Who needs a spa treatment when you can rejuvenate your soul by nuzzling 800-pound piggies at an animal sanctuary?

Well, a group of us kids from PETA and the PETA Foundation were lucky enough to do just that over the weekend. An hour north of D.C. lies a spectacular oasis called Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary. It consists of 400 acres devoted entirely to the rehabilitation of abused and/or neglected animals. This past Sunday, Poplar Spring hosted its annual Open House and Fundraiser. I don't think anyone could turn down yummy vegan nosh and cuddle time with the cuties pictured below, do you?

This is Bobby and yours truly. Before coming to the sanctuary, he and his friend Harry had lived their entire lives in cages and were used in insulin experiments. When they arrived at Poplar Spring, both of them were white as snow because they had never seen a single ray of sunshine. The first thing they did when they arrived at Poplar? They dove into a mud pool and stared up in amazement at the trees and stars. What a lucky guy, and such a looker too!

I'm telling you, folks, I highly recommend finding your nearest animal sanctuary and visiting. Or better yet, volunteer! With Thanksgiving coming up, most farm sanctuaries have special Thanksgiving celebrations that honor their turkeys. If my picture doesn't convince you, maybe these will.

Posted by Missy Lane

Less than a month ago, we sent requests asking permission from the Louisville Department of Public Works to place our crippled-chicken statue, which was designed by renowned cartoonist Harry Bliss, on public property.

I should clarify—we submitted six separate applications, asking for our statue to be placed at six different locations, to nix any issue of public versus private property. We were pretty confident that we'd covered all the bases.

We've finally received a response. Apparently, Louisville has placed a 45-day moratorium on issuance of the very type of permit we requested.

Coinkydink? Methinks not. I suspect that Louisville officials and KFC don't want any attention drawn to the horrible abuse that millions of chickens suffer at the hands of KFC's suppliers.

Click here to read our response.

Posted by Karin Bennett

famouschicken / CC

The day after the Senate votes on an extension of the Cash for Clunkers program, we're launching our new environmentally friendly program, "Cash for Cluckers."

Because a lot of nonvegetarian Americans are buy-curious about faux-meat products—and because factory farms wreak havoc on the environment—we've decided to offer consumers a rebate on their first taste of that faux goodness. For the first box of chickenless cutlets or nuggets that non-vegetarians buy, we're going to send them a $1 rebate and include a free copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit."

According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the equivalent of taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads. Our Cash for Cluckers program should inspire everyone to come out and try environmentally friendly products—such as those made by Boca and Lightlife—which offer the spot-on texture and flavor of chicken flesh, minus the animal suffering.

Want in on PETA's Cash for Cluckers program? Read the following rules and then head to the supermarket to explore the faux-chicken section—and remember to save that receipt!

Cash for Cluckers: Rules

• Receipts must be dated between August 6 and September 30, 2009, and must be received by PETA by October 5, 2009. Send your receipts to the following address:

  Cash for Cluckers
  PETA
  501 Front St.
  Norfolk, VA 23510

• Refund requesters must be U.S. residents.
• The product must be vegan faux chicken (no eggs, dairy products, or other animal-derived ingredients). Entries must include a statement that the entrant was not yet a vegetarian at the time of the purchase and had never tried faux chicken before.
• Limit one rebate per household.
• Open to the first 5,000 entries.

Neither Boca Foods nor Lightlife Foods are affiliated with or otherwise endorse, sponsor, or support this promotion.

Posted by Karin Bennett

What do you get when you combine our favorite hockey player with one of our favorite faux-chicken sandwiches?

Hat trick! Georges Laraque was so impressed by a Canadian KFC's vegan sandwich, he ordered two more to go.

While there is one major animal offense that keeps Canada in the penalty box, KFCs in Canada offer an awesome vegan sandwich—and they are also making efforts to phase in controlled-atmosphere killing. Partner that with Georges Laraque's insatiable hunger for animal liberation and I'd say you have one of the sweetest assists Canada's seen in some time.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

You may have heard that hideous fast-food bird abuser KFC is currently doing its darnedest to promote itself as an icon of healthy eating. ROTFL!!

It's started grilling dead birds, as opposed to frying them, and so it's encouraging people to "unthink what you thought about KFC."

I can only assume that it's referring to our thoughts about how unhealthy KFC is—which, admittedly, is one of the things I think about KFC. Of course, I mostly think about its awful animal welfare record, which it doesn't appear to be asking us to "unthink." (Possibly because, well, it's still awful.)

Give me a break, KFC. You can put a shiny "Healthy!" sticker on it all you want, but cholesterol-filled, artery-clogging flesh is still unhealthy, whether you fry it or grill it—and grilled chicken has been shown to contain carcinogens. I think I'll pass on the three-piece breast and thigh meal with an increased cancer risk on the side. Thanks anyway.

I can think of a better response to KFC's new grilled chicken—how about we grill KFC? Click here to write to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and ask it to investigate KFC's false animal welfare claims.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Getting shanked in the shower is definitely a worry, but biting into pus-filled poultry? That's cruel and unusual punishment. Just ask the three Vermont men who are seeking $100,000 in damages from ConAgra Foods after reportedly purchasing bad chicken from the prison store at Lee Adjustment Facility in Beattyville, Kentucky. The sickening saga began three years ago when the trio, who were serving their sentences in Kentucky because of overcrowding in Vermont jails, apparently bit into a batch of Banquet chicken filled with pus. Brown-bagging the rank, three-year-old meat to court to serve as exhibit A, one litigant described the diarrhea and weight loss (as well as the harassment by other inmates) that he says resulted from ingesting the foul fowl.

Pusitively gross, right? Well, take heed, because food poisoning caused by putrid poultry isn't confined to prison food. Animals raised for food are intensively confined on disease-ridden factory farms. By the time they reach the slaughterhouse, many are suffering from pneumonia and other chronic illnesses, and some have cancerous lesions or pus-filled wounds all over their bodies. Wait—it gets worse! Pus-coated bird bits often go into a mixture called a "binder," which is used in chicken nuggets, patties, and "buffalo" wings.

And while eating contaminated meat is downright disgusting and dangerous, the real victims here are the chickens who are being knocked off to make these noxious nuggets. I say prisons should pardon chickens and all animals from their menus.

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

So we all knew that KFC has some trashy practices, but did you know just how disgusting they can be? Recently, a delivery person recorded a KFC employee in Hong Kong picking fried chicken out of a trash can, putting it on a tray, and serving it to customers. While this might be shocking to those who still turn a blind eye to the company's hideous ways, I'm definitely not surprised. KFC has proven to be fairly heartless in the past, and we know they aren't big on that whole "ethics" thing. So, should it be such a big deal that employees don't mind serving deep-fried flesh from a trash can?

The delivery person who brought this to our attention says that trash-diving is a regular practice at this particular location. According to this source, the employees stop cooking and throw everything away before the restaurant closes. When anyone else orders, they serve them literal junk food. Oh yeah, and the manager approves of it because it saves money! Gross.

Know what else KFC seems to think is perfectly acceptable? Check out our undercover investigations to find out for yourself. I certainly know The Roost wouldn't take this laying down!

Posted by Lianne Turner

Quick—what reason do people usually give for continuing to eat meat even after you've told them about all the awesome health, environmental, and animal welfare benefits of going vegetarian? If you said taste (as in, people don't want to give up meat because they like the taste), you win $1 million! Not really (sorry!), but it does mean that you've been doing a great job trying to get your friends and family members to take the cool vegetarian plunge—go, you!

Now, people who've explored veggie cuisine know that you don't have to give up anything in the way of taste or texture to go vegetarian, but guess what massive corporation is going to help spread that message to new audiences? If you said most KFCs in Canada, you don't win $1 million, but you are right (go, you, again!).

Most KFCs in Canada have just added a vegetarian chicken sandwich to the menu, and by all reports, the faux chicken is crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and delectably flavorful inside and out. YUM! (YUM! is actually the name of the company that owns KFC in the U.S., but they aren't serving it, dammit).

The company that coordinates the purchase of all chickens for Canadian KFCs has also entered into an agreement with PETA, which includes landmark animal welfare reforms that will substantially improve the lives and deaths of chickens killed for Canadian KFCs. And we at PETA have been so happy about this that we sent our Lettuce Ladies on a Canadian tour to pass out KFC's faux-chicken sandwiches to anyone eager for a taste. How's that for winningly fabulous, eh?

Here are some photographs from Montréal!

Posted by Grace Friedan

If I were to list the most interesting experiences I've had in my 26 years of life, I'd say that eating a meal of vegan fried chicken with the president of the company that coordinates the purchasing of chickens for all Canadian KFCs at the PETA HQ—in the midst of our bitter five-year battle with the chicken chain—would make the top 10.

That was back in December. Six months later, I'm happy to report that our bread-breaking (along with negotiations, dozens of e-mails and phone calls, and a meeting in Toronto that preceded my "chicken" dinner) was successful: PETA has officially ended our Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign in Canada. Our decision came with a new animal welfare plan that will affect all chickens killed for KFCs in Canada.

For one thing, 100 percent of the chickens killed for Canadian KFCs will be purchased—through a phase-in program—from suppliers that use "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK), the least cruel method of bird slaughter available. CAK works by replacing birds' oxygen with a mixture of nonpoisonous inert gasses to gently put them "to sleep." It may sound horrible—because killing animals for a fleeting taste sensation always is—but for animals killed for food, it's a 180° turnaround. Gone will be the days of broken bones, abuse by workers (because with CAK, workers never handle live birds), electric shocks, and live throat slitting and scalding.

The conditions for animals on farms will also be improved. In addition, the company that coordinates the purchasing of chickens for all Canadian KFCs will encourage the chicken companies supplying Canadian KFCs to move away from the cruelest breeding and farming practices and will also form an animal welfare advisory council.

But I haven't even gotten to the best news yet. That vegan fried-chicken meal that I ate with the head honcho in December might not be his last. Most KFCs in Canada will now be adding a vegan chicken item to their menus. That means that at least 65 percent of KFCs in Canada will now have a totally cruelty-free option (ask for the item, called the Classic Vegetarian Sandwich, in a wrap and with no mayo to make it vegan). Not too paltry, huh? (Get it?)

As for our campaign against KFC, it continues in full force everywhere else. In fact, I sent a letter to the CEO of KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, today urging him to make the same changes that are being made in Canada.

Thank you to everyone who helped us win this historic victory by staging protests, writing letters, and forwarding videos (among other things).

To everyone who has yet to help: Lend a hand by logging on to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com and signing our petition urging KFC to improve animal welfare worldwide.

—Matt

Posted by Matt Prescott, Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs

In 2005, PETA released footage from an undercover investigation into a slaughterhouse run by KFC Supplier Tyson Foods, which showed live chickens’ heads being ripped off, among other acts of unbelievable cruelty. Two new PETA investigations of the company, which have just been released today, reveal that Tyson has done nothing to prevent the torture it inflicts on these animals—and provide gruesome examples of what KFC’s continued refusal to do anything about the cruelty that is endemic to its suppliers means for the animals used by the company. Please click here to write to KFC and Tyson Foods and demand that they follow through with PETA's recommendations to stop this hideous abuse.

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

Les Moonves, CBS News/Creative Commons

The real villain here is a fellow named Les Moonves, who runs CBS, and under whose leadership the network has become renowned for soliciting and airing acts of cruelty to animals in an effort to boost ratings. Most people are familiar with the Survivor stunts where the contestants are made to kill animals or drink their blood, but apparently Moonves and CBS felt a need to take the shock factor up just another notch by having kids do the killing, as happened in the latest episode of Kid Nation. Honestly, I hate to call any attention to CBS's new show so they can tag it as "controversial" as a way of getting more viewers, but Moonves needs to hear from people about this latest episode, in which a group of children persuade the other kids on the show to chop off chickens' heads as a way of getting protein in their diet. Many of these kids had grown close to the animals during the show, and some were clearly traumatized by the experience.

Please click here to let Les Moonves know that encouraging kids to kill animals is a new low for him (which is saying something), and that he needs drop these lousy stunts right now, no matter how good they may be for his ratings.

The View has been in the news a lot lately, with the addition of Whoopi Goldberg to the show. But yesterday, the show was in the news for a different reason. One of the hosts, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, revealed what she thought was the “funny” news that she has decapitated a chicken. She even demonstrated with hand motions how to do it “correctly,” horrifying the audience and co-hosts Joy Behar and Barbara Walters even more than she usually does.

Here’s a video of the incident.

And here’s what a PETA rep told TMZ about it:

"PETA has two words for Hasselbeck, 'Cluck you!' Next to Barbara and Joy, who expressed compassion, Elisabeth sat there chirping about the joys of killing defenseless birds. Conservatives love animals too, and she ruffled a lot of feathers today. Now that Whoopi has joined the show, maybe it's time for Hasslebeck's head to go on the chopping block."

Anyone familiar with lolcats? This is a take on the phenomenon that my friend Joel made with an image that’s been circulating everywhere on MySpace. Childish? Yes, a little. Joel’s particular brand of genius can manifest itself in odd ways sometimes—but the message is still sound, methinks.

You may remember that we kicked off our KFC Campaign a few years ago after an undercover investigator at a KFC Supplier of the Year in Moorefield, West Virginia, discovered workers throwing live birds against walls, kicking them like soccer balls, and spitting tobacco juice into their eyes. Well, one of our investigators just returned from yet another KFC Supplier of the Year—this one in Butterfield, Missouri, owned by George's, Inc.—where he found exactly the same kind of sadism and workplace "accidents" that amount to nothing short of torture.

This is, quite literally, the best that KFC has to offer: Birds impaled by transport cages, kicked and thrown around by workers, and crushed to death in dumping machines. George’s has been warned that they need to be very careful how they respond to this investigation, as this is a time to address the severe deficiencies that have been exposed in their operation, not to retreat behind a mask of PR and damage control tactics. You can read our letter to the company here. And you can click here to sign our petition asking KFC to just, for God’s sake, stop allowing its suppliers to get away with this cruelty. Here’s our interview with the investigator:

Learn more at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

A little while back, I wrote about the worldwide competition that the Young Guns ad agency held for people in the advertising industry to make a new PETA PSA. The official winner of that contest was "Your Parents Do It: Don't Block It Out", a brilliant idea put together by the BBDO Agency in Montréal. But over the past few weeks, we've been tallying up votes from our "People's Choice" portion of the contest, and the winner has just been announced. I like that they picked a chicken for this one, because these birds (who aren't even protected by the same inadequate anti-cruelty laws that apply to other farmed animals) have pretty much the roughest deal of any animal on the planet. The ad really speaks volumes, in a darkly humorous sort of way. Check it out—and, if you haven't already, you can see all the runners-up here.

My buddy Pulin, who works on the college campaign for those fast-living trend-junkies over at peta2, was in Panama City last week to try and throw a little bit of social responsibility into the potent mixture of drinking, partying, and boys and girls gone wild that is College Spring Break. You know: Sex, drugs, rock and roll, compassion for animals—all that good stuff. Anyway, a funny thing happened once Pulin and his gang brought out the chicken costume and began passing out leaflets about KFC. A probably well-intentioned but slightly over-eager dude in the crowd (pictured below) decided it would be a good idea to blindside the chicken (actually a University of Florida student named Beth) and tackle her to the ground. Beth was unhurt, but the police officers who witnessed the assault were relatively peeved about the whole thing:

The story has a happy ending though. Pulin and Beth decided that they wouldn't press charges if the tackler, who turned out to be a fairly affable fellow named Dave, would agree to get in the chicken costume himself and spend some time holding a sign to encourage people to stop eating animals. Dave was more than happy to oblige. The story made the front page of the Panama City News Herald, and you can check it out here.

If you caught the new episode of CSI on Thursday, you'll know that the story involved a murder at a "poultry manufacturing plant." Meaning, like, a murder of a human. But there was also plenty of footage used in the show from PETA undercover investigations of chicken slaughterhouses. We're already big CSI fans because of our friend Jorja Fox, but hooray for the number-one show in the world taking some time to let people know exactly what goes on behind the scenes in factory farms.

If you didn't catch that episode, you're probably going to have to wait until this season comes out on DVD. Sorry about that—next time I'll mention this sort of thing before the episode airs.