Kristine’s Inner Circle

Every year, millions of individual animals, including more than 2 million cats and hundreds of thousands of dogs, are killed for their fur in China. Some are strays, and countless others are companions who once shared homes with people who loved and cared for them before the animals were rounded up and tossed, screaming, into a crate.

China is one of the world’s largest fur suppliers, and much of that fur ends up on store shelves in North America. And as we now know, Chinese companies have been known to deliberately mislabel cat and dog fur as “Asian jackal,” “rabbit,” or “raccoon” in order to fool consumers. Every fur-trimmed collar or other fur item from China, regardless of what kind of animal is slaughtered to manufacture it, is the product of cruelty on a truly massive scale. And we must fight to end this abuse!

Please make an urgently needed donation to PETA today to support our vital efforts to stop the horrific slaughter of cats, dogs, and other animals like those in China.

Through exposing the findings of difficult investigations like the one I told you of last week and through decades of relentless campaigning, PETA has saved many thousands of rabbits, dogs, cats, and other animals by convincing consumers and corporations to reject all fur. We’ve successfully persuaded some of the world’s leading designers and retailers—including Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger—to adopt permanent no-fur policies, and we’ve done such a good job of making fur synonymous with suffering that fur prices have seen record lows.

While we’ve accomplished much, the wholesale slaughter of so many animals for their fur in China is not going away. To help these animals, we must educate consumers, corporations, and even governments about the pain that goes into every piece of fur trim and every fur cat toy produced in China. That is only part of our work, but it is a vital part.

Please contribute to our work for dogs, cats, and all other animals by making a special gift today.

On behalf of all animals, especially those confined and killed for their skins in all parts of the world, thank you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. With the fall fashion season just around the corner, we need to do everything that we can to make sure that designers, retailers, and consumers know the horrific extent of the animal suffering that takes place on fur farms in China and around the world. Please make a special online donation right now.

They’re BACK …

The same company that just brought you the most catastrophic oil spill in American history is now planning a risky new project that would use untested drilling technology in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea — the heart of America’s polar bear habitat.

BP’s so-called Liberty Project would use the biggest rig in the world — propped up by a manmade gravel island three miles from shore – to drill up to eight miles horizontally, exposing pipes to the same kind of explosive “gas kicks” that led to the blowout in the Gulf.

In other words, this latest BP project is a disaster waiting to happen!

Please help stop it by signing this urgent Petition of Protest to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

You might have thought BP would lay low after the Gulf disaster: focusing on the cleanup effort and repairing its dismal environmental record.

Instead, the company is planning to begin drilling this fall in one of the two Polar Bear Seas that are home to HALF of our nation’s polar bears.

Let me share a few facts about BP’s Liberty Project:

• Even though it’s three miles offshore, this project is NOT subject to President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic! That’s because the operation is built on a 31-acre manmade gravel island. In other words, BP is getting a free pass based on a technicality.
• BP is prepared to drill up to eight miles horizontally in search of oil, even though this type of drilling is even more prone to gas kicks like the one that caused the huge blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to drill these unprecedented wells, BP has commissioned the building of the largest drilling rig in the world!
• Shockingly, BP was allowed to write its own environmental assessment and emergency response plan for the Liberty Project, just like it did in the Gulf. And we know what happened there.

The Obama Administration needs to make clear that the days of BP running the show are over.

Tell Secretary Salazar to stop the Liberty Project immediately by denying BP’s application to drill. He is unlikely to do that unless he hears a groundswell of public opposition — starting with you.

BP’s horrendous environmental record is well documented. It is already responsible for the 2010 Gulf disaster, the 2006 oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope (the largest oil spill to date in the region) and the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more.

We can’t afford a repeat performance in the Arctic. High winds, freezing temperatures and dangerous sea ice could make cleanup impossible. The nearest Coast Guard station is over 1,000 miles away, and much of the oil spill response equipment on-site is more than two decades old!

Tell Secretary Salazar to prevent a disaster on ice by saying No to BP.

Sincerely,

Peter Lehner
Executive Director
Natural Resources Defense Council