Please protest exploitation in testing, entertainment: three quick actions
Please click on and sign/send the following two automatic messages and send letter, thank you:
1. BACKGROUND | Fr0m PETA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just released a list of 134 chemicals that will be tested for their potential to act as endocrine disruptors (ED). EDs are chemicals that interact with hormone systems and possibly affect the growth or reproduction of animals.
The EPA’s program for screening these particular chemicals will take years and will kill approximately 80,000 animals. Since this program relies heavily on animal testing, it will provide information that is hard to interpret and is unlikely to help the EPA protect either humans or the environment from harmful chemicals.
The EPA has spent millions of dollars to create a large-scale non-animal testing program called ToxCast and has already used the program to profile the endocrine activity of more than 300 chemicals in the first phase of this program.
In addition, the EPA used ToxCast to study the health effects of the oil dispersants used in last summer’s Gulf Coast oil spill, yet the review panel overseeing the EPA’s endocrine program has so far refused to accept information from ToxCast. This is perplexing in light of the EPA’s own confidence in the usefulness of the program. Rather than killing tens of thousands of animals, the EPA should take its own advice and use ToxCast to test the potential endocrine activity of these chemicals.
Please take a moment to write to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to politely insist that the EPA use the non-animal ToxCast program to test the new list of chemicals for their potential to cause endocrine disruption.
Putting your subject line and letter into your own words will help draw attention to your e-mail.
Related, they grieve, interact as we, perhaps more so, their emotions are not disingenuous or applied …
2. BACKGROUND | From IDA
The unexpected death of the elephant Dondi at the Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts in July immediately raised a red flag. At age 36, Dondi should have been in the prime of her life. So IDA took action and filed a complaint with the USDA, urging an investigation into her death. We also demanded that Southwick’s Zoo President Justine Brewer publicly release Dondi’s medical records as a matter of public safety, as Dondi was in direct contact with the public while giving rides. Elephants can harbor diseases transmissible to humans, including tuberculosis (TB).
IDA’s concerns were well-founded. The Orlando Sentinel just revealed that an animal autopsy report showed Dondi suffered “severe lung damage from chronic fibrosis and pneumonia, likely caused by tuberculosis.” TB in elephants presents a serious public health concern because it is very difficult to detect, and the animals can transmit the disease to humans as well as other elephants.
Dondi had been in direct contact with the public for years, putting both children and adults at risk. During the summer she gave rides at the Southwick’s Zoo; she was the second elephant used by the zoo who was found to have TB. Dondi performed circus tricks and gave rides at Flea World in Florida during the winter months. U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines for the control of TB in elephants state: “Direct contact transmission may occur during activities such as touching or riding an elephant, being touched by an elephant, examining, medicating, bathing, and handling animals.”
IDA is renewing our call to the Southwick’s Zoo and Flea World to end the practice of using elephants for shows and rides because it is inhumane for the elephants and unsafe for the public.
Submit the form to send a message to Southwick’s Zoo and to Flea World, urging these businesses to stop using elephant acts.
3. BACKGROUND | From All Creatures
End Elephant Rides for the Safety of Elephants AND Humans
Tell the Southwick’s Zoo and Flea World to end the practice of using elephants for shows and rides because it is inhumane for the elephants and unsafe for the public.
WHERE TO SEND YOUR LETTERS:
Justine Brewer, President
2 Southwick Street
Mendon MA 01756-1234
phone (800) 258-9182
Sydney and Marianne Levy, Owners
4311 Orlando Avenue
Sanford FL 32773
phone (407) 330-1792 ext. 224
SAMPLE LETTER (please modify, shorten):
Dear Ms. Brewer and Mr. and Ms. Levy,
I have recently learned of Dondi’s tragic death at Southwick Zoo as precipitated by tuberculosis, a highly contagious and dangerous illness affecting both animals and humans; I am therefore writing today to request you discontinue exploiting animals as entertainment.
Please allow me to briefly illustrate personal observations: elephants are marvelously intelligent and loving creatures, forming enduring bonds and relationships; elephants also experience profound depression in insufferable conditions, separated from others and necessary companionship. It is grossly unjust that our society finds animal abuse tolerable in cases such as Dondi’s. While we as a collective understandably react shockingly at the cruelty inflicted upon our companion animal friends, many embrace apathy regarding animals imprisoned for entertainment purposes. Circuses, zoos, roadside attractions, and animal exhibits are all defined as socially acceptable forms of entertainment but that are all realistically a brutal indication of animal exploitation and imprisonment. Animals are objectified, cruelly treated, forced to behave in unnatural manners, exposed to pain and inadequate care and environments, and made to parade in front on humans for the sole purpose of human greed. There is no enchantment or magic for animals, and even zoos that perpetrate and foster an ideal of preservation are too often engaged in the savage acquisition of stolen animals, a brutal, bloody industry that hides under the chaotic surface of zoo entrepreneurship.
Financial greed at the cost of compassion is inexcusable, and the implications about humans who enable animal abuse are disturbing: we cannot allow our children to inherit a cruel and indifferent society where animals are unrestrictedly objectified. Indeed, if we do nothing, we are teaching our children troubling lessons and encouraging intolerance. Please discontinue exploiting animals and instead observe your moral obligation to extend equity and respect towards them.
I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention and consideration.
dondi’s sad death and life further prove the fact
that animals are god’s creatures, not captive zoo acts
we who love them sit here and grieve
remembering this sweet creature, who struggled to breathe
no amount of dollars justify the permission
to abuse an innocent angel and perpetrate
possible disease transmission
as one who knows all too well the fight to get air
i ask all who do not,
to learn how to care
Karen Lyons Kalmenson