top of page
Search

Baystate Medical, Air India, North Dakota State U, Sanford Health, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Pfizer...

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Aug 6, 2019
  • 4 min read

...AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Pfizer.


I literally just got ill having to watch one of these PETA graphics of these mice swimming like mad in these cylinders. I cannot even repost that pic here but I must say come on now. What is wrong with humans and what does a swim test for rats in cylinders do for anything for gods sakes. If there were NOT easy and harm free alternatives com[pared to having to test on animals and wildlife which is why I do this report. If there were not other ways that are safe and not harmful to anything, I would NOT be writing this sentence. Reagrdklessm that picture brought tears to my eyes because yeah,. that's just great to be into that life. What kind of a way to live is that and how do they get that negative lottery pick if you will, to be born or captured or even sold into that life. it makes me ill. Besides, this isn't science – it's torture.


Experimenters grab frightened rats, yank them out of laboratory cages, and plunge them into beakers of water. The animals scrabble at the high, slippery walls, desperately searching for an escape, fearing they'll drown. There's no way out.


This "forced swim test" – originally known as the "despair test" – is the stuff of humans' worst nightmares. But for animals in laboratories, it's a terrifying experience that they can't wake up from.


The experimenters watch and take notes as the rats (or other small animals) panic, kicking and clawing to keep from drowning – until they're utterly exhausted and they begin to float.



Experimenters at universities and pharmaceutical companies have been dropping animals into beakers for decades, bizarrely claiming that nearly drowning an animal can somehow stand in for human depression and other chronic, complex conditions. Just like the vast majority of animal tests, this abuse does not lead to effective medications for humans.


PETA is determined to end the torture that animals face in archaic, distressing experiments, and we're promoting cutting-edge research methods that can actually help humans.



Pharmaceutical giants AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Roche have already pulled the plug on the forced swim test after hearing from PETA's affiliates. Now, PETA and thousands of our supporters are keeping the pressure on Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Pfizer to do the same. We won't let up until we relegate the forced swim test – and all crude and cruel animal experiments – to the history books.


Transporting animals to be used in painful laboratory experiments is abhorrent – and that's just what Air India is doing.


At their final destination, the animals may be imprisoned in cages and subjected to a lifetime of misery. In one case, experimenters in India cut open the legs of male beagles, inserted transmitters into them, forced tubes into their penises, and repeatedly injected the dogs with experimental drugs.

Many leading international airlines already have full or partial restrictions on shipping animals to laboratories. Will you urge Air India to follow suit?

Following discussions with PETA India, Air India once agreed to implement a companywide ban on shipping animals to laboratories. Unfortunately, the airline has since bowed to pressure from animal experimenters and decided to allow the transport of animals to laboratories once again.


After enduring a long and gruelling journey in the cargo hold of a plane and the back of a lorry, animals are routinely mutilated, poisoned, deprived of food and water, forcibly immobilised in restraint devices, infected with painful and deadly diseases, and psychologically tormented in laboratories.


No living, feeling being deserves to face this cruelty.



Massachusetts Medical Training Programs End Animal Use

Following a decade-long Physicians Committee campaign, Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., announced that it ended live animal use in its Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program, as well as in its emergency medicine residency program. One ATLS Program Still Uses Animals


Urge North Dakota State University and Sanford Health to End the Use of Live Pigs for ATLS Training


Please ask North Dakota State University president Dean L. Bresciani, Ph.D., and Sanford Health Fargo executive vice president Nate White to replace the use of live pigs in their joint Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program. We have provided text for you, but if you decide to write your own message, please be polite and encouraging.


Animal Testing Weekly Updates

"Corporations Are People Too My Friends."
Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism. Activism and Sustainability:

  • Gun Safety & Gun Laws

  • Cruelty Free

  • Death Penalty

  • Demand Action

  • Sustainable Action Network

Fairness and Equality:

  • Grammy District Advocacy

  • Privatization

  • Voters Issues & Gerrymandering

  • Private Prisons & the War on Drugs

  • Finance, Housing & the Economy

Corporate Responsibility:

  • Candidates, Bills, Laws & Protections

  • Wildlife & Oceania

  • Labeling & Transparency

  • Comprehensive Captivity & Hunting Results Databases



Elephant in The Room, Happy, #NatGeoWildlifeTourism, Roadside zoos, Tourists Riding Elephants is Odd

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Aug 5, 2019
  • 6 min read

Advertisements Displayed in Airplanes:

The tourists may look happy, the architecture is beautiful, the elephant colorfully adorned. All in all, it looks like a tableau practically designed for Instagram.

What you might not see is the elephant's suffering, and what you definitely can't see is the torture that takes place behind the scenes... the beatings that are used to "keep her in line." 


Maina is 25 years old and blind in one eye. She has horribly overgrown and cracked toenails and cuticles that must make every step she takes painful. Especially when she's forced to carry heavy loads, which she can be found doing nearly every day at Amer Fort in Jaipur.

Wildlife SOS is committed to helping Maina, and all of the elephants in India like her. Our Refuse to Ride campaign is designed to show people the truth behind these pretty pictures.


We believe that if tourists know the cruelty inherent in this type of elephant attraction, they will refuse to ride elephants. And what happens when tourists stop taking rides on elephants? The whole elephant riding industry will crumble, and the cruelty will stop, forever. 

Dumbo the elephant was just a baby when he was first forced to perform tricks for tourists at a roadside zoo in Thailand. It took workers days before they even noticed the extent of Dumbo’s injuries that shortly after led to his death. Roadside zoos are invested in making money, not the care or quality of life of the animals forced to live there. Never visit a roadside zoo or any other business that exploits animals for profit.

How to take part in the Wildlife Tourism social campaign


National Geographic’s June cover story takes an in-depth look at the thriving global wildlife tourism industry and exposes how the industry takes advantage of people’s love of animals. You may have seen photos of travelers bathing elephants or snuggling with a tiger cub on social media. But in many cases, captive experiences with exotic animals rely on abusive training or treatment.


Help bring to light some of the hidden realities of the wildlife tourism industry by taking part in the social campaign. Share the image below on social media using #NatGeoWildlifeTourism and on.natgeo.com/wildlifetourism. Click to download.


Horrifying pictures have emerged of elephants brutally struck over and over again with sharp metal hooks on the island of Phuket in Thailand, blood dripping down their heads and their bodies covered in dozens of scars from old wounds. Mahouts, or elephant trainers, hit the poor elephants with razor-sharp tools to make them behave for human entertainment — the most popular form being riding elephants.


There are currently 3,500 wild elephants and 4,500 domesticated elephants living in Thailand. World Animal Protection reports that of the 3,000 working elephants in Asia, 77% are treated inhumanely. This abuse ranges from being fed poor diets, kept near distressing loud places, and, when not working, being held in captive isolation with chains less than 10 feet long.


As reported by UNILAD, Dr. Patrapol Maneeorn, a wildlife veterinarian of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, claims that Thailand is working to improve, and eventually eradicate, elephant cruelty.


“What we are doing is collaborating with different organizations and sectors in Thailand to reduce and hopefully eliminate animal cruelty as much as possible.”

But we have a long way to go and no time left to wait. We must speak out to end elephant tourism now. Elephants are intelligent, social creatures who do not deserve to spend their lives being mercilessly beaten for entertainment.



Save this baby elephant from daily torture and abuse.

Gluay Horn who is being systematically abused and tortured at a facility called the Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo at this address 10280, 555 Thanon Thai Ban, Pak Nam, Amphoe Mueang Samut Prakan, Chang Wat Samut Prakan 10270, Thailand. The Thai government needs to create and enforce laws to protect these suffering animals.


An open letter to Southern Oregon University


On your website, your President, Dr. Linda Schott claims her favorite quote is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assertion that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” On behalf of thousands of people worldwide I am writing to request Southern Oregon University put its principles in action and help us right a terrible injustice.


Last month, National Geographic launched a “Wildlife Tourism” campaign to draw attention to the plight of captive animals, intended to be shared in social media --


The story featured a deeply disturbing photograph of an abused baby elephant named Gluay Hom with this caption:


Gluay Hom, a four-year-old elephant trained to perform tricks for tourists, is chained to a pole in a stadium at Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo near Bangkok, Thailand. His swollen right foreleg hangs limp. At his temple is a bloody wound from lying on the floor.

The Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Thailand has long been the subject of news reports and social media exposes regarding the appalling conditions in which its captive animals endure lives of starvation, neglect and misery while forced to perform tricks for tourists. The zoo’s owner, Uthen Youngprapakorn, adamantly refuses to take any steps to remedy the situation and has been quoted as saying that the fact that his animals hadn’t died showed that the facility was caring for them properly. News reports also indicate that another zoo also owned by Youngprapakorn had been shut down by Thai authorities due to the terrible condition of its captive animals.


Why is this of relevance to you? Because on his Facebook page, Uthen Youngprapakorn, this serial exploiter and abuser of animals claims to hold a BA from Southern Oregon University.  



The National Geographic articles and the heartbreaking photographs accompanying them have ignited a firestorm of outrage worldwide. Petitions circulating on change.org and other sites to release Gluay Hom to a sanctuary and shut down the Samut Prakan Zoo are garnering thousands of signatures and expressions of horror and disgust. Sadly, Uthen Youngprarpakorn remains immune to these requests and Thai authorities are not taking any action to enforce the country’s Cruelty Prevention and Welfare Animal Act. Baby Gluay Hom continues to suffer, chained to concrete under the stadium where emaciated, scarred elephants and tigers are compelled to perform to profit Uthen Youngprarpakorn.


We ask that Southern Oregon University issue a letter condemning the actions of your former student, Uthen Youngprapakorn in the strongest terms, urge him to release the suffering baby elephant to a sanctuary and to shut down the so called “zoo” where animals exist in daily pain and misery.  This open letter will be posted on the change.org petition and the world will wait and hope that Southern Oregon University will do the right thing.


Respectfully,


The 70,000+signees of this petition 

Happy is credited as the first elephant to recognize her own image in a mirror, a sign of her intelligence.


Yet, for the past 13 years she has been held in solitary confinement, locked behind a steel fence with no other elephant companions. A smart, innocent animal living a lonely life so the Bronx Zoo can sell more tickets.


Thousands of animal lovers like you believe that the Bronx Zoo is holding Happy captive in unbearable conditions.


World Elephant Day, a global day dedicated to the protection of the world’s elephant population, is just days away. Between now and then, we need to recruit 320 new Animal Protection Members to help push this campaign – and others like it – toward victory.


Today, we’re asking you to help cover the costs of campaigns that are fighting to protect animals against inhumane living conditions, abuse, and cruelty.


Almost a million people – compassionate animal lovers like you – have taken a stand for Happy’s welfare by signing the petition calling for her release to a sanctuary. The story has gotten news headlines, and the campaign has been endorsed by celebrities and politicians. Supporters have even taken to the streets in protest.



As someone who cares, will you be one of the first to help us reach our World Elephant Day goal by joining today to help fuel powerful campaigns like the one to save Happy, and many others fighting to end animal cruelty?


Elephants never forget. And Happy won’t forget the community of Animal Protection Members that are supporting her fight and the fight of so many other elephants. We hope you’ll take this next step with us to help fund important work that must be done to protect animals like Happy the elephant.


Elephant in The Room

"Corporations Are People Too My Friends."
Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.  Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.

Our companies are known for creating products that enhance people's lives.  Through Sunset Corporation of America and its companies, we’re equally dedicated to improving lives.   Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment, animal welfare, wildlife issues and encouraging employee volunteerism.


Activism and Sustainability:

  • Gun Safety & Gun Laws

  • Cruelty Free

  • Death Penalty

  • Demand Action

  • Sustainable Action Network

Fairness and Equality:

  • Grammy District Advocacy

  • Privatization

  • Voters Issues & Gerrymandering

  • Private Prisons & the War on Drugs

  • Finance, Housing & the Economy Corporate Responsibility:

  • Candidates, Bills, Laws & Protections

  • Wildlife & Oceania

  • Labeling & Transparency

  • Comprehensive Captivity & Hunting Results Databases




2019 Tread For Taiji Virtual Race, Wakayama District Court, Futo Fisheries at the Dolphin Outlook!

  • Writer: Don Lichterman
    Don Lichterman
  • Aug 4, 2019
  • 4 min read

Updated: Aug 12, 2019

Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project presents the 2019 Tread For Taiji Virtual Race!

Dolphin Project is proud to sponsor our annual Japan Dolphins Day event to mark the start of the hunting season in Taiji, Japan, as made known by the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘The Cove’. Activists around the world will be joining in peaceful demonstrations to educate the public, as well as to voice international opposition to the hunts.


We hope you and/or your organization will join us in celebrating Japan Dolphins Day between August 30 - September 1, 2019. Click on our interactive map to participate in an event in your city or create your own. We unite to show Japan, as well as the rest of the world, that the massacre of dolphins in Taiji is a crime against nature and must end immediately. Together, we can make our voices heard and inform others about this tragedy.


Have you registered for the fourth annual Virtual Race to raise awareness about dolphin captivity and the Taiji slaughters? If you’ve missed the deadline to meet the fundraising threshold of $50, no worries – we’ve ordered extra medals, so there’s still time to qualify for the prize packet!

It’s fast and simple to join. Run, walk, bike, or swim to show your appreciation for dolphins and spread the word that they deserve to live wild and free in the sea.


Click on our Virtual Race page to register, and start raising funds to support our upcoming Taiji campaign while helping to educate about the slaughter that takes place each year. Join as an individual, or create a team for mutual encouragement and some friendly competition!

The official race will take place on August 17; you can also do the race anytime in the week before, or spread out your mileage across several days! The best part is anyone can participate no matter where you live!


The second hearing in our legal action against the Taiji dolphin hunts took place in Wakayama District Court in Japan last week.

The Governor’s office submitted their response. They are doing everything they can to avoid defending the cruel hunts by trying to get the case thrown out on standing.

They are so keen to stop a judge seeing our evidence showing the hunts are cruel and unsustainable, the Governor’s lawyers are suggesting nobody has the right to challenge the dolphin hunts in court.

But as our lawyer, Takashi Takano, told media recently: “If these people can’t contest the permit, then who can?”


Our plaintiffs are the director of an experienced animal welfare charity who has campaigned against the hunts, and a local resident of Taiji. There’s nobody better suited to act as plaintiffs in this crucial case.

Addressing media after the first court hearing.


We have a strong legal argument prepared, and if our team get the chance to present it we feel very optimistic about our chances of stopping the hunts.

It’s going to be a tense few months waiting to hear if the judge will grant us standing in the case.

We’ll know more after the next hearing, which is scheduled to take place in mid October.  But until then we need to sit tight and prepare for whatever the outcome might be


We truly believe these hunts should not be above the law. And we’re going to fight like hell to prove it.


Dolphins are chased to the point of exhaustion during Futo’s brutal hunts. They collide into rock walls and die from heart attacks.

There hasn’t been a hunt there since 2004 - but that’s about to change.


After a 15 year break officials have announced plans to start capturing dolphins again in October.

The Futo Fisheries Agency think they will be ‘less criticised’ than the hunts in nearby Taiji because they plan to capture and sell dolphins to aquariums, rather than slaughter them.

But it’s hard to imagine anything cruller than capturing wild dolphins and shoving them in tiny, concrete tanks.



If the captures go ahead, terrified dolphins will be chased for hours and herded into nets. They’ll cut themselves on rocks and propeller blades, and drown in a desperate panic to escape.

After the last hunt took place in 2004, witnesses reported dolphins washing up dead on the shore for days afterwards.

The capture process is so cruel, not all dolphins survive.


Japanese officials are telling media that people don’t really care about the captures. But your signature can prove them wrong.

Thousands of Dolphins Killed by Industrial Fishing

Thousands of dead dolphins have been washing up on the shores of the UK and France's west coast. Sadly, human activities are most likely responsible due to the intensive industrial fishing industry that has been increasingly dominating the area. Click here to read more.

Extinction emergency! Hector's and Māui dolphins are facing extinction. You can help save them. The New Zealand government is holding a public consultation to ask what you think they need to do to protect these amazing little dolphins. Have your say. Closes 10 am 19 August 2019. https://whales.org/savenzdolsletter.


This Vet Explains Everything That’s Still Wrong with SeaWorld

Dr. Heather Rally is the supervising veterinarian for Captive Animal Law Enforcement at the PETA Foundation, and she explains why SeaWorld is still hell for animals held captive there. SeaWorld continues to breed bottlenose and Pacific white-sided dolphins even after halting their orca breeding program, and there are around 140 dolphins imprisoned there – all of them placed into just SEVEN concrete tanks. As if that weren’t enough, trainers continue to step on dolphins’ faces and ride them as if they were surfboards — the list goes on and on. You can help by never visiting parks that use live animals for entertainment.






bottom of page