I love it! This one is a real winner. It’s got the Trollsens and it’s New Years relevant!

Click for a larger version

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

- Joel

Did we need more evidence to know that no-kill shelters are not the solution?

According to news reports two members of a no-kill animal rescue group will serve time behind bars for keeping nearly 300 dogs and cats in squalid conditions.

Former Noah’s Ark Animal Rescue, CA owner Alexiea Tiraki-Kyrklund was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and Gloria Yvette Ramos, head volunteer at the shelter, was sentenced to a year in jail and five years probation for felony animal cruelty.

According to prosecutors, animal control officers found 152 dogs and 147 cats inside the building, and a state-licensed veterinarian determined that the conditions were detrimental to the animals' health and safety.

The defense attorney argued that most of the animals had been in poor health when they were rescued from other facilities and that his clients "didn't do anything wrong."

It’s that last quote about not doing anything wrong that bothers me. The police only found out about this because the stench was so overwhelming. If humans were overpowered by a smell beyond closed doors, imagine what the animals, with their sensitive noses, were subjected to inside! Good intentions can cause as much harm to animals as the worst abusers sometimes.

- Joel

Animals are pretty impressive. Most of them are faster than us humans. Many of them are stronger. And now we see that some are even smarter than some of us.

This isn’t a new story, but it just keeps floating around and has finally made its way to my inbox. Researchers in Japan have showed that chimpanzees can outdo college kids with some counting and memory games. Watch some of the videos below (and then scour YouTube for more). Along a related note here’s a nice clip of a crow using a tool.

Chimpanzee

vs.

Human

For those who like to reader in the audience, here’s a great piece from the Sunday New York Times Magazine about “the two greatest nonhuman linguists of our day: Washoe, the sign-language-wielding chimpanzee with an intense footwear fetish; and Alex, the wildly outspoken parrot.”

It all begs the question, what are we going to do in 2008 knowing now without question how smart animals are?

- Joel

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is imperative that you watch this new video for our ABC Campaign, which is both an initiative to educate people about the importance of spaying and neutering their animals, and stop breeders from pumping out thousands of pups every year who take homes from those destined to die in shelters. What I like about Sex Talk, and the other spot we’ve put together for this campaign, is that it’s a lot more than just a funny ad. There’s something about it that makes you really uncomfortable—which, I guess, is exactly what a proper chat about the birds and the bees is supposed to. Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet, and you can watch the other video (Buy One, Get One Free) here.

When tragedy strikes at such a large scale as with the assassination of Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and death of 20 others, it’s impossible to ignore its impact.

A colleague sent me the following quote by Ms. Bhutto that I did think readers of this blog would find interesting and worth passing along. “A Vegetarian diet keeps me fit in spite of the strains of office. All Muslims should take to Vegetarianism, or otherwise the livestock would not be found."

Over six years ago I wrote an op-ed for my college school paper titled “For peace’s sake, stop eating meat”. I might not agree with everything I wrote six years ago, but I still believe that there’s a strong relationship between the respect we give both our human and animal companions on this planet. Is it so hard to just be kind?

If Ms. Bhutto’s words do inspire you to explore vegetarianism here’s a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help you along the way.

- Joel

Trollsen Twin Update
Page Six reported earlier this week that Hairy-Kate and Trashley are “groveling at the non-leather shoes of PETA” in response to our Trollsen Twin campaign. According to one source,

"The Olsens want to make peace with PETA." Well Trollsens, I think we’ve made our demands clear. Stop supporting the cruel and frivolous torture of animals. Cut it out!

Hey Charities, Stop Testing on Animals. OK?
OK! magazine had an article in their January issue about how Sir Paul McCartney has been unable to honor the memory of his first wife Linda by giving money to some cancer charities because they support vivisection (that’s a big word for animal experimentation), which Linda was passionately against.

‘It became very difficult when Linda died because I said I would support cancer charities,’ said Sir Paul. ‘But then animal rights group wrote to me pointing out that many were heavily into vivisection.’

Check out HumaneSeal.org to see if charities you’re interested in supporting fund animal experimentation.

Jack Hanna—Expert on Tiger Attacks
By now everyone has heard about the tragic tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas. What you might not know is how you can help make sure a similar tragedy never happens again by urging the zoo to permanently close their tiger exhibit.

One bit of irony that a reader of this blog pointed out to me is how the media has been trotting out everyone’s favorite wildlife pimp Jack Hanna as an expert on exotic animals. But maybe that does make sense, after all Jack was involved in a similar incident in 1973 when a lion at his menagerie tore off the arm of a kid. Almost 35 years later and he still hasn’t stopped abusing animals...

Are you sexy?
Prove it.

- Joel

What was PETA up to in 2007? Watch this video to find out.

The video really captures how kick ass we all are. And by “we” I mean all of us who fight for animals. We pretty much rule.

File this one under “hilarious.”

PETA Asia-Pacific, which may or may not be comprised of drunken frat guys, had a clever demonstration planned in which inflatable sex dolls would assert the fact that “KFC Blows”. Unfortunately the dolls were confiscated by customs officials in the Philippines, who may or may not be lonely men.

PETA Asia-Pacific had planned to take the dolls on a tour of red-light districts, including Pat Pong in Bangkok, Kings Cross in Sydney, Kabukicho in Japan, and the Philippines' Angeles City. The dolls were confiscated by customs officials when they arrived in the Philippines via U.S.-based package carrier UPS en route to PETA Asia-Pacific's office in Makati.

"The blow-up dolls were a trouble-free prop because KFC also treats chickens like inanimate objects," says PETA Asia-Pacific Director Jason Baker. "KFC profits from using crude killing methods—the company has an international obligation to stop torturing the birds who end up dead in its buckets. We're calling on people worldwide to boycott KFC until the company implements minimal animal welfare standards."

Next maybe PETA Asia-Pacific will challenge KFC’s executives to Beirut to decide the fate of the 850 million chickens raised and killed for KFC.

I’m a fan of lists. I’m also a fan of Jack Shepherd (as in the guy who usually writes this blog not the doctor on Lost—though I like him too). Jack’s off enjoying the holidays with his family so I thought I’d use part of my time on the blog to spotlight some of Jack’s non-blog work at PETA. (Hopefully Jack will keep this in mind when he comes back and sees all the typos I left on “his blog.”)

Jack’s primary job duty other than writing The PETA Files is coordinating what we call “online viral projects”—projects that are funny, shocking, or emotional in some other way so much that when people see them they forward them on to their friends and the content spreads around the Internet through word of mouth.

My 10 Favorite Projects That Jack Masterminded

or

The Ten Projects that I’m Most Proud to Have Worked with Jack On

1. Super Chick Sisters
Super Chicks Sisters, a parody of Super Mario Bros. that highlights KFC’s abusive practices was Jack’s first mega-hit. We really made an impression on the gaming world—and Jack knows better than anyone that it’s a tough world to penetrate. Over a half a million people have played Super Chick Sisters on our web sites. Probably an equal amount of people have played it on other sites. Not bad!

2. Trollsen Twins: Full House of Horror Video

Jack Shepherd is Futureman.

Jack had to watch endless hours of Full House to be able to write the Full House of Horror script. Then he put his money where his mouth is and got naked for the project in true Terminator style. Really just seeing Jack walk down the Tanner’s kitchen stairs is why this project is my second favorite. It’s that simple.

3. Santa Got Run Over by His Reindeer
Jack not only wrote the lyrics but he sang the song as well. It’s the singing that gets it the high ranking. I love the whole animation because it highlights how we have a sense of humor about ourselves.

4. State of the Union Undress
Jack certainly has an interesting job! He’s paid to recruit his co-workers to shed their clothes for the Internet. Watch the video if you don’t know what I’m talking about. This makes the top 5 of my list of favorite projects because it’s a great example of how ballsy PETA is. We’re not afraid to be edgy and neither are the brave individuals who work for PETA who are willing to put themselves out there.

3. Trollsen Twins: Dress Up the Trollsens
This campaign, which is about how Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen should stop promoting and wearing fur, is so wonderful it’s on the list twice! We had been talking about doing a dress up dolls game for over a year before the Trollsens campaign came around and we knew we had a match.

6. KFC Cruelty Sign Generator
I love this project because it’s something KFC should have done themselves and probably would have if they had thought of it. Although their version would have educated far fewer people about cruelty to animals…

7. PETA’s Holiday Snow Globe E-card

Jack was the voice of Tiny Tim in a holiday e-card that didn't make the cut.

The sleeper hit of 2007. I was pretty psyched when I met up with a friend I hadn’t seen in years and he mentioned he saw this the other day. Not bad for a holiday e-card in a world that’s drowning in them.

8. The Fast Food Nation Game
This game, which we created to help promote the Fast Food Nation movie is truly addictive. When making this list I got sidetracked and had to play the game for 20 minutes. Actually every time someone so much as mentions it I have to play it through again. It has a power over me.

9. Burberry Chavs
Thank goodness Jack is British. Otherwise I don’t know how we would have pulled this one off. It’s a great project though because it’s funny even if you don’t know what a “chav” is. I’d explain what this project is but really you just have to experience it for yourself.

10. Pirates of the Carob Bean
I’m obsessed with choose your own adventure stories. In fact this project is almost like Jack’s present to me (Thank you, Jack!). The jokes were actually a bit too niche nerdy for this to be the hit we had hoped but I love it enough to make up for the rest of the world not knowing it exists.

Jack has done many voices for animations, including this one that's not on my list.

Jack of course would want me to mention that he doesn’t work on these projects alone. Our web folk (Karen, Reannon, Elizabeth O, Shawn, Hasan) are crucial, as are our AV dudes (Hey Jamie and Hayden, what’s up?). Then there are all the people who help with ideas, media, and well there are people all over the organization who’ve helped out. Just like all of PETA’s campaigns and projects these are a real team effort.

So if you haven’t already take some time to explore all of these web sites and send them along to your friends who might be open to animal rights but need a soft approach. These projects should warm them right up.

- Joel

Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia has been named PETA’s “Person of the Year.” Byrd has been recognized with the award for his passionate defense of animals throughout six decades of public service.

The senior senator, who was a meat cutter in his youth, has evolved into a tireless advocate for improving legal protection for animals, including animals who are slaughtered for food. The following are a few of Byrd's many efforts in behalf of animals:

When the Michael Vick scandal broke, Byrd made a stirring 24-minute speech on the senate floor condemning dogfighting as "barbaric."

In a hearing to determine how to prevent a reoccurrence of 2007's massive pet food recall that may have killed hundreds of cats and dogs, Byrd said, "Our pets are our companions, our soul mates, and our hedge against emotional turmoil."

In 2005, Byrd coauthored the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, which prohibits the transport, purchase, and sale of horses for human consumption. The bill was publicly supported by PETA ally and singer Willie Nelson. Byrd also introduced a bill that would prohibit the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses and burros.

In 2002, Byrd led an effort to convince the Senate Appropriations Committee to provide $5 million—a record amount—for improving enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act.

In 2001, Byrd gave a moving oration in defense of a bill addressing cruelty to farmed animals, saying, "Our inhumane treatment of livestock is becoming widespread and more and more barbaric. Six-hundred-pound hogs—they were pigs at one time—raised in 2-foot-wide metal cages called gestation crates, in which the poor beasts are unable to turn around or lie down in natural positions, and this way they live for months at a time. … These creatures feel; they know pain. They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain."

"Sen. Byrd is never shy about making his strong belief in the importance of animal protection heard," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Much animal suffering has been alleviated thanks to Sen. Byrd, and this year we are proud to honor him for giving a voice to the voiceless."

Thank you for all of your hard work for animals, Senator!

And to be clear, PETA does not support or oppose any candidate for public office or any political party.

- Joel

Natalie Portman has announced a new line of vegan shoes in conjunction with Te Casan. The shoes are available for pre-order on January 15 and 5% of profits will be going to charity. Natalie, of course, is a longtime vegetarian and has long made it clear that she only sports fashion that does not come from animals.

Unfortunately that’s all the info that has been released. Hopefully we’ll see prices and the actual products soon. As much as I don’t normally care about shoes, I’m actually pretty curious about these. Maybe it’s because I spent much of my high school and college years praying that Natalie and I would run off and get married. Or at least meet.

Natalie, if you’re reading this I just want you to know that I’m officially over you. I’m 100% committed to Kristen Bell now. I’m sorry to break it to you this way. The good news is that Jack is still interested. Maybe we can go on double-dates or something.

- Joel

I first put a version of this list together when a couple of my friends were moving away from Norfolk, Va. and it got me thinking about where I would eat my last meals in Norfolk if I were ever to move away (Don’t worry Ingrid, I never will!). So here’s a list of the 10 best meals Norfolk has to offer, voted on by a panel of me.

10. Machismo—Boca Burrito with all the veggies and vegan sour cream and vegan cheese. I think maybe machismo means “Home of the Monster Burrito” in Spanish.

9. Dragon City—Vegetable Dumplings as an appetizer followed by vegan General Tso's Chicken. It’s Chinese fast food just as you want it—greasily delicious!

8. Taco Bell—Two Crunch Wraps with beans substituting beef, no nacho cheese, no sour cream, add guacamole. Taco Bell is wonderfully delicious (that’s right, I said it), but I’m including it on my list because the employees there are so nice. Who would've thought it'd be the Taco Bell employees who would be the nicest?

7. Yorgo's Bageldashery—Chickette Sandwich on a Poppy Seed Bagel with a Toasted Sesame Seed Bagel with Vegan Cream Cheese. It shouldn't be special to have vegan cream cheese at a bagel shop, but it is, so kudos to Yorgo's.

6. Rajput—Vegetable Samosa as an appetizer (of course!) followed by some Palak Tofu as the main course. It's always been a dream of mine to write a book of reviews of samosas. I essentially never pass up the opportunity to order one. The owners of Rajput are super friendly, I love the copper cups, and I really love the Palak Tofu.

5. Kotobuki—Veggie Sushi and some fake meat dish (hmm… lets go with the teriyaki ham). Something about funky table and being forced to take off my shoes really makes me like it there. Plus I love courses – and when you get a salad, sushi, and a main dish you'll get plenty. And if you order enough sushi then it comes on a wooden boat (a boatload of sushi!)

4. Tap House—Chickette Sandwich. It's not just the food that makes me love Tap House, though I do like the newish chickette sandwich and their fries are delicious. I also give the Tap House points because it’s nice that Neil knows what I drink—though I guess water isn’t the most difficult order to remember…Oh, and while eating there put in some of quarters in the wonderful indie rock filled juke box and play some pool.

3. Bangkok Garden—Spring Rolls for an appetizer; Garlic Tofu for the main course. This one kinda goes without saying. Garlic Tofu is just such a staple I always feel like I should order something different but I have so much trouble bringing myself to.

2. Amalfi—Veggie pizza with faux chicken and soy cheese; Vegan Cheesecake for dessert. It's a little pricier than most of these other meals but amazingly delicious—'nuff said.

1. Bella's Pizzeria—Soy cheese pizza Bianca-style, with olives and broccoli. The soy cheese novelty/wonderfulness makes Bella an easy choice as my favorite. It's the one restaurant I really crave going to and conveniently it’s the restaurant closest to my home.

There’s a lot more great food in Norfolk, these are just my favorite meals. If you’ve visited Norfolk or live here, post your favorite meals that the area has to offer.

And if you’re on the fence about wanting to apply to work for PETA I hope this run down of some of the wonderful food in the area helps push you along the way.

- Joel

Several employees of Murphy Family Ventures, which owns pig-breeding farms that supply Smithfield Foods, the country's largest pork producer, were fired in response to PETA’s recent undercover investigation released less than two weeks ago. You can read more about this development in the investigation in a great piece by FoxNews.com.

A big “Thank You” is deserved for the thousands of people who contacted Smithfield to take action against the abusive employees. If you haven’t already, please write to Smithfield Foods to demand that Murphy Family Ventures work with PETA to enact meaningful animal welfare reforms.

This is a sample of cruelty documented by PETA’s undercover investigator that should convince you that welfare reforms are very much needed:

• Workers dragged injured pigs out of the facility by their snouts, ears, and legs before killing them with a captive-bolt gun. Some of the pigs had "KILL" spray-painted on their backs.


• A farm supervisor admitted that he violently beat pigs, saying of one that he "cut the sh** out of his God damn nose with a f***ing gate rod."


• Workers cut off piglets' tails and pulled out piglets' testicles—without using any pain relief—as the baby animals screamed in pain in front of mother pigs.


• Two workers and a supervisor hit and jabbed pigs—sometimes in their faces and near their ears—with 2-foot-long metal gate rods on 31 of the 41 days that PETA's investigator worked.


• A worker gouged the eyes of four pigs with his fingers. Pigs suffered from ailments including cysts, sores, and a uterine prolapse for which they were denied treatment.

- Joel

That’s right, folks—I am taking a week off to spend Christmas with my family in DC. I’ll be back, refreshed (hopefully) and ready to go after the New Year, but in the meantime my good friend Joel Bartlett will be manning the blog, so don’t be too concerned if the high intellectual standards we have set here on the PETA Files flag a little bit during the next week—it’s only a temporary state of affairs. Joel will doubtless be keeping you up-to-the-minute on his favorite TV shows and, like, what he ate for dinner the night before, so keep checking for the new entries, and try your hardest to hang on until I’m back again in January. Happy Holidays!

Joel Bartlett with Waffles

Joel Bartlett with Battleaxe

If you’ve been following this story over the past few days, you’ll know that Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery in South Carolina that runs an egg factory farm to cover its costs, has announced that it will be phasing out its egg production and switching to a new industry following a PETA investigation and subsequent pressure on the monks from our offices. And if you’ve been following my posts on the topic, you’ll know that a number of South Carolina residents who are familiar with the monastery have commented to say that they’re unhappy about this decision, claiming that it was unfair of us to go after the monks because they are decent men who do a lot of good in the community.

The way I see it, however, is that holy men—who should be setting an example for the people who look to them for guidance—need to be particularly accountable for cruel or unethical actions. While we have come to expect that CEOs of large corporations are going to be primarily concerned with their bottom line (and thus less immediately receptive to our concerns about their practices), in a case like this one—where good people have gone astray and are ignoring or failing to understand the fact that they are inflicting terrible suffering—it is all the more important that they be brought up short and asked to consider the damage they’re doing. Being a monk doesn’t mean that you should get off scott free when you’re caught doing something unethical—on the contrary, it means you should be held to a higher standard.

Anyone who has seen our investigation should know that the practices these monks were engaging in (such as confining chickens in cages so small that they had no room to move and denying sick animals veterinary care), as well as the practices that they were directly supporting (their suppliers slice off chicks’ beaks with a hot blade and grind up unwanted male chicks in a macerator), are cruel in the extreme, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s all you really need to know about this case. This factory farm needed to be shut down whether it was run by money-grubbing fat cats or honorable but misguided holy men. Fortunately for us, and for the chickens, it was the latter.

For a more eloquent statement of these ideas, you can read the letter that PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich wrote to the Abbey when this investigation first broke here.

Now I know why my friends Allie and Virginia came into the office this morning a slightly different color than normal (respectively, a sort of off-yellow and a nice olive green). Pics from this beautiful demonstration in Times Square have been circulating around the ol' blogosphere today—the girls were outside the M&Ms World store to let passersby know that Mars Candy performs cruel tests on animals. In violation of its own written policy, the candy company is currently funding a study at UC San Francisco in which rats are force-fed by having plastic tubes shoved down their throats, then cut open and killed. In addition to our boycott of the company, PETA is filing a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Mars' false statement.

Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff for now. Check out the great pics below, and if you feel like helping out with our campaign, I’ve also posted the code for our anti-Mars Web banner for anyone who wants to put it on their site. You can learn more about the campaign here.

<a href="http://www.marscandykills.com"><img border="0" alt="xmas_mnm.gif" src="http://blog.peta.org/archives/xmas_mnm.gif" width="405" height="105" /></a>

Blogs that have covered this story

Faded Youth
Celebrity Mound
All that’s Fab
Jonathan Jaxson

And, of course, Deflocked. Check it:

Click for a larger version

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

We've just heard the news that the monks at Mepkin Abbey have decided to phase out their egg-production business over the next year and a half following pressure from PETA, including protests of the monastery that are going on today. According to the Associated Press, Mepkin's Father Stan Gumula said late last night that the focus on the monks' practices as a result of PETA's investigation has been too much of a distraction, and that they will be looking for a new industry to help meet their expenses.

PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich points out that South Carolina had the 6th highest peanut production among U.S. states last year (quite how he knows such things, I have no idea), and recommends that the monks go into the booming business of peanut butter packaging, where they can pack the peanuts as tight as they like without any fear of our getting on their case about it. In fact, we might be their first customers. My own vote is more traditional—there's nothing quite like a good Trappist Ale.

Whatever they end up deciding, this is nothing short of a Christmas miracle for the chickens who have suffered for so long at Mepkin Abbey, and we commend the monks for their compassionate decision.

Other viewing options

The ASPCA was founded in 1866 because of overworked horses in New York City. You have to figure that if the ASPCA’s founder, Henry Bergh, were alive today, he would have made damn sure that his group took some enforcement action last weekend, when New York was hit by a major storm that brought bitterly cold temperatures to the city and filled the streets with ice. But the ASPCA of today seems to have pretty much forgotten the city’s horses.

Donny Moss, an enthusiastic young New Yorker who has just made a documentary (Blinders) about the shady, cruel carriage-horse business, was out on the streets last weekend, taking photos and documenting the miserable conditions that the animals were forced to suffer through while their handlers wrapped themselves tight against the biting cold. Have a look at his photos and compare his descriptions to the ASPCA chief’s statement: "Our agent ... does not agree with Donny's opinion of the conditions." Was their agent in the Bahamas, or was he just not looking out the window at the time?

Please take a moment to let Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn know that you would like them to support the proposed ban on the carriage horse trade, a sleazy cash business that sends the horses to the glue factory after they’ve slipped on the ice, collided with motorized vehicles, collapsed from the blazing heat of summer, or, in one case last year, endured a public beating. This cruel business needs to stop now, whether the “A” (which gets an “F” on this one) chooses to do something about it or not.

Donny Moss reports that the water troughs were kept empty except for unbroken ice for the horses, despite their being worked hard to maximize tourist dollars and trips.

The drivers were wearing face masks, hats, hoods, knee blankets, etc., because of the cold. The horses trudged on with no protection, no water, no concern whatsoever

Tomorrow afternoon, PETA members will be demonstrating against the horrific cruelty involved in factory-farm egg production at, of all places, a Trappist Monastery. The perpetrators in question are a group of supposedly peace-loving monks who run an operation at Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina that crams 20,000 chickens into tiny wire “battery cages” so small that they barely have room to move. Although Mepkin’s monks don’t grind the male chicks up in macerators themselves—egg farms don’t have any need for male chicks, for obvious reasons—their suppliers do, and this little deal with the devil doesn’t reflect particularly well on them either. In the spirit of Christmas (which is getting ominously close), now’s a really good time for these monks to think about a new way of participating in what they call "the caring cultivation of the Earth and its creatures" that doesn’t involve torturing defenseless animals. I’ll post pictures of the demonstration tomorrow—the protestors will be stationed outside the stores in Charleston and Columbia that sell Mepkin’s eggs—but in the meantime, you can watch footage from our investigation into Mepkin Abbey below.

Other Viewing Options

Zac Posen is a New York fashion designer who still uses fur in his designs, which—pathetic as that is—wouldn’t be worth mentioning right now if it weren’t for the fact that, by a delightful twist of fate, PETA’s New York office has the same phone number that Zac’s mom used to have. Which leads to some pretty amusing conversations.

I got a kick out of that when my friend Michael (who works out of our New York office) told me the story, and I guess The New York Daily News did too, when he told them. You can read their coverage here. Priceless.

A little while back, I wrote about a photo that was leaked from the upcoming Sex and the City movie in which Kim Cattrall’s character, Samantha, gets red paint all over her fur coat—you can’t see the perpetrators of this act in the photo, but they’re presumably a group of angry animal lovers (or possibly a consortium of careless house painters). Well, here’s a little bit more of the inside scoop on that whole situation: Although Kim Cattrall used to wear fur herself, she had a change of heart when she learned how they make the stuff, and she feels very strongly about not appearing to endorse real fur. As soon as they’ve wrapped up work on the new film, she’s made arrangements to ship the coats used for the movie to PETA for us to use in our program to donate discarded furs to the homeless.

Thanks, Kim—we appreciate it. And good luck with the rest of the shoot.

Following a PETA action alert and protests targeting the company, which resulted in thousands of emails to Petsmart Corporate over the last three months, Petsmart has announced that they will no longer sell rabbits in their stores! “At this time,” writes Petsmart (using perhaps my least favorite prepositional phrase ever), “we’re not expanding the test and will not continue to sell dwarf bunnies beyond those already in or planned for our stores.” Given the thousands of rabbits who are abandoned to die in shelters every year, this is big news for bunnies—and for those who care about their well-being.

This doesn’t mean the end of our campaign against Petsmart, which continues to sell other animals like hamsters, rats, fish, lizards, and birds—who are just as prone to suffering at the company’s hands—but it’s an important sign that direct pressure on the company from consumers will make them listen. Petsmart claims that this was purely a business decision (“we failed to meet the business objectives”), which means that we need to continue to go after their bottom line by boyc