As the Chair of the Leaping Bunny Program, AAVS is thrilled to share this
creative, cruelty-free shopping PSA, starring actress Amy Smart. The
message in the PSA is direct: animals are still
being used to test cosmetics, personal care, and household products and their
ingredients, but "you have a choice."
"After being introduced to the organization by a friend
in March 2013," said Amy, "I began using Leaping Bunny certified products, which
opened my eyes to the alarming number of products and ingredients that are still
tested on animals."
The Leaping Bunny Program is the "gold standard" cruelty-free certification that you can truly trust.
The release of this PSA coincides with the launch of the new and improved LeapingBunny.org, which features lots of deals and promotions. Leaping Bunny also updated its "Cruelty Free" smartphone app, available for free for iPhone and Android users.
AMY SMART SHOPS CRUELTY-FREE. DO YOU?
The Leaping Bunny Program is happy to present our first digital PSA with well-known actress Amy Smart, coinciding with the relaunch of our new and improved shopper-friendly mobile app and website. The PSA educates shoppers on the horrors of animal testing still going on and encourages them to access over 650 cruelty-free companies through Leaping Bunny, so they can make more conscious purchasing choices.
Citigroup: Stop Donating to the New York Blood Center until it Reinstates Funding for Abandoned Chimps
TARGET: Ed Skylar, Citigroup Executive Vice President of Global Public Affairs
We've got 57,747 supporters, help us get to 60,000
As part of the campaign to demand that the NY Blood Center reinstate funding for the chimps they abandoned, NYC activists stage protests and take video at the group's headquarters and at the offices and homes of its board members. On 12/11, Gothamist published a story about our most recent protest entitled “This is the Best Protest Video of 2015.” Please see link to that story, and please share the petition: http://theirturn.net/2015/12/11/tensions-run-high-new-york-blood-center-chimp-protest/
About This Petition
After conducting invasive experiments on almost 500 chimpanzees for 30 years and promising to provide them with lifelong care, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) recently abandoned the 66 chimps who are still alive, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst on islands in Liberia with no natural food or water. If NYBC doesn’t resume funding when the emergency contributions made by private donors run dry, the chimps could starve to death.
In 2005, Dr. Alfred M. Prince, an NYBC executive, stated that his organization “recognized its responsibility to provide an endowment to fund the sanctuary for the lifetime care of the chimpanzees." Betsy Brotman, the director of NYBC’s chimp research program, also acknowledged her organization’s obligation: ”It’s our responsibility to try to pay them back by letting them live out their lives in their natural environment. If you’re going to do work in chimpanzees, you should set up a system so that at the end of the research they have a place where they can live.”
When the chimps were no longer needed for experiments, NYBC released them onto six islands in Liberia where the caretakers from NYBC’s former research facility could provide them with food and water. “That’s what we agreed to do,” said Brotman.
NYBC also abandoned 20 chimpanzees on an island in the neighboring Ivory Coast. Nineteen of these chimps and their offspring have died. The sole survivor, Ponso, is all alone and being fed sporadically by locals and a group formed to provide emergency relief. He is in grave danger and must be relocated to a sanctuary.
NYBC, which has $450 million in assets and has reportedly earned approximately $500 million in royalties off of the research conducted on these chimps, should not shift responsibility for the chimps to advocacy groups or the government of Liberia. As Jane Goodall noted in an open letter to NYBC, the organization has a “moral obligation” to pay for the care of these chimps.
The nation’s leading animal advocacy groups have made multiple efforts to meet with NYBC, but the organization will not even return phone calls. Perhaps they will pay more attention to their major donors. Please sign this petition to urge Citigroup, one of NYBC's top donors that also prides itself on corporate social responsibility, to make their donations contingent on NYBC reinstating funding for the chimpanzees.
If you are a Citibank or Citicard customer, please mention that in the space for comments when you sign the petition.
PETA is calling for a permanent end to all animal experiments at a Chinese medical school in light of a video that surfaced showing dogs suffering and left to die on the roof after being experimented on.
People who lived near the Xi’an Medical University in Xi’an, China, heard what sounded like dogs’ cries coming from the roof of the school. When members of a local animal advocacy group went to investigate, they found more than a dozen dogs on the roof, surrounded by discarded and bloody medical supplies. Many of the dogs were alive but had their mouths bound shut and were suffering from open wounds.
The group also found other dogs who were slated to be used in future experiments chained nearby, huddling fearfully in corners and under pipes. The university was not licensed to experiment on dogs, and its license to experiment on any animals had expired.
The school said that it will suspend all animal experiments, but PETA is calling on it to end the use of animals in experiments and classroom exercises and switch to the superior, humane non-animal research and teaching methods currently used by 98 percent of the medical schools in the United States. PETA Asia has offered to work with the university to implement progressive, human-relevant technology such as organs-on-chips, 3-D human tissue cultures, and computer models.
You can find out more about the investigation here.
What You Can Do
Dogs at other laboratories need your help, too! Take action for dogs abused by cruel laboratory supplier Oak Hill Genetics here.
Left for dead: Horrific video shows more than a dozen dogs abandoned on rooftop of Chinese medical school after 'students used them for lab experiments'
An 18 second video was posted online over the weekend which showed dogs discarded among medical products on the roof of Xi'an Medical University, the People's Daily Online reports.
Some of the dogs had severe bruising and medical wounds, with their mouths bound by gauze.
Horrifying: More than a dozen dogs were found left to die on the rooftop of Xi'an Medical University on Sunday
Cruel: Some of the dogs were found with their mouths tied up and with surgical wounds, like the one pictured
Xi'an Medical University has released a statement on its website saying there had been improper conduct. Pictured is the school building where the dogs where found
19 of the dogs were set to be used in future experiments and were found huddled in corners.
Speaking with the Global Times, Jiang Hong, head of a Xi'an based animal protection group said: 'The dogs in the video were removed from the rooftop when we got there on Sunday morning.
Tools from the experiments including bloody wooden sticks were found close by to the dogs' bodies.
People who lived close to the university reported that they heard whimpers from the roof.
The Beijing News has reported that the university's licence for carrying out experiments on animals had expired. The licence also did not include experiments on dogs.
The university also conducts experiments on frogs and rabbits.
Tied up: Two of the dogs that were set to be used in future experiments. They were found hidden in corners
Apologies: The university has apologised on its social media pages and ended its experiments on dogs.
Scandalous: Shockingly, the university's licence for carrying out experiments on animals had expired
Upsetting sounds: Nearby residents said they could hear whimpers from the university’s roof
Xi'an Medical University released a statement on Sunday saying that there had been improper conduct and inappropriate practice from some members of the university and that they would be dealt with.
It thanked internet users for the attention that they brought to the issue and their love for animals.
According to cnwest.com, an anonymous teacher from the university said that the school uses 200 dogs for experiments which is a lot smaller number than other medical schools in the country.
The school says they have since suspended the use of animals in experiments.
Elisa Allen, Associate Director of PETA, told MailOnline: 'Using dogs for experiments is slavery and supports a shameful trade left over from a time when we were ignorant of who animals are and used other species as test subjects because we were technologically illiterate.
'PETA Asia will be working with the university to encourage lecturers to use progressive, humane and human-relevant technology such as organs-on-chips, 3-D human tissue cultures and computer models.'
Horrendous: Tools and medicine used in the experiments were found among the dogs
An 18 second video went viral showing the pups on top of the roof angering Chinese internet users
Angry: Chinese internet users are now calling for stricter rules for experiments on animals
China's Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals was first approved in 1988 and was amended in 2011. It governs each phase of animal experiments, including the need to euthanize the animals afterwards.
Chinese internet users are now calling for stricter rules for experiments on animals.
This isn't the first case of dogs being mistreated at medical universities in China. In 2013, it was revealed that a military medical university in Chongqing, Sichuan province had conducted experiments on dogs in which they burned them alive.
In one experiment the backs of 37 dogs were burned for 30 seconds with napalm.
Helpless animals: One of the pups found on the roof of Xi’an Medical University over the weekend
Urge Feds to Investigate the CDC’s Laboratories Now!
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—which imprisons thousands of animals—has a long history of violating federal animal welfare laws and guidelines. Not long ago, PETA released disturbing leaked photos of monkeys at CDC labs who suffered third-degree burns over their arms and backs as a result of incompetence and negligence. We obtained documents showing, among other abuses, that when CDC employees failed to monitor an owl monkey who had undergone experimental surgery, the distressed monkey pulled out the sutures and her intestines spilled out of the wound. Eventually, she stopped breathing.
Now, PETA has received more government reports documenting glaring incompetence and gross mistreatment in the CDC's laboratories—leading to immense suffering and cruel deaths for animals, including incidents in which:
Fifteen mice died or had to be euthanized after they were placed in cages that were still hot from high-temperature sterilization equipment. The mice were reported as showing "increased salivation" and "signs of distress due to hyperthermia."
A calf died of hypothermia in a barn that was known to have a malfunctioning heater.
A pigtail macaque monkey was either inadvertently inoculated with simian-human immunodeficiency or acquired the infection from a positive animal. It was not known which.
On two separate occasions, prairie dogs died after becoming stuck in an unsecured floor drain.
Five mice died painfully of asphyxiation after the ventilation pump to their enclosure was turned off.
Two ferrets and 40 mice were inoculated with an H9N2 virus, which was later confirmed to be contaminated with the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus. The animals were all killed.
During a viral study using embryonated eggs, 17 eggs were inadvertently allowed to hatch. All of the chicks were killed.
The new revelations follow more than a decade of documented problems of abuse, neglect, and incompetence in the CDC's laboratories. The CDC has an annual budget that exceeds $6 billion, with more than $500 million earmarked for "monitoring health and ensuring laboratory excellence." In contrast to other laboratories that use animals covered under federal regulations, government laboratories—like those operated by the CDC—are not subject to federal inspections. The CDC's lack of accountability has resulted in egregious suffering for animals and perilous working conditions for employees.
Please join PETA in urging the federal government to investigate the CDC's laboratories.
Send Imprisoned Research Chimpanzees to a Sanctuary.
"After being introduced to the organization by a friend
in March 2013," said Amy, "I began using Leaping Bunny certified products, which
opened my eyes to the alarming number of products and ingredients that are still
tested on animals." The Leaping Bunny Program is the "gold standard" cruelty-free certification that you can truly trust.
The release of this PSA coincides with the launch of the new and improved LeapingBunny.org, which features lots of deals and promotions. Leaping Bunny also updated its "Cruelty Free" smartphone app, available for free for iPhone and Android users.
AMY SMART SHOPS CRUELTY-FREE. DO YOU?
The Leaping Bunny Program is happy to present our first digital PSA with well-known actress Amy Smart, coinciding with the relaunch of our new and improved shopper-friendly mobile app and website. The PSA educates shoppers on the horrors of animal testing still going on and encourages them to access over 650 cruelty-free companies through Leaping Bunny, so they can make more conscious purchasing choices.
Amy explained her involvement in the video project: “After being introduced to the organization by a friend in March 2013, I began using Leaping Bunny certified products, which opened my eyes to the alarming number of products and ingredients that are still tested on animals. Since then, cruelty-free shopping has become an absolute must for me and partnering with Leaping Bunny for this digital PSA seemed a natural fit.”
Thanks to Amy for helping animals!
 |  |  |
ABOUT AMY SMARTBest known for her role as Allison on the TV series Justified and the Crank films, Amy Smart was most recently seen in the film Break Point alongside actors Jeremy Sisto, David Walton, and J. K. Simmons. She is currently working on a new independent film scheduled to premier next year. Outside of her acting career, Smart has been involved with a variety of philanthropic organizations, and named one of "Organic Style" magazine’s "Women with Organic Style." The award is given to women who do things inspiring, making the world a better place. In line with her passion for animal safety and dedication to compassionate choices, Smart has partnered with Leaping Bunny to ignite awareness about cruelty-free shopping.
TARGET: Ed Skylar, Citigroup Executive Vice President of Global Public Affairs
As part of the campaign to demand that the NY Blood Center reinstate funding for the chimps they abandoned, NYC activists stage protests and take video at the group's headquarters and at the offices and homes of its board members. On 12/11, Gothamist published a story about our most recent protest entitled “This is the Best Protest Video of 2015.” Please see link to that story, and please share the petition: http://theirturn.net/2015/12/11/tensions-run-high-new-york-blood-center-chimp-protest/
About This Petition
After conducting invasive experiments on almost 500 chimpanzees for 30 years and promising to provide them with lifelong care, the New York Blood Center (NYBC) recently abandoned the 66 chimps who are still alive, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst on islands in Liberia with no natural food or water. If NYBC doesn’t resume funding when the emergency contributions made by private donors run dry, the chimps could starve to death.
In 2005, Dr. Alfred M. Prince, an NYBC executive, stated that his organization “recognized its responsibility to provide an endowment to fund the sanctuary for the lifetime care of the chimpanzees." Betsy Brotman, the director of NYBC’s chimp research program, also acknowledged her organization’s obligation: ”It’s our responsibility to try to pay them back by letting them live out their lives in their natural environment. If you’re going to do work in chimpanzees, you should set up a system so that at the end of the research they have a place where they can live.”
When the chimps were no longer needed for experiments, NYBC released them onto six islands in Liberia where the caretakers from NYBC’s former research facility could provide them with food and water. “That’s what we agreed to do,” said Brotman.
NYBC also abandoned 20 chimpanzees on an island in the neighboring Ivory Coast. Nineteen of these chimps and their offspring have died. The sole survivor, Ponso, is all alone and being fed sporadically by locals and a group formed to provide emergency relief. He is in grave danger and must be relocated to a sanctuary.
NYBC, which has $450 million in assets and has reportedly earned approximately $500 million in royalties off of the research conducted on these chimps, should not shift responsibility for the chimps to advocacy groups or the government of Liberia. As Jane Goodall noted in an open letter to NYBC, the organization has a “moral obligation” to pay for the care of these chimps.
The nation’s leading animal advocacy groups have made multiple efforts to meet with NYBC, but the organization will not even return phone calls. Perhaps they will pay more attention to their major donors. Please sign this petition to urge Citigroup, one of NYBC's top donors that also prides itself on corporate social responsibility, to make their donations contingent on NYBC reinstating funding for the chimpanzees.
If you are a Citibank or Citicard customer, please mention that in the space for comments when you sign the petition.
PETA is calling for a permanent end to all animal experiments at a Chinese medical school in light of a video that surfaced showing dogs suffering and left to die on the roof after being experimented on.
People who lived near the Xi’an Medical University in Xi’an, China, heard what sounded like dogs’ cries coming from the roof of the school. When members of a local animal advocacy group went to investigate, they found more than a dozen dogs on the roof, surrounded by discarded and bloody medical supplies. Many of the dogs were alive but had their mouths bound shut and were suffering from open wounds.
The group also found other dogs who were slated to be used in future experiments chained nearby, huddling fearfully in corners and under pipes. The university was not licensed to experiment on dogs, and its license to experiment on any animals had expired.
The school said that it will suspend all animal experiments, but PETA is calling on it to end the use of animals in experiments and classroom exercises and switch to the superior, humane non-animal research and teaching methods currently used by 98 percent of the medical schools in the United States. PETA Asia has offered to work with the university to implement progressive, human-relevant technology such as organs-on-chips, 3-D human tissue cultures, and computer models.
You can find out more about the investigation here.
What You Can Do
Dogs at other laboratories need your help, too! Take action for dogs abused by cruel laboratory supplier Oak Hill Genetics here.
- WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
- The university in Xi'an city didn't have a licence for experiments on dogs
- An 18 second video showing the mistreated dogs caused outrage in China
- Many pooches were found on the roof dead with surgical wounds
- Internet users are calling for tighter restrictions on animal experiments
An 18 second video was posted online over the weekend which showed dogs discarded among medical products on the roof of Xi'an Medical University, the People's Daily Online reports.
Some of the dogs had severe bruising and medical wounds, with their mouths bound by gauze.
Horrifying: More than a dozen dogs were found left to die on the rooftop of Xi'an Medical University on Sunday
Speaking with the Global Times, Jiang Hong, head of a Xi'an based animal protection group said: 'The dogs in the video were removed from the rooftop when we got there on Sunday morning.
Tools from the experiments including bloody wooden sticks were found close by to the dogs' bodies.
People who lived close to the university reported that they heard whimpers from the roof.
The Beijing News has reported that the university's licence for carrying out experiments on animals had expired. The licence also did not include experiments on dogs.
The university also conducts experiments on frogs and rabbits.
Tied up: Two of the dogs that were set to be used in future experiments. They were found hidden in corners
It thanked internet users for the attention that they brought to the issue and their love for animals.
According to cnwest.com, an anonymous teacher from the university said that the school uses 200 dogs for experiments which is a lot smaller number than other medical schools in the country.
The school says they have since suspended the use of animals in experiments.
Elisa Allen, Associate Director of PETA, told MailOnline: 'Using dogs for experiments is slavery and supports a shameful trade left over from a time when we were ignorant of who animals are and used other species as test subjects because we were technologically illiterate.
'PETA Asia will be working with the university to encourage lecturers to use progressive, humane and human-relevant technology such as organs-on-chips, 3-D human tissue cultures and computer models.'
Horrendous: Tools and medicine used in the experiments were found among the dogs
Chinese internet users are now calling for stricter rules for experiments on animals.
This isn't the first case of dogs being mistreated at medical universities in China. In 2013, it was revealed that a military medical university in Chongqing, Sichuan province had conducted experiments on dogs in which they burned them alive.
In one experiment the backs of 37 dogs were burned for 30 seconds with napalm.
Helpless animals: One of the pups found on the roof of Xi’an Medical University over the weekend
Fifteen mice died or had to be euthanized after they were placed in cages that were still hot from high-temperature sterilization equipment. The mice were reported as showing "increased salivation" and "signs of distress due to hyperthermia."
A calf died of hypothermia in a barn that was known to have a malfunctioning heater.
A pigtail macaque monkey was either inadvertently inoculated with simian-human immunodeficiency or acquired the infection from a positive animal. It was not known which.
On two separate occasions, prairie dogs died after becoming stuck in an unsecured floor drain.
Five mice died painfully of asphyxiation after the ventilation pump to their enclosure was turned off.
Two ferrets and 40 mice were inoculated with an H9N2 virus, which was later confirmed to be contaminated with the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus. The animals were all killed.
During a viral study using embryonated eggs, 17 eggs were inadvertently allowed to hatch. All of the chicks were killed.
The new revelations follow more than a decade of documented problems of abuse, neglect, and incompetence in the CDC's laboratories. The CDC has an annual budget that exceeds $6 billion, with more than $500 million earmarked for "monitoring health and ensuring laboratory excellence." In contrast to other laboratories that use animals covered under federal regulations, government laboratories—like those operated by the CDC—are not subject to federal inspections. The CDC's lack of accountability has resulted in egregious suffering for animals and perilous working conditions for employees.
Please join PETA in urging the federal government to investigate the CDC's laboratories.
Target: Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health
Goal: Retire research chimpanzees to a suitable sanctuary.
Despite having ended experiments on their chimpanzees, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has yet to send these animals to a sanctuary. Following a long and fervent campaign by animal advocacy groups and the ForceChange community, the NIH recently announced that they would stop testing on chimpanzees. Despite this announcement, these intelligent and sociable animals are still behind bars in the government’s laboratories.
While it is a huge relief that these chimps will no longer have to endure painful experiments, they remain caged in solitary confinement in the institutes’ testing centers. Much like us, chimps are highly sociable animals, forming strong bonds with their mates and caring for their offspring for years. In the wild, chimpanzees are very active, spending their days in the treetops. Clearly, these intelligent beings do not belong in labs, shut into solitary and barren cages, where they suffer from loneliness, boredom, and distress.
Moreover, chimpanzees are genetically similar to humans. In fact, they share 98 percent of our genes. In light of this, how can it be acceptable to sequester them in cages and deny them all form of pleasure or freedom to express natural behaviors? A small number of the chimps owned by the NIH have been sent to a suitable sanctuary in Louisiana, but the majority of them remained trapped. Many have even died while waiting to be freed. These innocent animals deserve to experience peace and companionship after years of abuse.
Please join us in reminding the National Institutes of Health that we haven’t forgotten about their experimental victims. Sign this petition to urge them to retire all their chimpanzees now.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Dr. Collins,
While I’d like to thank you for taking the laudable decision of ending experiments on the chimpanzees in your care, it has emerged that most of them are still confined in government laboratories. Despite no longer being of medical use to the NIH, these animals have yet to be sent to accredited sanctuaries.
While a handful of chimps have been released to a sanctuary’s care, many more are still waiting to experience the freedom, companionship, and peace they so deserve. It has surfaced that many of the animals waiting to be retired have died.
Chimps are highly sociable animals who form strong bonds with their companions and are very active in the wild. In light of these intelligent animals sharing much of our genetic makeup, how can it be acceptable to keep them sequestered in labs? After suffering years of distressing and painful experiments, these chimps should not be confined to barren cages.
Please take urgent steps to retire all of the chimpanzees in the NIH’s care to accredited sanctuaries so that they may live out their remaining years in peace.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: PETA
