Yeah, sure, we were pretty happy to get a front page article in The New York Times about the major animal welfare changes Burger King has announced. The AP, USA Today, and BBC stories were pretty great too. But ever since we first heard from Burger King that they were going to make this announcement, everyone at PETA has been holding their breath to see if we would make The Onion. And today, that dream came true. Click the picture below from The Onion's exclusive interview with Customer Support Operator Derrick Braswell for the full story:

Derrick Braswell,
Customer Support Operator
"But the cages were what pushed all the flavor tight into the animals."

Since the massive pet food recall began, we’ve gotten a ton of questions from people worried about feeding their animals Iams dry food, even though only canned food has been recalled so far. So today, PETA is holding a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington to call on the FDA to immediately expand the recall to include dry food as well as canned, until it can all be chemically tested for safety.

One person speaking at the news conference will be Pennsylvania resident Yvette Faulkner, whose cat Sassafras suffered kidney failure and had to be euthanized. Ms. Faulkner states that Sassafras ate only Iams’ dry food. Our hearts are with you, Yvette.

We’re also calling for an investigation into whether Iams knew about the contaminated food before it was recalled. Reports indicate that Menu Foods, Iams’ manufacturer, may very well have known about the contaminated food as early as February 20. The recall didn’t go into effect until March 16. Unreal.

Given Iams’ history of causing animal suffering, it will be very interesting what comes to light as this case unfolds . Remember, these are the folks that paid for this:

Enough said, for now.

My friend Allie, who sits at the desk next to me at the office, left work early a couple of days ago and asked me if I could finish up one of her projects for her. She hasn't been in the office since then, and I just kind of assumed that she was taking a well-deserved vacation. At least that's what I thought until our Burberry Campaign Coordinator sent me these pictures from an Orlando demonstration this morning. That's Allie in the middle on the right—and no, that's not what she normally wears to work. Way to go, Allie!

Does eating meat affect sperm count? Tom Simpson/Creative Commons

OK, so there is plenty of talk about the whole meat-eating/impotence connection. I mean, who can forget Rocket Boy, Brad and all the rest? But the new research in the UK linking meat consumption by pregnant women with low sperm counts in their sons 25+ years later is seriously disturbing.

The gist of it is that scientists now believe that steroids and sex hormones, like estrogen and testosterone—used to make cows grow faster—could interfere with the development of unborn babies, affecting male sperm production later in life. It makes perfect sense if you think about it: cows eat hormones/steroids, women eat cows, fetuses exposed to insane levels of hormones. As if there aren’t enough reasons to stop eating animals already ...

You can check out what the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has to say about vegan diets during pregnancy here, and if you’re already a parent, there's some good information on raising healthy veggie kids here.

We just had our monthly staff meeting last week, where everyone gives a presentation about what their departments have been up to and shows pictures and video of the highlights of last month's work. We also get some reports on what PETA's affiliates around the world are up to, and there's usually something really, profoundly weird and compelling that they came up with (I'm looking at you in particular PETA Germany). Anyway, these are all old stories that made big headlines in their respective countries, but I got a real kick out of them, so I figured I'd share:

PETA Asia Pacific's Jason Baker, dressed in a chicken costume, was attacked by angry KFC employees at a demonstration in Egypt. This story is funnier if you actually know Jason, though of course there's a whole big WTF KFC? element to it as well:

PETA India made a headdress out of vegetables for supermodel and actor Aditi Govritikar to wear in their newest ad campaign: Use Your Head, Go Veg. Fundamentally odd as that sounds, the picture is actually really striking, and Aditi looks stunning:

And finally, PETA Germany, which never, ever disappoints, held a hilarious demo outside the offices of Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer, who has been trying to reverse the ban on battery cages for egg-laying hens in Germany. Seehofer has also been in the German press lately for upsetting his wife by getting his mistress pregnant, so PETA Germany stood outside his office on Valentine's Day with a big sign asking him to "Have a heart for animals, not just for women." Priceless.

I don’t really know what to say about this one, so just check out the story about a Canadian woman who got sick from eating tainted Iams food from the recall.

Of course it's cruel, but I never knew just how disgusting and gross foie gras really was until I saw this picture.

Woo hoo! Check out those too-cool-for-school peta2 party animals in this MTV video segment on alternative ways of spending spring break.

These guys really like cake, huh? True, I'd be hard-pressed to find an animal rights connection with this one, but whatever, it's hilarious.

This cartoon is amazing, but the commentary is even more brilliant!

The Tofu Army is growing . . . Wanna join?

Nice review of the all-vegan Saucony Jazz, from this dude who is VERY into his shoes.

And finally, you old schoolers will remember this cover of the Caring Consumer guide featuring Eddie Izzard. Well, Eddie’s got himself a new show on FX, and it looks hilarious. Good for you, man.

allstarz.hollywood.com/Creative Commons

Just a quick little tidbit for you, because this was just too good to leave unremarked: Did anyone catch David Letterman's comments about Ringling coming to Madison Square Garden on his show last night?

"Ringling Brothers circus is coming back to Madison Square Garden. How about that? What they do, they bring the elephants right through the tunnel in midtown. … And New Yorkers don't care about elephants. Honest to god, we have rats bigger than that. I love going to the circus: what is more American than eating cotton candy and watching animal abuse? Am I right?"

You rule, Dave.

Burger King has announced a series of animal welfare improvements that put it right at the forefront of the fast-food industry in terms of holding its suppliers accountable for the way they treat their animals. As of today, the company will be requiring 2 percent of its eggs to come from hens who are not confined to battery cages, buying 10 percent of its pork from farms that don't use gestation crates, and rewarding suppliers that use "controlled atmosphere killing" (by far the most humane method available) instead of killing chickens by slitting their throats and dragging them through scalding tanks. These percentages, which amount to a huge number of animals, could be doubled by the end of the year.

These changes have been a long time coming. You may remember PETA's "Murder King" Campaign, which we called off in 2001 after the company agreed to make significant improvements in its standards, including conducting periodic animal welfare audits. Since then, PETA has been working behind the scenes with the company to improve conditions for the animals it uses for its restaurants. This new animal welfare plan makes Burger King an industry leader, and it sends a strong message to other fast-food companies (including one company which will remain nameless, but whose initials could stand for Killing Friendly Chickens) that are now going to have to play catch-up in a big way, which means good things for animals across the board.

For anyone whose reaction to this news is all, "WTF? That still means that 98 percent of BK's eggs come from battery cages and 90 percent of its pork comes from gestation crates," the short answer is that we're working on it, and that going vegetarian (and gently encouraging your friends to do the same) really is a fantastic way to opt out of all that unhappiness. But in the meantime, props up to Burger King for getting the ball rolling in a big way. Here are a few resources if you want some more info on this huge victory for animals:

• The New York Times Reports on the Story
• PETA's Victory Feature
• The History of the Murder King Campaign
• Extremely Cute Video With Pigs in It, Which Will Make You Give Up Pork Altogether if You Haven't Already
• Take the Veg Pledge

P.S. Burger King also has a veggie burger.

Inexplicably, Hooters says, 'No Pam' Creative Commons

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Hooters restaurants, because, in addition to being such a wholesome, tasteful place to go to with the family, they make these truly amazing fried pickles. OK, the “wholesome, tasteful” stuff is a bit of a stretch, but those pickles are seriously out of this world. Anyway, my feelings towards the place have cooled a little bit since PETA VP Dan Mathews told me what went down this week when he tried to book a Hooters in New York for a private party to launch his new book, Committed: A Rabble Rouser’s Memoir. The plan was to have Pamela Anderson host the party, where they were going to serve veggie Buffalo wings to the guests. But Hooters execs refused to allow the event, because, evidently, "PETA mobilizes strong feelings on both sides of the fence. It wouldn't make good business sense for us." How hilarious is it that a place called Hooters (for God’s sake) is getting all holier than thou at the prospect of having Pamela Anderson eating veggie burgers in one of their restaurants? I guess they’re afraid they won’t be able to measure up. Anyway, there was a great piece about it in the New York Post today, which you can read here.

I’m not mad at you, Hooters, just disappointed. I don’t want to suggest that I’m an expert on how to run a business, but if you’re the Marketing Department at Hooters, it just seems like such a lousy idea to go out of your way to keep Pamela Anderson out of your restaurants. And, as Dan pointed out, "Hosting the book party would have showed that Hooters is well rounded in more ways than one. We're always looking for ways to keep the 'T' and 'A' in PETA."

My friend Lindsay, who's on tour at the moment exposing some of the sordid truths about KFC, just sent me some pics of a little street theater she did in Memphis to turn the tables on Colonel Sanders. Lindsay is actually extremely good at just explaining the issue to people when the subject of KFC comes up, but if the opportunity arises, she likes to get downright elaborate. Check it:

Being outspoken, sexy, and super talented are three things that pretty much sum up Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson in a nutshell. Of course, I say Garbage frontwoman, even though she’s currently on hiatus from the band doing her own solo thing, because being the emo boy that I am at heart, I’ll always love her for the 1995 Garbage song Only Happy When it Rains. But that’s another story for another time I guess . . .

Anyway, I was really excited to get to work this morning and see Shirley starring in a new anti-fur ad for PETA Europe. And whether you’re into Shirley’s music or not, there’s no denying that this is a powerful ad that will really get people thinking about where fur and fur trim really come from.

The folks across the pond report that the ad is getting mad press over there, and they’re getting lots of good feedback from the fly-posting they did in Shirley’s hometown of Edinburgh. I just found out that we have a US version of the ad as well, and if you’re interested, you can win some cool PETA stuff signed by Shirley here. Feel free to enter of course, but be forewarned, when it comes to music memorabilia I’m like Charlton Heston and his gun collection, so they’ll have to pry the T-shirt signed by Shirley out of my cold dead hands.

Just kidding . . . sort of.

I'm experimenting with more descriptive titles for these entries—I feel like this one really gets the point across. There's often some pretty wild stuff going on outside PETA HQ here in Norfolk, and I'm sometimes a little trepidatious when I come into work in the mornings, because there's always a chance there'll be a huge exhibit in our parking lot (like when we launched the Animal Liberation display), or a giant elephant sculpture outside our front doors (seriously, don't even ask), and I should have expected something this morning, since it’s that time of year when Canada gears up to disgrace itself in the global community by indulging in a bit of large-scale torture-for-profit. The bloody flag, flying at half mast outside our doors, is quite a sight if you drive by the building, and, in my opinion, a really striking way of taking part in the international outcry against the seal hunt. Just thought I'd share:

Listening to British R&B songstress Joss Stone hum a tune is pretty much all it would take for me to fall in love, but Joss clearly wanted to make sure she had all her bases covered by a) being really frickin pretty, b) going out of her way to help animals, and c) being (as I may have mentioned) really frickin pretty. And in case there's any doubt about any of that, here's the brand-new ad she did for PETA to promote vegetarianism. The lovely ad, which lists all the positive qualities that Joss identifies herself with, neglects to mention that she is just as pretty as a picture, but I'm sure that was only because they ran out of room. Check it out:

The last time I heard about The Diner, it was in the bottom of a ravine in Europe somewhere, Spain, I think. My friend Sean, who was driving it all over Europe, apparently hadn't worked out that when you’re towing a giant RV full of Jesus and other famous vegetarians throughout history, you need to ride the brakes a little harder than normal, and he wound up going over the edge of a cliff. Luckily, nobody was badly hurt, probably because Jesus was his co-pilot. Literally.

I’m not entirely sure how historically significant crash test dummies are, but its good to know that they are, in fact, vegetarian.

OK, so fast forward like five years. Now, just in time for Holy Week, The Diner, a controversial art exhibit—by political artist Greg Metz—that mimics ‘The Last Supper’ but replaces the disciples with famous vegetarians and shows the dark side of eating meat, is on a cross-country tour of the US. If you’ve never seen it, this thing is actually very cool, with likenesses of Sir Paul McCartney, Jesus, George Bernard Shaw, Louisa May Alcott, Leo Tolstoy, and other vegetarians on one side and graphic images of factory farms and slaughterhouses on the other. And it's all housed in a 1955 Airstream RV. Pretty wild, huh?

As you can imagine, it's getting lots of attention at every stop. Here’s a shot of PETA campaigner Mike Brazell, who has so far been successful at keeping it out of ravines. Have a good tour, Mike, and be safe . . .

This is actually really incredible, and it's been a long time coming. A couple of months ago, I wrote about a lab Iams was using to test its food that was under investigation by the USDA. Well, I just found out that the lab just agreed to a $33,000 civil penalty after federal investigators alleged the company committed nearly 40 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Some of the violations found by USDA inspectors were failing to provide sheep with appropriate pain relief during surgery, inadequate training of employees for animal handling and care, failure to vaccinate dogs and cats used for research, and keeping animals in cages smaller than the legal limits. You can read the full story here.

Of course, this is just one small step forward in our campaign to stop companies from lab-testing pet food. While Iams may have stopped using this lab after our investigation, the company needs to stop lab-testing its food altogether. You can help persuade them to do just that by only feeding your animals cruelty-free pet food, and by clicking here to let Iams know that you won’t buy their food until they stop testing on animals.

The largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, the Canadian seal hunt, is slated to start next week, and as you may remember, Anna Nicole Smith was one of its most outspoken critics. So we thought it would be nice to honor her this year by bringing back her petition to the Prime Minister of Canada, urging him to do the right thing and cancel the hunt. Due warning, this video will break your heart if you watch it, but it's important to get this information out there, and no one worked harder at that than Anna Nicole did in her lifetime.

OK, so here's Michelle Manhart's story in case you guys haven't heard it: This January, Michelle was suspended and then demoted by the air force when it came out that she had posed for a Playboy shoot. After the scandal broke, and the air force made a bunch of prudish comments, Michelle decided that if she wanted to damn well express herself, she was going to go right ahead and do it. The air force was summarily informed that they could go stuff themselves.

Sounds kind of perfect for a "We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad, huh? We thought so too—and fortunately Michelle has some really strong views about the cruelty of the fur industry. According to my friend Michael, who was on hand to shoot the ad yesterday, Michelle is amazing—she's tough as nails in that badass drill sergeant kind of way, but really sweet and funny at the same time. I'm fighting the impulse to make a lame joke here about how, like, if you wear fur you better watch out. You know, because of how tough she is. But maybe it would be better just to leave you with some of the pics from yesterday's shoot. The actual ad isn't going to be coming out for a little while, but here's a little teaser:

In related news, I really want to be the one who comes up with the slogan for this particular fur ad. I was thinking it would be cool to do something with "Fur Flies" on account of the air force connection, but I can't quite make it work. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Oh yeah, and the story got picked up yesterday by the San Antonio news. You can read that here and check out the great video.

As you probably know, PETA VP Dan Mathews has a book coming out next month: Committed: A Rabble Rouser’s Memoir. Both Dan and the book have been getting some great endorsements lately, and these are a few of my favorites:

“I’d marry him if he wasn’t a fag.” -Chrissie Hynde

"If you read one book this year (like me), this is it.” -Tommy Lee

“Outrageous and inspiring. Makes me want to get arrested again.” -Andy Dick

P.S. For anyone who may have been offended by Chrissie Hynde's comment, which is technically a misuse of the subjunctive mood, there are some great resources here.

Former PETA intern Ashley just sent along these great pictures from her "All Animals Have the Same Parts" pro-vegetarian demonstration yesterday for PETA’s Asia Pacific affiliate.

It seems like the whole thing went over pretty damn well. The photographers in particular look really pleased with themselves for some reason. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Ashley, who's always willing to go that extra mile to help animals (e.g., "Hey Ashley, would you mind going to Thailand, getting naked, and painting yourself like cuts of meat to point out the absurdity of treating any living being like an object? Great, thanks."). Ashley—you're amazing. Check out the pics:

We’re getting tons of calls from people who are concerned about the Iams recall, and PETA’s been a flurry of Iams-related activity this morning, so I figured I’d fill you in on all the new information. Just on the offchance that you haven't heard this story yet, here's a quick recap: After an unknown number of cats and dogs died of kidney failure from eating tainted pet food, Menu Foods, a contract manufacturer for Proctor & Gamble's Iams and Eukanuba brands, has recalled 60 million cans of pet food from stores nationwide. If you're worried about your own animals, click here for the full information about the recall on Menu Foods' site, or you can call them at 1-866-463-6738 and 1-866-895-2708. Not to cause too much alarm and despondency here, but if you do suspect that your animal has become seriously ill, the best thing to do (as always in such cases) is gently carry them to the car and rush to the nearest veterinarian.

There have been some murmurings about class action suits being filed against the company, and CBS has reported on someone in Chicago who is suing. We've also written a letter to Proctor & Gamble about this issue, which you can read here, and we're calling on prosecutors to investigate whether cruelty charges should be filed against Menu Canada, Menu Foods, and Iams for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and—just as disturbingly—apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

As our letter to Iams points out, this isn't the first time Proctor & Gamble have been responsible for dog deaths: Our investigation into the company a few years ago caught them cutting out huge chunks of muscle from their test subjects' legs and leaving them to suffer for days. I've posted footage of that investigation below, and you can find a list of pet-food companies that don't test on animals here.

This incident should serve as a wake-up call to Iams that it's time to abandon all laboratory testing on animals. Click here to let Iams know that you won't buy while animals die, and click here to contact Menu Foods to demand answers and an end to all their laboratory tests on animals.