I’ve worked here long enough to know that for every nasty, cruel thing you could imagine to do to defenseless animals, there are some nasty, cruel people out there doing it. This is the latest one to come across my desk. These disturbing images, which have been circulating within the animal rights community and received coverage in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Sun, and Mirror today, show the hideous “sport” of horse fighting, from an organized event in China.

One of the most disturbing things about these images for me is the crowd of sadists (and children who are too young to know any better) who look on and smile—as if they were at a football game rather than a ritual torture. PETA Asia Pacific is working to raise awareness about this hideous blood sport, and I’ll keep you posted on their success as they continue to fight the ludicrous notion that “tradition” can justify torture in this or any circumstance.

Purnell Peace and Quanis Phillips were sentenced today to 18 and 21 months in prison on federal charges related to a dogfighting operation that they had been running in Virginia. We’re obviously very happy that these guys are going to be serving time for their crimes against animals, but the other key provision here is that they will not be allowed to “own” dogs for three years following their release from prison. If it were up to me, they would be banned from any contact with animals for life, but you take what you can get, and restrictions on “ownership” of animals are vitally important (and sadly, often overlooked) in any cruelty case, as repeat offenses are the norm. This provision was something that PETA had specifically asked for, and we know of no other federal case where defendants have been banned from owning animals. Purnell Peace was in tears at the sentencing and personally apologized to PETA and other animal groups for his role in these crimes—which, well, it’s nice to see some remorse, but we weren’t victims here, the dogs were, and there’s not much that an apology can do for them now. Let’s hope that this sentencing sets a strong example for any of the bastards who still think they can get away with torturing animals and forcing them to fight for amusement or profit.

Michael Vick is set to be sentenced on December 10.

Alright people, fun’s over. You had your day with Joel talking about soy nog and “smiles”. Now it’s time to get back to work. Today we will be going over the finer points of whether a coherent liberationist ethic can be constructed from strictly utilitarian arguments (or whether some sort of deontological consequentialism is necessary to round out the debate), and throughout next week, I will be doing a series on recent addenda to the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. There will be a quiz on Friday to make sure everyone takes it all in.

Now, here’s a picture of the serious work I was doing yesterday while Joel was goofing off back at the office. We spent the afternoon outside the British Embassy in DC to remind the British Ministry of Defense that the “world is watching” while they continue to needlessly slaughter black bears for their ceremonial hats. Apparently this required that we remove all of our clothes and paint our naked bodies like flags. Hey, I just do what I’m told. The demonstration was a blast—we met some great activists, some friendly photographers, and some very bewildered passersby, and I think the pictures came out really well. Check em out.

A bunch of flags

It’s well known that chicken fat may kill you by clogging your arteries, but did you know that it may also crash your car?

Earlier this week chicken fat that leaked from a waste truck onto the roadway caused at least four accidents and made a smelly mess in PETA’s home state of Virginia. One injured person was even taken to a hospital.

According to news reports a truck hauling waste chicken grease from a Perdue Farms plant left a valve open, and the fat leaked onto U.S. Route 13 from the plant to the Maryland state line.

According to one Virginia State Police Sergeant, the gunk caused a "really funky" odor. No kidding.

The moral of the story is that if you eat meat you’re causing car accidents—and even sending some people to the hospital. Make America’s highways safe by ordering an emergency Free Vegetarian Starter Kit now.

- Joel

This is a blog to spotlight the glory of McCain’s SMILES fries.

According to McCain’s web site, “Mealtime is fun time with McCain SMILES® Fun Shaped Potatoes. Everyone enjoys these fun shaped potatoes that add fun and excitement to everyone’s meal!” And you know what—they aren’t lying! Sure, I love French fries as much as the next guy, but there’s just no denying that SMILES fries are like French fries deep fried in fun.

SMILES, like basically all fries, are vegan and that’s how I’m justifying writing about them on PETA’s blog. Take that, Amy!

Another food I really like is Vans’ vegan waffles.

- Joel Bartlett

P.S. Feel free to comment about how you think I’m a better blogger than Jack and Amy.
P.P.S. Don’t worry Amy, when you’re out someday I’ll post SMILES recipes on the VegCooking Blog.

But the good news is that since Jack is busy getting naked for animals today I do have a blog for the day and I will share with the world my feelings about Silk Nog!

Silk Nog makes the holiday meal. Silk Nog is better for you than dairy & egg-based nogs. Silk Nog tastes better than eggy non-soy nogs. Silk Nog doesn’t involve animal cruelty. And really, who wants to drink chicken periods?

Silk Nog is a seasonal drink—so act quick before it’s off the shelf for another 10 months. You can usually find it—or another brand of soy nog—by the egg nogs in your grocery store.

Vegenaise: Like mayo, but good.

I don’t know what possibly convinced me to get over my hatred of mayo to try Vegenaise, but fortunately I made the leap of faith one day. It turns out Vegenaise is far, far better tasting than mayo. It’s good enough to eat by the spoonful. It’s unfortunate that it’s marketed to vegans rather than just anyone who realizes how disgusting mayo is. Betternaise. Tastinaise. So to everyone who’s never been blessed with a mouth full of Vegenaise—do your taste buds a favor and try some today.

What foods do you think the vegan version is better than the non-vegan version?

- Joel Bartlett

Yup, you guessed it: Deflocked!

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

I’m going to be in DC tomorrow, standing naked outside the British embassy painted like a British flag along with PETA members from seven other nations who will be reminding Britain that the “world is watching” while the nation condones the cruel slaughter of black bears for the Queen’s Guards’ silly ceremonial hats. Embarrassing as all this is for me, the real purpose of this post is to say that the PETA Files will be in the capable hands of my good friend Joel Bartlett during my absence tomorrow, so please treat him nice and try to bear with him if he goes off on long tangents about Star Trek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as he occasionally has a tendency to do).

And yes—I have a weird job. Wish me luck!

Joel Bartlett

DannySeo/Creative Commons

As an aside, I should point out that I don’t normally get quite this excited about women’s fashion, but Stella’s win is more than just an accolade for a talented designer—it’s a message to the fashion world that truly innovative and progressive designers can do just fine without using fur or leather. Stella, who has been a great friend to PETA over the years, has always been outspoken about her desire to keep her designs animal-friendly, and even took the time to narrate an anti-fur video to help us to persuade other designers to follow suit. Congratulations, Stella—and thanks for everything that you do.

Although the media are focusing their attention on other issues now that the furor over the Michael Vick case has died down for the time being, the horrors of dogfighting are just as present as they ever were—and there is still a long, uphill battle ahead for the animal protection community as we work to stamp out this cruel blood sport forever. Yesterday, at a hearing in Virginia to determine a trial date for Vick and his codefendants, PETA members gathered to remind the public that all dogfighters need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that all dogs deserve justice—not just the ones who happen to be abused by famous football players.

Fox News Atlanta is currently airing an investigation into the hideous practice of fox penning, in which animals—usually foxes, wildcats, or coyotes—are chased, cornered, and torn to shreds by hunting dogs. Penning events can last up to several days, with the hunters leaving the fenced-in area so that the dogs can “exercise.” You can watch the first part of the Fox investigation here, and learn more about this horrific blood sport on reporter Randy Travis’s blog. It’s great to see that this practice is being exposed for what it is, and hopefully the investigation, which is airing tonight, will go some way to getting it stopped forever.

… Probably not, if you’re able to read this without sounding out the letters. But the term does require some explaining for an American audience, especially since we’ve just launched a brand-new website for our Burberry Campaign, written by chavs, about chavs, and for chavs. OK, to be honest, it was written by me, about Burberry, and for pretty much everyone except chavs, but it still requires some explanation for anyone who’s never lived in the UK. So here goes:

“Chavs” are city-dwelling people who enjoy public drunkenness, vandalism, thievery, “breaking things,” and, conveniently enough, Burberry clothing. And our brand-new “Boycott Burberry for the Chavs” site is a petition created for chavs who are sick and tired of Burberry making even them look bad by its tacky refusal to stop selling fur. With a lot of help from the wonderful people who design PETA’s websites, I’ve even included a handy “translate” button in the banner for the site, so you can read the petition in the “original chav.” Check it out here, and sign the petition yourself.

If you won’t do it for the animals—do it for the chavs. (And if all this still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Trust me.)

When this new video for the holiday season was debuted at a recent meeting, a lot of PETA staffers were really excited about its potential. To be quite frank, I was not one of them. But now that I’ve watched it a few times, it is starting to grow on me a bit, and I’m fascinated to hear how people react to it — both people who already believe that it’s important to care about animals, and those who are still “on the fence” about the issue (or, as I like to put it, “stuck in the dark ages”).The idea behind the video is a powerful one — that the great social justice issues of our time have always met with widespread resistance from people who are resistant to change, and that those issues were only brought into mainstream thought by people who weren’t afraid to dedicate their lives to an unpopular idea that they knew was right — to give a voice to the voiceless. I’m still undecided about whether that point comes across in this video, though it’s clear that there’s a lot more to it than I thought when I first watched it. I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Casey Calvert, the guitarist for Hawthorne Heights, was found dead in his tour bus on Friday, apparently from a case of acute asthma. In addition to being a kickass guitarist, Casey was a great friend to PETA and to animals, and his loss is very deeply felt in our office today. Some of my colleagues in peta2, who knew him best, have written tributes to Casey which you can read below. We will always remember his kindness, his enthusiasm, and his unwavering commitment to making the world a better place.

I have been on many tours with Casey over the last couple of years. Casey was one of the nicest people I have met in all my years on the road. I used to give him a hard time about leaving a venue before he needed to be on stage to go watch 'A Nightmare before Christmas' or some other similar type movie. He was always so nice to everyone he met, and willing to take the time to say hello to his fans. He also cared about animals and was always willing to be a voice for them. I really do not know what to say, but Casey will be deeply missed. My heart goes out to his family and band mates. -Jason Bayless

I met Casey on Warped Tour this past summer. Although he generally steered clear of the spotlight, he was always willing work with peta2 to be a voice for animals. Every encounter I had with Casey, he would always tell me that he was willing to do whatever for the animals, and to let him know about any upcoming projects with peta2. He will truly be missed. -Lara Sanders

If I would have randomly met Casey on the street, I would have had no idea that he was a professional rock star. He was so shy and sweet. I remember one time running into him at the local mall when Hawthorne Heights was in town. He was all by himself, and we asked him what he was up to. He said that he had just finished playing, and he had dashed out right away to make it in time to see the brand new Harry Potter movie- and to this day, I don't think I have ever seen anyone more excited to watch a Harry Potter film. Casey was a sweetheart and will be remembered forever. -Mylie Thompson

Casey was always interested in updates to peta2 campaigns over the years, tried to make it a point to stop by our booth at festivals and tours just to say hello, and was one of the most consistent supporters of all that we do to help animals. He's inspired many Street Teamers to get more active for animals and has helped to educate thousands of music fans about cruelty to animals for campaigns such as the one we have against KFC. -Pulin Modi

I remember Casey coming to our table at Warped Tour signing the petition, asking about the shirts, and looking at the stickers and leaflets. He actually stopped by the table a couple of times during Hawthorne Heights' time on Warped Tour and said hello and what not. Really one of the nicest band members that I have spoken with. -Cody Ammerman

At Bamboozle, I gave Casey a vegan chocolate chip cookie bar made by the lovely people at Trustkill Records. Casey got the biggest grin on his face I've ever seen. It was absolutely adorable! -Nicole Nuss

Casey would email me out of the blue with all these ideas about things that he could do with us to help animals. He was always thinking about new ways that he could get involved to help animals. -Dan Shannon

Casey was one of the sweetest people I've ever worked with at peta2- so down to earth and friendly. He was a true friend of the animals, and will be missed by many. -Violet Owens

This beautiful, beautiful e-card starring Christina Applegate got leaked last week, and it’s been all over the blogosphere already. The Samantha Who? star posed nude to help remind people to stay away from fur and fur-trim during the holiday season. Check it out—it"s gorgeous.

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I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday. Mine would have been pretty close to perfect if it hadn’t all been tainted by yesterday’s sad events in Tampa Bay. But the show must go on, and though it may not seem like it right now, there are more important things than the apparent inability of the Washington Redskins to throw accurate passes inside the 20-yard-line. For instance: While half the country was busy stuffing their shopping bags with every piece of fabric they could find this Friday, a number of animal lovers around the U.S. spent their holiday reminding shoppers that—as much as their rabid consumerism helps America—there are plenty of ways of doing that without hurting animals, and that it’s the easiest thing in the world to buy comfortable, stylish clothes without fur, leather, or wool. Here are a couple of the pics that ended up in my Inbox this morning—the first is from a Fur-Free Friday demonstration outside the mall here in Norfolk, and the second from a great demonstration in Miami Beach.

Happy Fur Free Friday, people! I understand that today is a very big shopping day in this fine country, so I will be studiously avoiding any and all places of commerce throughout the day and focusing instead on the leftovers of yesterday’s Thanksgiving feast. But for anyone who is on their way out to take advantage of the big sales today, please don’t get carried away and buy anything made out of animals! By way of inspiration, here’s a little video we made to run during a Super Bowl a few years back. They rejected it, but it’s still a winner.

And, while you're enjoying those last few slices of Tofurkey: Deflocked!

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

Remember, don’t eat the mascot!

Check out this fantastic piece by David Shankbone that went up on WikiNews this week. Shankbone interviewed Ingrid about her reaction to the HBO documentary about PETA that just aired. Well worth a read.

Click here to read it.

So add us already. If you’re not on Facebook yet, it’s a fantastic way of meeting new friends, rekindling old romances, and getting back in touch with people you’ve spent the last 10 years trying desperately to forget. And if you are on Facebook, we would be honored to have you as a friend.

Just click here to check out PETA’s new profile, where you can check out our videos, write on our wall, and just generally be a part of our fascinating little Facebook world. See you there!

John Rich of the country superstar duo Big & Rich upset a lot of fans by wearing a big ol’ fur coat onstage at the Country Music Association Awards, telecast on ABC earlier this month. After hearing from a number of those fans ourselves, we wrote to Rich to explain how dozens of foxes are anally electrocuted for such a coat and sent along a link to Pamela Anderson’s video short on the subject. Well, it turns out Rich is, in fact, a big man, replying to us himself:

"My management wanted to respond to your email, but I opted to respond personally, as I am a rather direct kind of man. I would like you to please forward my apologies to any of your members that are fans of Big and Rich that took offense to me wearing a fur coat on the CMA awards. Trust me, it was never my intent to upset anyone. Also, if any of the world class designers that you mentioned in your previous email would like to send me full length faux fur coats, I would be happy to wear them, and when asked by the press or fans, tell them it is a faux fur. I do not agree with many of your organization’s views or tactics, but I do respect your passion for animal rights, as I am an animal lover as well. I appreciate your willingness to address me on this subject."

One of the duo’s biggest hits is “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” but judging from Mr. Rich’s straightforward letter to PETA, he’s willing to save a few foxes, minks and rabbits too. Thanks, John, for your compassion—you guys have a lot of fans here—especially Kim in Human Resources!

Hey, I had to use that subject line at some point. Cut me some slack here. The reference is to a fantastic piece by Bill Maher that appeared in yesterday’s Huffington Post, asking George Bush to pardon all the turkeys. Here’s an excerpt:

"I ask you to do what I'm going to do and pardon a turkey this Thanksgiving. It's not hard. Just eat something else (ideas here and here). Not someone else, because it doesn't seem fair to spare a turkey and roast a hunk of pig or cow instead. If we can bow our heads in gratitude for our families, our friends and our big screen TVs, and then carve into a creature who lived a miserable life and died a horrible death, then our ethics are about as sensible as Britney's parenting skills."

You can read the full post here, and be sure to leave a comment telling Bill Maher he’s a badass. Or something more eloquent. In making the case for a vegetarian Thanksgiving, Bill’s piece refers to our investigation into a Butterball factory farm that was a central theme of the recent HBO documentary about PETA, as well as a brand-new PETA investigation into a standard American turkey slaughterhouse, which is required viewing for anyone who is still thinking about cooking a turkey for dinner this Thanksgiving:

Our good friend Kevin Nealon shared his own unique recipe for a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast with us during a PETA Thanksgiving event at Jorja Fox’s house last year. I think Kevin’s brilliant Thanksgiving Wad idea has the potential to be a long-lasting tradition that will forever leave its mark on the holiday. So share it with your friends. And for less adventurous (or more practical) folks, we’ve got a ton of great Thanksgiving recipes here.

Oxfam is a wonderful organization and they do a lot of great things, but their recent attempts to make money by hurting animals need to stop ASAP. Unfortunately, Oxfam has recently begun exploiting people's compassion and generosity by sending them gift catalogs full of adorable looking animals who can be "donated" to impoverished people. Now, everybody likes cute animals, but there’s something particularly sordid about using their images in a fundraising scheme that involves shipping them off to countries with no animal welfare standards, where they will be neglected, starved, and killed in horrific ways. As effective as this little stunt may be for Oxfam’s Membership Department, there are much better ways to alleviate global poverty that don’t victimize animals—and they damn well know it.

Please take a moment to learn more about our efforts to encourage Oxfam to do the right thing, and send them an e-mail about this misguided campaign, by clicking here.

Yes, HBO’s I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA was insightful, well-made, and powerful. I’ll admit that. But WTF, HBO? Didn’t you forget something kind of important? Did all those times I found an excuse to walk by the cameras when you were filming in the office mean nothing to you? Did that week we spent together camped out in a parking lot in New Orleans just completely slip your minds? Or is there something I missed?

As anyone who watched the documentary last night will know by now, this lowly PETA blogger does not appear anywhere in the final cut of the film. Like, there aren’t even any scenes where you can hear my voice off camera, or see me wandering by in the hallways. But with the exception of that massive, massive oversight on HBO’s part, the film, which aired for the first time yesterday at 8 p.m., was absolutely riveting. I won’t give away too much, since you can still catch it on HBO On Demand, but the film takes as its central theme the period leading up to the release of our Butterball investigation, and it provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of exactly how that campaign and a number of other PETA initiatives go from an idea in a meeting to a major media story that highlights the suffering of animals.

If you get a chance to watch the film, you’ll notice that not all the viewpoints expressed in the documentary are flattering about PETA, but as an organization, we’ve never been particularly concerned about flattery—our goal has always been to get people thinking seriously about animal rights, and whenever possible, getting them to sit down and actually confront the horrors that animals are subjected to in the meat, fur, animal-research, and other abusive industries that are so often kept hidden from the public. I Am an Animal accomplishes that in spades, and for that reason I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about why we do what we do. I just hope that when they make the sequel, they’ll give the people what they want and spend a little bit more time filming me.

Despite some of the morbid rituals that it’s often associated with, Thanksgiving has long been my very favorite holiday, because (unlike its overrated rival, Christmas) you don’t have to buy anybody presents for it. There are also not one, but two football games on Thanksgiving, which gives the day another powerful edge over the more popular December holiday (which is often embarrassingly devoid of sporting events), and its central theme—eating—is simple, but consistently satisfying. So, I put it to you that Thanksgiving is in fact the greatest holiday of all—or it would be, if they could only get over that whole unfortunate turkey thing. For more on that, check out this awesome ad we made a little while back to encourage people to give turkeys a break on Thanksgiving Day.

I haven’t done one of these in a long time, but I’ve been getting so many great links lately that I thought I’d bring it back. Also, to be honest, I’m still recovering from yesterday’s tragic events, and I could use a little light relief. So here you go: The very best that the Internet has to offer this week on themes at least tangentially connected to animal rights. Enjoy!

1. Miss Manners straight-up represents on uncivilized non-vegans.
2. Deer: 1. Hunter: 0. I think I may have posted this one before at some point, but hey, it’s a winner. Thanks to Robert Maloney for sending in the link.
3. Once you GoVeganRadio, you can never go back …
4. PETA VP Dan Mathews talks about Nancy Reagan’s new coat
5. This year’s most vegetarian-friendly university is revealed!
6. Ingrid Newkirk’s letter to the editor about Matthew Scully’s Dominion was published in The New York Times today. You can find that here.
7. And Alec Baldwin fights for healthier school lunches.

If that’s not enough to while away the last 20 minutes or so of your work day, you should have a listen to the segment about vegan Thanksgivings on NPR’s Splendid Table, featuring the good folks from Post Punk Kitchen. Definitely worth a listen if cooking’s your thing.

And when you’re finished with all that, why not treat yourself to the website I made about my recent trip to Canada. They didn’t let me in.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out I Am an Animal tonight on HBO!

Citypages/Creative Commons

As we normally do at this time of year, we sent a letter to the President this morning asking him to take steps to ensure that the "pardoned" birds receive the care they will need to live out the year. You can read that letter here, and for more information about the conditions endured by the 50 million other turkeys who will be killed this Thanksgiving season, click here.

Should anyone even care? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but check out what PETA’s Director of Research, Kathy Guillermo, had to say about them in this fantastic op-ed about animal experimentation.

Stop Squandering Resources on Pointless Animal Experiments
by KATHY GUILLERMO

Are worms gay? If they are, what does that mean for humans? Such questions may sound entirely irrelevant to anything in our lives, but some scientists, including Erik Jorgensen at the University of Utah, have apparently received money to study these questions. The worms—nematodes, really—are tiny, 1-millimeter-long creatures that live in soil. Most are hermaphrodites, which mean that each worm produces both sperm and eggs. The Times of London reported that Jorgensen activated a gene in the hermaphrodite worms' brains, which apparently convinced them to try to mate with other hermaphrodites rather than just with the male worms.

The conclusion, according to Jorgensen's quote in the Times: "We cannot say what this means for human sexual orientation, but it raises the possibility that sexual preference is wired in the brain."

Hey, there's something no one ever thought of before.

This study serves as a reminder that there are only so many research dollars available, and most of it comes from your taxes. Do you want to foot the bill for experiments that don't have anything to do with preventing or curing illness? Or for studies that are obviously redundant or pointless? Or for experiments that are so cruel that whatever is learned from them simply isn't worth the cost?

I'm opposed to using animals for experimentation on ethical grounds, and I believe—as science frequently shows—that most studies on animals aren't particularly relevant to humans. But even those who support research on animals should be careful about accepting the experimentation industry's claim that the use of animals in laboratories will help find cures for Alzheimer's, AIDS, Parkinson's, cancer and other diseases that are frightening just to contemplate. Consider first what some experimenters are paid big money to do.

In July, Johns Hopkins University announced that it was attempting to create a "schizophrenic" mouse by inserting a gene from the DNA of a human family with schizophrenic members into a mouse. Yet a diagnosis of schizophrenia hinges on the patient hearing voices that aren't there and seeing things others don't see. How exactly does an experimenter know if this is true of mice, even if a gene has been inserted?

At Oregon Health & Science University, experimenter Eliot Spindel injects the fetuses of pregnant monkeys with nicotine and then gives the mothers vitamin supplements to see if that makes it "safer" to smoke while pregnant. Yet we've known since 1972 that smoking is harmful to human fetuses. Spindel's money would have been better-spent convincing pregnant women not to smoke.

Under the guise of studying fetal alcohol syndrome, David J. Earnest at Texas A&M Health Science Center examined sleep problems in baby rats that were force-fed alcohol. Perhaps Earnest is unaware that human infants don't binge-drink after birth.

At universities and primate centers across the country, experimenters are still tearing infant monkeys from their mothers to observe the detachment and psychosis that result from this trauma. These are variations on the dreadful experiments conducted by Harry Harlow more than 40 years ago. How often do we need to prove that taking love and comfort from a baby monkey will destroy the animal's happiness and ability to cope with life?

I could go on and on—monkeys who have the tops of their skulls removed, electrodes stuck in their brains and wire coils implanted in their eyes to look at the connection between eye movement and the brain; birds whose testicles are sucked out so that experimenters can examine what happens to their songs; cats who have their backs cut open and weights attached to their spinal tissue and are then killed, supposedly to study lower back problems in people. The list seems endless.

These animals are caged for their entire lives, traumatized, physically and emotionally damaged, killed and cut up for experiments that don't even pretend to be about saving humans. Whether or not you agree with me that it's unethical to do this to animals for any reason, surely it's obvious that much experimentation on animals is a terrible waste of money and lives.

Earlier this year, we took our KFC Campaign up a notch by sending our fearless Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaigner, Lindsay Rajt, deep into the heart of darkness—Louisville, Kentucky, itself—to help make sure that employees at KFC’s headquarters had a constant, chilling reminder of the fact that we are not going to go away until they stop the worst abuses of the hundreds of millions of animals they kill every year for their restaurants.

(A couple of things I should note about that previous paragraph before I go on: 1) Lindsay has informed me that despite having one or two irredeemably evil residents, Louisville is in fact a very cool, vibrant, and progressive town. Not a heart of darkness. And 2) Lindsay has also registered an objection to being described as “chilling.” She is in fact a very lovely person in her free time, and only fills people’s hearts with fear in a strictly professional sense.)

Anyway, the point is that this weekend marked the grand opening of our “Kentucky Fried Cruelty” Campaign Headquarters directly across the street from a Louisville KFC. Here are some pictures:

Following another outbreak of bird flu in Suffolk, 22,000 turkeys in four different sites were killed last week as a precaution to try and prevent the spread of the disease. The spread of bird flu, which is proving to be a very serious threat to the poultry industry and to humans who eat birds, is the direct result of the stressful, filthy, cramped conditions that chickens and turkeys are raised in on factory farms, and when it causes a major scare as it is currently in the UK, the corporations that run these farms act like it’s the biggest surprise in the world.

Setting that aside for a moment, here’s PETA’s handy, pocket-sized guide to preventing bird flu. Be sure to share it with your friends and family!

1. Go vegetarian.

And here are some pics from PETA UK’s demonstration in Ipswich yesterday. Good stuff.

Since Denny’s refuses to listen to us about their continued promotions of the Ringling Bros. Circus, we figured we’d take our message straight to their headquarters. Check out the pics from Wednesday’s demonstration outside Denny’s HQ in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Thanks to everyone who came out to the protest—and especially to my friend Jenna, who played the part of the baby elephant’s backside to perfection.

Nice work, everybody.

This one's a beauty. For more info on PETA's campaign against the Australian wool industry, click here.

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

umusic/Creative Commons

Which, well, everybody likes a good horror flick, but I prefer to keep my encounters with the macabre entirely fictional, thank you very much. Speaking of segues: Here, ladies and gentlemen, is horror movie legend Robert Zombie with PETA’s Holiday Message:

Mr. Zombie was also kind enough to sign his PETA T-shirt for us to give away on this here blog. So if you’re a Rob Zombie superfan, e-mail me by November 23 to let me know what you like best about the man and his work, and I’ll pick someone to send it to. I'll let you know if you're the lucky winner the week after the Thanksgiving holiday.

You can also click here to read the terms and conditions of this contest, if you like. But don’t expect it to be a particularly exciting experience.

Robert Dziekanski was killed by a Taser stun gun in a Canadian airport last month. Dziekanski’s death, which has been widely reported after a video of the incident was posted on YouTube last night, is one in a long list of fatalities that have been caused by Taser stun guns. And yet Taser International continues to claim that these weapons are safe, practical tools for law-enforcement. How are they able to do this and get away with it?

The strategy’s pretty simple, actually. For years, Taser International has been funding and performing crude experiments on pigs, horses, and other animals that serve no other purpose than to provide them with “evidence” that their weapons are safe for humans. And yet as Robert Dziekanski’s death shows, the information that Taser International has been able to gather from shocking pigs is utterly useless—except insofar as it serves to protect Taser CEO Rick Smith from mounting public opposition to the use of his dangerous weapons.

The Taser situation is a perfect example of a problem that is endemic to all such animal experimentation. As is the case with so many drugs that go to market after animal testing only to be pulled from the shelves when they’re shown to be dangerous to humans, the results of these experiments have no relevance whatever to how humans will be affected, because (as should be obvious to a first-grader) pigs and horses have fundamentally different physiologies to humans. We just don’t work the same way. And the inevitable result—as we’ve seen time and again—is that companies like Taser International manipulate the data from their meaningless experiments to justify whatever argument they care to make. And people like Robert Dziekanski pay the price.

This video shows one of the hideously cruel experiments that Taser International has been performing on bulls, pigs, and other animals since they first tried to rush their weapon to market. Do we really want to stake our safety on the word of a man who does this?

Update: The event was a huge success! Pam dished out plate after plate of the faux turkey, which was a big hit with the guests at the homeless shelter. Check out these exclusive pics:

Pamela Anderson will be spending some time at a homeless shelter in Las Vegas this evening to serve an early Thanksgiving dinner to homeless families in the area. And Pam’s act of charity will also be setting an example for people who want to make Turkey Day a bit kinder on the turkeys, as the dinner she’s serving is 100 percent vegetarian, with Garden Protein’s amazing faux turkey as its centerpiece. All of the veggie turkey (which you can get in any Whole Foods, btw) was donated by the folks at Garden Protein. Here’s what Pam had to say about the event,

"The holiday season can be especially hard for those who find themselves homeless. And it's murder on turkeys. With so many healthy and delicious options nowadays, it's easy to have a holiday meal that gives even turkeys something to be thankful for."

Pam was inspired to host the event after she saw video footage from PETA's recent investigation at a turkey slaughterhouse, which showed workers striking and handling birds so roughly that the animals suffered broken bones. Not to be too much of a downer here since this is a really positive story, but the footage is heartbreaking, and it shows standard practices in turkey slaughterhouses around the country, which should make anyone think twice about eating turkeys this Thanksgiving.

The good news is that there are some wonderful alternatives, and if you’re trying to come up with a menu for your Thanksgiving dinner this year, you could do a whole lot worse than the feast that Pam is serving tonight, including Veggie Stuffed Turkey Roast with wild rice and cranberries donated by Garden Protein, mashed potatoes with veggie gravy, and garlic-braised collards.

I’ll have pictures of the event up later tonight, so be sure to check back!

And if you’re still undecided about whether to have an all-vegetarian Thanksgiving this year, this is the footage from our recent investigation which inspired Pam to host the event.

It’s always great news when a major retailer emerges from the dark ages and realizes that it’s not in its best interests to support the barbaric fur industry. And the bottom line here is that after extensive negotiations between PETA and bebe, the company has agreed to stop buying fur to sell in its stores—which means that no more animals will suffer for bebe’s clothing lines. So, hooray for that.

The bad news is that the company has refused to pull the fur from its racks until after the Holiday season, which means they get one more round of profits from promoting an industry that electrocutes animals and skins them alive. Which is why we’re asking consumers to refuse to shop at bebe this season in favor of compassionate retailers that either never sold fur or have already pulled it from their shelves (like, for instance, Ann Taylor, Charlotte Russe, Donna Karen, Express, Gap, H&M, J. Crew, Jones Apparel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, Wet Seal, or Zara).

So there you have it—it’s a bit lousy of bebe to continue to profit from fur sales over the next three months, but their decision to stop buying the stuff does make a big difference to the animals used by the fur industry, which now has one less major company to fuel their profits. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us out by contacting bebe about this issue during our negotiations!

…Speaking of which—if you haven’t contacted the folks at Burberry yet about their refusal to even acknowledge the horrors they’re funding by selling fur, please take a few moments to let Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts know what you think.

As the air date for I Am An Animal, the HBO documentary about PETA, approaches, there is one important question in the minds of PETA staff members such as myself: “Am I in it?” Well, that’s what I’m wondering, anyway. From everything I’ve heard about this film, it’s an extremely compelling look at animal rights issues, PETA’s role in the movement, and more specifically, what makes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk tick. Evidently, it’s also very even-handed—it gives equal time to PETA’s detractors, and it explores opposing viewpoints and the various controversies that exist within the movement from an impartial perspective. Which is all well and good, but as we know, the real question here is, are there any scenes that have me in them? Like, even a shot where I’m standing around in the background will be fine.

Unfortunately, most of the world will have to wait for the answer to this burning question until Monday at 8 p.m. If you don’t have HBO, see if you can get yourself invited over to a friend’s house to watch it—it really does look like it’s going to be a winner. In the meantime, you can enter to win a copy of the DVD here, and by way of a teaser, here’s what Ingrid had to say about the documentary:

I posted yesterday about two “scientists” at the Oregon National Primate Research Center who have squandered tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on hideously cruel experiments that achieve nothing more than reaffirming painfully obvious truths such as that children suffer when they are deprived of maternal affection.

What I didn’t mention is that PETA has had an investigator inside these notorious labs this year, who spent four months documenting egregious abuses of the animals who are used for ONPRC’s experiments. Among other standard abuses, the animals at ONPRC were forced to eat food from their waste trays; they were terrorized when they were chased and caught in group cages; and they suffered such severe psychological trauma that at least one monkey, Megatron, resorted to self-mutilation. As PETA President Ingrid Newkirk puts it:

"PETA's investigator documented ONPRC's complete disregard for animals and for the laws that should protect them. These animals live in terror every second of every day—they are shut in metal boxes and killed for nicotine and alcohol experiments as well as other wasteful and repetitive studies."

As I said yesterday, we’re working on getting these people shut down. You can watch our investigator’s video below, and then please click here to ask the USDA to launch a full investigation into this hellhole.

Update: I just heard from my friend Harald at PETA Germany that the kind soul who rescued the lobsters is a PETA Germany activist! So, if you’re reading this, anonymous German lobster-liberating activist: Danke! From der bottom of mein heart.

It’s been a good month for lobsters. Well, insofar as it’s possible to have a good month when your people are routinely boiled alive and made into bisque. Let’s call it a “slightly better” month than usual. First, a study published in New Scientist proved what we all know already: that lobsters feel pain (scientists are sometimes a bit slower to catch on than the rest of us—they are a methodical people). And now, there’s news from Stuttgart, Germany, that dozens of lobsters escaped from an Asian supermarket out into the street, where they were rescued and sent to an animal sanctuary. Here’s how our good friends at Der Spiegel described the incident:

“The clawed crustaceans, some of them up to 15 centimeters long, managed to crawl out of their crates, which had been poorly secured with wire mesh, then scurried across the floor of the supermarket and squeezed through the metal shutters covering the front of the store. The front door had been left open by mistake.”

Congratulations, lobsters! We’re all pulling for you. We’re all pulling for you. And for more on this story, Stephen Colbert, ladies and gentlemen:

I’ve been taking a break from the Vivisector of the Week posts for the past month, but when my colleague Justin told me about these two nasty little specimens, I knew I needed to highlight their work—because, well, it really is something to behold:

Eliot Spindel and Judy Cameron both work at a place called the Oregon National Primate Research Center, and they specialize in traumatizing and hurting monkeys.

Eliot Spindel OHSU/Creative Commons Eliot Spindel has squandered more than $3.5 million of taxpayer money since 2000 in an attempt to show that (wait for it) smoking during pregnancy can be bad for the child. It seems like Mr. Spindel could have saved himself some trouble by just asking someone, but he wanted to do it the hard way, by impregnating monkeys, injecting them with dangerous levels of nicotine, delivering the babies pre-term via caesarian section, then killing and mutilating them shortly after they’re born.

Judy Cameron DevelopingChild/Creative Commons I don’t know whether there’s something in the water over at ONPRC, but Spindel’s colleague Judy Cameron seems to share his fascination with performing expensive and painful experiments in the service of a mind-bogglingly self-evident piece of information. Cameron’s work involves separating baby monkeys from their mothers to see how much it traumatizes them—which, as we already know, is an awful lot. Now, thanks to the long hours that Judy and her predecessors have spent in the lab torturing primates, we know that babies suffer when they’re ripped from their mothers and deprived of affection. Thank you, Judy.

Wonderful work those guys are all doing over at ONPRC, huh? We’re going to see what we can do to make sure their whole operation is shut down for good.

I can’t think why, but apparently, the good folks at New Hampshire Community Technical College-Manchester have grown unhappy with their institution’s name. I guess it’s possible that they thought it was a bit on the boring side. Or perhaps just a teensy bit unwieldy?

Either way, as of last week, their long wait for an exciting new moniker is over, since the kindhearted souls in PETA’s Vegan Campaigns Department had a little brainstorming session and decided to offer them this striking suggestion:

It has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? Something about the alliteration, maybe. If they like our idea, not only will NHCTC students be able to hold their heads high with the knowledge that their school finally has a genuinely interesting name, but they’ll be sending a strong message that their progressive institution opposes cruelty to animals in all its forms. Plus, in case they need an incentive beyond the good they’ll be doing for the chickens abused for KFC’s restaurants, I can assure them that name changes like that tend to get a whole lot of publicity …

You can read our letter to the school here. We haven’t heard back from them yet for some reason, but I’ll let you know when we do.

I have to admit that I don’t have a very good head for figures, but the math here seems pretty straightforward. And while we’re talking numbers, selling people dogs and cats when there are between 6 and 8 million waiting for homes in shelters every year is about as dumb as shelling out a thousand dollars for an animal at Petland when you could be rescuing one of the 3 to 4 million who will be euthanized this year for lack of a good home.

These pics are from Friday’s demonstration outside an Orlando Petland where we debuted our new “Priceless” ads, which make a simple but effective point to potential pet store customers.

Here’s a taste of what PETA UK’s been doing with the money they received from Covance Inc. following the dismissal of Covance’s lawsuit against them. Karma’s a bitch, sometimes.

Up until Wednesday, you can put yourself in the running to earn a bit of spending money over at Helium.com just for doing what you do so well right here on this very blog. Anyone interested can head over there and post your thoughts on topics ranging from “PETA’s Kentucky Fried Cruelty Campaign” to “How to End Animal Homelessness”. Check it out here if it strikes your fancy.

They’ve got a nice little community going over there, and the articles make for some pretty interesting (and, yes, occasionally infuriating) reading.

Washoe, the chimpanzee who became world-famous after learning sign language and teaching it to other primates, died last week in Washington State. PETA’s Primate Specialist, Debra Durham, wrote this great op-ed about Washoe, and what we can learn from her experience, which appeared in The Saint Paul Pioneer Press yesterday. Check it out:

What We Learned From a Chimp
BY DEBRA DURHAM

Last week, we mourned the loss of an icon - Washoe. She was one of the few chimpanzees people are likely to know by name - in large part because she learned to use American Sign Language. She famously taught it to fellow chimpanzees, and the people who know her best shared stories about her fibs and her apparent sense of humor.


Was it language? It seems that not everyone is convinced, but does that matter? No one disputes that communication took place. Whether human or chimpanzee, Washoe's companions shared and created meaning with her.


Thanks to decades of fieldwork by scientists from around the globe, we know a great deal about chimpanzees like Washoe, who was herself taken from Africa decades ago. In June, scientists explained how chimpanzees would freely choose to help a human if they saw that he or she needed help.


In March, news stories came out about chimpanzees who showed particular kindness and understanding to group members who had cerebral palsy. If we add these to the long list of things once thought to be the special domain of humans - culture, tool use, the capacity for language - the gap between humans and chimpanzees becomes smaller and smaller. We are not identical, but we have a great deal in common.


This isn't altogether surprising as chimpanzees are our closest primate relatives, sharing 98 or 99 percent of our DNA. We've all heard that chimpanzees are smart and that they are an endangered species. But Washoe revealed to us something beyond our broad similarities.


Some people writing about her death have claimed that she changed what it meant to be human - that she changed our society. That, I suppose, is true - but there is more to that lesson. Washoe also helped us see what it means to be chimpanzee. When she spoke her mind, signing about her wants and needs, playing jokes or tricks, showing empathy, she embodied a message of compassion - one that we have not fully heard.


Neither the knowledge of our commonalities with chimpanzees - cognitive, cultural and otherwise - nor their capacity to suffer has inspired adequate protection for these animals. Despite their bright minds and unique personalities, many chimpanzees spend their lives inside small metal laboratory cages, where they endure terror, physical pain and trauma. People may be shocked to learn that laboratories in the United States are allowed to keep chimpanzees in cages about the size of a kitchen table.


In light of the lessons taught by Washoe, her fellow signing apes, and all that we know about chimpanzees, we must now realize that how we currently keep and treat chimpanzees in U.S. laboratories is replete with ethical problems. It's time for the United States to join nations all over the world, from Austria to Liberia and New Zealand, that have banned experiments on chimpanzees. It is the right and compassionate thing to do. I'm sure that Washoe would have signed that she agreed.

To be honest, I’m having trouble coming up with a decent intro to this video. It’s a behind the scenes look at the companion animal overpopulation crisis, from the perspective of a woman who deals with it every day, up close and personal. It really made me think about what an absolute joke the whole idea of “responsible” breeding is, when millions of animals are killed annually for one simple reason: there just aren’t enough good homes for them.

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think.

People will cling on to the most unlikely notions if it means that they can keep doing something they enjoy but know deep down is wrong. And sad as it is to say, there are going to be people who continue to ignore or deny the fact that crustaceans feel pain despite mountains of evidence that this is the case—including the study published in New Scientist today, which shows that lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans all share pain sensitivity. Which means (just in case anyone needs this spelled out) that cramming them into pots of boiling water while they’re still alive should be a jailable offense. Literally. We prosecute people for equivalent cruelty to cats or dogs, so a lobster bake shouldn’t be any different.

Setting that aside for a second, I hate the fact that this study was ever done in the first place. The notion of a bunch of grown men and women in labcoats prodding lobsters to see if they react and then pompously announcing to the scientific community, that “yes, they do react,” would frankly be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that these animals suffered to prove what we all know intuitively already: That there’s something horribly wrong with the way we treat these animals, and that no matter how much someone might enjoy the taste of lobster, there is simply no way to justify torturing a living being for the sake of a palate preference.

If you haven’t read it yet, you should definitely check out the essay Consider the Lobster, by David Foster Wallace (who happens, incidentally, to be my favorite living author). It’s a fascinating analysis of the ethics related to this issue from the point of view of someone who had never given it any thought at all, until he was assigned to write about a lobster festival for Gourmet magazine. You can find that here.

Deflocked, people. Deflocked.

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

Sex and the City. People either love it or hate it. And since the series has ended, there has been no shortage of drama between the show's loyal fans and its detractors, and also between the actors themselves. But believe it or not, jumping into that fray isn't the point of this post.

The movie version of Sex is filming right now, and this picture is making its way all over the Internet. Apparently, there is a scene in the movie where people who call themselves PETA tell Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall's character) what they think of her choice of outerwear, as they throw paint on her. Here's the photo that's been doing the rounds of the Sex and the City fansites today, so you can judge for yourselves:

And for the record, PETA doesn't throw paint on fur wearers. What we suggest is giving them an earful while handing them one of these nifty anti-fur business cards, or maybe encouraging them to display one of these wonderful little warning labels:

Here’s what Natalie Portman told The Sun last week when she was asked about her refusal to wear leather for a role:

“I'm an animal lover and I've been a vegetarian for 17 years. I won't wear leather in my own life and I won't wear it for a movie either. They have to make me clothes from fake leather.”

I’m still waiting for the right time to let Natalie Portman know the extent and depth of my feelings for her. I’ll let you know how that goes.

AskMen/Creative Commons

Our Cruelty Casework Division deals with reports of cruelty to animals every day, responding to literally thousands of instances of animal abuse in a year by writing to prosecutors, informing judges about the link between animal abuse and violence against humans, and sending out fieldworkers to respond to reports of animals in need. When I come across a case like this one, I honestly don’t know how they manage it.

Here’s the story that was reported to one of PETA’s caseworkers. We’re asking the District Attorney to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law, so if you’d like to help us out with that, please click here:

August 11 was Hunter's last day, and it was a terrible one.

The beagle was the beloved companion of the Evans family in New Orleans. Hunter loved to lie in the sun for hours at a time, got a kick out of sitting by the family pool, and was well known throughout the neighborhood for his sweet disposition. In early August, the inquisitive 6-year-old dog snuck out of the yard while the Evans were painting their fence—Patricia Evans, Hunter's lawful guardian, was sick with worry, especially after several days passed and the family still hadn't seen a sign of Hunter. Patricia came home one day to find her father extremely distraught. He told her that they had found Hunter. It didn't sound good. Patricia's own account is as follows:

"When I got home, [my friend] was in tears and my father had his head pressed against his desktop; I knew something was wrong. My father then told my brother and I that a man ... [named] Christopher D. Alessi had found our dog. We were told by a reliable source that he was trying to 'take care' of Hunter. On that Saturday, [Alessi] was spotted at a local Auto Zone with Hunter in the back of his truck. Witnesses saw Hunter try and escape, but [Alessi] hurried to him and began punching him in the face as someone would in a boxing match and threw him with force into the back of his truck. [Alessi] then continued to drive to his home, where the witness followed him. When he got out of the car, he [allegedly] grabbed Hunter by the throat and began choking him to death. The witnesses said he had his hands around his neck and Hunter tried to get his legs [on] the ground, but [Alessi] grew angrier and pulled him harder until he died. The police came almost immediately and arrested him."

Christopher Alessi will be answering to these charges in court this year. As always with these cases, if he’s convicted we need to make sure that he spends a long time in prison, and that he’s never allowed near animals again.

Ouch. Sophie Dahl is a British fashion model, known in the U.K. as a poster-girl for Yves Saint Laurent, and, unfortunately, a lover of expensive furs. These pictures, of Sophie looking just extremely uncomfortable as some concerned animal lovers express their disgust about her idea of “fashion,” made their way around the World Wide Web yesterday, and I thought I’d share them with you. Sucks to get singled out like that, Sophie, but it’s nowhere near as excruciating as what the animals go through.

No, not that Jack Black … The Jack Black line of skin care products for men that's taken the world by storm, with rave reviews and awards from Men’s Health and Esquire magazines. Now the company has teamed up with PETA to highlight its new cruelty-free Pure Performance Shave Brush with a contest over at CaringConsumer.com.

Until now, essentially all high-end barber shop quality shave brushes have been made with badger hair, so this is a real breakthrough. To be honest, I’m a little behind the uber-hip urban dude grooming curve. But even an emo guy like me can appreciate the fact that this brush helps guys get a nice clean shave, and more importantly, lets badgers carry on being badgers. It took years of development and commitment to make it happen, so PETA is presenting our Trail-Blazer Award to Jack Black cofounders Curran Dandurand and Emily Dalton for their commitment to developing products that are free from animal ingredients and never tested on animals.

The holidays are coming, so Mum and Dad, if you’re reading, I really like the looks of this stuff . . . I’m just saying is all. Oh yeah, here’s a direct link to the contest.

You heard me. We needed to know who was the cutest vegetarian child in the world, and thus began a painstaking, epic search throughout the land for the most adorable—but also compassionate re: animals—young lads and lasses that have been produced in the last 10 odd years of human procreation. Our quest for the World’s Cutest Vegetarian finally came to an end when we happened upon young Caitlin Rosendorn of Bloomington, Illinois, and her male counterpart, the undeniably adorable Ian Kaminski of North Syracuse, New York, both of whom beat out a very tough field of extremely lovable little kiddies. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the winners of this year’s World’s Cutest Vegetarian Kids contest—you can learn more about them at PETAKids.com. Out of sheer laziness, I’ve copied these bios from the text written by my good friend Patricia Trostle who runs our PETA Kids department.

Seven-year-old Ian Kaminski of North Syracuse, New York, is a proud vegetarian who never misses the chance to tell others what's wrong with eating meat. Ian's mom, Christina, tells us he's so compassionate that he knows he shouldn't even kill bugs and that after finding destroyed bird nests on the ground, he discourages his friends from climbing trees in order to protect other nests.

Caitlin Rosendorn loves Tofurky sandwiches and Morningstar Farms corn dogs, and when asked about being a vegetarian, Caitlin lets others know that she loves animals and doesn't want to eat them. Not only does this little lady with a heart of gold have a great sense of style—just look at that ensemble!—she also has great taste in music and loves female-fronted bands like Rainer Maria and Rilo Kiley.

I seriously can’t get over the fact that this young lady is way into Rainer Maria. Not only is she precocious enough to have worked out the practical ethics of meat consumption for herself, but she already has the music taste of a disaffected Brooklyn scenester at the tender age of 6. I love it.

Congratulations, Caitlin and Ian! It’s not always easy to make a compassionate choice like going vegetarian when a lot of your classmates are doing something else, but it’s impressive as hell, and it’s something that you’ll never regret.

USAToday/Creative Commons

Which, as you might imagine, was all the invitation we needed to pen her another little missive, this time to congratulate her on her (mostly) compassionate diet and to suggest that if she can just bring herself to leave the sea life off her plate, we’d be glad to nominate her for next year’s World’s Sexiest Vegetarian contest (which, incidentally, her cousin Lauren won in 2003). So there you go — with her family’s noted abilities at getting people to vote for them, she’s all but guaranteed the coveted Sexy Veg title in ’08. If she can just swear off the sushi.

You can read Ingrid’s letter to Jenna here.

*Via Washington Whispers.

Oh, and in completely (like, completely) unrelated news, there was a cat vitamin recall this week. If you feed your cats vitamins, you should check this link to see if it affects you.

“Lucy” the sheep is at it again. Today, she joined Aussie Prime Minister John Howard on his morning walk in Sydney, and she’ll be making regular appearances again soon. I mean really, how can Australian politicians ignore the issues of mulesing and live export when there’s an activist in a giant sheep costume everywhere they go? Umm, OK, don’t answer that.

“Lucy” the sheep

And here’s a story about the newly formed PETA Australia. Yes, I said PETA Australia! More news on that front soon . . .

Any Friday Night Lights fans in the house? Well, even if you’re not, you’ll love this PSA peta2 just released with anti-fur crusader Aimee Teegarden and her dog Gizmo. Way to go Aimee!

You can watch a video of Aimee at the photo shoot and enter to win a T-shirt signed by her here.

Envelope, please.

And the winner is . . . Steve Baldwin. For his adorable ad promoting humane “pest” control, Steve will receive a $500 Apple gift card. And be sure to check out Steve’s blog about the wild parrots of Brooklyn here.

Honorable mention goes to Jason Frizzell for his “America’s Next PETA Model” ad. When we ran all of the finalists’ ads on a variety of blogs across the Internet, people just couldn’t resist clicking on Jason’s ad, so we decided that we should also recognize him with a $200 Apple gift card.

And no, I am not still bitter that my ad was disqualified from the competition . . .

Congratulations Steve and Jason!

I can't think why. We had this all set up with the billboard company and everything, and then they changed their minds at the last second. Is it possible that there are some sheep farmers who don't want people asking them difficult questions? For more info on mulesing, and our campaign to stop it, please click here.

And for the inevitable knee-jerk response from sheep farmers who are going to say "But we have to slice these sheep up -- it's the only way to prevent flystrike!": 1.) This crisis is your fault in the first place for breeding sheep who can’t survive in the climate. 2.) Here is a long, painstakingly researched list of humane, effective alternatives to mulesing. And 3.) If you refuse to accept that there’s a way to do your job without hideously torturing animals, well, then maybe it’s time to get a new job.

Well, not really a battle, but I’m a sucker for a title with a bit of internal rhyme. More like a skirmish. A minor tiff. The story is that the Town Council in Brattleboro, Vermont, were not particularly pleased about PETA’s recent full-monty nude fur protest in their town, which, due to an odd loophole on the law books, has some very lax legislation about public nudity. The protest has apparently brought renewed calls for a permanent ban on public nakedness in Brattleboro. Which really does seem like a shame.

Well, we’ve offered them a solution that’s a lot less of a joykill: How about banning fur (I’m talking about, like, fur coats here) in Brattleboro instead? That way, they can do a nice, positive thing for the community and avoid naked PETA protesters at the same time. Or as PETA VP Bruce Friedrich puts it,

"What could be more offensive than draping your body in the skins of tormented animals and trying to pass it off as a 'fashion statement'? Nudity doesn't hurt anyone, but wearing fur does—and it shouldn't be tolerated in modern society."

To further sweeten the proposal, we’ll send a trio of emissaries—fully clothed in furry animal costumes—to host a champagne celebration for the town, if the board agrees to the proposal. How can you possibly turn down a deal like that, Brattleboro? You can read our letter to the Town Council here.

Tofu Scramble
Speedvegan/Creative Commons

I’ll let you know if we hear back from the organizers, but, uhm, don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, here is a news story about it, and here is Lisa’s letter.

*In addition to being utterly disgusting (eggs are, like, chicken periods, after all), eggs are a product of quite possibly the most abusive industry on the planet. Egg laying hens endure a nightmare that lasts about two years, during which time a large portion of each hen’s beak is cut off with a burning-hot blade, and they are shoved into tiny wire “battery” cages with five to 11 other hens. Even in the best scenario, each hen will spend the rest of her life crowded in a space about the size of a file drawer with four other hens, unable to lift even a single wing. Additionally, since male chicks are worthless to the egg industry, every year millions of them are tossed into trash bags to suffocate or are thrown into high-speed grinders called macerators while they are still alive. Sorry to be such a buzz kill here, but hey, that’s my job.

My pal Mylie has been at me to blog about crating dogs for a while now, and this is a perfect time to do it, since she just finished making a leaflet about it. Check out the leaflet below, and if you’d like to order some to pass out, click here.

Bebe's recent announcement that it is going fur-free is nothing short of a cheap media stunt, since they're still planning to sell the skins of tortured bunnies through the winter. For the past year, we’ve been negotiating with the clothing retailer to pull the fur from their shelves, and today, in a clear attempt to stop a forthcoming boycott campaign, the company sent out a news release that they must have hoped would ward off protests. Unfortunately, while it's a step, it doesn't go far enough.

The rabbits killed to be made into cuffs and collars for bebe spend their entire lives in tiny, filthy cages, and die gruesome deaths at the hands of fur farmers, who break their necks or smash their skulls—more concerned about preserving the pelt than they are about the welfare of these tortured animals.

All of bebe's competitors have stopped selling fur including Ann Taylor, Charlotte Russe, Donna Karen, Express, Gap, H&M, J. Crew, Jones Apparel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, Wet Seal, Zara, and more. Plenty of choices for shopping this holiday season!

Please click here to contact bebe and ask that they pull the fur from their shelves immediately. Even one more day of bebe selling rabbit fur is too long.

Hayden Panettiere (the star of NBC’s Heroes), was so outraged about the hideous dolphin cull taking place in Japan right now that she went out herself to try and put a stop to it. Along with five of her friends, Hayden paddled out on a surfboard in an attempt to stop a pod of dolphins from reaching a cove where the Japanese fishermen were waiting to slaughter them, but was violently deterred by the men on the fishing boats, who used hooks and the boats’ propellers to stop her from reaching the animals. Here’s what she said about the situation:

"Some of us were hit by the boathook. But in the end all we really worried about was the dolphins. It was so incredibly sad. We were so close to them and they were sky hopping, jumping out of the water to see us. One little baby dolphin stuck his head out and kinda looked at me and the thought that it's no longer with us is really hard to take."

PETA is sending her a Compassionate Citizen award for her incredible bravery and her dedication to helping animals in need. I hate to have to use the obvious pun here, but you’re a hero, Hayden. Keep up the great work.

There’s more on this story, as well as footage of the horrific dolphin slaughter, on Sky News.

Rochester/Creative Commons

Fatty (adj.)
1. Consisting of, containing, or resembling fat: fatty tissue.
2. Pathology. Characterized by overproduction or excessive accumulation of fat.
Are you really going to eat that fatty, diseased liver, you sick freak?

Alright, now that we’ve got the definitions out of the way, here’s the big news: Phat Farm clothing and Def Jam records founder Russell Simmons just approached the Chicago City Council on PETA’s behalf to urge them to oppose efforts (funded by what may well be the sickest, most unethical industry on the planet) to repeal the city’s ban on fatty duck liver, or foie gras. Here’s what Russell had to say to the Council:

“Cruelty is wrong, regardless of whether the victim is a child, a dog, or a bird. Let's come together to oppose all cruelty and injustice. I am asking that you support keeping this compassionate law in place—a law that Chicago can be truly proud of."

You can check out Russell’s letter below, and for a little taste of what goes on in the foie gras industry that’s currently pressuring Chicago to repeal its ban, check out this story about 15,000 ducks who burned to death this week at a Hudson Valley Foie Gras factory farm. When asked for comment, Hudson Valley owner Izzy Yanay expressed his deep regret about how much money this is going to cost him. Anyone else feel like these people should be out of business ASAP?

Thanks, Russell, for everything that you do.

Good morning! This one's called "The PETA Guidebook for Animals: How to Become Food." It made me laugh out loud. Enjoy.

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To check out the archives of past strips, click here.