jenny cares 

PETA newsletter, July 2010
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Anyone who has seen the images of birds in the Gulf of Mexico struggling to survive the effects of the oil leak knows that these are devastating times for wildlife. In half a dozen states, animals are dying as a result of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, and wild animals everywhere face daily threats from human encroachment on their dwindling habitats. Every new golf course, office park, factory farm, and housing development results in more trials for our wild neighbors.

As PETA Foundation staffer Jaci Kassmeier discovered, even industrial facilities in your own backyard can be lethal to birds. When she and a friend were walking near San Francisco Bay not long ago, they saw a gull struggling in the water and about to drown in an area near a rendering plant. The bird's feathers were matted and coated with grease from foraging for food at the plant.

Jaci stripped to her underwear and plunged into the cold water. Because the grease had made the bird less buoyant, Jaci was easily able to catch him and carry him to safety. She rushed the desperately sick gull to a wildlife rehabilitation center, where he received tender loving care until he was well enough to be released.

Thanks to your support, our caseworkers respond to wildlife emergencies like this one every day. These cases may not make headlines, but they mean the difference between life and death—and suffering and relief—to the animals:

• A long-tailed weasel is now living happily in a wildlife reserve after PETA told an Irvine, Calif., resident how to safely catch the frightened animal in the resident's laundry room.
• Ducklings in Santa Monica, Calif., are no longer drowning in the pond at an upscale office complex after PETA persuaded the complex's management to install small ramps to allow the baby birds to get out of the water.
• After PETA convinced the local school district in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to stop using glue traps, mice and other small animals who stray into schools in the city no longer face the risk of dying horrible deaths on top of the cruel devices.
• After receiving a complaint about a woman in Jacksonville, Fla., who had been tormenting a family of raccoons with a leaf blower and insecticide in an attempt to get the animals out of her attic, we worked with a local contractor to have the raccoons humanely removed.