blogs.westword / CC

… in the kitchen. Freshman U.S. Representative Jared Polis, the first openly gay person to be elected to Congress as a non-incumbent, may not be a vegan (yet), but he lives like one, thanks to his partner, animal rights activist and writer Marlon Reis.

In an article about the Colorado Democrat, Roll Call reports,

[Polis'] partner is a vegan, and although [Polis] eats meat, the couple keeps a vegan household. … [Polis'] shoes and belt are "cruelty free"—meaning no animals were involved, he says. The shoes—he pops one off casually to check the brand when asked—are a brand called "Bourgeois Bohème."

Reis is the first same-sex partner of a member of Congress to be recognized as "spouse" on his congressional ID card. His days are spent working on his vegan culinary skills and his new novel, which he hopes "will give readers the reason they've been missing to give animals the fair consideration they deserve …."

Now, PETA isn't suggesting that you should run out and start a tawdry affair, but make no mistake: We believe that slipping some Cheatin "chorizo" into the chili is always a good thing.

Posted by Karin Bennett

deathpenaltyinfo / CC

In a move that is waaaay long past overdue, a military panel has recommended adding cruelty to animals to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which is the foundation of US military law. Hard to believe it wasn't already in there, but we're just glad it's in the works now.

Last year, PETA called for such a provision after a video of a Marine apparently throwing a live puppy off a cliff circulated on the Internet. If this new regulation is added, service personnel who commit such atrocities could be prosecuted specifically for cruelty to animals, as opposed to military authorities having to scramble to find some vaguely-worded offense, such as "unbecoming conduct," to file such crimes under.

The law is intended to address crimes like killing or abandoning companion animals, but maybe it will also add fuel to our case that lethal military trauma training exercises on animals violate military code too.

Before it can be added to the UCMJ, the new provision has to be approved by Congress. Congress, you know what you have to do.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Seriously, our letter pretty much wrote itself after that.

If you’ve been following the Clemens hearings, you may have caught a surreal moment yesterday when a Congressman asked Roger whether he was vegan or not. Honestly, I’d be happy if this were a mandatory question at all congressional hearings, but I have to admit that it was a little odd in context. Nonetheless, Roger’s response (essentially “Dude, WTF is a vegan?”) more or less mandated another letter from our corner, and this time we’re sending him a gift basket full of steroid-free vegan goodies to sweeten the deal. It’s an established fact that a letter from PETA goes down a lot easier with a couple of vegan cookies and some faux-beef jerky. Check it out.

P.S. Thanks to PETA Files reader Tamara for sending in a transcript of this exchange!

sfspca/Creative Commons

Congressman Tom Lantos of California died today of cancer at the age of 80. The only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, Lantos was a staunch advocate for human rights and a powerful defender of animals, beginning with his offer to help with the Silver Spring monkeys case (PETA’s first major investigation), and continuing throughout his career, as he went on to found the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus, push through the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Act following Hurricane Katrina, and sponsor or support dozens of pieces of legislation aimed at ending the suffering of animals.

Lantos has said that his traumatizing experience in the Holocaust, during which his family was killed and he spent time in a forced labor camp, gave him and his wife Annette an understanding of what it means to be victimized for no other reason than being different from others, and inspired them both to devote their lives to working on behalf of the oppressed and the downtrodden. At PETA, we are profoundly indebted to Tom Lantos for his insistence that oppression should be fought wherever it exists, not just where it’s convenient, and we will always remember the important work that he did to help animals with gratitude and admiration.

Tom Lantos will be deeply missed here at PETA, both by those of us who knew him personally, and by those of us, like me, who have been inspired by his example. Even as we mourn his loss, we celebrate his amazing work for all beings.