hedweb / CC

Problem: You're head of an engineering firm hired to simulate and analyze a customer's fall in a Dollar General store in order to provide testimony in a lawsuit.

Solution(?): Get some goon to shoot a sensitive, intelligent pig in the head and then drop the pig's body repeatedly onto a concrete floor.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that killing a pig to mimic a human fall is inhumane and unnecessary, but that's exactly what Linda Weseman of Gainesville-based Weseman Engineering Inc. did.

Since shooting a pig execution-style violates USDA regulations, we filed a complaint with that agency in September 2008 after a whistleblower alerted us to the incident.

Exactly a year later, we learned that the USDA has issued Weseman three citations and a "serious warning" for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

The following are the violations Ms. Weseman was cited for:

• Conducting experiments on an animal without being registered with the USDA
• Failure to have the experiment reviewed by an animal welfare oversight committee
• Failure to provide adequate veterinary care for the pig prior to the animal's death and failure to meet the requirements for euthanasia

Weseman also agreed never to do another experiment on a USDA-regulated animal again (so pigs are safe, but rats and mice beware).

In case those citations and a warning aren't enough to drive home the point for Ms. Weseman that sentient beings shouldn't be killed for pointless experiments, I suggest some compassion training with rescued piglets at her nearest animal sanctuary.

Posted by Heather Drennan

Richard Cooey
metronews / CC

Well, life sentence, maybe. Richard Cooey, a 267-pound inmate on death row in Ohio, claims he's just too big to die, dang it. Cooey says he deserves a second stay of execution, this time arguing that his size and small veins will render the paralytic—part of the lethal-injection drug cocktail—only partially effective, causing him unnecessary suffering. Since Cooey is claiming that he's gained so much weight because of all the fattening prison food, we think the obvious move is to switch to a slimming, healthy vegetarian diet to avoid similar predicaments in the future. We went ahead and asked the prison to do just that.

Serving vegetarian meals would not only save money on inmate health costs, it would also prevent murderers and criminals from being involved in more senseless killing. There has even been evidence to suggest that serving inmates vegetarian meals helps reduce prison violence. Now this is just a win-win situation for everybody!

Whether you're pro– or anti–death penalty, don't we all agree that innocent creatures don't deserve to die at the hands of another? (Hmm … maybe we don't, but we should!) Now, I don't know if our pal Richard Cooey will opt for a vegetarian last meal, but I do know that we can help stay the execution of the millions of innocent animals who are currently on death row—condemned to dinner plates and hideous clothing.

Well, in the end, the courts have ruled that Cooey is full of hooey. He's next up to be executed by the state of Ohio on October 14, but you can help end unnecessary suffering just by making different meal choices!

You can read our letter to the warden here.

Posted by Missy Lane

Philip Workman, who was killed this morning in Tennessee

This story is just steeped in tragedy, but there's a bit of a bright spot in it, which bears directly on our work and involves a generous PETA member. Last night, just hours before his execution by lethal injection, a Tennessee inmate named Philip Workman made an unusual request for his last meal: A vegetarian pizza to be delivered to a homeless person in Nashville. In an attack of what I can only describe as bureaucratic stinginess, the Tennessee prison charged with ending Mr. Workman's life denied his request, claiming that their "final meal" regulations didn't allow for charitable donations. Though he didn't live to hear the news that his request was eventually carried out, the good news is that it was—and tenfold—thanks to a PETA donor who was impressed by his act of charity, which explicitly sought to help humans without harming animals. As Ingrid Newkirk says,

"Workman's act was selfless, and kindness to all living beings is a virtue. PETA will be ordering not one but ten veggie pizzas to be delivered today to the closest homeless shelter to Riverbend."

Nothing like a few veggie pizzas to give a sad story a happy ending.