AMAZING VICTORIES IN 2008

Let’s celebrate our victories for 2008 and may they serve as inspiration and motivation for the work to be done in 2009.

- Illegal Logging Ban Enacted. The United States became the first country in the world to prohibit the import and sale of illegally-sourced wood and wood products. Siberian tigers, orangutans and many other species dependent on forest habitat around the globe will benefit.
by WWF

- Clean Energy Tax Incentives Extended. The U.S. Congress extended tax incentives that encourage individuals and businesses to install renewable energy systems and build energy-efficient buildings.
by WWF

- Sumatran Elephant and Tiger Habitat Protected. Indonesia committed to doubling the size of a national park that is one of the last havens for endangered Sumatran elephants and critically endangered Sumatran tigers.
by WWF

- 50 Million People Switched Off Their Lights for Earth Hour 2008. WWF activists were among the estimated 50 million people around the world who turned off their lights for one hour on March 29, 2008, to demonstrate their commitment to slowing the effects of climate change. Sign up to join us for Earth Hour 2009
by WWF

There is still a lot of work to do and the WWF has a list of campaigns where we can all be a part of and help reach the ears and eyes of the world. Visit World Wildlife Fund.

- Donna Karan dumps fur! Thanks to the hard work of PETA’s staff, members, and volunteers and after nearly a year of pressuring designer Donna Karan to drop fur from her designs—by protesting outside her boutiques, crashing her runway show, and exposing her cruel use of fur online—Donna Karan has announced that all her Fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has “no plans” to use fur in the future. Well done, everyone!
by Peta

For more ways to help and getting active visit Peta’s Action Center.

- Four years have passed since the devastating Asia tsunami of December 26, 2004 — the biggest emergency response in Save the Children’s history.

Today, our primary focus is on helping families become more self-sufficient and enabling children to succeed in school. Thousands of children affected by the tsunami are attending schools. And many of these children are also benefitting from our health, nutrition and child protection programs.
by Save the Children

* Give purchasing preference to suppliers that use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—the least-cruel method of bird slaughter available. By the end of 2010, the company will purchase 5 percent of its turkey meat from suppliers that use CAK.
* Give purchasing preference to suppliers that don’t use gestation crates—restrictive metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs. The company will also increase the total amount of pig meat that it purchases from crate-free suppliers by 5 percent each of the next three years, for a total increase of 15 percent.
* Give purchasing preference to producers of cage-free eggs and increase the amount of cage-free eggs that it sells to 4 percent by the end of 2009 and 5 percent by the end of 2010. The company will also work toward increasing that amount to 10 percent within the next 5 years.

Winn-Dixie is following in the footsteps of other major grocery and restaurant companies that have recently made animal welfare improvements following discussions with PETA, including Safeway, Harris Teeter, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., and Hardee’s.

While this agreement doesn’t mean that the eggs and meat sold by Winn-Dixie—or any other company—are produced without causing animals to suffer (visit PETA’s Web site Meat.org to learn more), Winn-Dixie has begun to phase out its suppliers’ worst abuses, which is a real victory for animals.

Please use Winn-Dixie’s online customer service form to thank the company for improving the lives of animals killed for its stores.

Thank you for all that you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Brooke Jones, Activist Liaison
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

One of PETA’s undercover investigators was documenting the horrific conditions on a Tyson Foods factory farm as woekers walked among more than 18,000 peeping baby chicks. As they walked, the workers grabbed sick birds and threw them onto a heap of dying chicks. Disgusted, our investigator asked if he could have two of the discarded babies.
Kokun, a hen, and Potpo, a rooster, were only a few weeks old. PETA immediately took them to a veterinarian, who diagnosed them with a respiratory illness caused by the noxious fumes in the severely crowded warehouse. The vet gave the chicks a guarded prognosi.
After a few days of rest at PETA’s headquarters, Kokun and Potpo went to their permanent home at a nearby sanctuary and soon began to recover. In time, the chicks were able to go outside, sun themselves, preen, and investigate their new home and exciting back yard.
Kokun and Potpo are very affectionate to each other and to their caregiver. The birds run th their caregiver every time she walks out to the birds’ little yard. When she stoops down, the birds jump up on her back and shoulders!

These young chickens are the lucky ones who escaped the misery of a factory farm. With your help, PETA can open the world’s eyes to the plight of these smart, sensitive animals so that millions more chickens will be able to enjoy their lives.

Please, join me in thanking HUGO BOSS for their rapid action towards ending such horrible acts against animals.

In Spirit Blessings

Dear Rev. Adriana,

Danielle Katz
Outreach Program Coordinator

Following news of his guilty plea, I contacted Michael Vick suggesting that he hear—for the first time in his life, he confirmed—about animal protection issues, learn how animals feel joy and pain and deserve respect, and receive specific instruction on what to say to young people whom he has influenced in the worst possible ways.

In mid-September, Michael Vick visited PETA’s headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, to meet with me privately. I told him that PETA advocates an end to all exploitation and needless violence based on prejudice, including the prejudice against other species, and that we believe that he should equip himself with information and materials in order to be able to live up to his responsibility to counsel children not to engage in cruelty to animals. He expressed his willingness to learn and his belief that everything in life happens for a reason, and he offered an apology to PETA and to “everyone” for “what I have done to dogs.” I also explained that even if he took our basic empathy course, our position that he should serve jail time and have a lifetime ban on contact with animals would nevertheless remain unchanged, and he accepted that.

Two weeks ago, Michael Vick returned to PETA to take “Developing Empathy for Animals” course, an all-day seminar on “who animals are,” alternatives to cruelty, animal protection philosophy, and humane education, which PETA has now excerpted online. We believe that this course should be adopted by the NFL for all players to take in order to give them a chance to learn empathy, compassion, and nonviolence. Two days after the seminar, Vick came back to PETA’s office to take the course exam.

PETA’s course teaches the Golden Rule—treat others as you wish to be treated. Only time will tell whether Michael Vick has benefited from what he has learned, but he has pledged to use this knowledge to urge kids not to follow in his footsteps and to be kind to animals. Meanwhile, we are urging the NFL to take the important step of requiring that every player do what Michael Vick has done and take the course in order to help prevent future acts of violence against animals and to equip players with information about respecting animals that they can share with their young fans.

Although the Vick story served as the first glimpse for many people into the gory details of dogfighting, the abuses detailed in Vick’s indictment are as widespread as they are horrific. In the last year alone, PETA has responded to more than 14,000 calls and e-mail messages regarding other dogfighting and individual cruelty-to-animals cases. The crucial step now is to urge policymakers and law enforcement officers to treat all cases of dogfighting and cruelty to animals the same way that they handled Vick’s high-profile case. To that end, please join PETA and ask the NFL to require that all its players, some of whom have been involved in a series of cruelty-to-animals cases, attend PETA’s “Developing Empathy for Animals” course.

Thank you for helping us do all that we can to make the world a better place for animals.

Yours truly,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

PETA is pleased to announce the launch of its brand-new Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign. This campaign is aimed at tackling the overpopulation crisis of dogs and cats. Every year, 6 million to 8 million unwanted cats and dogs end up in animal shelters—roughly half of them must be euthanized because there aren’t enough good homes available for them.

Some 30 years ago, my very first call as a Maryland state humane officer was to pick up a mother dog who had given birth under a rundown house. What a good mom she was trying to be, somehow providing for her hungry puppies! I remember that the people in the house yelled at her and stomped on the floorboards to try to get her out.

That year, I read a poem called “I Found Your Dog Today.” You may be familiar with the poem or one of the many variations of it. Each one was written by animal shelter workers over the years, and each one tells the same true story of animals who were found suffering out there. The one I read was about a pregnant dog dropped off in a neighborhood and about how everyone shooed her away. The dog was so hungry that her stomach ached and was so thirsty that she drank from a mud puddle. She was so hopeful that her family would come back to save her that she stayed by the side of the road, looking out, waiting, and baffled that she was suddenly in this strange place with no one to help her. I remember crying over that poem because, every day, I drove out and picked up animals just like her—and like the one under the house who tried so hard to please yet was so despised.

How can it be that this is all still going on today? When PETA started, we filled a void, working for animals no one talked or thought about: those killed for the table, abused in circuses, and used for fur and in experiments. But the problem of unwanted dogs and cats didn’t fade away. That is why PETA has made the decision to launch this campaign.

Visit our new ABC Web site to find out more and watch our brand-new video. Together, we can make a difference in the overpopulation crisis and save lives.

Sincerely,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

Lily was nearly dead, but from the time that a PETA staffer first laid eyes on her, she seemingly sensed that she was going to have a second chance.

After getting immediate veterinary care, she was lovingly nursed back to health by her new human family, who even fed her by hand. She couldn’t see for a week because her eyes had also been damaged, but her voice—like the voice of a purring cat—showed that she felt love and safety for the first time.

She was also comforted by other chickens at her new home. They gathered around her at night to keep her warm until her feathers grew in.

Lily learned to enjoy life. She would jump on top of one of her new companions, a rescued pig named Nali, to get a better view of the world. She would leap in the air to eat grapes off a vine. And she would sneak into the house and leave a gift of an egg in a recliner where her human companions sat.

Lily escaped her miserable fate and found love, peace, and safety. She passed away last year after being in her new home for four wonderful years.

We need your help to end cruel factory-farming practices so that chickens like Lily won’t need to be rescued anymore.
Please make a donation to PETA today in memory of Lily and in defense of the billions of chickens who are not so fortunate.

With the passage of every year, we take the opportunity to reflect on the trials, lessons, and triumphs of the last 12 months and look forward to the year to come with a renewed sense of anticipation, dedication, and determination to bring justice and mercy to animals who desperately need a voice.
We hope you enjoy this slideshow, which we’ve created out of the year’s highlights, and we hope that if you have friends or family members who would like to know more about PETA’s work, you will forward it to them as well. We appreciate your support and dedication to fighting for animal rights. Here’s to another year of change and progress for animals.

Sincerely,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
PeTA.org

Every winter, PETA receives heartbreaking reports about dogs who are forced to live outdoors in extreme weather conditions, suffering from frostbite, and even dying from exposure because they lack shelter.

With the help of more than 700 “Angel for Animals” doghouse sponsors who contributed so generously during our recent campaign, we’re well on our way to building and delivering more than 700 sturdy, straw-filled doghouses to needy dogs who would otherwise spend this new year without the shelter of a roof over their heads.

Since PETA’s “Angels for Animals” project began in 1998, cold dogs have received more than 3,000 custom-built houses. This project is made possible by “Angel for Animals” sponsors whom, on behalf of the many doghouse recipients, we would like to say a very heartfelt, “Thank you.” To learn more about our doghouse program, click here

Just days after receiving word that CareerBuilder will end its abusive television ads featuring chimpanzees, we are thrilled to announce that POM will spare countless animals from painful, deadly, and useless animal experiments. POM has just confirmed that it will no longer fund animal experiments. The statement follows several months of campaigning and educating the public about the experiments that POM funded.

Learn more about this great victory for animals.

Last year, 420 dogs were provided warm, durable doghouses. While infinite appreciation goes out to all generous doghouse sponsors for their gifts, there are still many more months of cold to come.

With your help as an “Angel for Animals,” hundreds more backyard dogs can be protected this winter.

As a doghouse sponsor, you’ll receive a certificate with “before” and “after” photos showing how your gift will help a lucky dog, special mention on our “Angel for Animals” Web site, and the joy of knowing that a once-forgotten dog is safe and sound in his or her new home–this winter and beyond–thanks to you.

This October, organizations across the country will be advocating for farmed animals in full force in honor of World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) on October 2. WFAD honors the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and encourages people to reflect upon the suffering and deaths of billions of animals in animal factories and slaughterhouses.

PETA and Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM) are working together to promote PETA’s “Kentucky Fried Cruelty” campaign. By protesting KFC, we give voice to the more than 850 million chickens raised and killed for KFC, encourage people to boycott a company that refuses to make any animal welfare improvements, and offer information about making the compassionate switch to a vegetarian diet.

PETA and FARM are compiling an events calendar of all the actions taken worldwide in honor of WFAD. Every protest, leafleting, information table, walk, or memorial service held in October will be recorded. Please join us in taking action as part of the KFC campaign, and help us make this WFAD the best ever!

If you are curious to see what other people are doing in your area for WFAD, please see the events list.

Visit the KFC Cruelty site to learn more!