Dr. Vic graduated from Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. He graduated in the top 5% of his class and received several major awards for companion animal care. After completing his internship at the renowned Oradell Animal Hospital in NJ, he practiced for 2 years in Stamford Connecticut, and then returned to his home town area to practice at The Mahopac Animal Hospital, where he has been practicing since 1998. He has been described by his clients as having a wonderful Dr’s “Bed-side Manner” and “a true blessing to his patients”. Dr Vic regularly volunteers at the Putnam County Humane Society Rabies Clinic. In his spare time, he loves spending family time with his wife Denise, his 2 young daughters Olivia and Sophia, and pets “Ned,” “Arnold” and “Pokito”.
Hollywood, Calif. — Joaquin Phoenix is drowning. In a rare appearance outside his award-winning films, the Oscar nominee is featured in a brand-new PETA video—as teased in the “For Your Consideration” ad in the Calendar section of today’s Los Angeles Times (seen here)—that shows him underwater, panicking and struggling to breathe. As the text explains, “In water, humans drown just as fish suffocate on land. It’s slow and painful and frightening. … Put yourself in their place. Try to relate. Go vegan.” The video, which was shot by top photographer Michael Muller, can be seen here.
Capitalizing on the buzz surrounding Phoenix’s critically acclaimed performance in The Master, PETA moved to place the ad during the Academy Awards, but ABC deemed the video to be too political and controversial to run during the broadcast. PETA has now placed the video as a commercial to air during the Jimmy Kimmel Live! post-Oscars broadcast.
“I was 3 years old—to this day it is a vivid memory,” Phoenix says of the moment he connected human suffering with animal suffering. “My family and I were on a boat, catching fish. As one fish was caught, he was writhing, then he was thrown against the side of the boat. You couldn’t disguise what it was. This was what we did to animals to eat them. The animal went from a living, vibrant creature fighting for life to a violent death. I recognized it, as did my brothers and sisters.”
In addition to garnering an Academy Award nomination, Phoenix’s work in The Master has already landed him awards from associations of film critics in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Utah, Vancouver, and Austin, Texas, as well as at the Venice Film Festival.
Broadcast-quality video footage of Phoenix’s video can be downloaded here. For more information and to view the video, please visit PETA.org or click here.
A new Animal Equality investigation exposes cruel scenes of animal suffering at Caracierzos farm, which is the second largest producer and distributor of foie gras in Spain. Caracierzos SL supplies Collverd and Martiko: Collverd commercialises foie gras on a national scale in shops and restaurants. The company also exports to France, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and China. The Director of Collverd is Jordi Terol, who is also Vice-President of Eurofoiegras (the European Committee for the foie gras industry).
New York — Hilaria Baldwin entrepreneur, yoga instructor, and wife of actor Alec Baldwin, stars on the cover of PETA’s first-ever global Cruelty-Free Guide to Cosmetics, the most up-to-date resource for customers who want to buy products that are not tested on animals anywhere in the world. Hilaria unveiled her cover at The Body Shop—a longtime cruelty-free company—in Rockefeller Center on Wednesday.
Actor and animal defender Alec Baldwin describes the sad plight of elephants who are torn from their families and forced to perform grueling tricks in the circus.
Tallahassee, Fla. — Days after the Florida legislature passed a bill repealing Florida’s 45-year ban on dyeing animals, PETA has fired off an appeal to Florida Gov. Rick Scott on behalf of PETA’s more than 100,000 Floridian supporters, to ask him not to sign this “regressive” bill into law. As PETA points out in its […]
Nearly One Year After Seizure of Hundreds of Sick and Dying Cats, State Cruelty Charges Have Yet to Be Filed, Which PETA Calls ‘Astounding’ Myrtle Beach, S.C. — A year after receiving video footage and other evidence from PETA’s undercover investigation documenting systematic, severe, and often fatal neglect of cats at Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary […]
Rescue gone wrong By Lori Lovely Animal rescue is a noble calling: selfless work that demands sacrifice, countless hours and a significant budget, often filled with heartache and fewer happy endings than hoped for. Too often, however, those who work in animal rescue come to consider themselves nobility, dictating inflexible rules for adopters and neglecting […]
