animal rights

Following a heavy two-year campaign that included tens of thousands of letters and e-mails, demonstrations, and phone calls by concerned activists, three elephants—Tina, Jewel, and Queenie—are being freed from the cruelty they’ve endured from the traveling circus that purchased them.

On August 15, the USDA began to fulfill their promises of saving these animals by confiscating the most severely abused elephant, Jewel, who was obviously emaciated from food deprivation. The other two elephants remained with the Davenport circus family as they refused to cooperate with the USDA.

The FWS Steps In Read more

I have a solution to the global whaling debate:

Stop whaling.

Okay, I know that nobody’s going to go for that, but world leaders should at least have something in mind. So there’s only one thing to meet a standstill in whale protection decision-making like the one we saw at the International Whaling Commission this week: a very dramatic eye-roll, heavy sighing and possible gestures of disgust.

The thing is, there’s been a ban on commercial whaling since 1986—a ban that’s been completely ignored by Japan, Iceland and Norway. This complete disregard to the moratorium leaves the IWC looking like a complete joke—and, let’s face it, if they can’t enforce their rules, aren’t they? Read more

OK, pals of pachyderms everywhere, mark your calendars because this Saturday, June 20 is the day to take action for our ele-friends in zoos worldwide. In Defense of Animals is holding its first-ever International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos (IDAEZ) to help raise awareness about elephants who languish in zoos—and to help stop their suffering.

Have you ever watched an elephant at the zoo? It’s absolutely pitiful. Since they’re pack animals, they hate being alone—but I know when we visited the St. Louis zoo, we saw one of the elephants moping around outside alone because there just isn’t enough room for them all to be out at once together.

These awesome mammoth-sized creatures are used to roaming tens of miles of open plains a day—it’s heartbreaking to see them forced to such a small, confined area. It would be like us humans being forced to live in our bathrooms! Read more

OK, animal lovers—no tuna jokes while these celebrity-activists are naked!

Though experts warn that the bluefin tuna may be beyond saving at this point, efforts are still being made in the fish’s defense.

Emilia Fox, Greta Scacchi, and Terry Gilliam have all gone naked in traditional PETA-style in support of this endangered creature. Read more