PETA was at work as soon as Gustav raised its first serious head above the clouds, trying to prevent another monumental tragedy for animals. More than a week before Hurricane Gustav's anticipated landfall, PETA sent Gulf Coast media markets our preparedness tips, reaching local residents with the lifesaving message that the calm before the storm is when they must safeguard their animals and offering instructions for evacuation. PETA's emergency team of volunteers is primed, and we await further developments.

On Saturday, Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain announced that more than 160 trucks have been outfitted with pet crates to handle the evacuation and that companion animal shelters for animal guardians with "critical transportation needs" are ready for service during the Hurricane Gustav evacuation, saying, "We are taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of Louisiana's pets."

Read the Full Update for People With Animals in Hurricane Gustav's Path Below

Residents who don't have transportation must immediately call their local parish office of emergency preparedness to arrange transportation to the animal-friendly shelters. Animals can come, too, but they must be in a carrier, with at least a three-day supply of food and other supplies packed and ready to go. If an animal weighs less than 15 lbs., he or she will be allowed to ride on the human transport bus. If he or she weighs more than 15 lbs., separate animal transport trucks will take him or her to the animal shelter. Residents: You are still responsible for your animals' care during their stay at these shelters, so please be prepared with supplies, animal identification, and sturdy carriers or leashes. (Please read PETA's disaster preparedness checklist, and be sure to visit animals as often as possible to provide food, water, and comfort.) Shelter locations may change because of weather, so please have your local parish office of emergency preparedness telephone number with you at all times! Parish pick-up points for transportation to the CTN pet shelters are expected to close as storm conditions become unsafe.

People who have transportation are encouraged to evacuate to pet-friendly hotels for the duration of the evacuation. Lists of these hotels can be found at www.petswelcome.com and www.tripswithpets.com. Many hotels will relax their usual animal policy in an emergency, so call ahead and ask if your animals can come along.

Citizens who are evacuating on their own and who may need sheltering assistance are urged to stop at shelter-information points along the evacuation route to receive a reservation for the nearest shelter with openings. Those shelters will open as mass-scale evacuations begin. Shelter-information points are located at:
• Tourist Welcome Center, U.S. 65 & 84, 1401 Carter St., Vidalia
• Tourist Welcome Center, 836 I-20 W., Tallulah
• Sammy's Truck Stop, I-49, Exit 53, 3601 La. 115 W., Bunkie
• Med Express Office, 7525 U.S. 71, Alexandria
• LSU-Shreveport, P.E. Gym, 1 University Pl., Shreveport
• Pickering High School, 180 Lebleu Rd., Leesville
• Tourist Information Center, 8904 U.S. 165, Oberlin

The Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales and Parker Coliseum on LSU's Baton Rouge campus—which were used during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina—will not be used as shelters during the Gustav evacuation.

Evacuees with large animals should contact their local LSU AgCenter county agent for information on what accommodations can be made for horses and livestock. The Agriculture Department office is open 24 hours a day to advise residents on pet and livestock issues. The phone number is 225-922-1234 or 1-800-558-9741.

Evacuation guides for residents can be downloaded here.

Mississippi residents: The Humane Society of Southern Mississippi is operating a pet shelter on the grounds of the Harrison Central High School (the school building itself will be a shelter for humans). Evacuees should follow signs leading to the pet shelter when they arrive at the school. The shelter will open at 6 p.m. on August 31.

For Mississippi residents without transportation, Gulf Transit will provide rides on school buses that will take people to the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, where they will be fed and cared for by MEMA until it is safe to return to the coast. Each person will be allowed to take only two bags. Small pets will be allowed but must be in a pet carrier and will count as one of the two bags. Pets will be taken to the Pet Shelter in Jackson. Owners must accompany their pets and be responsible for them at all times. Eligible pets include dogs, cats, birds, and pocket pets, with the exception of lizards and snakes. There will be no exceptions to these rules. The buses will be picking up people at the following locations:

Biloxi
• Biloxi Jr. High School, Irish Hill Parking Lot
• Biloxi High School, Football Stadium on Richard Drive
• Yankie Stadium on Lee Street
D'Iberville
• D'Iberville High School on Warrior Drive
Gulfport
• Milner Stadium on 38th Avenue
• Good Deeds Center on Madison Avenue
Long Beach
• West Harrison County Community Center on Espy Avenue
Harrison County
• Lizana Elementary School on Lizana School Road
• Saucier Elementary School on First Street
• Harrison Central Elementary on Dedeaux Road

virginmedia / CC

Gervais, whom you probably know as the star of Extras and the original version of The Office, has written a letter to U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to replace the bear fur on the Queen's Guards' caps with a cruelty-free material. In his letter, he points out that it takes the entire hide of a bear to make one hat—and that’s nothing to “have a laugh” about!

Oh, maybe you should just read the lovely man's lovely letter, before I manage to work in "Freelove Freeway" or Sir Ian McKellen's "wizard, you shall not pass" bit.

Click the letter to enlarge

Posted by Amanda Schinke

plong / CC

Well, we're sick of DMX … again—and all the other celebrities who think power, money, or fame will get them off the hook for mistreating animals.

We have written a letter to Andrew P. Thomas, the judge overseeing Simmons' charges stemming from a 2007 police raid of the rapper's property north of Phoenix, where 12 pit bulls were reportedly found neglected, malnourished, and messed up. We're asking that Thomas—if Simmons is convicted of these charges—impose a sentence that forbids Simmons from owning or harboring any animals for as long as possible, that imposes a truly meaningful period of incarceration, and that requires him to undergo a thorough psychological evaluation followed by mandatory counseling at his own expense.

In one particularly cruel situation, police apparently found puppies who had been left in their cages so long that they needed to be cut out of them.

DMX has an extensive criminal past—including a similar raid that took place at his home in New Jersey in 2002 (during which police found 13 pit bulls on his property) as well as an arrest for illegal drug possession. People who abuse animals often go on to abuse or even kill humans. Remember Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Rader (aka "BTK Killer"), who abused and killed animals for practice prior to killing humans?

You can read our full letter here:

Click the letter to enlarge

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

So today's a fairly slow news day (ya know, Labor Day weekend and all), but we wanted to be absolutely sure you all were fully prepped for your long weekends of not being at work! To give yourself one of those warm, fuzzy feelings, we thought we'd take a new direction with our videos and show you some cute videos for a change (instead of our typical videos that, ya know, make you think).

Enjoy!

Posted by Christine Doré

We've all heard the old saying "A picture is worth 1,000 words." But a picture of a zany, street-theater style demonstration is worth a zillion words (don't worry, I verified that figure on Wikipedia). PETA members, staff, interns, and activists have been hard at work as always, and I've collected a few snapshots of our peeps "takin' it to the streets." Seeing as how I'm pressed for time, I can't crank out the zillion words each of these photos deserves, but hopefully you'll be happy with the next 100 or so. Enjoy!

Here's PETA Senior VP Dan Mathews as one of our "Tax Meat" pigs at the Democratic National Convention this year. The officer next to him seems to be taking aim at a potential threat to public safety.

Outside the Smithfield shareholder meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, we did a very eye-catching slaughter demo. No fake blood was used here—the "turkey" got a nosebleed from hanging upside-down for too long.

PETA India is turning heads and slowly (but surely!) bringing back full-body one-piece bathing suits.

Because of a last-minute cancelation by Tony the Tiger, we had to settle for a beautiful naked woman to help with our recent Seattle demonstration against Ringling.

Posted by Sean Conner

Whoever said having just one hamburger can't kill you obviously never considered the danger of microscopic spores—you know, those barely visible foreign pollutants that are all over animal products, even when cooked.

The latest attack of the killer meat has already killed at least six people in Ontario and has been blamed for two more illnesses. The culprit? Listeria bacteria, which apparently originated in meat products from a plant in Toronto … which just happens to be Canada's largest meatpacker.

With the total number of known cases at 29—for now—and investigators looking into another nine deaths possibly caused by contraction of listeriosis, it's understandable that eating meat is scary business. But recalling more than 220 meat products will not protect meat-eaters from contracting illnesses related to animal products.

That's where we come in. Intending to roll out our brand-new "Eat Meat and Die" ad in Toronto, we want Canadians to know that you can go veg and live! The choice is simple—really. It's senseless to put your body at risk over a hamburger or a bite of chicken thigh when you can have a veggie burger or a vegetarian "chicken" sandwich (sold in most KFCs in Canada) and avoid spending the night in the bathroom with stomach cramps—or worse, death. Check out our killer ad:

Repeat after me: Listeria, E. coli, campylobacter … if you can't pronounce it, it's probably not good for you. If you have meat in your fridge, the safest way to avoid contamination is to throw the whole fridge away with the meat still in it. We deserve a Nobel Prize or something. Really.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

americanelephant / CC

A few weeks ago, we told you about an awful thing that happened on a new TV show called Greatest American Dog. It featured a sweet border collie named Leroy who was tormented by his trainer during a photo shoot so that he would look "angry." 'Cuz, you know, that's what quality entertainment is all about, right?

Well, unlike dogs, some people never learn. Wednesday night's episode featured a live elephant. Why elephants on a show called Greatest American Dog, you ask? They used the elephants to try to terrify the dogs. Since, apparently, the only thing more fun than getting dogs angry is to scare the hell out of them. Ugh!

Of course, it's not exactly a party for the elephants either. They're smart and dignified, and they don't like to perform stupid tricks for our amusement. So instead of using treats to train elephants, trainers strike and gouge them with bullhooks—long, heavy rods with a steel point and a sharp hook at one end that resembles a fireplace poker—or shock them with electric prods. To see for yourself how elephants are trained, watch this.

Most elephants who are forced to perform were snatched away from their families and natural habitat in the wild, after which their lives are mostly made up of chains and intimidation. Baby elephants born on breeding farms are torn from their mothers, tied with ropes, and kept in isolation until they learn to fear their trainers.

Clearly the producers of Greatest American Dog know as little about elephants as they do about canines.

If you want to send an e-mail to the show's producer, R.J. Cutler, about this issue, please click here.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

From the category of "When Animals Fight Back!" comes a news story from Venezuela: A 29-year-old student zookeeper was strangled by a 10-foot python. It seems that the intern was working the nightshift and decided to mess around with the snake, who then bit him, suffocated him, and tried to eat him—a sensible interaction if you are a python.

i190 / CC

And what's more, the python was just doing what pythons do, on instinct. He saw prey, so he went into his strangle-and-swallow routine. You can't possibly tell me that humans have a slaughter-and-make-into-purses instinct, can you? The python got beaten by the way, unlike Jessica Simpson, whom we just make fun of.

Let me hypothesize here. Maybe, just maybe, people are so fascinated by this kind of news story because they feel guilty for all the human-on-animal atrocities, and when something like this happens … well, maybe it's a sign that sometimes the tables are turned, and it scares us.

Do you get what we mean now when we say that "payback is hell"?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Nice one!

Click for a larger version

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

San Diego recently got a special treat—in the form of three fishy PETA activists. The three ladies, wearing silver body-paint and little else, posed under a net just blocks away from the harbor. Their message: "Scale Back Cruelty: Stop Fishing."

Our activists could breathe as they lay under a net in the hot sun, but fish aren't so lucky. Fish caught in commercial gill nets suffocate or slowly freeze to death as they are tossed alive into large freezers. One fact that most people might not know is that fish are equal to dogs, cats, and all other animals in their capacity to feel pain. Plus, there have been more than 500 research papers on fish intelligence, proving that fish are smart, that they can use tools, and that they have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures.

Our fish ladies got a lot of attention in San Diego—and hopefully, a lot of people will think twice before their next fish fry. Check out pics of their great demo:

Posted by Amanda Schinke

If I were to say "Hari Puttar," what is the first thing that would come to mind? If you said "Harry Potter," you'd be wrong, according to Mumbai-based studio, Mirchi Movies. They pinky-promise that their film Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors bears no similarity or links to the popular Harry Potter book series/films/franchise/cult-like-following. Apparently, Warner Bros. Pictures thinks anything sounding like Harry Potter is their turf and their turf alone and has filed a lawsuit against Mirchi to protect their "intellectual property."

With all this insanity over a movie title, we'd like to draw attention to a more meaningful issue, like … I dunno … skinning animals and wearing portions of their remains as ridiculous clothing. Call me crazy, but this seems a bit more pressing. In my willingness to compromise, please allow me to call our fur ad series "Hairy PETA!" Enjoy and pass along, please—for wide distribution—PETA's "Hairy PETA" series!

Have a favorite among the action-packed Hairy PETA films? Leave a comment to let me know which one you like best!

Posted by Sean Conner

Anjelica Huston has decades of experience on the set, tracing back to watching her father, John, filming during her childhood. Given her experiences with animals on the set, we were excited when she sat down with us to discuss the abuses endured by great apes used in film, television, and advertising.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors have documented that chimpanzees and orangutans were denied even minimal "environmental enrichment" and veterinary care in times of illness. And undercover investigations have shown that trainers beat and scream at great apes in order to force them to perform dumb, confusing tricks, take after take, under the burning arc lights.

Chimpanzees can live to be 60 years old and orangutans can live to be 50, but they grow too strong to be handled around age 8. That's when, useless to the industry, most are dumped in roadside hellholes, where they can live in barren cages, languishing amid their own waste or sold for use in experiments. There is no Hollywood actors' retirement home for them. You can see Anjelica's video about this business here:

Anjelica also spoke with us after the filming of the video, telling us how she grew so passionate about this issue, and why the abuse of great apes will never happen on her set:

I think without question that [when] one forcibly takes small simians, small apes away from their parents at [a young] age … and manipulating them into some sort of fake response for the amusement of humans or indeed human children—it's a very bad ethic. … I remember seeing this terribly sad, lonely elephant in Bath, England, at the zoo in the pouring rain with nothing but a football for companionship, and thinking, "No child on Earth would want to see that. No child on Earth who understands the predicament of this animal could possibly approve it."

Check out the b-roll from the video shoot here:

Thanks, Anjelica, from us and from them!

Posted by Sean Conner

directnews / CC

This alternative is an injection that smoothes out the animals' skin (when it's all full of folds, maggots can hatch and eat the sheep alive). The injection is not perfect—the animals are still stressed out from being handled—but it seems relatively painless, which is a huge step forward in embracing the concept that less pain doesn't equal no pain).

We won't break out the champagne yet. In 2004, AWI agreed to end mulesing by 2010, but they've been dragging their heels disgracefully. Then they developed a different (but still very painful) type of skin-removal technique called "clip mulesing," in which big clips are clamped onto lambs' bottoms so tightly that the flesh dies and falls off, and called it "humane." Rotting, dying skin. Ewe.

So we raised a ruckus in the clothing retail industry, causing companies like H&M, Perry Ellis, and Adidas to reject all wool from mulesed lambs (including those mulesed using the hideous clips).

The injection, however, just might be a most-welcome forward movement for all those Aussie lambs.

Posted by Matt Prescott

images-amazon / CC

It just goes to show that you have NO idea how long you've got. And to keep the cheery theme alive, consider all the people who have become paralyzed by falling off their mountain bikes, etc.

You can't lock yourself in your room, and even if you did, you could be hit by a chunk of toilet ice falling out of a plane and through your roof, struck by lightening as you took a shower, or … well, you get it. Life is fleeting. In fact, that's been a theme of mine for a while. In Making Kind Choices, I wrote about how amazing it would be to have a wristwatch that would tell you not what time it is now but how much time you had left so that you could know what's important to cram in. You'd look at it and see "40 days, 3 hours, and 2 minutes," and you'd think, "OMG! Better get a move on!"

So ask yourself: Are you putting off asking that special person for a date, telling your friend you are sorry for some remark that ended your friendship, or, most importantly … buying vegan groceries? Wouldn't you rather die than have your last meal on Earth cause animals fear, pain, and death?

Oh, and Dave Freeman took this stuff seriously (yes, he didn't fully "get it," seeing as how he went to Pamplona and ran with—shouldn't that be "against"?—the bulls), so he had made a will. Now some of his leftovers, including some useful money, will go to a children's charity. Good for him! Please follow his lead and put a charity—may I suggest PETA?—in your will, too, or else the state rather than animals will benefit from your death (and you know they'll only use the money to buy something stupid).

Posted by Ingrid Newkirk

Now that the Olympics are over, it's impossible to turn on the TV or open the newspaper without seeing something about the Democratic National Convention. What's going to happen, what's going to be said, who's going to be there …

Well, we'll tell you who's there—the PETA pigs, that's who!

Our pigs don't have anything to say about any of the candidates, of course—they're tackling a global issue: meat!

The pigs—who are circling around the convention center and picking up passengers in their cherry red convertible—are calling for a federal excise tax on meat. (Look out for them next week as they cruise around the Republican National Convention!) Why? Well, there's a "sin" tax on cigarettes, alcohol, and gasoline. Why shouldn't there be one on meat, which is bad for both your health and the environment?

Our Senior VP Dan Mathews (who, as we know, is fond of wearing costumes) is among the protesters. He sums up the reason our pigs are calling for a 10-cents-per-pound tax: "The impact of the meat trade is as devastating to our health as the tobacco and alcohol industries put together—and even more so to the environment. Slapping a tax on meat would save countless lives—and not just those of animals."

Check out our pigs below—and if you're concerned about the health and environmental consequences of eating meat, check out GoVeg.com for a free copy of PETA's "Vegetarian Starter Kit"!

Posted by Amanda Schinke

OK, ever since we mentioned our proposal to take over a SeaWorld and turn it into a virtual-reality marine-mammal theme park, some people have been a bit, well, skeptical.

Obviously, these folks aren't familiar with PETA and our unique blend of determination and outside-the-box thinking. Long story short: Never say "never" to PETA people (and that includes our wonderful members and supporters).

Robotic dinosaurs from “Walking With Dinosaurs”
vertpaleo / CC

Unlike the animals currently trapped at SeaWorld, these robotic Barneys voluntarily put on an amazing 90-minute show. Machines don't get bored and anxious between performances or miss their "natural" environment, but marine mammals—who would naturally swim hundreds of miles per day, eat a diverse diet, and form complex relationships—spend their lives swimming in listless, lonely circles.

If they can already do all that with fake dinosaurs, then our SeaWorld overhaul should be a piece of cake (or maybe a cupcake), right? Like one of those aquarium screensavers—and if you're jonesing for an aquarium, that's the way to go—taken to the extreme. It's win-win: The animals are free to do their thing, and you don't go home smelling like chlorine.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

People of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, races, and religions have discovered that vegetarian food tastes delicious and is good for our bodies, the environment, animals, and … yes, our souls!

Take South Los Angeles, for instance—not exactly the veggie mecca of the world. But this inner-city community heavily populated by African-Americans has seen a rise in the number of black-owned and -operated vegetarian restaurants. Owners say that the threat of obesity and other diet-linked health ailments is motivating local black residents to search for healthy options and alternatives to animal products. Restaurants like Vegan Village Café, Stuff I Eat, and Rahel's are catering to the growing interest in plant-based food.

It still might be a while before vegetarianism takes over the world, but the addition of so many new vegetarian restaurants is definitely helping! And stars like Russell Simmons, Erykah Badu, and PETA's "Sexiest Vegetarian" winner Kevin Eubanks are urging African-Americans and everyone else to choose a cruelty-free, healthy meal that won't harm the body or any other living creature.

In fact, many African-American celebrities have recently teamed up with PETA to combat the fast-food industry's attack on African-Americans. Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker, basketball legend John Salley, civil rights leader The Rev. Al Sharpton, and many more are part of this important movement. Check it out here, and watch John Salley's vegetarian testimonial below:

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

vannattabros / CC

Are they drinking from their lab-bench pipettes again? I mean, don't you always think of dogs as exemplifying the finest attributes we look for in humans? Loyalty, love, and—of course—fairness … aren't these qualities we can all learn from dogs? With all the human injustices—the wars, rapes, pillaging, cutting other people off in traffic, etc.—it seems a bit grandiose to claim that dogs learned their sense of fairness from us.

Consider this news story from Argentina: A 14-year-old girl abandoned her newborn baby outdoors, in winter, in the middle of the night. When the baby was found, she was being kept safe and warm—not by the human being who left her to die or by any other human but by a dog.

The dog, China, was keeping the baby girl safe among her own puppies and, perhaps seeing that she was weirdly hairless, had even covered her with a rag! Authorities theorize that China found the baby outdoors and carried her back inside. If not for China, the baby would have died unprotected against the cold outside.

So let me get this straight—who should learn from whom here?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

wannaveg / CC

I guess we can sleep well knowing that if a soldier loses his tail during a raid, some well-trained fellow soldiers, thanks to this training, may be able to reattach the necessary posterior appendage.

Given the U.S. Army's apparent outright disregard for their own regulations and the treatment of these animals, PETA is now asking commanding officers at bases in Hawaii and Texas—where a more recent training exercise included breaking and amputating the legs of nearly 1,000 goats with tree trimmers—for a court martial over the shooting, mutilating, and killing of animals during these old-fashioned training exercises.

According to the Army's own regulations, the Army is required to use alternatives to animals in training exercises when scientifically valid and comparable alternatives exist. And they do! The animal exercise should have been replaced with validated, state-of-the-art simulators, such as the Department of Defense's own Combat Trauma Patient Simulator, which more realistically simulates battlefield conditions and, consequently, is considered superior to outdated animal methods. Other viable alternatives include Dr. Emad Aboud's "living" cadaver perfusion model, Simulab Corporation's TraumaMan system, and establishing military level one trauma centers in nearby communities in order to have trainees work with the community to take care of their city's population.

Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department, says, "The Army has regulations in place specifically to prevent this kind of cruelty to animals, but the oversight committee apparently chose to ignore them. Our soldiers deserve to be trained using the most advanced technology available—that means using human simulators."

The U.S. Army does not train soldiers to race into battle zones to retrieve injured pigs, goats, or dogs. That would be great, but let's face it: It's not the government's main agenda. Time, money, and resources could be far better spent.

You can take action on this issue here.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Some blogs are just too cool for a cohesive theme. Internet Soup is a perfect example of that. Here are all the bits and pieces we've been meaning to share with you. Without further ado, here's your steaming serving of interweb goodness!

1. Do rising gas prices bother you? Do women who insist on wearing more than bikinis bother you? Finally, we cooked up an eye-catching, pro-vegetarian demonstration to address these pressing concerns.


2. I'm wondering if we should start an "Animal Control Gone Horribly Wrong" series. Installment two could be about a man who tried to spray his apartment for bugs but somehow managed to blow it up instead. Now all we need is someone to tase himself or herself while trying to apply a homemade shock collar to a dog.


3. This horseback riding simulator seems like a pretty cute idea, but even my not-quite-heterosexual self would prefer to go see girls on the mechanical bull in a downtown bar.


4. On the other side of the world (from me, anyway), PETA Asia-Pacific is taking on Burberry, with bronze-, silver-, and gold-painted animal champions telling passersby about where Burberry stands on fur.


5. Apparently even the folks at The New Yorker sympathize a bit with the lobster liberation movement. If only real lobsters were so lucky …


6. What happens when a non-native fish species gets transported, dumped in foreign waters, and thrives? Native populations are devastated and the local ecosystem lurches out of control—just like how lionfish are wreaking havoc on the East Coast.


7. Last, but certainly not least, we now have the coolest pop-culture icon ever on board with our KFC campaign. Who better to tell the Colonel what's what than the "master" of compassionate reflection, The Zen Master?

While you folks digest all that, I'll be getting back to checking humor blogs work and probably researching how I can easily identify/avoid lionfish, which have now officially displaced zombies as my number one perceived infestation threat.

Posted by Sean Conner

visitsthelens / CC

That's right—four horses forced to compete in the Olympics have tested positive, and have subsequently been banned, for the drug capsaicin.