Green Earth Travel to Steer Clients Away From Island Until the 'Needless Suffering of Animals' at Veterinary School Ends

Published on May 8, 2008 - 9:16:31 AM

By: PETA

Cabin John, Md. May 7, 2008 -- PETA's recently announced travel boycott of St. Kitts over the needless mutilation and killing of healthy sheep, donkeys, and goats at the island's Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine is under discussion at travel agencies around the globe. While some agencies are planning to quietly steer travelers to other destinations, Washington, D.C.-based Green Earth Travel has publicly announced that it will encourage its clients not to visit St. Kitts until the veterinary school ends its cruel and deadly surgical procedures on animals. PETA has been urging Ross to join other veterinary schools and use only modern, humane teaching methods. Green Earth's decision comes on the heels of Las Vegas-based high-end travel agency Holiday Systems International's refusal to book holidays to St. Kitts for its more than 300,000 clients.

In a letter to PETA, Green Earth President Donna Zeigfinger says that because of the harmful and outdated surgeries that are performed on animals at Ross-and the St. Kitts government's defense of them--she will urge her clients to vacation elsewhere. "We will only resume encouraging people to book their travel to St. Kitts once Ross University ends the needless suffering of animals by using humane veterinary teaching alternatives recommended by PETA," she writes. Green Earth has also posted an alert about the alleged animal abuse at Ross University in its newsletter.

After receiving complaints from anguished Ross students about cruel teaching procedures--in which donkeys' nerves and ligaments were severed and sheep were photographed suffering from infected surgical wounds--PETA asked St. Kitts government officials to investigate the veterinary school for violations of the island's Protection of Animals Act. The St. Kitts Ministry of Agriculture has launched an investigation, but the veterinary school continues to conduct needless practice sessions on healthy animals that often result in death. PETA wants the school to set up a veterinary teaching hospital to help sick and injured animals instead.

"We thank Green Earth Travel for encouraging its clients to fight animal abuse," says PETA Laboratory Investigations Director Kathy Guillermo. "Travelers who want to enjoy warm, sunny beaches without supporting cruelty to animals will steer clear of St. Kitts and visit one of the Caribbean's many other islands."

Green Earth Travel's letter to PETA is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA's Web site StopAnimalTests.com.

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