Help Monkeys in the Year of the Monkey
According to the Chinese zodiac, it’s the Year of the Monkey, and monkeys are where it all started for our affiliate PETA US. After investigating a laboratory that experimented on primates in Maryland, PETA US secured the first arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter for cruelty to animals in the United States, as well as the first confiscation of abused animals from a laboratory and the first US Supreme Court victory for animals used in experiments. For this Year of the Monkey, check out some ways you can help our primate pals:
- Document Cruelty
When five people decided to kidnap a monkey from Varandha Ghat in Maharashtra, they didn’t take into account that someone might be watching, let alone filming. After the video went viral, authorities were able to track down the monkey because the culprits’ licence plate was identified in the video. Bearing a trunk full of bananas, forest officials and PETA representatives reunited the traumatised monkey with her family. If you see something, do something! Whip out your phone and call someone or take a photo or video. It can save lives.
- Support Only Animal-Free Entertainment
When animal rights supporter, actor and producer Raveena Tandon-Thadani found a monkey with a rope around her neck in her bungalow, she realized that the animal must have fled from an act of some kind. Raveena sprung into action and called PETA. The Bollywood beauty’s surprise friend is now living with other monkeys at the Primate Trust India rescue centre in Goa, where she can swim and play. Animals forced to perform do so out of fear of physical punishment and live a life of immense suffering. By patronising only animal-free entertainment, you can rest easy knowing that no one suffered for your amusement.
- Be a Caring Consumer
Sometimes you have to act things out in order to get people to understand, which is exactly what PETA’s youth outreach adviser, Neha Singh, and other volunteers did in Delhi with a graphic performance-art demonstration – in which Neha’s head was shaved and she was “electrocuted”, “killed” and dumped into a dumpster – to show how . Every year, countless monkeys, dogs, rats and other animals are poisoned, burned, blinded, cut open, starved and drugged in archaic experiments. And while the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare banned testing cosmetics and their ingredients on animals, many companies around the world still test their products on animals. Make sure your daily routine doesn’t include cruelty to animals by buying only from cruelty-free companies.
- Urge Russia to End Space Experiments on Monkeys
Apparently Russia didn’t get the memo that it’s 2016, because it is conducting cruel and misguided space-related experiments on monkeys. Please sign our petition urging the Russian Academy of Sciences to end these ill-advised experiments and send the monkeys to a sanctuary instead.
We need your support in order to put a stop to cruelty to monkeys and other animals. Together, we can make the world a better place for all beings.
