Act Now to Help Thousands of Suffering Ferrets
PETA recently went undercover at
Triple F Farms, Inc. (Triple F),
a Bradford County, Pa.-based massive ferret-breeding mill whose animals
are sold to laboratories around the world, including those of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and to pet stores
across the U.S., including Petland. PETA's investigation revealed that
thousands of ferrets are being kept confined to crowded, filthy,
stifling barns, where they
suffer from chronic neglect and die on a daily basis.
PETA immediately shared its findings with the CDC, which has—in the last five years—signed contracts worth more than
$1.5 million with Triple F for live ferrets used in experiments.
Despite
this and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) citation of Triple
F for repeatedly violating federal law, the CDC has just signed a
contract worth $16,750 with this cruel mill for ferrets. We need your help now to end this suffering once and for all.
PETA found
that ferrets were kept grouped in small cages with dangerous wire
floors, deprived of any opportunity to engage in natural behavior such
as burrowing or hiding, and often deprived of food and water. Newborn,
young, and adult animals were systematically denied veterinary care,
even for painful, life-threatening injuries and conditions. Imagine
suffering the neglect that these thousands of ferrets experience every
single day. Speak up for these ferrets today by taking action below.
Triple
F's owners, supervisors, and workers left ferrets with bleeding rectal
prolapses, gaping wounds, infected feet, herniated organs, painful
mammary gland infections, and ruptured and bleeding eyes
to suffer and die without adequate veterinary care. The
investigator's repeated requests for care and speedy euthanasia to
relieve suffering were met with blank stares, shoulder shrugs, and
general indifference, as the investigator was instructed to "just leave"
ferrets as they were.
Many ferrets died slow, painful deaths.Hundreds
of newborn and young ferrets fell through the gaps in the wire cage
bottoms 3 feet to the waste-covered concrete floors below, where they
were left to writhe and cry.
They often died of dehydration or starvation within sight of their mothers and siblings.
Triple F forbade its workers—including PETA's investigator—to pick up
the dying newborns. These young ferrets are vulnerable and need their
mothers. How would you feel if your baby were slowly dying within your
sight and you could do nothing about it?
Workers
ran over, maimed, and killed
young ferrets on the floor with carts. Other live ferrets were stepped
on and buried in feces. PETA's investigator also saw ferrets
thrown into the trash—and into the facility's incinerator—while still alive. Help prevent other ferrets from being cold-heartedly discarded as "trash" by taking action now.
Triple
F did not have a staff veterinarian to examine and treat the 6,000 or
more ferrets it keeps confined to its sheds on any given day. Despite
claims on Triple F's website that the facility was visited weekly by a
veterinarian,
PETA's investigator never saw a veterinarian or a veterinary technician at Triple F in nearly four months of working there.Triple
F separates ferrets from their mothers at just 5 weeks of age. Lay
employees worked in a dusty "surgery room" and used unsterilized
instruments—including dull needles and razor blades—over and over to
cut organs and anal sacs from ferrets who were not anesthetized properly and "woke up" and cried out. Read more about PETA's findings
here.
The USDA has
corroborated PETA's findings,
citing Triple F for a dozen violations of the Animal Welfare Act and
fining it more than $16,000. The U.S. Department of Labor found 38
further violations of federal law at Triple F, which agreed to pay more
than $28,000 to settle the matter.
Please take a moment
to urge Alan Kotch, director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) Procurement and Grants Office, to investigate why the
CDC continues to funnel taxpayer dollars into Triple F even though he
knows that the company has been cited repeatedly by federal officials
for violating the law and that it has had to agree to pay more than
$44,000 because of it.
Here's a photo gallery of Lisa J., the latest addition to the Girls of Guitar World.
