Sharon McDonough has been accused of running what her son calls "a concentration camp for animals" after officials found the bodies of 20 dogs buried in her backyard in Selden, New York, and discovered six living animals (who were reportedly confined to soiled cages) inside her house. McDonough allegedly forced her children to commit nightmarish acts of cruelty, including restraining a dog and duct-taping his mouth shut while she beat the animal. McDonough was arrested, and her six children have been taken into protective custody. Dozens of neighbors remain worried that their missing companion animals will soon be found inside the shallow graves of McDonough's backyard.

In the wake of this ghastly discovery, we're sending our PSA featuring Eli Roth to TV stations in the New York City area to warn viewers about the vicious cycle of violence that often begins with animal abuse and, as research has proved, often ends with violence against humans:

Posted by Logan Scherer

Update: After receiving a complaint from Leslie Franks Solicitors that the description of its client hadn't made the distinction that Barker was not convicted of murder but rather of "causing or allowing" the death of Baby P, PETA U.K. redesigned this billboard. Convicted child abusers' violent acts send just as clear a warning to anyone who might overlook animal abuse.

It's been shown many times that those who abuse animals often go on to commit violence against human beings. (Remember what Eli Roth said?)

With that in mind, our friends at PETA UK have just placed a billboard in Haringey, the North London borough that is now infamous for being the location of the horrific abuse of "Baby P," a 17-month old boy who was found dead in his bed with a broken back, his fingertips sliced off, and his fingernails pulled out with pliers. He was also punched so hard in the face that he swallowed a tooth.

As a child, Baby P's abuser, Steven Barker, tortured animals, including frogs, whom he would skin before breaking their legs. How much suffering could have been prevented if Barker's fascination with inflicting torture on animals had been taken more seriously?

Baby P's case is a chilling reminder that cruelty-to-animals cases must be reported and aggressively prosecuted in order to protect helpless victims of all species.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

If you visited PETA's Web site during the month of November, you probably saw turkey slaughter footage. And no, I don't mean Sarah Palin's infamous turkey pardon fail.

But have you ever seen slaughter footage from Turkey? Turns out animals are killed as cruelly there as anywhere else.

This video was taken in a slaughterhouse in Turkey, but pointlessly cruel abuse like this can happen to any animal anywhere—from the 8-day-old calf who was beaten and kicked while on her way to slaughter in the U.K., to the conscious chicken plunged into scalding-hot water in an Indian slaughterhouse, to any of the animals enduring the many horrific abuses we've documented in the U.S. at Pilgrim's Pride, Smithfield Foods, Butterball, and AgriProcessors facilities, among others.

If this video upsets you, please run, don't walk, over to GoVeg.com and order a copy of our free "Vegetarian Starter Kit." For those of you who are already vegetarians, keep this video handy and show it to the next person who asks you why you refuse to eat anybody who had a mother.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

mediabistro / CC
It looks like the Hamburglar might have moved on to a more serious crime.

Not only is eating meat unhealthy, it also might make you homicidal. Just ask Terrence J. Jones of Washington, D.C., who has been imprisoned for allegedly killing a woman after she refused to cook him a hamburger.

That's right—he allegedly killed a stranger for not making him a burger! Unbelievable!

PETA has written a letter to Jones' prison warden and asked him to provide Jones with only vegetarian meals (and even offered to help create meatless meal plans). We believe that it's the only way to stop more senseless killings for the sake of Terrence J. Jones' taste buds.

Not only will this stop the needless and cruel murder of animals, evidence from prisons that have switched inmates to vegetarian diets indicates that doing so might reduce violence among inmates too. Feeding inmates bean burritos instead of beef burgers could go a long way toward ending the cycle of violence. Plus vegetarian meals are cost-efficient and easy to prepare (for everyone, regardless of whether they're in prison).

So let's recap: A vegetarian diet saves humans, animals, time, and money. Sounds like a no-brainer to me!

Posted by Carrie Ann Harris

Yesterday, we mentioned an advertisement that we wanted to run in a Canadian newspaper in the wake of a shocking stabbing murder and possible cannibalism in Manitoba. Countless people have contacted us with their concerns, so we'd like to explain why we wanted to run the ad that no newspaper will touch with a 10' pole.

Yes, of course we were horrified (who wouldn't be?) when we heard the details of this barbaric, incomprehensible killing. And obviously, everyone's good thoughts go out to anyone affected by this violent act. That's all a no-brainer. Now, remember, PETA is known for being provocative—that's our job. The animals don't benefit from our silence. So our thought is always: How can we get people to see that despite their feelings about this kind of violence, they are often paying someone to do exactly what was done to the man on the bus, and worse, just so that they can eat a sandwich? Voila, the ad!

We see parallels between acts of violence against humans and cruelty to animals, since both spring from a common root. We understand that such comparisons may be uncomfortable for many people, but they're not inaccurate.

Responding to violence with anger is also natural, but just being angry solves nothing, does it? Real change comes about when we channel anger or sadness into action. By juxtaposing the shocking details of the murder with the fate of animals whose bodies are casually hacked apart to end up between two slices of bread, some good will come. Already, thousands of people have visited our site not just to scream at us but also to read about slaughterhouses, and many have watched "Meat Your Meat." If you can sit through that and not see the truth in what we are saying, what can we say?

Like humans, animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone. Animals in slaughterhouses experience terror in the face of death. They fight for their lives and struggle to avoid pain. Birds love and grieve. In light of animals' suffering, we are urging people to embrace nonviolence in the face of senseless violence—against all beings—by going vegetarian. If someone doesn't like it, maybe it is because it makes them feel guilty for just saying, "Oh, how terrible," about the bus violence but not wanting to face the fact that they contribute to violence as well. To think otherwise is simply supremacist.

Have you heard about former fashion writer Peter Braunstein, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker, and plotting to kill inamous fur hag Vogue editor Anna Wintour? Check out the story here; it’s wild stuff for sure. A psychologist for the defense told jurors that Braunstein is the most clinically textbook case of paranoid schizophrenia she had ever diagnosed, but I’ll tell you what, he appears to be pretty close to the truth when he assesses Wintour's character. Who else but an egotistical “skank” would continue to turn a blind eye to the suffering of animals killed for her many fur coats?

It’s time for Wintour to take a page from the book of her favorite designer. Miuccia Prada recently announced that she would no longer design with fur, saying she was “bored” with it. And I have to agree, nothing is quite so passé as torture, killing, and bloodshed—unless you’re a paranoid schizophrenic of course.

And just for posterity’s sake, I don’t think it’s right to mention Wintour’s name without showing this pic of her after getting a face full of tofu cream pie from an anti-fur activist in Europe.

Of course, the lawyers upstairs would like me to mention that I don’t condone the pie thing. In fact, I have no opinion of it all, I’m just reporting that it happened. There, happy Paula?