LCA Blog

Get into the cruelty-free spirit and help turn Black Friday into Fur Free Friday!  For over 30 years, LCA has held protests on the day after Thanksgiving to urge shoppers not to buy fur. This year, Fur Free Friday falls on November 25, 2016 and protests are scheduled nationwide.

LCA is looking for volunteers to join us for the Los Angeles protests - all volunteers who show up will get a free T-shirt! Please reply to this email for details.

New LCA Undercover Investigation Reveals Systematic Abuse and Neglect of Pigs

A 3-month undercover investigation by LCA exposes severe abuse and neglect at Crimson Lane Farms, a pig breeding farm in Kenilworth, Ontario that supplies Olymel, Canada’s largest pork processor. Olymel pork is sold by major retailers across Canada including Walmart, Metro and Real Canadian Superstore.

New Yorkers, your voice is needed to help pass Intro 1233, a bill to ban the use of wild and exotic animals in the circus! 

LCA has just launched the FBI Tracks Animal Cruelty campaign to support the FBI's effort to record all incidents of animal cruelty in the United States -- and your help is needed! 

As part of our ongoing fight to stop dog eating in South Korea, LCA will be at the LA Korean Festival in Los Angeles, California, educating 400,000 attendees from Thursday, September 22 thru Sunday, September 25, 2016.

The wild pigs of Ohio's Wayne National Forest are being systematically baited, trapped and shot to death -- all in an unconscionable cull by the USDA Forest Service and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife. Not only are government officials ruthlessly killing the pigs, but they're calling on the public to shoot them, too!

On Monday, August 29, 2016, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1062, banning the use of cruel elephant bullhooks! California is now the second state in the U.S. to outlaw these barbaric devices, following a ban in Rhode Island in July 2016. 

As of January 1, 2018, elephants in CA will no longer be beaten into submission with bullhooks (brutal weapons that resemble a fireplace poker). LCA applauds Gov. Brown for passing this important legislation but would like to see the ban go into effect ASAP so the bullhook is not used on elephants for another year and a half.

LCA has launched a new PSA campaign with model/actress Kenya Kinski-Jones!

Kenya -- the daughter of music legend Quincy Jones and supermodel/actress Nastassja Kinski -- is helping educate the world about the plight of the mountain gorillas of war-torn Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  

Virunga-themed gala honoring prominent animal advocates to be held October 22, 2016 in Beverly Hills.

Prince Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Anthony Caere, Head of Virunga's Air Wing, will both receive the prestigious "Albert Schweitzer Award" at LCA's annual gala on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. 

This year, LCA's fundraising gala will be centered on the plight of Africa's Virunga National Park and its critically endangered mountain gorilla population. Defending the 2-million-acre park and its inhabitants from poachers, militants, and environmental exploitation is an ongoing battle for de Merode & Caere and Virunga's 360 park rangers who risk their lives daily. Part of their work includes protecting a third of the 900 mountain gorillas that remain in the wild.

The following zoo tragedies should never have happened. These are just five examples of the types of injuries and killings that occur all too frequently at zoos, and clearly demonstrare that animals are meant to live their lives as they were intended to and free from human exploitation.

In November 2012 at the Pittsburgh Zoo, an African painted dog was shot to death after becoming aggressive and killing a toddler who slipped from his mother's grasp and fell into the exhibit. After the incident, the observation deck was removed and the other African painted dogs were relocated to other zoos.

 Harambe the gorilla

2 - A similar incident occurred in May 2016, when Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, was killed after a young boy fell into his enclosure. Harambe did not harm the boy, but was killed anyway a precautionary measure. Western lowland gorillas are already an endangered species, and now there is one fewer gorilla due to this tragic event. 

Two lions killed at the Santiago Metropolitan Zoo 

3 - Just days before Harambe was killed, both a male and female lion at the Santiago Metropolitan Zoo were shot dead. They had been taunted by a suicidal man who removed his clothes and entered their enclosure. The lions would still be alive if there were safer barriers to protect the area from intruders.

Zawadi the lion lost his tail here

4 - In June of 2016, an African lion named Zawadi at the Oregon Zoo had to have his tail amputated after it got caught under a hydraulic door. Zawadi was entering a training area in front of an audience of schoolchildren. A zookeeper continued to present the "show" until the kids pointed out how much blood was coming from the lion's tail.

Juma the Jaguar 

5 - In June of 2016, at the Brazilian Army's Zoo, a Jaguar named Juma was shot dead after an Olympic torch ceremony where she was reportedly chained in the middle of the event as a mascot. She escaped from her handlers and was first shot with tranquilizers before being shot with a bullet to the head as she approached a soldier. 

All of these horrific incidents could have been avoided if the animals were in their natural habitat, free from the stress of captivity. Wild animals are not here for our entertainment -- and as long as zoos continue to keep animals captive, more tragedies are certain to occur.

Korean Dogs Desperately Need Your Help!

Hung. Electrocuted. Burned alive. These are just a few of the vile torture methods inflicted on innocent dogs in South Korea for the annual Bok Nal festival, a barbaric event in which dog meat soup is consumed in the belief that it provides a "cooling" effect in the summer heat. The dogs are tortured mercilessly because participants think fear and suffering makes the meat taste better.

The brutal Bok Nal festival lasts for weeks, with the main celebrations falling on what are thought to be the hottest days of the year. This year's next and final Bok Nal event falls on August 16, 2016 -- and it's up to you to speak up for the helpless dogs! Please sign LCA's petition today to tell the Korean government that the cruel dog meat trade must end.

Activists Call to Stop the Dog Meat Trade of South Korea

Animal advocates including Nami Kim of NamiKim.org, START Rescue, KoreanDogs.org, and Last Chance for Animals (LCA) will be protesting the Korean dog meat trade outside the South Korean consulate on Thursday, July 21 at 10:30 am. Full details:

After tens of thousands signed LCA's petition against Missouri HB 1414, MO Governor Jay Nixon vetoed this freedom-crushing legislation on July 8, 2016. This is an important victory for the animals, and the rights of all U.S. citizens!

If HB 1414 had passed, agricultural industries would have become excluded from the Missouri Sunshine Law, a law that guarantees citizens the right to obtain all records from public government bodies.

Despite massive global outcry, the Yulin government failed yet again to protect the thousands of dogs and cats brutally killed for China's annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival, a 10-day massacre that starts on the summer solstice. The animals are kidnapped in faraway regions of China and trucked for hours in tiny metal cages with no food and water -- when they reach Yulin, they are beaten and killed.

Today, June 22, 2016, President Barack Obama signed historic legislation that will spare tens of thousands of animals from the barbaric and unnecessary torture of chemical testing.

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a much-needed overhaul of the archaic Toxic Substances Control Act (created 40 years ago) and will steer chemical testing away from animal experimentation and toward newer, innovative and cruelty-free methods. Animal testing is notoriously unreliable, so this move benefits humans AND animals.

The new act requires that alternatives be looked into BEFORE resorting to testing toxic substances on animals, and toughens existing animal testing restrictions. It calls for development of non-animal testing methods which, over time, will replace current animal tests.

The legislation is far from perfect because it does not ban animal testing outright. LCA believes that ALL animal testing must stop, and we are still a very long way from achieving that goal. However, this is a step in the right direction that will save many lives.

Cat with surgically-implanted device attached to brain at UCLA, 1988
LCA has been fighting animal testing (or vivisection) for well over three decades, and was among the first to bring international attention to this crucial issue. In 1988, LCA Founder Chris DeRose exposed torturous experiments on cats at UCLA's Brain Research Institute, showing the world the hidden cruelty behind laboratory doors. Since then, LCA has led countless investigations, protests, and legal actions to expose vivisection and put an end to this abhorrent practice.

LCA will continue the fight until animal testing becomes a thing of the past.

Today, June 20, 2016 -- just one day before the bloody Yulin Dog Meat Festival -- LCA representatives met with local Yulin officials to demand enforcement of health regulations which would prevent the slaughter of dogs at area slaughterhouses and were told that inspectors would not be conducting inspections.  

LCA representatives have now filed a complaint with the state council to gain an official order requiring the onsite inspection of the slaughterhouses where LCA documented dogs being killed without the requisite health certificates.

For the first time, the government of Yulin, China has pledged to take action to stop the barbaric Yulin Dog Meat Festival, where 10,000 dogs are ruthlessly slaughtered and eaten each year on the summer solstice. This is major progress, and follows massive global outcry including a long-running campaign and multiple groundbreaking investigations by LCA.

Undercover footage released exclusively today by LCA exposes the horrific abuse and torture endured by dogs inside slaughterhouses at China's Yulin Dog Meat Festival. LCA is the first organization to document the slaughter of dogs inside Yulin's slaughterhouses. The footage was shot prior to the June 21, 2016 start of Yulin's annual dog meat festival where an estimated 10,000 dogs are killed during the summer solstice.

California is closer than ever to passing a ban on cruel elephant bullhooks -- a move that would effectively block circuses with elephants from performing in the state. The bill, SB 1062, passed in the state senate on April 18, 2016, and now awaits a vote in the state assembly. With the assembly adjourning for summer recess July 1, 2016, the vote could happen at any time!