Tel Aviv has become the first city in Israel to prohibit horse-drawn carriages, thanks largely to years of tireless campaigning by Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) and its sister organization, Hakol Chai. Their efforts included organizing international letter-writing campaigns, educational presentations in schools, a benefit concert, and a rousing demonstration outside City Hall.

Because CHAI and Hakol Chai were determined to make a difference, exhausted, sick, and injured horses and donkeys will no longer be beaten and whipped by metal and junk peddlers who force them to pull huge, heavy carriages in dangerous, busy traffic in Tel Aviv.

blogs.bootsnall / CC

This success story has inspired me to try to score a similar victory for exhausted, abused horses closer to home, so I've added, "Write to New York City councilmembers—again—re horse-drawn carriages," to the top of my to-do list. Won't you do the same?

Posted by Karin Bennett

smh.com.au / CC

Some celebrities make animal-friendly demands when they're on tour, but Madonna isn't one of them.

We already knew the Material Girl was a fur hag. Now, she's added to her animal-unfriendly rep by purchasing 110 pounds of kosher meat for the last two performances of her "Sticky and Sweet" tour in Tel Aviv.

We immediately sent her a letter explaining that most imported kosher beef sold in Israel comes from Uruguay, where cattle are often shackled and violently wrestled to the ground before having their throats cut and being hoisted into the air by their hind legs—a cruel "shackle and hoist" slaughter method that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel has called "primitive" and has promised to phase out.

Instead of ordering her weight in meat, Madge would win over more fans if she gave a compassionate diet a try.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Tourists are flocking to Kiryat Yam, Israel, in hopes of spotting a mermaid who has reportedly been seen frolicking during sunset swims, and the Town Council is offering a $1 million reward for anyone who can provide a photograph that proves Ariel's kin are kicking back on local beaches.

If it's a photo of a mermaid they want, we'd be happy to oblige. We're offering to run our stunning "Make a Splash—Go Vegetarian" ad, which makes the case that, like mermaids, fish sea kittens, lobsters, crabs, and other animals of the sea deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.

If you would shun a plate of poached mermaid, why not let Nemo and his buddies off the hook too?

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignited controversy when he made a speech in which he ostensibly endorsed Palestinian statehood. Unfortunately, the speech didn't go over so well with the Palestinians, who decried it as an empty offer because of the strings he attached to his endorsement.

While Palestinians and Israelis can't seem to agree on where to draw the (geographic) line, we thought the time had come to remind them that there's one thing we can all agree on: Cruelty sucks.

That's why we're bringing back our "Give Peas a Chance" ad, which we had previously proposed placing along both sides of the barriers that run through the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This time, we've turned it into a billboard that we will be trying to place throughout the region.

Wish us luck! After all, hummus is a universal symbol of peace, right? No? Hmmm, I could swear I read that somewhere.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

pelotes.jea / CC

With the weather warming up, a lot of fur-wearers will be retiring their pelts to closets and vaults until autumn. But that doesn't mean that "fur season" is over.

Consider this—right now, the following is happening around the world:

• Baby seals are being shot and beaten on the ice floes off Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada while their helpless mothers watch and mourn.
• Also in Canada, mother bears are in danger of being shot—leaving their cubs to starve to death—so that their fur can be used to make pointless ceremonial caps for The Queen's Guards in the U.K.
• Animals on fur farms are being packed into tiny cages, going insane from stress and captivity, or being poisoned, electocuted, or even skinned alive.
• Elsewhere, wild animals—or perhaps your cat or dog—are caught in cruel steel-jaw traps, terrified and in anguish.

But while those winter coats are forgotten about for a few months, there are some people who will still have fur on their mind this summer, including the entire nation of Israel. Israeli Knesset Member Nitzan Horowitz has introduced the world's first nationwide bill to prohibit the fur industry. If it becomes law, this bill would prohibit the production, sale, and importation of all fur products throughout Israel. Very cool news for a hot season!

Check out PETA Asia Pacific's site to encourage continued support for this historic bill. And if that just whets your appetite for some serious warm-weather fur-fighting, check this out too.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Quick, what happens when you throw a stone in a pond of water? That's right, ripples form. Don't worry, we're not revisiting Physics 101, but that metaphor describes how phenomenal it is to see our actions generate positive consequences.

Check out this stone-skipping scenario: Last fall, an Israeli group videotaped hideously cruel experiments on monkeys and cats that were taking place at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, in which the animals were kept hungry and thirsty so that they would "work" in exchange for a few drops of water. Vivisectors drilled holes in the animals' skulls, inserted electrodes in their brains, and then strapped animals into restraint chairs, where they were kept entirely immobile for hours at a time while data were recorded. These experiments have been going on for more than 20 years, and get this: Our tax dollars—right here in the United States—have been paying for them, courtesy of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).

When PETA received the video footage, we sprang into action, writing to the NIH, identifying influential friends who could nudge the Weizmann Institute, and setting up a petition so that concerned people everywhere could tell the Weizmann Institute what they thought.

And now, thanks to the massive outpouring of concern, Israeli academics opposed to cruelty to animals have started organizing and speaking out. Operating under the banner "Academics for the Protection of Animals in Labs," three hundred professors at Israeli universities have signed a petition calling for greater accountability and transparency for animal experimentation. In the words of one organizer, "What I am proposing is that there should be more transparency and supervision, and yes, also fewer experiments ...."

They're not monkeying around, and those are some serious stones!

Posted by Grace Friedan