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Hunters Join PETA in Taking Aims at Iams
Cruel Pet-Food Makers Sponsorship Creates Strange Bedfellows
Norfolk, Va. - Pinch yourself if you think that youre dreaming, but the U.S. Sportsmens Alliance, a national lobbying and advocacy group for hunters, has added its voice to PETAs call for a boycott of pet-food maker Iams. The hunters and PETA are both furious with Iams for cosponsoring Pet Fest America-a series of companion-animal shows that tours the country-held by the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which actively opposes hunting. PETA has been waging an international campaign against Iams, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, for causing misery and death to scores of dogs and cats confined to barren laboratory cages and subjected to crude "nutrition" tests, after which the dogs are often killed. Paul Irwin, president and CEO of HSUS, has not only accepted payments from Iams for his organization-even though what Iams is doing to animals violates HSUS own stated position-but also provided Iams with cover from PETAs evidence of abuse, simply by lending humane-society support to the company.
What landed PETA in bed with gun-toting animal killers? A recent PETA undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract laboratory, where at least 27 dogs were deliberately killed, while others died of illnesses that went untreated, despite assurances from Iams that no animal in any Iams test would ever be deliberately killed. PETAs investigator found the following:
| | - Dogs and cats confined to small, barren cages, some for up to six years
- Dogs vocal cords surgically cut out so that they couldnt bark
- Dogs with untreated ear infections, rotten teeth, and injured paws from having to balance on metal-slatted cages and lie on cold cement
- Workers reports of a live kitten who was washed down a drain
- Terrified, unsocialized animals cowering in barren cages
- Kennels that were stifling hot during summer and near-freezing in winter
- Dogs being force-fed vegetable oil through tubes inserted down their throats
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"Iams alliance with Paul Irwin and HSUS has tongues-not tails-wagging," says Mary Beth Sweetland, senior vice president of PETAs Research & Investigations Department. "Animal lovers are howling mad that Mr. Irwins HSUS would take blood money from a company that kills dogs and cats."
Broadcast-quality footage of animals in an Iams contract laboratory is available. For more information, please visit PETAs Web site http://IamsCruelty.com.
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