nypost / CC

"MCA, where have you been?"

It turns out that the (not so shocking) answer is a Tibetan community.

In July, Beastie Boys bass guitarist Adam Yauch—aka MCA—was diagnosed with cancer. After quickly having a tumor removed from his salivary gland, Yauch headed to a Tibetan community in Dharamsala to continue the healing process.

Now back in the states, Yauch is speaking about the treatment that's helping him "sabotage" the disease. He told fans, "I'm taking Tibetan medicine and at the recommendation of the Tibetan doctors I've been eating a vegan/organic diet."

Those Tibetan docs are right—going vegan is by far the single best thing anyone can do for his or her body. Our support goes out to Yauch, and we're hopeful that he'll be back on the road rocking out with the Beastie Boys in no time.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Two things we at PETA never pass up: vegan ice cream and opportunities to educate others about the benefits of a vegetarian diet. (I call it giving them a "vegucation.")

Pro-life Catholic students and faculty at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., are in a tizzy about President Obama's scheduled commencement address on Sunday. So, of course, we're erecting two pro-vegetarian billboards this weekend at Notre Dame to remind both sides of the abortion debate that a diet free of slaughtered animals makes sense for everyone.

One person can enjoy better health and save 100 lives each year simply by going vegetarian.

Choose compassion over cruelty to animals and improved health over heart disease and cancer—go vegetarian!

Posted by Karin Bennett

lh5.ggpht / CC

… Wait a minute, what am I saying? We love to say "We told you so." And this time, what we've been telling you for years is finally making headlines. Here's the truth—drumroll, please—meat, as it turns out, is bad for you.

Specifically, meat increases your chances of dying prematurely.

That's right, we weren't just making it up. Research has, once again, linked the consumption of meat with heart disease and certain types of cancer—and this time, it's more conclusive than ever. As The Washington Post explains, a new case study has just been published—the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall risk of early death—and guess what it found?

"The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality," concluded the leader of the study, Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute.

Women in the study who ate the most red meat were 36 percent more likely to prematurely die of any cause than those who ate less (or none), and they were 50 percent more likely to die of heart disease! Maybe it's just me, but those kinds of odds would definitely shock me into seriously reconsidering my meaty habits. Men who ate the most red meat didn't do much better—they were 31 percent more likely to die prematurely of any cause.

Amusingly, the only defense that the American Meat Institute could muster was that meat products "provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control." So don't worry about the cancer and heart disease, say the meat guys, because filling your stomach with disease-linked animal flesh makes you full, and that keeps the weight off! Um, nice try, fellas.

Nope, I'm not buying the meat guys' argument—and something tells me a lot of other people won't be, either. This could end up as a real victory for our arteries—and for animals.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

health.qld.gov / CC

Much to the dismay of struggling addicts in the Wolverine State, the Michigan Tobacco Quit Line has been shut down until October 1 because it just couldn't financially keep up with the requests for nicotine replacement therapy products.

As an organization that helps people fight another addiction (meat addiction, that is) we feel the quit line's pain.

That's why, after hearing about the help line's financial woes, we wrote a letter to the director of the Department of Community Health in Michigan offering to team up and help cover the hotline's costs. Our proposal includes renaming the quit line The Cancer Prevention Hotline (because that's the point, isn't it?) and including copies of PETA's free "Vegetarian Starter Kit" along with the other distributed materials.

Are you a smoker who needs another reason to quit? Did you know that most cigarettes are tested on animals? Gross.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Longtime PETA supporter Judith Yeargin fought hard not only in her 30-year battle against breast cancer but also against the use of animals in experiments. That's why Judith, who died on March 2, left her body to the New York University Langone Medical Center (NYUMC) She hoped to spare some of the countless animals who are sickened and maimed during painful, deadly, and wasteful experiments.

Judith was a tireless crusader for animals. She attended countless protests and helped raise money to build a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic. Everywhere she went, she always kept an eye out for animals in distress. She rescued several strays during her travels, including a cat in France who had been hit by a car. Judith rushed the cat to the vet for immediate care while Judith searched for her guardian. While on vacation in Italy, Judith rescued a dog and wouldn't rest until she found the animal a good home. In France, she rescued another dog named Lucky, who accompanied her back home to Manhattan and lived to a ripe old age. When her elderly dog, Daffodil, was ill, Judith even managed to drag herself out of her sick bed just two weeks before her death to take Daffy to the vet. Daffodil was another of Judith's many rescues, adopted as a puppy from a local shelter after Judith heard on the news that Daffodil had been thrown into a trash compactor.

By donating her body to NYUMC, Judith not only promoted awareness about the suffering endured by animals in laboratories but also contributed to legitimate scientific research into breast cancer. Experiments on animals are not an accurate reflection of the effects of cancer in humans. It's bad science, and cancer patients deserve the best that medicine can offer.

"Judith never turned her back on any animal in need," says her dear friend, Lia. "[S]he just felt it was unethical to use animals and better if the science community could learn something from her body rather than cause pain and suffering to animals."

A great way to honor Judith Yeargin and other cancer victims is by refusing to support cancer charities that fund animal experiments and by purchasing only from companies that refuse to test their products on animals.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Have you recently gone vegetarian? Maybe you still eat meat but are looking for a lifestyle change to benefit your health and save animals' lives? Well, if you have been served grilled chicken or processed meats, you have a rare opportunity to fight for animals.

As some of you may know, the consumption of processed meats—such as sausage, bacon, and hot dogs—has been linked to colon cancer. Many folks are also surprised to learn that grilled chicken breast contains a cancer-causing chemical called PhlP. Unfortunately, food outlets that sell grilled chicken and processed meats are not warning consumers of the risk that their products pose.

The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is trying to bring manufacturers and sellers of hot dogs, sausage, grilled chicken, and similar foods that are linked with cancer to court in order to force them to put up warnings to notify consumer of the health risk of their products. PCRM is currently doing a nationwide search to find plaintiffs for this lawsuit … and that's where you come in! You could be a part of this unusual and exciting opportunity to help animals if you meet the following criteria:

1. You've been eating these products and did not know that they were linked to cancer risk.
2. You will now stop eating these products.

If you do meet the above criteria and would like to assist PCRM with this lawsuit, please contact PCRM today at rbernstein@pcrm.org or 202-686-2210, extension 314. Best of luck to you and your colon!

Posted by Sean Conner

beliketike / CC

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has recently slammed Michael Jordan for smoking cigars, calling him a bad example for young people. Here at PETA, we can’t help but laugh– the ACS berates a man for smoking because it’s linked to cancer, yet continues to serve cancer-linked fare at their “Cattle Baron's Ball” fundraising events.

In an article from as far back as 1999, the American Cancer Society recognizes that animal product consumption leads to higher risk of cancer. “Our results showed diet was the most influential factor in modifying the risk of prostate cancer,” said James R. Hebert, ScD, lead author and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “Populations having diets high in animal products will have increased rates of prostate cancer mortality.”

In our letter to the ACS, we point out that "[y]ou can't possibly expect anyone to think that you are serious about fighting cancer until you promote and serve proven cancer-preventing vegetarian meals at your events. . . . [Y]our Web site even admits that '[p]opulation studies have linked vegetarian diets with a decreased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and colon cancer.' In his letter to Jordan, your spokesperson wrote, 'When high-profile athletes publicly display unhealthful habits, they can mislead young people to emulate their behavior.' Isn't it safe to say that when a high-profile health group publicly promotes unhealthy habits like meat consumption, it is also misleading Americans, young and old?"

So no cancer-linked smoking, but serving cancer-linked animal flesh at a cancer fundraising event is ok? Gotcha.

Posted by Carrie Ann Harris

Have you heard about this? It’s a pretty amazing story out of the UK about researchers at Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London, who developed a unique three-dimensional model of human breast cancer in a test tube. Pretty cool.

Mice are not test tubes with whiskers . . .

This development has the potential to save countless animals from horrible suffering, and it also has amazing potential to save human lives, since the results will actually be applicable to curing cancer in humans, unlike animal experiments.

Hats off to the Queen Mary’s researchers who came up with this exciting new breakthrough. It puts us one step closer to a world without animal testing . . .