Packs and Info for Popular Paper Topics
Let PETA2 do your homework for you! Well, not really—but we will give you tons of info for your research. We have digital packets full of information on all the following topics for use in essays, class presentations, and persuasive speeches. Click on any of the topics below to read a summary of each topic. You can also explore the links under each topic for more information. After that, be sure to check out our tips on how your homework can help save animals' lives. E-mail your completed projects to StreetTeam@peta2.org to earn Street Team points that you can redeem for free stuff, like CDs, T-shirts, and hoodies. Sign up now if you haven’t already.
History of the Animal Rights Movement
History of PETA
Animal Rights Philosophy
Animals and the Law
Animal Communication
Overpopulation of Cats and Dogs
Vivisection
Circus Cruelty
Zoos
Factory Farming
Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet
Mad Cow Disease
Environmental Impact of Eating Meat
Vegetarian Diet and World Hunger
Worker Safety/Rights in the Meat Industry
General Information
History of the Animal Rights Movement
Click here to explore the history of different aspects of the animal rights movement.
History of PETA
Founded in 1980, PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. Visit PETA's history for detailed info.
Animal Rights Philosophy
Animal rights means that animals deserve certain kinds of consideration—consideration of what is in their own best interests regardless of whether they are cute, useful to humans, or an endangered species and regardless of whether any human cares about them at all. It means recognizing that animals are not ours to use—for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation. Click here for more info.
Also check out Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, the book that launched the modern animal rights movement.
Animals and the Law
Explore the following Web sites to learn about the field of animal law, how to strengthen the protection of animals, and how to fight cruelty to animals by using the system.
- The Animal Rights Law Project
Contains state-by-state anti-cruelty statutes and other useful information on animals and the law. - International Institute for Animal Law
AnimalLaw.com provides access to legislation and legal matters pertaining to the rights and welfare of animals. AnimalLaw.com supports information concerning cruelty to animals; animal control; “laboratory animal” welfare; the use of animals in education, product testing, and laboratories; animal control issues; and general animal welfare. - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)
The RSPCA’s law-reforming origins are an important element of its work today. Much U.K. animal welfare legislation owes its existence to RSPCA campaigning, and the society works for animal welfare at Westminster through its professional parliamentary lobbyists. Ministers and MPs frequently seek the advice and opinions of the RSPCA on legislative matters. - Eurogroup
Representing the leading animal welfare organizations in the E.U., Eurogroup has become recognized as a reliable and effective partner in dialogue with the E.U. institutions and all those involved in animal welfare across Europe. - Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)
Home site of the nation's foremost group focused on legal action for animals. It contains recommended search tools, lists of student animal law groups, a list of model laws available from ALDF, and information about seminars and classes on animal law. - American Association for Horsemanship Safety
State-by-state listing of horse protection laws. - FindLaw
A general search engine for all things legal.
Also check out an important book on animal legal rights by Harvard law professor Steven Wise called Rattling the Cage.
Animal Communication
Click here for information about the intelligence of elephants and how they overcome species barriers to communicate with humans. Also check out The Jane Goodall Institute and The Animal Communication Project (ACP).
Overpopulation of Cats and Dogs
This year, millions of animals will be euthanized in animal shelters, and millions more will be abandoned to die on the streets. An overpopulation crisis exists that necessitates widespread spaying and neutering.
Vivisection
Billions of dollars and countless hours have been spent torturing animals under the guise of medicine and we still don't have cures for AIDS, cancer, diabetes, etc. People are dying daily, yet vivisectors are doing the same procedures that they've been doing for years and producing the same results, which cannot be extrapolated to humans because we are too physiologically different from their nonhuman victims. Click here and here for more information about animal testing. For specific information regarding animal testing in the U.K., please click here.
Circus Cruelty
Visit Circuses.com for information on how animals used in circuses live a dismal life, suffering domination, confinement, and violent training.
Zoos
Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos remain more "collections" of interesting "items" than actual havens or simulated habitats. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals in captivity, bored, cramped, lonely, and far from their natural homes. Click here for more information on zoos.
Factory Farming
Raising animals on factory farms is cruel and ecologically devastating. Visit FactoryFarming.com for more information on how animals on factory farms are treated like machines and how the farms leave behind environmental devastation that generations to come will be forced to clean up. . For specific information regarding factory farming in the U.K., please click here.
Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet
Eating animals is bad for human health, leading directly to many diseases and illnesses, including heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Visit GoVeg.com and MilkSucks.com for more info.
Mad Cow Disease
Click here to learn more about the disease that is causing people around the world to declare, "It's Mad to Eat Meat." If you live in the U.K., click here to learn more about toxic meat.
Enviromental Impact of Eating Meat
Whether it's overuse of resources, water or air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking havoc on the Earth. Click here for more info.
Vegetarian Diet and World Hunger
Plant-based diets, which require less land, water, and energy to produce, offer the most direct method for ending world hunger. Click here and here for more info.
Worker Safety/Rights in the Meat Industry
Meatpacking is the most dangerous occupation in America. Read “The Chain Never Stops,” an article by Eric Schlosser, and Gail Eisnitz's Slaughterhouse to find out why.
General Information
Frequently Asked Questions: Save time by checking here before sending us an e-mail message. You might get your question answered instantly!
AskCarla.com: Carla Bennett, PETA's kindness consultant, is here to answer all your questions.
See, doing your homework has never been so easy. Just be sure that you’ve read our guide to turning your school work into activism. With all the hours you’ve saved, you’ll have even more time to be active for animals. Sweet deal!
If you’re having trouble opening our packs, try downloading Adobe Reader. If that doesn’t help, maybe it’s time to ask the ’rents for a new computer on your birthday (or you can ask a computer-whiz buddy for advice if you don’t have time to wait).
