With winter rapidly approaching, it's time to get cozy, comfy, and cruelty-free. Forget about fur collars, trim, or accessories: 'Tis the season to go faux! Help save animals from becoming fashion victims with the click of a mouse! Just follow these five easy steps on Twitter:

Step 1: Burberry may be best known for its famous plaid frocks, but the company's use of fur is a great big faux pas.

How to Help: Post this twitition (that's right, I Twitter-fied it!) from your Twitter account:

@Burberry Stop supporting cruelty 2 animals & adopt a permanent fur-free policy NOW!

Step 2: More than half of the finished fur garments imported into the U.S. come from China. Animals who live on Chinese fur farms spend their entire lives in intensive confinement, only to be pulled from their cages, thrown to the ground, bludgeoned, beaten, and skinned alive.

How to Help: I'm sure by now you've probably seen our shocking undercover video from a Chinese fur farm. Please tell your followers about the horrors of the fur trade by posting the video on your Twitter page: http://ow.ly/zV9A

Step 3: Animals on fur farms around the world are often driven to cannibalism because of the extreme stress and frustration caused by intensive confinement.

How to Help: Because a picture speaks a thousand words, click here to retweet this Twitpic!

Step 4: By signing our fur-free pledge, you'll be sending a powerful message ("Hell no, we want faux!") not only to the fur industry but also to designers, retailers, and others who directly profit from the suffering caused by this cruel industry.

How to Help: Pledge to go fur-free and ask your Twitter followers to do so as well: http://ow.ly/zVf8

Step 5: Each year, the Canadian government allows sealers to beat and skin hundreds of thousands of seals. Baby seals—some of them only weeks old—have their skulls smashed in or are shot for their fur. If you haven't checked out our awesome "Save the Seals" celebrity ad series, take a peek: http://ow.ly/zVey

How to Help: Vote for your favorite "Save the Seals" celebrity using our twitter poll and ask your followers to vote too. Who will you vote for:
@Jayde_Nicole
@PamelaDAnderson
@BrodyJenner
@Perez
@hollymadison123

So, tweeps, you gonna help the millions of animals who need you? Pretty please, we'll ♥ you faux-ever!

Posted by Royale Ziegler, PETA's official twitterer

One glance at PETA Asia's hot new ad featuring Malaysian cover model Amber Chia, and I'm instantly reminded to water my plants and do three sets of fire hydrants. Pardon me for one moment, please…

Whew. OK, back to the post.*

Media representatives were invited to the photo shoot, to which Amber wore only painted-on stripes. The ad will run in Japan, Thailand, Germany, the U.S., and Korea later this year.

Photo: Aaron Lee

The fresh-faced beauty has graced the pages of Harper's Bazaar, FHM, and Playboy and has appeared on television and in Chinese films, including The 3rd Generation and Trio & a Bed. Amber says, "Tigers, elephants, and chimpanzees aren't meant to live fenced in any more than I am."

Knowing how animal prisoners suffer constant mind-numbing boredom and extreme frustration that leads to nonstop pacing and poop-slinging, we couldn't agree more.

Posted by Karin Bennett

*Between the ad and the exercises, I'm feeling the burn, people.

Academy Award–winning actor and animal advocate extraordinaire Kim Basinger has stepped up, yet again, to speak up for animals who are skinned alive for their fur.

Kim's classic anti-fur ad was one of the first in PETA's "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, and the issue remains vitally important to her. Today she sent a letter to leading Chinese designer Luo Zheng reminding her that there's nothing fashionable about using the skins of dead animals in her designs. Kim writes:

As you may know, this is an issue that is very dear to my heart. I have avoided wearing real fur for many years ….

PETA's heartrending investigations have documented that animals, including dogs and cats, are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, strangled with wire nooses, and skinned alive. Workers have been caught beating raccoons, dogs and foxes with metal rods and leaving them to convulse on the ground. Some animals are injured but still completely conscious as they are skinned, and they kick and writhe as their skin is ripped from their bodies.

As China's leading designer, Zheng could have a huge influence on the fashion world by joining compassionate, world-class designers such as Qi Gang, Stella McCartney, Betsey Johnson, Vivienne Westwood, and Todd Oldham who have already refused to use fur.

Take a cue from Kim, and tell another behind-the-times designer that fur is cruel and outdated.

Posted by Heather Drennan

Raccoon Dog Pups
kathyannepippig / CC

I don't know about you, but before last year, all I knew about melamine was that it was used to make a hard resin for shatter-resistant kitchenware and floor laminates. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous companies in China found another use for it—adding it to foods to make them appear to have higher protein content. This resulted in the illness and deaths of dogs and cats in the U.S. and Europe, and, more recently, of humans (mostly children) in China.

Now comes word that melamine contamination appears to be responsible for killing 1,500 Chinese raccoon dogs. As horrible as it is to die from melamine poisoning, the alternative isn't much better for these animals, because raccoon dogs in China are commonly raised and skinned alive for their fur.

Either way, the responsibility for these horrible deaths falls squarely on the shoulders of those who support this cruelty by buying fur. If the raccoon dogs had been left alone in their native habitats, they wouldn't be eating an artificial, contaminated diet—and they certainly wouldn't face having their skin ripped off their bodies while they are conscious and in agony.

So, as the weather turns colder, if you see any fur-wearers, be sure to ask them if they prefer that the money they spent for that coat, collar, or cuff caused animals to die in agony from toxic kidney failure, or like this:

Other Viewing Options

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Not to be outdone by PETA India, the folks over at PETA Asia-Pacific have certainly been busy lately—in the last week, they've had three tremendously successful demos!

First up, we have three activists in Seoul, Korea, who lay outside a fur store in "bloody" fur coats, caught in a steel-jaw trap. Calling attention to the cruel methods used to trap wild animals for fur, their message read: "Animals Suffer in Traps. This Is Fur."

A few days later in China, two of PETA Asia-Pacific's sexy Lettuce Ladies asked passersby in Guangzhou to "Turn Over a New Leaf—Go Vegetarian." As you can see from the pics below, they got a lot of attention! Not bad for the first PETA Asia-Pacific demo in China in five years, don't you think?

Most recently, Santa spread the joy of soy in Manila and Hong Kong, courtesy of PETA Asia-Pacific. In light of the much-reported melamine-tainted–milk scandal, which has killed at least four babies and sickened 53,000 others, jolly old Saint Nick is working with PETA Asia-Pacific to inform milk-drinkers that cow's milk is also loaded with cholesterol, fat, and other contaminants, including cow's blood and pus, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Over time, these can be just as dangerous as melamine.

Kudos to our friends at PETA Asia-Pacific for the string of amazing demos. We can't wait to see what they'll do next!

Posted by Amanda Schinke

olimpiadasbeijing2008 / CC
Carl Lewis, the Olympiad of the Century, is vegetarian (and therefore never consumed deer penis) and he did quite well, so we think this new generation will be OK too. However …

Olympic athletes in Beijing are being advised not to use traditional methods to heal injuries because they may contain some herbal substances that are banned. Darn. If you were an Olympic athlete, wouldn't the first thing you'd go for be deer penis? Because deer penis is apparently magical and can heal injuries. But you must—according to Wang Cheng, an expert in traditional medicine—first mix it with some alcohol and take it every day or two. If only I had known back in third grade when I tripped on the balance beam and broke my arm, I would have said, "Mom, go get me some deer penis and alcohol."

If you are not an Olympic athlete, you can still head on over to Beijing to take in the full glory of human athleticism. And while there, you can stop by Guolizhuang and get yourself some ox, donkey, and sheep penises (as well as deer penises, of course—I didn't mean to leave those out).

And if you feel like dropping a cool $500, you can also get some Canadian seal penises. You mean we can bash their heads in, skin them for their fur, AND pay $500 to eat their penises?!?! Penis: It's what's for dinner.

newsx / CC

The Beijing City Government Food Safety Office has reportedly stated that dog meat is off the menu during the Olympics. The world's best athletes are now free from worrying that the meat on their plate may be from someone's stray or confiscated Fido. All 112 official Olympic restaurants are forbidden from serving any dishes containing any part of a dog during the summer games, which start on August 8. So, swimmers and sprinters, don't worry if you see a finger-like object floating in your stew—it's probably just a finger ....

Let's face it, China may be on top of its game in terms of technological innovations, but when it comes to animal protection, the country is dead last at the bottom of the dog pile.

China severely lacks any form of animal welfare. Our investigations into Chinese fur farms and live markets have shown some of the most horrendous acts of cruelty and conditions for animals raised for human use.

We're pleased that Beijing has opted out of the dog-slaughtering business—at least for a few weeks and if only for Olympic restaurants. But I have a suspicion it's not because someone up top realized that dogs feel pain.

A better idea would be to ban all meat from the restaurants. Cows, chickens, pigs, and fish value their lives and don't want to suffer, and they certainly die as wretchedly as dogs do, even if most people never get to know one in the way that they get to know a dog. Kind of a double standard, don't you think?

Besides, the Olympic athletes certainly don't need all the fat and cholesterol loaded in each bite of meat. It would suck to be one lap away from winning gold and suffer a heart attack. Take a bit of advice from Carl Lewis, a legendary Olympian, a vegetarian, and the man who's broken more records than humanly possible.

The only real breakfast of champions is one that's meat-free. And you can take that to the winner's podium.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

reuters / CC

Oh, how I do love a tearjerker with a happy ending! So here's a lovely one for you: A tenderhearted businessperson in China, named Fan Jianchuan, recently took in a resilient pig who survived 36 days without food after May's devastating earthquake in Sichuan. With the deepest appreciation for Fan's generous pledge to care for Zhu for the rest of his days, our friends over at PETA Asia-Pacific honored Fan with a Compassionate Action award.

The little pig, named Zhu Jianqiang or "Strong Pig," was trapped under rubble and emaciated after only eating charcoal and drinking rain water to survive!

In light of the tragic Midwest floods—in which pigs swam for days to get to safety, only to be shot to death, which is just one horror story among so many—the rescue of Strong Pig from the rubble of such a devastating natural disaster is a beautiful glimmer of hope, right? I told you this was heartwarming. These pigs—who were supposed to be slaughtered in two parts of the world where pork is a staple food—desperately struggled for their lives right along with humans, and it leave no doubt as to pigs' commonality with us.

While knowing that this little guy has a safe place to lay his head from now on is reason enough to love this story, I've got to admit to the little kick that I get out of thinking about the folks who view these intelligent beings as no more than "food" getting a glimpse into the human-like quality of their dinner.

Posted by Missy Lane

From the "turnabout is fair play" department—and from an Israeli Web site called PetKaput.com—comes a video that dares to imagine what would happen if some role reversal were to happen in the notorious Chinese fur trade. The result is somehow creepier than all the Saw and Hostel films put together—and yet weirdly funny too. Not David Cross or Amy Sedaris funny, but—well, I can't really explain it; you just have to watch:

Ouch! Admittedly, it's a little disturbing, but keep in mind that it's only animation, so no one was actually hurt in the making of it (unfortunately, the same can't be said for the video that inspired it).

Posted by Jeff Mackey

InklingBlog / CC

Here’s the quote, which came after a Chinese reporter asked the increasingly irrelevant Stone what she thought about the recent earthquakes in China:

"Well you know at first I thought I'm not happy with the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans ... and I've been concerned with should we have the Olympics because they're not being nice to the Dalai Lama who's a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and stuff happened and I thought, 'Is that Karma, when you're not nice and the bad things happen to you?"

A lot of bloggers have been justifiably outraged by her insensitivity to a national tragedy, though given her vocal support for turning anything that so much as meows into, say, a lapel pin, I can’t say that I’m all that surprised at her inability to empathize with the suffering of others.

Which raises a couple of somewhat disturbing questions: 1) Isn’t it just a wee bit dangerous for someone who’s responsible for the excruciating torture of countless foxes, rabbits, and unsuspecting viewers of Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction to be talking about karma? And 2) If karma really does catch up with her after this, will that mean that her days of dragging that dead beaver out in public will be finally at an end?

‘Cuz that’d be a real disappointment for her five remaining fans.

-Jack

Just so I can complete the perfect trifecta of posts about quirky demonstrations today (see the shower girls and the DC dinosaur in case you missed them), here’s one that involves six businesspeople in one small cage. The purpose of this protest—which took place outside drugmaker Eli Lilly’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday—was to let the company’s shareholders know about its decision to outsource animal experiments to China and other countries where animal protection laws are virtually non-existent.

As a wise man once said, “A man’s crimes against nature aren’t any less disgusting when he pays the Chinese to do them for him.” OK, fine, a wise man didn’t once say that. But he should have. ’Cuz it’s true.

I’ve worked here long enough to know that for every nasty, cruel thing you could imagine to do to defenseless animals, there are some nasty, cruel people out there doing it. This is the latest one to come across my desk. These disturbing images, which have been circulating within the animal rights community and received coverage in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, Sun, and Mirror today, show the hideous “sport” of horse fighting, from an organized event in China.

One of the most disturbing things about these images for me is the crowd of sadists (and children who are too young to know any better) who look on and smile—as if they were at a football game rather than a ritual torture. PETA Asia Pacific is working to raise awareness about this hideous blood sport, and I’ll keep you posted on their success as they continue to fight the ludicrous notion that “tradition” can justify torture in this or any circumstance.

If you haven’t heard about the little tiff we’re having with eBay at the moment, the point of contention is that the company refuses to prohibit the sale of live cats and dogs—as well as items lined with dog fur—on its Chinese website. Which, honestly, this is really an issue that everyone can get on board with, especially once you see the photos posted by eBay sellers showing animals chained to cages on the streets, puppies trapped in wire-bottomed cages, and other horrors that would be more suitable in an animal-cruelty case file than on an international auction site that’s supposed to have a code of ethics. Well, since the company has been turning a deaf ear to our pleas, this morning, we took them straight to the shareholders: Our fearless campaigner Deedra spoke at the Boston eBay shareholder meeting, while my friends Melissa and Julie stood outside to let passersby know exactly what’s going on at eBay China. Check it out, and if you’d like to write to eBay about this issue, click here.