cupcake are as beautiful and sweet as their names suggest. They were given up by someone whose dachshund and Chihuahua didn't get "fixed," which resulted in several "oops" litters. 

And now at the PETA office, they are making for several "Oops, I've gotta get back to work" moments. What starts out as a brief trip to the kitchen or copier more often than not involves a detour to take Daisy and Cupcake for a walk or give them a tummy rub—both of which the pups love. The staffers who are seated near the "Daisy and Cupcake room" have resorted to earplugs to block out the near-constant squeals of delight from employees and pups.

So now, we are searching for the ideal home for the two—preferably together! Cupcake is about 3 months old, and even though she's still a tad shy, she's showing glimpses of that typical puppy personality: playful and always ready to make new friends. Daisy is about a year and a half old and is a bit more reserved. She would appreciate having a patient family who can coax her out of her shell.

These charming girls are crazy about each other, and we'd like them to go to a home together.  And as always, PETA will provide spay surgeries, vaccinations, and microchips. If your family can give Daisy and Cupcake the forever home that they deserve—and meet our rigorous adoption standards—please e-mail Adopt@peta.org.

The always wonderful Bob Barker has stepped up yet again to help PETA save animals from suffering—this time, the animals are nine cats at a medical school that his late wife was to attend before she decided to become Mrs. Barker, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).

Bob, who grew up in Missouri, has sent a letter to the school's chancellor, generously offering $75,000 to fund the purchase of new state-of-the-art pediatric simulators to be used in place of the cats who are currently forced to endure repeated intubation exercises.

This is the second time that he has spoken out for cats used in this archaic exercise. Following a plea from Bob, the University of Virginia recently announced that it was abandoning its cat intubation laboratory in favor of simulators.

Since this is World Week for Animals in Laboratories, it's the perfect time for WUSTL to take Bob up on his proposal (although, of course, there's never a wrong time to help animals in laboratories). And if that weren't enough, Bob also tells the school that he would be happy to find homes for all nine cats!

WUSTL's acceptance of Bob's offer would not only give these cats a future of love and security instead of pain and fear in a laboratory—as seen in an undercover video from a recent PALS course at the university—but also better prepare the trainees to help save children's lives. As Bob mentions in his letter, a recent study from neighboring Saint Louis University School of Medicine found that using a simulator in its PALS courses—which don't include any animal laboratories—substantially improved trainees' intubation skills.

What You Can Do

Please join Bob Barker and PETA in urging WUSTL to modernize its medical training program today.

Carrie Underwood isn't hiding her disgust about Tennessee's "ag-gag" bill—and and rightfully so. She strongly disagrees with making cruelty investigations on farms illegal and said she may just show up on the governor's doorstep if he signs the bill into law. But state Rep. Andy Holt took it upon himself to insult Carrie for voicing her opinion, saying, "I would say that if Carrie Underwood will stick to singing, I'll stick to lawmaking." That jab didn't sit well with the always-informed Underwood, who tweeted, "I should stick to singing? Wow…sorry, I'm just a tax paying citizen concerned for the safety of my family." 

She then tweeted to Ellen DeGeneres, thanking her for discussing "ag-gag" bills on Ellen. And Wynonna Judd, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, and Tony Kanal all hopped on Twitter, too, to show their support for Carrie and to bash "ag-gag" bills.

Beth Stern, host of the new Nat Geo Wild show Spoiled Rotten Pets and wife of Howard Stern, is piping up, too—about Kim Kardashian's penchant for fur. "It makes me really sad," she said. "I know her sister was a poster child for PETA. I don't watch the Kardashians; I'm very aware of them, but I do know that the sister was involved, so of course that entire family would know what goes on, what happens to animals when they're wearing a fur coat."

To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.

Visiting Washington, D.C., to give a motivational speech, the dynamic Jillian Michaels—one of the nation's top fitness gurus and star of NBC's The Biggest Loser—gave another motivational speech, this one in behalf of horses. Jillian visited Capitol Hill while on her tour Maximize Your Life and secured pledges from Sens. Barbara Boxer (seen below, with Jillian) and Dianne Feinstein of California to cosponsor a bill to ban the slaughter of tens of thousands of U.S. horses (including prize-winning former thoroughbreds) by the shameless horse-meat industry. Jillian's meeting with Sen. Boxer was in a hallway near where the legislator had to rush to the floor for a vote, but so many Hill visitors (including teen tourists, interns, and lobbyists) mobbed Jillian that she and PETA Vice President Dan Mathews had to retreat to Sen. Boxer's office to discuss the issues.

Besides saving horses, the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, would also prevent toxic horse meat—it's routinely treated with a carcinogenic drug that can cause liver failure in humans—from entering the food supply. The bill, which would ban horse slaughter in the U.S. as well as the grotesquely cruel live export of horses for meat, has gained momentum following the proposed White House budget that would pull federal funding from inspections for U.S. horse-slaughter plants at a time when some states, including New Mexico, are trying to start up horse slaughterhouses again.

How You Can Help

Please join Jillian Michaels in urging your legislators to cosponsor and support the SAFE Act.

At PETA, we know that some rules (such as being quiet in meetings) are meant to be broken, but anti-cruelty laws should never be ignored. That's why when we heard that Ringling Bros. was going to Columbus, Ohio, and taking elephants and abusive bullhooks with it, we wrote to the mayor asking him to enforce a law that bans electric and other prods and similar devices from being used on animals in circuses. And what do you think Mayor Michael B. Coleman said in response? Not a peep.

So we showed up outside City Hall—bullhooks in hand—with signs reading, "Mayor Coleman: Enforce Anti-Cruelty Laws" and "Beating Elephants Is a Crime."

After seeing the bullhooks in person—with their sharp steel hooks designed to dig into elephants' flesh in the most sensitive areas (such as the soft flesh behind the ears and inside the ear and mouth)—here's hoping Mayor Coleman straightens up and enforces the law.

Want to join us when PETA comes to your town to help animals? Join our Action Team!

If you've ever read one of PETA's "Piense Antes de Comer" leaflets or seen actor Constance Marie's spay-and-neuter billboard—or any of our countless other Spanish materials—you're already familiar with our outreach to Latinos. But at Mama's International Tamales in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, we celebrated a groundbreaking moment with the official launch of our newest outreach division, PETA Latino! And the stars were out to celebrate with us. Television star Marco Antonio Regil hosted the event, and actor Patricia De León unveiled her new pro-vegetarian ad, reading (in Spanish), "Eat Your Vegetables. They're Very Tasty." Hollywood beauties Daniella Alonso and Mayte Garcia were also there to show off their PETA ads and sample the delicious food.

Marco and Patricia both gave impassioned speeches about the importance of reaching out to the Spanish-speaking community and adopting a meat-free diet for animals, human health, and the planet. And PETA's vice president of communications, Lisa Lange, rounded out the afternoon with some words on PETA's ongoing commitment to the Latino community and anyone who wants to live a compassionate lifestyle, no matter what language he or she speaks. "Our goal," she said, "is to make PETA Latino an indispensible resource for everyone in this community."

Marco and Patricia mingled with the dozens of supporters and reporters who came out to share this groundbreaking moment for animals and even stopped to snap a picture with their matching Pure bracelets (made of all-vegan materials, of course!), made by Energy Muse, which is donating a portion of the sales of the stylish bracelet to PETA's lifesaving campaigns.

But the fun didn't end when we were done munching on delicious vegan taquitos, tamales, and pupusas. Back at the Bob Barker Building, we got back to work strengthening PETA Latino with new Spanish outreach materials, videos, and content for PETALatino.com. Check it out!

PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund have submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) urging the agency not to issue an Endangered Species Act breeding permit to California-based Have Trunk Will Travel (HTWT)—Hollywood's number one provider of elephants for movies and TV—citing the exhibitor's sordid history of animal abuse. 

PETA will also be asking that criminal charges be considered against HTWT co-owner Kari Johnson for possible perjury. In her 2009 federal court testimony, Johnson testified that she had never seen anybody in her life strike an elephant with a bullhook. Yet video footage captured during an Animal Defenders International investigation predating her testimony shows Johnson herself, along with her co-owner and other HTWT trainers, forcefully using electric prods (which are illegal in California) and bullhooks to hit and intimidate elephants repeatedly during training sessions.

HTWT claims that it seeks the permit to breed baby elephants in order to somehow help the species, but the company is really just helping itself. It sells these animals to zoos and other facilities at a significant profit or cruelly exploits them for use in circuses, movies, and the like. None will ever be released into the wild—and of the four babies already bred by HTWT, three died before their fourth birthdays.

HTWT also routinely chains elephants for prolonged periods, which can cause severe foot and musculoskeletal problems. No one could possibly be trusted less to have elephants' best interests at heart. And since the Endangered Species Act prohibits harming, harassing, or wounding endangered Asian elephants, the FWS must see that HTWT does not even remotely qualify for the permit it seeks.

How You Can Help

Elephants belong in forests or savannahs, not showbiz. Please choose only animal-friendly entertainment for your family.

This year, we have something to celebrate as we commemorate World Week for Animals in Laboratories. After 30 years of pressure from PETA and other organizations, Harvard Medical School's New England Primate Research Center is shutting its doors. This milestone victory proves that even the mightiest can fall—or do better, move on, or modernize. And it illustrates why it is crucial that animal advocates keep working to end the suffering of animals in laboratories. 

One group of animal rights advocates in Italy made headlines this week when they occupied a laboratory at the University of Milan and removed many of the mice and rabbits who were caged there. Closer to home, there are numerous easy actions that any of us can take to help animals in laboratories:

1. Update your Facebook cover photo to a photo of an animal in a laboratory (try one of these), and ask your Facebook friends to purchase only cruelty-free cosmetics.
2. Make it harder for experimenters to get their hands on animals by asking Air France, one of the few airlines that will still transport primates to be used in experiments, to stop profiting from cruelty.
3. Be sure to purchase only cosmetics, personal-care products, and household cleaners from companies that don't test on animals. PETA's cruelty-free shopping guide makes it easy. And send companies that do test on animals a quick e-mail to let them know why you won't be purchasing from them.
4. Check this map to see if your state, city, school district, or college has a policy allowing students to opt out of cruel animal dissection. If so, be sure to request a humane teaching method when the time comes. If there isn't a policy yet, get one created to save the lives of some of the millions of animals killed for dissection every year.
5. Join PETA's e-mail drive to get the deadly cat laboratories at the University of Wisconsin–Madison shut down.

Please tweet this post to encourage your Twitter followers to get active for animals in laboratories, too. We can win the campaign to end the use of animals in laboratories, and we must. Millions of animals need us to.

As an organization that celebrates education, the Smithsonian Institution should have been smarter.

To drum up donations for the Smithsonian's National Zoo, the organization threw a fundraising party complete with wild animals whom partygoers were allowed to touch, hold, and take pictures with. The cheetah, wallaby, penguin, armadillo, and baby foxes were from the Columbus Zoo, which—catch this—rents the animals out for fundraisers and other events. The National Zoo's mission is to demonstrate leadership in animal care and to teach and inspire people to protect wildlife. It certainly fell short.

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We have written to the National Zoo and pointed out that wild animals naturally shun contact with humans and become stressed and panicked when they are transported, thrust into the midst of a loud party, and handled by strangers.

We also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture because the cheetah with whom people were snapping photos is 3 years old—much older than the age restriction of 3 months to which the Animal Welfare Act limits dangerous big cats who are allowed to have contact with the public.

If the Smithsonian wants to live up to its slogan, "Seriously Amazing," it needs to protect animals instead of using them as collection plates.

As someone who first took part in a Pride parade way back in the '80s (I was just a child, of course), I can confirm that LGBT folks love to twerk it to a sickening (in a good way) bass beat. But for captive marine mammals—many of whom navigate using an intricate sonar system—those loud noises are sickening in the worst way. That's why Project Runway's style guru and father figure, Tim Gunn, has joined PETA in appealing to the organizers of Atlanta Pride to move their annual kickoff party somewhere other than the Georgia Aquarium.

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Tim stands alongside LGBT luminaries Jane Lynch and Martina Navratilova—as well as thousands of concerned Pride supporters—in requesting that the event be relocated. In his letter to the Atlanta Pride executive director, Tim asks, "As a leader of Pride, you champion the human rights of the individuals in the LGBT community. How is it possible to be simultaneously dismissive of the pain and anguish suffered by another species of mammal?"

How You Can Help

Those who have experienced prejudice and oppression should know better than to inflict suffering on anyone else. Please ask Atlanta Pride to move the kickoff party to one of the city's many other venues.

In the midst of World Week for Animals in Laboratories, we have exciting news to share. After more than three decades of PETA action, Harvard will be shutting down its deeply controversial primate-testing facility in 2015.

This victory is 30 years in the making. In fact, some early-day PETA members took part in a headline-making demonstration outside the laboratory on April 25, 1983, almost 30 years ago to the day. Since then, we've kept the public informed about the cruel and deadly experiments going on at the facility and filed numerous federal complaints against it. Now, we will urge the center to retire all of its captive primates to approved sanctuaries, rather than shipping them off to other laboratories, so that they can spend the rest of their lives free from torment and in the company of other monkeys.  

PETA's director of laboratory investigations, Justin Goodman, made this announcement:

PETA is celebrating Harvard's decision to shutter its massive primate prison after our decades-long campaign to achieve exactly that. This forward-thinking move recognizes not only the financial reality but also the signals that the future of research at top-notch institutions does not lie in tormenting other species. For decades, the more than 2,000 primates confined at Harvard have been shocked, starved, infected with debilitating illnesses, and addicted to cocaine, heroin, nicotine, and alcohol in painful and irrelevant experiments. PETA is pleased that Harvard has made the long-awaited decision to stop treating our fellow beings like unfeeling test tubes, and we hope these primates do not end up shunted to yet another laboratory.

Since our inception, PETA has protested the abuse of primates in Harvard's laboratories. Harvard's announcement comes almost 30 years to the day after PETA and 5,000 other activists gathered for a historic protest on Boston Common to demand an end to this cruelty. Recently, PETA protested and stopped NASA's plans to fund radiation experiments on monkeys at Harvard, targeted Harvard as one of the worst laboratories in the U.S., filed complaints calling on the federal government to revoke taxpayer funding following the Harvard primate center's laundry list of animal welfare violations, and run ads on cabs and bus shelters around the city declaring that experiments on primates are tantamount to murder."

The almost defunct New England Primate Research Center is one of eight such dedicated federally funded primate prisons across the country. Other similar facilities are located in Oregon, Georgia, Wisconsin, Washington, Texas,  California, and Louisiana. We need your help to empty all of their cages. Please ask Congress to divert public money away from experiments on animals in favor of humane, relevant, and lifesaving non-animal research.  

I am reminded of a famed Victor Hugo quote: "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." Thank you, PETA supporters. And congratulations. 

Ray is a beautiful white-and-gray fantail pigeon who was seized along with dozens of other pigeons by animal control officers because of neglect. He had an infected eye and was in poor health, but the woman who had alerted authorities to the birds' plight convinced them to let her adopt him. Unfortunately, she was ill-equipped to care for Ray (she didn't know what sex he was and called him "Rachel") and put him in a dog crate in her basement, where he stayed for the next four years. He was prevented from flying and never received any treatment for his eye infection.

Finally, the woman grew tired of him and contacted PETA. We arranged for Ray to be driven from Virginia to the Wild Bird Fund, a wonderful wildlife rehabilitation facility in New York City, where he immediately began receiving treatment for his eye and other medical conditions. He now lives in a spacious aviary in upstate New York, where he can fly and be friends with other birds for the first time in years.

Ray quickly attracted the attention of another rescued pigeon, which is no surprise, considering how handsome he is. His new family writes, "From the moment Ray arrived, Bently had her eye on him. After Ray chose a nest box, Bently picked a nest box right above him and then would sneak into Ray's box when he was out and about. At first, Ray did not want anything to do with Bently: He would peck and wing-slap her to get her out of his box. This did not deter Bently at all—she pecked right back, and after a few days, it was love!"

What You Can Do

Pigeon racers use the devotion of birds like Ray and Bently against them and force birds to fly hundreds of miles to return to their mates. More than 60 percent of birds die or are lost in such races. Thousands of dollars may be bet on races, generating millions annually in illegal gambling proceeds. You can help by contacting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and urging him to take action to stop cruel and unlawful pigeon races.

In the '80s, people sang "We Are the World," but for Earth Day 2013, PETA gave that idea a very literal spin: Instead of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, these good folks took off their sleeves (and everything else) in favor of blue and green bodypaint for a demonstration in Vancouver. They reminded everyone who saw them that we can help the planet simply by choosing healthy and humane vegan foods.

So remember: If you want to save the world and its inhabitants (or just look your best without clothes), going vegan is the best way to start!

Republican Jim Patterson introduced "ag-gag" Assembly Bill 343 to the California Assembly—if passed, the bill would have likely shut down undercover investigations on factory farms. As it turned out, the bill was what got shut down. There was so much opposition to Assembly Bill 343 that Patterson yanked it out of consideration himself after admitting to the Los Angeles Times that he does care about the treatment of animals on farms and may now even pursue legislation that actually protects animals from abuse, instead of encouraging it.

Not surprisingly, the bill was sponsored by the California Cattlemen's Association. But the public outcry against the bill was deafening. Legislators were flooded with e-mails from advocates for animals and free speech, and Republican legislators also got hit with a personal appeal that GOP strategist Mary Matalin filmed for PETA and sent to each legislator herself:

Animal advocates are also making great strides in Indiana, where a proposed "ag-gag" bill has had most of the wind sucked out of its sails. After legislators there also heard from Mary Matalin and throngs of disapproving voters, House Speaker Brian Bosma deemed the bill unconstitutional and legislators promptly gutted it, removing penalties for filming or taking photos on farms. Now we need your help to bring about a similar victory in Tennessee, where legislators passed a proposed "ag-gag" bill, which is now heading to Gov. Bill Haslam's desk for his signature. Tennessee Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris and singer Carrie Underwood have both harshly criticized the unconstitutional measure, and they need everyone's help to stop this bill before it becomes law and makes taking pictures or filming on factory farms illegal. No matter what state you live in, please e-mail Haslam and urge him not to sign Senate Bill 1248. You can also send polite tweets to @BillHaslam. 

With cruelty as blatant as that recently displayed at Piccadilly Circus, it is no surprise that the circus is the subject of a whistleblower's report that provides the basis for a PETA complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The complaint details the circus's habitual physical abuse of animals and systematic failure to provide veterinary care, among other apparent violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

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In the affidavit, the whistleblower reports that while working during the circus's Waterbury, Connecticut, performances, Piccadilly's general manager, Zachary Garden, beat a zebra named Ziggy after the animal jumped out of the performance ring during an evening performance.

During the beating, Ziggy was reportedly held in place by the general supervisor, known as Bucket, while Garden "forcefully [struck] Ziggy with a tiger stick—an approximately 3' long plastic or fiberglass stick with a blunt metal end—with such force that the zebra fell to his front knees and then fell over sideways." Once Ziggy got up, according to the whistleblower, Garden struck him "with great force at least two more times," and the zebra "vocalized loudly and in a strained manner" at the start of the beating and then turned silent. After this beating, Ziggy returned to his cage. 

Animals would be physically punished whenever their performances were "slightly off," and Garden would "strike animals using the handle of a 10'-12' lunge whip when they did not perform their act perfectly," according to the whistleblower. The whistleblower further reports that Garden struck a camel named Thor—who is approximately 1 or 2 years old—in the right eye with the whip handle because the camel was standing a short distance away from where he was expected to stand, causing the eye to bleed. Furthermore, according to the statement, when a camel named Reece fails to sit in training sessions for the end of performances, Garden uses the whip handle "to beat him on the legs until he oblige[s] or force[s] him down so hard that he … get[s] cuts on his knees."

The whistleblower also reported the following incidents:

• A handler "repeatedly kick[ed] a goat" while the animal was being loaded into a truck.
• A sheep with a broken leg—possibly from when a Piccadilly worker slammed a separating gate onto her leg or when she fell in the truck—languished without any veterinary care for at least two weeks.
• Animals did not receive veterinary care during the entire duration of the whistleblower's time with Piccadilly—a period of more than nine months—which is especially concerning given the deaths and injuries that reportedly occurred during transport.
• In December 2012, a llama named Spot "appeared to begin dying." Over the course of a single day, Spot developed uncontrollable diarrhea and was unable to stand, yet he "received no veterinary [care]" and was not even moved from the pile of his own waste in which he was lying for five to six hours.
• On or about April 1, 2012, a baby goat named Salem was taken into the woods, per Garden's instructions, after being apparently paralyzed in a transport accident. Garden was made aware of the fact that Salem was alive and suffering after he was taken into the woods, but he didn't provide the animal with veterinary care.
• A tiger, Rain, allegedly "constantly has a cut on her nose from rubbing it on the bars of the cages" but receives no veterinary care, even though a USDA inspector explicitly told Garden that her injury must be treated.
• While in Piccadilly's winter quarters in Ocala, Florida, this past winter, Garden reportedly instructed an employee to carry a dying sheep into the woods "and leave him to die."

Please never attend a performance by Piccadilly or any other circus that uses animals.