top of page
  • Writer's pictureDon Lichterman

Giza Pyramids, Dairy Connect, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Wolves, ExxonMobil, House of Fraser!

Updated: Nov 27, 2020

Weekly Report about Crimes, Abuses and an overall Welfare Report! Wildlife & Animal Report!
Polar bears are beginning to settle in for the winter – and if this deadly Big Oil invasion moves forward, some won’t survive to see the spring.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to one of the most imperiled polar bear populations in the world. But the Bureau of Land Management is rushing approvals for seismic testing to find oil and gas on the Refuge’s coastal plain, threatening the habitat these bears need to survive.  

In honor of Polar Bear Week, help us fight back against this industrial threat to polar bears!

Polar bears and other arctic wildlife are under attack by oil companies and their friends in the administration. Help put the brakes on the oil invasion with an urgent gift right now! As you read this, winter is descending on the Arctic. This is the time when pregnant mother polar bears dig out snow caves for themselves and their cubs to be protected from the coldest months.

But those dens could become graves if seismic testing moves forward.

90,000-pound “thumper trucks” used for seismic exploration will send shockwaves through the landscape that can cause mother bears to abandon dens, which is harmful to the mother bear and fatal to her cubs. These massive trucks and other support vehicles could also roll over polar bear dens and crush hibernating polar bears and their cubs to death.

Seismic exploration will also assault this habitat with airplanes, airstrips, fuel stations, camps with up to 180 workers. – and noise and pollution that threaten these bears’ ability to hunt, travel, rest, hibernate and raise cubs.

The Arctic Refuge – once a serene polar landscape – would be scarred forever by industrial exploitation.

The Arctic Refuge is the jewel in the crown of America’s wildlife refuge system, and part of the living legacy we leave to future generations. Invading the Refuge for oil would destroy that legacy.


Expanding fossil fuel development is the wrong move at the wrong time – especially where it will cost vulnerable polar bears their lives.

We can’t give up on these polar bears. Please – make your emergency gift today to fight back against Big Oil’s reckless hunt for profit in the Arctic Refuge!

As you may know, PETA has been campaigning to inform the public about not only the cruelty endured by cows used for dairy but also the misleading and false statements on human health benefits made by the industry.

Now Dairy Australia, with the assistance of lobbying group Dairy Connect, is attempting to reintroduce a scheme of free milk in schools! Cows' milk is one of the primary causes of food allergies among children. Most people begin to produce less lactase, the enzyme that helps with the digestion of milk, when they're as young as 2 years old. This reduction can lead to lactose intolerance, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhoea.


Please join PETA in speaking up for children (and cows!) by sending in a letter to the editor of Shepparton News and Country News.


Both Shepparton News and Country News ran an article titled "PETA Attack Angers Industry" in response to PETA's letter to the editor expressing concerns about this new scheme. You can view our letter to the editor and the response here and here.Animal milk has long been claimed as humans' go-to source of calcium by the dairy industry, but as it turns out, milk is bad for you. Calcium from animal milk is not absorbed as well as that from plant-based sources, and it can be accompanied by a number of dangerous health problems. In a Swedish medical study, women who consumed large quantities of dairy milk daily were more likely to sustain fractures than those who drank little or no milk. Instead of promoting bone health, animal protein in dairy can have a calcium-leaching effect.


Cows' milk contains lactose, a sugar that can be difficult for humans to digest, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, gas, bloating, and diarrhoea. It can also develop later in life and result in months of worsening symptoms.


Unlike lactose intolerance, milk allergies are characterised by potentially strong and dangerous reactions, such as vomiting or anaphylaxis, usually in young children.


A single serving of whole milk can contain more than 20% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of saturated fat, and even 1% milk has 8% of the RDA of saturated fat. If you consume three servings of whole milk, you're already at 60% for the day, even before eating any food.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stripped federal protection from nearly every wolf in the lower 48.

While we challenge this disastrous move in court, the fate of wolves rests with the states.


States will decide where wolves can be shot, trapped and poisoned — so that's where we're ramping up our fight to protect them.



The decision to end federal wolf protection this week means that states will soon manage wolves — so governors play a critical role in the future of wolf families in places like California, Colorado, Utah, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington and the Dakotas.


The last thing these wolves need is a rush of state-sanctioned hunting and trapping seasons. That'll take us right back to the time when wolves were relentlessly killed and harassed — a time when pups weren't safe in their dens and packs were torn apart.


Don't let that happen. Wolves today occupy less than 10% of their historic habitat and still face ruthless persecution. Now that the federal government has pulled the plug on protection, states must step up and do what's right.


Have you heard of the Iditarod? ExxonMobil, which operates as Esso in the UK, has been pumping money into Alaska's gruelling Iditarod dog-sled race since 1978, fuelling dog deaths, suffering, and neglect. Learn More and Take Action

After pressure from PETA, our affiliates, and nearly half a million supporters like you, the Egyptian government announced plans to ban camel and horse rides at Giza's top tourist attractions. Instead, visitors will be able to use electric cars and buses. Read On

As temperatures drop and shoppers look to invest in warm, stylish designs, PETA supporters delivered a surprise message to House of Fraser's flagship store in London's Oxford Circus.

U.S. trophy hunters bring home more than half of all leopard trophies worldwide — an average of nearly 300 leopards shot in cold blood every year.

If we don't act now, Africa's leopards could be gone from the wild in our lifetime.



Scientists fear leopard populations in Africa are plummeting.


The animals are losing their habitat and prey, dying in conflicts with humans, and being poached for their coveted fur and gunned down by trophy hunters.


That's why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must stop letting trophy hunters bring leopard trophies into the country unless, and until, the Service knows how dire the leopard's decline is.


Without more information on these animals' plight, the agency simply can't permit leopards killed for fun by U.S. hunters to cross our borders.


African leopards need to be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act — both to restrict the import of trophies and to bring them much-needed funding and protection.


We Reached Our Goal of 40,000 Signatures

Thanks to compassionate supporters like you, Lady Freethinker's petition to shut down the cruel Nakwon dog meat auction house gained more than 40,000 signatures. The petition has now been hand-delivered to the office of Namyangju Mayor Cho Kwang-Han by our partners at Save Korean Dogs. Thank you for standing up for innocent dogs suffering at this abusive, secretive facility. We will keep the pressure on until this auction house of horrors is shut down for good!

At Nakwon, likely the largest remaining dog meat auction house in the country, an LFT investigator found frightened dogs in cramped, dirty conditions. 

  • More than 200 dogs were auctioned off for their meat in just a few hours, crying and whimpering as they were poked with a metal hook. 

  • Smaller dogs were sold for slaughter, while larger ones were sold to breed more "meat dogs"

  • Our investigation of these horrors received attention around the world, in publications like People, Vice, the Daily Mail and more. 

We're grateful for your signature and your support. We will keep fighting until dog and cat meat are history!


Lady Freethinker will continue working every day to save dogs, cats and other animals from cruelty. Please help save lives? Help Out Now!

British Vet Association does nothing when it knows badger killing won’t end disease.

The lives of 65,000 innocent creatures are at stake. We must stop the barbaric badger cull!  Please donate what you can today - and sign our urgent petition. Earlier this year, the British government announced that it was phasing out the pointless badger cull it has been championing for the past five years. It lied. Instead of stopping the badger cull, it increased the scope and number of badger culling areas.


65,000 English badgers will be trapped, shot, maimed… and mercilessly killed before Christmas!



This is not fake news. Dr Iain McGill, one of a group of vets campaigning against badger culling, says over 100,000 badgers have been killed so far, with 35,000 killed in 2019 alone.


Right now the government plans to drive up the death toll, targeting another 65,000 badgers before Christmas. 


This is simply outrageous, and it is being done for no purpose! The British government falsely claims that killing badgers will stop the transmission of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) from badgers to cattle. But Dr McGill’s group is adamant that there is not a shred of evidence to support the claim that badgers are driving the epidemic in cattle. Cows mostly catch TB from other cows.


Astonishing! The British Veterinary Association (BVA) supports the pointless slaughter!


As the top body of British vets, the BVA has the ear of the government and regularly meets with top officials. In this position of power, the BVA has a clear duty to take into consideration ethical concerns and apply the best science to its policies. Unbelievably, the BVA ignores the science and while admitting that the main method used to kill badgers - which is to stalk the country at night armed with rifles and shoot them on sight - causes suffering, but still supports the policy, merely suggesting that badgers should be trapped before being shot.

And the final part of this horror story is that the overwhelming majority of these murdered  badgers are perfectly healthy, bTB free, and pose no risk to anyone or anything.


Essentially badgers are being killed for no reason at all. Please help us now!


It is far more likely that cows will catch bTB from another cow than from a badger.  Only around six percent of cattle infections might originate from badgers.


If proof is needed, here it is: Bovine tuberculosis rates in one of the pilot badger cull zones in Gloucestershire shot up 130% between 2017 and 2018. That means that after five years of culling badgers, a higher percentage of cattle herds had bTB than before culling started! 


It is unconscionable that across England, badgers are wounded, dying, or dead because lies or suspicions are being put before facts.


Most vets are compassionate human beings which makes it even more extraordinary that their professional body should support the pointless slaughter of 65,000 badgers in the next two months.


The UK government is using badger killing as a smokescreen to hide the real problem which is an ongoing epidemic of bTB among cows caused by an outdated skin test from a century ago. The government’s own data show that the routine skin test that vets use fails to pick up around 50% of infected cows, leaving them in the herd to cause further infections. Movement controls for cattle use the same test, ensuring that infected cattle continue to spread bTB to new areas of the country. 


HALF of all infected cattle are missed by the test!


Can you imagine if the government tried to control COVID-19 by using a test that had as much chance of being wrong as right? There would be outrage! Currently, the UK government wastes £100-million ($130-million) of taxpayers’ money a year on this policy which achieves only pain and death.

  • If you can please donate today to enable us to continue our important work.

  • Also, please sign our petition to urge the BVA to withdraw its support from this fatally flawed policy of mass badger slaughter. This would be enormously helpful.

Cape Town Street Dogs Strike It Lucky Thanks to Network for Animals

Network for Animals (NFA) works in 16 countries around the world, helping street dogs wherever we can. Every day, thousands of street dogs in places as far-flung as Uruguay and the Philippines get a meal because of the work we do.


No matter what country we work in, the people we work with are always the same: Good-hearted volunteers who form small organizations, giving their time and energy to caring for animals for little or no financial reward. In many cases, these people have so little funding that they make personal sacrifices, including using their own wages to help animals.


Fur-Get-Me-Knot is a classic example of this. Fur-Get-me-Knot is a tiny group of South African women who have taken on the task of feeding street dogs and cats in the Cape Town township of Westlake. We had never even heard of them before they called to let us know that they had run out of money because of the COVID-19 economic crisis and that the township’s dogs and cats desperately needed food.


Food bought, dogs fed, aid given


We acted immediately and bought 25 large bags of dog food and 5 bags of cat food to tide the 365 dogs and 171 cats who scrabble for a living in a poor and run-down area with very high unemployment. The dogs who live there have really tough lives. The people with companion animals are now so poor that they can no longer afford to buy food for their pets, and the hundreds of street animals are just plain out of options. Starvation is imminent. Add to this that many people abuse street animals. We told our supporters what we had done and asked for their support, not only for more food but for tick, flea and deworming medicine.


Our supporters responded like heroes


We were overjoyed when our supporters responded, and we were able to give Fur-Get-Me-Knot $2,000.00 (£1,540.00). Fur-Get-Me-Knot was so thrilled and immediately started spending the money to help the dogs and cats.


What happened next is truly wonderful. After we told Fur-Get-Me-Knot that our supporters had given them $2000.00 (£1,540.00), more donations came in and our video shows the team’s reaction when we announced that we had raised another $3,000.00 (£2,310.00) for the small team


For a small organization like Fur-Get-me-Knot, that’s like the dogs and cats they care for winning the lottery! Thanks to NFA supporters, one thing is sure: Street dogs and cats in Westlake will eat well for months to come. Please donate now

Looking for a career in animal law? Please click here for the Animal Legal Defense Fund's listing of current employment opportunities. Become a Social Media Ambassador

Remote Online Advocacy Representatives (ROAR) are online partners who help us spread the word about important animal issues. Please click here to learn more. 

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.

The Sustainable Action Network (SAN), A Don Lichterman non-profit organization dedicated to building a global community raising awareness of corruption, injustice and the need for action across a full range of issues impacting people and animal/wildlife welfare around the world, such as conservation, climate change, campaign law, lobbying, government action and rescue work. SAN’s vision is to create safer world, free from political, environmental, and social oppression, where all the inhabitants of Earth can live in harmony within their own natural environments. 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.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
ANIMAL RESCUES WELFARE, CRIMES & ABUSE
PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE

bottom of page