Undercover investigations by animal rights activists in Australia have triggered the Australian pig industry to lobby for protections similar to “ag gag” laws in the U.S. that criminalize the taking of footage which has led to reform. In an interview on Australian TV, the head of Australia’s pork trade group, Andrew Spencer, answers pointed questions about what the industry has to hide. During the interview, Mr. Spencer acknowledges that the industry is phasing out gestation crates but will not attribute that change to the work of activists.

TV Interview with Head of Australian Pork Trade Association

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals. To protect the bottom line, the animal agriculture industry is taking more aggressive steps to keep the public in the dark about how the animals are treated — confinement, mutilation, deprivation, physical abuse. To learn more about “ag gag” laws in the United States, please visit Farm Sanctuary. And, if you haven’t already, adopt a plant-based diet.

India has banned animal testing for cosmetics, becoming the first country in Asia to do so. The European Union, Israel, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand already have cosmetic testing bans.

According to Cruelty Free International, many countries in the world, including the U.S., still allow “antiquated, cruel, and unnecessary” animal testing for cosmetics. Animal testing is unnecessary because “non-animal tests are quicker, cheaper and more reliable.” Furthermore, the use animal tests to determine product safety has been “increasingly called into question because transferring the results of animal tests to humans has proven to be problematic and misleading in many cases.” To find out how you can help, please visit Cruelty Free International, “the only global organizations working solely to end animal testing for cosmetics and consumer products.”

As a stockholder in Groupon and Amazon, PETA has employed “shareholder activism” to pressure these and other companies to “stop promoting companies [like circuses and zoos] that abuse and neglect animals” While Groupon has rejected these efforts, describing itself as “content neutral,” Amazon is remaining flexible. In response to accusations of “bullying” by the right-wing National Center for Public Policy Research, PETA says that it is merely pressuring Groupon to “stick to its own policy of not promoting animal exhibitors that have violated the Animal Welfare Act in the past two years.” PETA has filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint, claiming that Groupon is lying to its customers.”

Photo Credit: Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune

Animals used in circuses, like elephants and big cats, are deprived of the chance to do anything that comes naturally to them and are beaten into submission in order to perform. In addition, they are forced to travel in small boxcars on trains for days at a time traveling between cities. By buying small amounts of stock in companies like Groupon that partner with circuses, PETA can use its seat at the table to expose the cruelty and attempt to end the partnerships. If you’re not in a position to buy stock and cause a stir at shareholder meetings, then join your local animal rights group(s) to protest the circus when it comes to your town. To learn more about animal cruelty in circuses, please visit PETA’s circus webite, Ringling Beats Animals.

The Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has released a 3-minute animated video that “exposes animal testing for cosmetics, chemicals, and household products as a cruel, ineffective, and unnecessary practice that puts consumers and the environment at risk.”

Greed, not science, continues to drive product testing on animals. As explained in the video, animal testing is not only cruel (torturous, if we are going to be honest), but it is also unreliable, expensive, and outdated. In addition, the data are often meaningless, as the response to a chemical in animals does not necessarily indicate how humans will react.

The NY Times reports that animal law professor Steven Wise and the Nonhuman Rights Project (Nh.R.P) have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a captive chimpanzee named Tommy, who is “the first nonhuman primate to ever sue a human captor in an attempt to gain his own freedom.” The Nh.R.P. plans to file similar lawsuits on behalf other great apes, dolphins, orcas, belugas, elephants and African gray parrots, all of whom have sophisticated cognitive abilities.

Chimps were chosen first because sanctuaries are prepared to take them if they win their freedom in court and because of the availability of research on their cognitive abilities: Advanced neurological and genetic research has shown that animals like chimpanzees, orcas and elephants possess self-awareness, self-determination and a sense of both the past and future. They have their own distinct languages, complex social interactions and tool use. They grieve and empathize and pass knowledge from one generation to the next. The very same attributes, in other words, that we once believed distinguished us from other animals.”

Imprisoning animals in zoos, labs, aquariums or any other captive setting is cruel. Imagine the frustration, stress, anxiety and depression experienced by orcas at Sea World; circus elephants on trains; and chimps in small cages in university basements! Please learn about and support the ground-breaking legal work of the Nonhuman Rights Project to free animals from captivity.