glaucus / CC

In a perfect world, lobsters and crabs would be able to do their deep sea thing without being preyed upon by humans hell-bent on turning sea life into seafood. Unfortunately, we live in a woefully imperfect world in which crustaceans are routinely boiled alive or cut open while they are still conscious. That's why we're hoping that the Crustastun will catch on.

A less cruel method of slaughter, the Crustastun uses a low-voltage current to instantly render crustaceans unconscious and to kill them within five to 10 seconds. I don't think that I need to tell you what a huge improvement this is over the three minutes of pure agony that lobsters suffer though when they are cooked alive!

Thrown into scalding-hot water, lobsters and crabs will fight so hard against a clearly painful death that their claws often break off in their struggle to escape. Lobsters are unique and fascinating animals who are not that different from humans. Like us, they carry their young for nine months and have a long childhood. Using complicated signals to explore their surroundings, they establish social relationships, take long-distance seasonal vacations, and can live to be more than 100 years old. Also like us, they experience fear and pain.

According to invertebrate zoologist and crustacean expert Dr. Jaren G. Horsley, lobsters have a "sophisticated nervous system" and feel "a great deal of pain" when cut or cooked alive. And because lobsters do not enter a state of shock when they are injured, a lobster feels every moment of his or her slow, painful death. Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, a professor of veterinary surgery, states that it "would be inappropriate to do something to lobsters that you would not consider doing to conscious dogs, cats, or humans."

Which brings me back to the Crustastun. Knowing that this method will spare our crustacean comrades untold agony, we recently reached out to Tucson's Child & Family Resources concerning its upcoming annual lobster dinner fundraiser. Last year, another organization reached out to the event's organizers and tried to get them to dump the lobsters from their menu. The organizers refused, but this year we convinced them to allow to us to provide them with a Crustastun to use. The inventors of the Crustastun will be on hand to train the staff in how to use the device, which is easy to operate and guarantees the lobster a quick and painless death. And while we don't condone this event and we hope that the organization's future fundraisers will not include harming animals, we're glad that we can at least help reduce the suffering of these lobsters.

After all, it's about making a positive difference in an imperfect world …

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

flickr / CC

Many of you have been writing to and calling the University of California–Irvine to demand that it stop using animals in horrible classroom experiments, and your efforts have paid off. The university has just announced that it's ending deadly procedures using rats and replacing them with sophisticated computer simulations.

In the cruel neuroscience experiments conducted at the university, undergrads were drilling holes into rats' skulls, damaging their brains with chemicals, and forcing them to perform in behavioral experiments to assess the brain damage they inflicted. Then the rats were killed. Following a complaint filed by PETA that included suggestions for non-animal alternatives, as well as thousands of e-mails, letters, and phone calls from our supporters, UC–Irvine conducted a review of the experiment and decided that modern, effective non-animal methods will now be used instead of animals.

Because of this victory, as many as 200 rats will be saved from suffering each year.

This is great news, but animals are still suffering in other labs, so it's no time to rest on our laurels.

Case in point: At Arizona State University (ASU), baby rats are killed in classroom experiments in which students remove the animals' small intestines and uteruses. In other experiments, frogs' brains are destroyed when pins are stuck through their skulls, and rabbits have holes cut into their chests and are injected with various drugs before being killed.

Please take a moment to contact ASU and urge the school to follow the example of UC–Irvine by putting an end to the use of animals in classroom laboratories once and for all.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Yesterday, PETA's "Soy Cream" Ladies were willing to brave the 107-degree Arizona high-noon heat in order to bring delicious—and cruelty-free—frozen desserts to the citizens of Tucson. Not a single person who ventured past these lovely ladies was able to resist a free Tofutti Cutie or a sexy smile. The PETA gals gave away 200 of the frozen treats and even more leaflets explaining why dairy-free is always the way to go.

I can't tell you how much I love these retro-inspired "Soy Cream" Lady outfits! Where can I get one?

"Which do I love more—my skateboard or Tofutti Cuties?" Don't worry, friend. You can have both!

Speaking of cuties—cow's milk is the number-one source of allergies in children, so Tofutti Cuties are not only delicious but much healthier than dairy products.

And remember: If it's iced coffee weather, it's absolutely Tofutti Cutie weather.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

forestwildlife / CC

Murder is frightening business, but it is even more chilling perhaps when the crime is allegedly committed by a child who is not even old enough to grasp the consequences of the deed. Vincent Romero and Timothy Romans of Arizona were reportedly killed by Romero's 8-year-old son using a rifle much like the one that Romero had used to teach his son to hunt other living beings.

In a time like this, the community should take action. No child should be encouraged to be callous by being taught to kill, nor should children be instructed in the use of firearms, which enable them to wound, maim, and destroy. We have written to Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona asking her to ban children under the age of 18 from hunting. It makes them insensitive, damages the ecosystem, and causes the clear danger of familiarizing a child with gun use.

Though some firearms advocates protest that it is fine for a well-instructed child to wield a deadly weapon for the purpose of killing birds and deer, for instance, that is not the case. All school shooters had previously hunted and used guns. The FBI has found through interviews that 36 percent of murderers had tortured or killed animals before killing humans, and 46 percent had done so in adolescence.

We are asking Gov. Napolitano and the community to avoid "sticking to their guns," and to take this tragedy as a wake-up call. We can keep adults and children safe and healthy by not teaching kids to take "taking a life" lightly. You can read our letter to the Gov. Napolitano here.

Posted by Sean Conner