As the BP oil saga continues—cap or no cap, payouts or no payouts, ridiculous apologies or “take-backs”—animals continue to die every day in the Gulf of Mexico. Recently I overheard a news anchor talking about how the oil was thinning out—which does not mean that the situation is getting better. On the contrary, we already know that the matter cannot simply disappear, and if thinning, it will only spread even further on the surface—harming more animals of a wider area in its course.

As PETA says, animals “can’t move to another town, they can’t eat something else, and they can’t pursue another line of work.” Because of this, BP must pay up in another way to the thousands of animals who are sick, have lost their habitat, or who’ve died in the catastrophic oil spill. These animals have lost their breeding and nesting grounds—in some cases, such as sea turtles, very small parts of the earth in which already dwindling numbers can be slowly repopulated, a delicate process that the oil has wrecked. Food sources have been wiped out in areas, making many animals’ diets either nonexistent or too dangerous to eat. If we were living in the water rather on the land, we would be a whole lot more pissed than we already are—that’s for sure.

PETA is asking the Attorneys General of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana to charge BP with animal cruelty, and though they’re often very controversial—and sexist—I’m inclined to agree with them. Their actions led to the occurrence, and perhaps even worse, their gross negligence to act upon the spill and stop it has created the doom of the Gulf we witness every day. If these were individuals whose actions left birds maimed, turtles burned alive, and other animals tortured and dead across the beaches of the Gulf, they would surely be punished with cruelty to animals. Just because BP is a mega-rich company, wielding dollars and oil instead of a knife or blowtorch, does not mean they are exempt from harming sentient beings of any kind—including the animals of the Gulf.

If you agree, please join me in writing the Attorneys General today and asking that BP be chared with animal cruelty. In refusing to save the species they’ve so blatantly harmed for so long, the company has surely violated animal rights protection laws in each state and should be held accountable.