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Gretchen Wyler, the late Broadway actress and advocate for animals, once said, “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” If you think that’s fair, then please watch and share this new 60-second video about bacon. You and the pigs will be glad you did.

His name is Sam Simon, and, in the last months of his life, this Hollywood mogul has been donating a fortune to liberate animals. Today, he bought a fur farm in Southern California and rescued 425 chinchillas from a life of intensive confinement in wire cages: “This is your last day of abuse” and “first day of freedom,” he said to the animals while walking through the fur farm. PETA helped to broker the deal with the fur farm, though the owner was unaware of that. 

Photo: REUTERS/Mike Blake

In June, Mr. Simon freed Sunder, an abused elephant in India, and, before that, he rescued bears being held captive in a Georgia roadside attraction. Simon, who is dying from colorectal cancer, donated $100,000 to the San Diego Humane Society to take care of the newly-released chinchillas until they are adopted. When this animal hero does die, we know exactly where he’s going.

When SeaWorld’s stock price took a plunge last week, the ratings agency Standard & Poors blamed it on lower attendance due to “the company’s use of orca whales for entertainment purposes.” In response, SeaWorld announced that it is enlarging the orca tanks at three of its parks.

With the orca show being SeaWorld’s main attraction, I understand why the heartless souls who run the company would attempt install bigger tanks to regain the public trust and salvage the show, but could this possibly work, given public pressure to release the whales into ocean sanctuaries? Could bigger tanks really enable Sea World to continue holding whales captive? It’s too soon to say, but the activist community is doubling down – with PETA releasing this new 30 second video about orca activity. Even CNN is joining the fight by re-airing Blackfish, which is what triggered the international movement against Sea World in the first place. Thank you, CNN.

One month after a whistle blower at Princeton sent PETA an internal email describing the callous abuse of a lab monkey, the University issued a statement claiming they found “no evidence to support allegations of animal mistreatment.” The internal email, which was sent by a psychology professor to his lab workers after he learned that they rolled at least one marmoset monkey down the hall in a ferret exercise ball, stated: “The marmosets are not in the lab for your amusement. . . We are forcing them into experimental contexts that they wouldn’t otherwise choose because that is the only way that we can address our scientific questions. To force them into contexts for which there is no scientific justification is reprehensible and, frankly, unethical.”

In its statement, Princeton denied wrongdoing, stating its “investigation determined that a researcher had placed a single marmoset in a ferret exercise ball to explore use of the ball by marmosets during research projects. . . The ball was observed while on a track and on the floor, where it rolled slowly for a short distance.”

Marmoset

While Princeton won’t admit to animal cruelty in this case, it must be acknowledging prior abuse or the potential for abuse by describing steps it has taken in recent years to strengthen its animal care, including “hiring additional professional staff with expertise in laboratory animal medicine” and “creating a new Office of Research Integrity and Assurance.” Of course, no amount of reform will make it acceptable to hold animals captive in lab cages, depriving them of everything that comes naturally to them and experimenting on their bodies. Animal experimentation must and will eventually be banned with the help of organizations like Stop Animal Experimentation Now.

The cows who produce milk for grocery store chain Harris Teeter eat, breathe and sleep in a deep pool of manure, as shown in PETA’s undercover video of their dairy supplier in North Carolina.

When Harris Teeter’s customers see this ghastly footage of the cows who supply their milk, the shit is going to hit the fan too, not only because the conditions on their dairy farm are so unsanitary but also because the cruelty is so egregious. While this footage is shocking on one hand, it is not at all surprising on the other because we have seen undercover videos of factory farm horrors so many times. Learn more about the investigation and find out how you can help.