Happy (early) Halloween, ghouls and boils! I can give you a thousand reasons why Halloween is the best day of the year, but I need time to finish my costume (me + my dog Henry= Amish couple), so I've slashed the list down to just five:

1. It's the only holiday when dressing up like a really scary monster and scaring the hell out of people is both appropriate and encouraged. Take that, Christmas!
2. Power pumpkins.
3. Two words: baked pugtatoes.
4. One word: candy.

And the number one reason why Halloween is a scream …

1. Zombies!

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

This particular serving of interweb porridge is a blend of the usual adorableness to coo over mixed with a few freaky-deaky items. Halloween is in the air …

• Exhibit A: Veggie alien ponders its victim.
• Upping the creepiness—Newsweek offers further evidence that murderers often torture animals before moving on to human victims.
• More sad than frightening is my latest guilty pleasure: Beatles tunes remixed doggie-style. Goodness!
• Arachnophobes take heart! A jumping vegetarian spider was just discovered. Does "newly discovered" also indicate more highly evolved? Methinks yes.
• Rodeos are always an epic FAIL. At this one, a bull showed compassionless spectators how it feels to be humiliated—and it's HILARIOUS!
• Many zoos mistreat animals; others deceive visitors. With all its zebras dead of starvation after a siege earlier this year, somebody at the Marah Land Zoo in Gaza City has gotten a wee bit carried away with the hair dye …
• Chris Rock's comment "What the hell did Michael Vick do? Pitbulls ain't even real dogs!" has hurt my heart for weeks now. Thinking of all the abused pits we see on straw delivery and how his comment only stands to empower their abusers, I'm very happy that Richard Pryor's wife isn't letting him get away with it!
• P.S. For y'all who didn't know, Richard Pryor was an absolute angel to animals.
• Switching over to cooing, monkey mommies make googly eyes at their bambinos too!
• Always ending on a cute note, this little piggy thinks she's a doggie.

That's the haps, y'all. Catch ya next month!

Posted by Missy Lane

Scariest. Costume. Ever.

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

I confess: The only thing that keeps me sticking to a healthy diet all summer long is my annual countdown to October 31—a night centered around ghosts, goblins, and, most importantly, candy. October 31 marks the start of a full-on avalanche of holiday food that doesn't end until January 2.

Well, this year's season of overindulgence started 30 days early: October has been declared Vegan Month of Food, so food season is officially on!

To help you get started, I'd like to present you with my own favorite fall recipe, which comes straight from our Veg Cooking Blog (where it's Vegan Month of Food every month):

Hearty Vegan Chili

2 Tbsp. oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped white onion
1 lb. defrosted veggie burger crumbles (optional)
Red pepper flakes, to taste
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1 bay leaf
28-oz. can diced Mexican-style tomatoes
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
6 oz. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
16-oz. can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
28-oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Vegan cheese (optional)

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
• Add the garlic and onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
• Add the veggie burger crumbles (if using them), red pepper flakes, chili powder, and cumin and cook for an additional 2 minutes, or until fragrant.
• Add the oregano, bay leaf, tomatoes, soy sauce, stock, tomato paste, and vinegar, then bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the beans and simmer 15 minutes longer to heat through and blend flavors.
• Add more water, if necessary, or cook longer to reach desired consistency.
• Top with shredded soy cheese, if desired, and serve.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

P.S.: If you're not already vegan, this is the perfect time to take our 30-Day Pledge to be Veg. And if you are vegan, please share your favorite fall recipes below.

mailinglists / CC

If you've stopped by your local drug store lately, I bet you've noticed all the Christmas cards and candy starting to make their way onto the shelves. It's only October, but apparently, Christmas is just around the corner. Personally, I think we should get past Halloween and Thanksgiving before pulling out the lights and ornaments, but maybe I just don't think far enough in advance.

For those of you who are ready to get a jumpstart on your holiday shopping, we have another clothing outlet you can add to your online shopping list. Women's fashion retailer Boston Proper has announced that it has immediately stopped buying fur and will be completely fur-free as of January 1, 2010!

After receiving complaints from concerned PETA members and supporters who were outraged that Boston Proper was selling fur in its catalogs and online, we immediately contacted the company and urged it to go fur-free. Boston Proper listened to our concerns about the cruelty that animals on fur farms endure, including being bludgeoned, beaten, and then skinned alive.

Boston Proper has joined forward-thinking clothing retailers like Urban Outfitters, Zappos, Juicy Couture, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gap, Forever 21, and dozens of other companies and designers in no longer supporting fur-industry cruelty.

I hope that you'll take a moment to contact Boston Proper and thank the company for its compassionate decision to go fur-free and maybe stay to browse the Web site for that perfect holiday sweater.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

It's almost time for Halloween: my favorite holiday. Every year, I'm eager to gorge on vegan Swedish Fish Sea Kittens and decide on a costume.

This year, I've been thinking about going as Evil Ronald McDonald, with frizzed-out red hair, a hatchet, and a blood-splattered yellow jumpsuit—all topped off with PETA's Ronald mask.

Now PETA's quirky "Tofu Never Screams" tee and tote, which just happen to be this week's "Win It" Wednesday prize, have me thinking about a second costume idea. I may finally have a perfect use for that big, horrible block of Styrofoam in my hall closet.

How do you win one of this week's prize packages? Share your most creative, animal-friendly costume idea and the tote (perfect for carrying home that mountain of candy) and the T-shirt can be yours.

The contest ends on October 14, 2009, and we'll choose the three most creative comments as winners on October 16, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!

Posted by Karin Bennett

We hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween! Yeah, we saw you rockin' those Trollsen and Colonel masks! We were knee-deep in mischief ourselves, but don't worry, it was all treat and no trick. PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately Please!" mobile clinic (aka the SNIP-mobile) spent the whole spooky day spaying and neutering dozens of black cats from the Hampton Roads area. So gosh darn cute! Yes, even witches know that cats need to be altered to live full and hauntingly happy lives.

On hand was our VIP 8-year-old PETA Kids representative, Skyler, who happily donned a black kitty costume and handed out treats to all.

A big nod goes out to the staff members aboard the mobile clinic who over the years have done an awesome job preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted kittens. It's a truly frightening statistic that one unspayed female cat can produce 36 cats in just one and a half years!

Thank you, thank you, SNIP crew! You're all wonderful!

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Happy Halloween, animal lovers! I hope you all took our costume advice this year. I'm planning to see tons of Trollsens and Colonels wandering the streets tonight in search of fab vegan candy. Before your teeth begin to ache from too much sugar and your costume gets retired for another year, check out the best holiday e-card that Halloween has to offer. Enjoy!

Posted by Christine Doré

How fun that this year Halloween falls on an Internet Soup Friday! Yes it's cheesy, but I so love the little last-day-of-school rush that I get on I.S. Fridays. It's like you've already turned in all your homework and extra credit, so while you're waiting for the bell to ring, you just go online (or, in my day, rummage through the teacher's desk) and look for weird and fun stuff. So at the end of an action-packed week of filing, here is our offering of oddities.

• Lucky New Yorkers! Catch the 6 Train and scuttle on down to Bleeker Street to catch the latest ingenious exhibit by my favorite street artist Banksy. (OK, I'm not hip enough to know of more than one graffiti artist, but I certainly adore this one!)


• Poultrygeist, the quintessential tacky vegan cult flick, is out on DVD.


• Animal friends are gettin' in on the Halloween action. (Or silly humans are just anthropomorphizing. Still cute, though.)


• Hey, dolphins in Malibu basically have the right to vote, so I'm not sure why this is so crazy.


• Oh! The most precious thing I've seen all week!


• Here are some photos of people who you don't know in Shandong, China, signing a petition against fur. Represent, y'all!


• And since we're all in the Halloween spirit, MSN did the world a favor and ranked Mars candy as some of the worst around. We couldn't agree more, because Mars Inc., ya know, tortures animals!

So that's the lot! We sure hope you've enjoyed these tidbits while avoiding real work. I'm off to put in my vegan wax fangs and witch hat. Tune in next time, and please feel free to let us know if you come across any cute or strange happenings that you'd like us to include.

Happy Halloween!

Posted by Missy Lane

Still don't have a Halloween costume? Too tall to pass for a Trollsen Twin? Take a tip from PETA VP Dan Mathews: be the Colonel.

"Impersonating a scary guy like Colonel Sanders at Halloween is a great way to get a PETA point across at parties and become a frontrunner in costume contests," says Mathews, shown in the accompanying photos in his anti-KFC get-up. KFC is a total house of horrors after all—and our depictions of the colonel are terrifying enough to go along with Saw V. So, why not take advantage of KFC's hideousness and make a gloriously scary Halloween costume? All you need is a white suit and a bloody bucket!

Conveniently, printable versions are available for you to make your very own bucket of blood to accessorize your costume.

Yikes! Terrifying, no? It's a little scary how well Dan pulls that off … of course, he does have experience—no, not as a chicken torturer! In costumes and as a model! Sheesh.

Only eight days left until Halloween! Better get cracking with the corn syrup and red food coloring—you want to have enough blood, don't you?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

newslib / CC

As a towheaded tyke in Dallas years ago (how many years ago I'm not saying), I loved nothing more than to visit Six Flags Over Texas. It seemed like an enchanted wonderland of whimsy and harmless thrills ….

Obviously, those days are long gone.

In a sure sign of desperation, Six Flags Inc.—whose stock has been performing so poorly that it's in danger of losing its listing on the New York Stock Exchange—has decided that the way to drum up business is to have park visitors eat bugs. We can only be glad that these financial geniuses weren't responsible for writing the recent bank bailout legislation, right?

Now, you may recall that Six Flags recently announced that it was going to end the horrible cockroach-eating stunts of the past couple of years during its Halloween-themed "Fright Fest." So, to pretend it's being true to its word, it's announced that it still won't use cockroaches this year—instead it'll offer other kinds of bugs to eat, such as "superworms, larvae, caterpillars, cicadas, night crawlers, crickets, and grasshoppers." Boy, that should make for some delightful childhood memories, huh?

When Six Flags originally announced the end of cockroach-eating, its public relations manager, Sue Carpenter, said, "We're on to other Fright Fest events that do not include any living creatures!" So, what's the dealie? Last we checked, crickets, caterpillars, and grasshoppers were living creatures—and not at all eager to be chewed up so some yahoo can have cuts in the rollercoaster line. Plus, it sends a dangerous message to kids that it's okay to harm others to get ahead.

As soon as we got wind of Six Flags' bait-and-switch nonsense, we wrote to its vice president of communications, Sandra Daniels, to express our outrage and offer another chance to do the right thing.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Stumped about what to wear for Halloween? Forget trying to hustle up some horror out of a hockey mask, and for the love of all that is unholy, please leave that tired old Scream costume in the attic where it belongs. If you really, really want to scare the hell out of people this year—go as one of the Trollsen Twins!

Pelt-wearing party girls who don't give a crap that animals are gassed, electrocuted anally and vaginally, and skinned alive for their fur, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are a truly gruesome twosome. So, with Halloween creeping around the corner and our Trollsen Twins campaign in full swing, we thought, "Why not make Hairy-Kate and Trashley masks?" Then we thought some more and said, "Hmmm, why not give 10 of these terrifying things away?" Which is where you come into the picture: Just send us a comment telling us about your best Halloween costume by October 12, 2008, and you could be one of the lucky stiffs to walk away with either a Hairy-Kate or Trashley mask.

We'll contact the winners by October 13. Heads up, though: We can only send masks to people in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. … but that doesn't stop us from spreading the "troll-y" love—you can print your own mask here.

Be sure to read the contest terms and conditions and PETA's privacy policy before you comment. By commenting, you're acknowledging you agree to them both.

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

PETA Europe did a little trick or treating yesterday at a Burberry store in Manchester to encourage the chain to stop with the fur already. Great demo guys.

Since the Halloween season is upon us and all that, I wanted to share this bit of Halloween trivia with you. Zombies hate KFC. Seriously, they hate it. In fact, they hate it so much that they held a protest at a KFC in Moscow, ID, with signs reading “I’d Rather Be Dead Than Eat at KFC”. Unfortunately for this group of zombies, their photographer only got shots of their signs reading “Aurgh Graun Uargh”. But you get the idea. If you’d like to do your own zombie-themed KFC demo, click here.

And since you asked . . . No, I am not dressing up for Halloween. In fact, I’d rather go naked than dress up for Halloween.

umusic/Creative Commons

If you've been following Rob Zombie's career, you'll know that he's been successful in a number of different arenas, from his groundbreaking work with White Zombie in the '90s, when this blogger was a young alternative-music junkie ("More human than hu-man! More human than hu-man!") to his successful solo career, and more recently in his mega-hit slasher films House of 1,000 Corpses and Halloween. A lot of people who have watched the gore-fest that is this summer's Halloween get more squeamish when the young Michael Myers mutilates animals than they do when the killer graduates to human victims. Well, it so happens that this touches on one of PETA's major campaigns—to raise awareness about the well-documented link between cruelty to animals and crimes against humans.

With that in mind, PETA VP Dan Mathews wrote the following note to Mr. Zombie:

“We at PETA would like to thank you for making clear in Halloween that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals are likely to move on to humans. Although audiences wince during scenes showing the young Michael Myers mutilating animals, following it up with the school counselor articulating how this is the first step to becoming a maniac was perfectly done. Hopefully, with the attention focused by your movie on this link between animal cruelty and human violence, more people will recognize the warning signs among people they know and deal with it more forcefully.”

Not only was the cat used in this scene fake (of course), but guess what? Rob Zombie is an ethical vegetarian, and has been since 1982, when he saw slaughterhouse footage in high school. Turns out that some zombies don't eat flesh at all. Who knew?

On second thoughts, I’d probably get into a lot of trouble for posting the pics from our actual Halloween party. But here are some from yesterday’s demonstration against KFC. We pulled out all the stops for this one and brought along ...

a skeleton to scare KFC into making some animal welfare improvements …
a pumpkin to tug at their grizzled old heartstrings …



… and some other people. Including a dude in a Darth Vader mask.

More pics after the jump.

I’ve never personally had a Halloween adventure, but from all accounts, they’re a barrel of laughs. Check out this delightful e-card featuring the world-famous “Not a Nugget” chick, and have a great Halloween!

P.S. We're doing a demonstration tonight at our local KFC, where we're dressing up as skeletons and zombies and holding signs that say "I’d Rather be Dead than Eat Kentucky Fried Cruelty." I'll let you know how it goes ...