Today is Gandhi's birthday, and it's also the second day of Vegetarian Awareness Month. I can't think of a better way to celebrate both than by giving a vegetarian diet a try.

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Gandhi ardently advocated nonviolence and campaigned to end poverty, expand women's rights, encourage self-reliance, and promote peace and respect for all living beings. He believed that "the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

If you think about the billions of animals who suffer in America's filthy, crowded factory farms and who are cruelly killed in slaughterhouses every year, it's clear that this nation has a long way to go to become "great" and "moral."

So if PETA's sexy babes haven't yet inspired you to go vegetarian, check your pulse. Then read Gandhi's book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's The PETA Practical Guide to Animals Rights.

Posted by Karin Bennett

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(pause)

… Shoot, what was that one?

… Oh, yeah, Jurassic Park! Anyway, Sam Neill's fossilizing career now has him plugging the consumption of artery-clogging meat from abused cows, pigs, and other animals in commercials for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA).

In the ads, MLA has Mr. Neill suggesting that eating meat will make a person smarter (hardly) and more energetic (not so). And as if that weren't offensive enough, Sam's co-star in the two spots is an orangutan named Dennis.

Jason Baker, director of PETA Asia-Pacific, wasted no time—or words—in his letter to Mr. Neill:

"Seeing you pimp for an industry that is linked to the main killers of human beings as well as of animals is, well, sad."

Jason continues:

"Some of the most accomplished and brilliant thinkers in history were vegetarian—including Einstein, Leonardo de Vinci, Plato, Pythagoras, Mahatma Gandhi and Isaac Newton. Studies published in the British Medical Journal have shown that people with a higher IQ are more likely to go vegetarian—yes, it really is the smart choice."

It's a no-brainer. A vegetarian diet is better for your brain, animals, and environment. Hopefully, Mr. Neill will realize this and get out of the meat-promoting business before his career reaches full-blown extinction.

Posted by Karin Bennett

The whole of PETA India is on a roll, ya'll! I'd barely even finished writing my blog entry about the array of successful demos that the grown folk at PETA India have put on throughout the month of September, when their younger counterparts at petaDishoom squeezed in a grand finale!

To commemorate Gandhi's birthday and World Vegetarian Day, PETA India's youth wing, petaDishoom, teamed up with local groups and a just a few hundred activists for a veggie rally followed by the first-ever "Animal March" to the city of Pune. Donning animal masks and picket signs, these peaceful marchers chose the perfect way to honor the Mahatma's memory and carry on his legacy of compassion and nonviolence.

Here are some fun pics from the event:

You know, it's always the right time to cross over to the vegetarian side, so if you've been dying to kick it with the cool kids (like the ones pictured here) but you just need a little kick-start, you can get yourself a copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit" here.

On a side note, I've just learned that dishoom (which is now my new favorite word) translates roughly into one of my other favorite sayings, "to bring the raucous." Judging from the huge success of this march and PETA India's nonstop celebrity features and kick-butt campaigns, I'd say PETA India sure dishoomed it this month … eh?

Silliness aside, congratulations, PETA India and petaDishoom, for one very successful month!

Posted by Missy Lane

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has been in India for the past couple of weeks on a tour for the Indian version of her book “50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals.” We’ve been getting daily updates about the demonstrations, rallies, and educational events she’s been attending to fight animal abuse in India, and it’s all been pretty amazing stuff. But this morning’s news was the most interesting yet:

According to India’s national newspaper, The Hindu, Ingrid was arrested last night in Coimbatore for blindfolding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Park to protest the Indian Supreme Court’s decision to legalize a stupid macho ritual called jalikkattu, in which a crowd of men take turns taunting and abusing a terrified bull, who is forced to drink alcohol and deliberately agitated by having chili peppers rubbed in his eyes before being released into the crowd.

According to the news reports, Ingrid urged children to speak out against jallikattu, arguing that the cruel blood sport was a direct violation of Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. Ingrid described the protest as a symbolic action to close Gandhi’s eyes “towards the horror meted out to animals in the name of jallikattu.”

After detaining her for some hours, Indian police eventually allowed Ingrid to leave the city, and her Indian visit is going ahead as scheduled. I’ll keep you posted …

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When this new video for the holiday season was debuted at a recent meeting, a lot of PETA staffers were really excited about its potential. To be quite frank, I was not one of them. But now that I’ve watched it a few times, it is starting to grow on me a bit, and I’m fascinated to hear how people react to it — both people who already believe that it’s important to care about animals, and those who are still “on the fence” about the issue (or, as I like to put it, “stuck in the dark ages”).The idea behind the video is a powerful one — that the great social justice issues of our time have always met with widespread resistance from people who are resistant to change, and that those issues were only brought into mainstream thought by people who weren’t afraid to dedicate their lives to an unpopular idea that they knew was right — to give a voice to the voiceless. I’m still undecided about whether that point comes across in this video, though it’s clear that there’s a lot more to it than I thought when I first watched it. I'd love to hear what you think about it.