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Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which claims that dearly departed Aunt Suzie may be brought to life one day if she's freeze-dried via cryonics, is under media fire, thanks to a former chief operating officer's published tell-all. But it's the account of Alcor's horrific cryonics experiments sent to PETA by the author that got our blood boiling. He wrote:

I witnessed [Steve Harris, Alcor's current chief medical advisor] … flush the blood out (while the dog whimpered) while infusing some type of 'preservation' chemical. … I have my doubts that she was completely sedated because of the whimpering. … [T]he thought of what they did to this animal just turns my stomach. It was cruel and senseless.

Although Alcor admits that the results of mutilating, killing, and freezing animals "will not be exactly applicable to human cases," the company has conducted and funded animal torture for decades. Alcor's own Web site details the nightmarish suffering endured by a dog named Dixie who was drained of all her blood and then infused with new blood, causing her to suffer severe seizures and brain damage:

"5:05 AM. Dixie is awake. Lifting her head up, fighting the endotracheal tube. Very restless."

"1:00 PM. … She exhibits a peculiar 'windmilling' motion with her forelegs. Suddenly, she tenses, the left side of her body goes rigid. Within a second she has a full-fledged grand mal seizure."

"2:50 PM. Another grand mal. This is looking bad. There is clearly some right brain injury. Her left face is slack, though her left limbs look okay with normal movement and response to pain."

"5:38 PM. Another grand mal, several petit seizures as well. … Hugh and I head off into town to the Spaghetti Factory. What a relief just to be away for a few hours. Everything is so elegant at the restaurant and all the personnel are so clean cut and attractive. … Returning from dinner we find Dixie is a real handful -- managing her I.V.'s, keeping her fed, cleaning her up when she urinates or defecates. Every five minutes there's a major task at hand."

"11:26 PM. The primadone isn't working. Seizures, seizures and more seziures. Valium, Valium, and Valium."

"12:00 midnight. She wakes me up crying. Belly very distended."

"1:36 AM. She's restless and crying again. I decide to pass a stomach tube and suction her. … She fights me powerfully, but the job gets done."

It's no wonder municipalities across the country have prohibited cryonics experiments on animals. In 1993, Alcor's animal experiments were halted in California. Unfortunately, the company still conducts and funds cruel experiments on animals in other places—but not for long. PETA's fight to stop these atrocities begins with our letter to the company's president and executive director, Jennifer Chapman. We'll keep you posted.

Posted by Karin Bennett

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The folks who scoffed at our proposal to buy SeaWorld and convert its facilities into non-animal theme parks might reconsider their stance after reading about the real cost of having these parks continue with business as usual.

Last week, we received word from a whistleblower that a dolphin named Dixie, who is exploited in SeaWorld's Discovery Cove "swim with dolphins" attraction in Orlando, gave birth to a stillborn infant. What's more, even though SeaWorld knew that Dixie was due to give birth, the park apparently did not have a veterinarian available for Dixie at any point during or after her labor. She was forced to endure this traumatic experience—and its aftermath—without proper care.

This information came to us just a few short weeks after another dolphin, Scarlet, and her unborn fetus died at Discovery Cove. In that case, we were told that the necropsy revealed that Scarlet's uterus had ruptured while she was pregnant, causing the calf to be released into her body cavity.

These disgraceful incidents clearly show that SeaWorld and other aquariums don't really care about the well-being of the animals they incarcerate, so we have filed a complaint with the USDA calling for investigations into Scarlet's death and the lack of care provided to Dixie.

We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you're going to Florida this summer (or any other time), there are lots of great places to visit where your money won't go toward hurting smart, sensitive animals.

Posted by Jeff Mackey