Earlier today, I brought you an image of a giant dinosaur attacking DC to help end animal testing. I’m no mind-reader, but I’m fairly confident that the following, word for word, is exactly what went on inside your heads when you saw that picture:

“This is the greatest thing that I have ever seen. Ever. It will be literally impossible for Jack to top this in a subsequent PETA Files entry.”

Well, you were wrong, people. You were wrong. Because, difficult as it may be for you to imagine, there is one thing that's even better than a giant dino rampaging through our Nation’s capital. And we pulled it off yesterday afternoon in Times Square: The first-ever girl/girl shower demonstration. The purpose of the demo was to remind passersby and the media—just in time for Earth Day—that if they’re worried about the environmental devastation caused by wasting water, they should cut it off at the source … by going vegetarian. Just to spell this point out, it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce just one pound of meat. Which is roughly equivalent to about a full year’s worth of showers (depending on how clean of a person you are).

Now that you’ve patiently sat through the math lesson, here are some pics of two girls and a naked cowboy in a shower. Yup, the naked cowboy himself (who is normally very territorial about his space in Times Square) was gracious enough to hop in with these kickass activists, telling reporters that he was doing it “for the animals — like me.” Glorious.

With a bit of help from celebrity photographer Christopher Ameruoso, Girls Next Door star Holly Madison has created a downloadable video for the iPhone based on her amazing Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur ads. Proceeds from the video will go to benefit PETA’s anti-fur campaign. If you’re lucky enough to have an iPhone, and you want to make it even more beautiful by putting Holly Madison in it, you can download the PSA here. Thank you, Holly!

Greetings from peta2!

Being the wild youth that we are over at peta2, since Jack is away we thought we'd take this opportunity to, well, bum rush the blog and tell you what's going on in our neck of the woods. And there's a lot.

Right now we're in the midst of a SuicideGirls blitz. More than 40 nearly nude SuicideGirls—45 to be exact—stripped down to their tats and piercings to star in a series of provocative new "Ink, Not Mink" and "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" anti-fur ads for peta2. The SuicideGirls for those of you not in the know, are members of a 1,500-strong all-female online pin-up community.

The ads, which are a bit risqué for some of peta2's younger visitors, are being released throughout the month on peta2's MySpace page where you'll be able to read blogs from some of the SuicideGirls who took part in the campaign.

We launched the super sexy ads at a big bash at The Roxy in LA on Valentine's Night, where there was standing room only. Nicole, who has been tirelessly working on this campaign since October, had this to say about the party, "We were thrilled to see that so many people came out to party with peta2 and the SuicideGirls to support such a great cause! And the ads turned out beautifully!"

Check out some of the pix of the event.

Vegan beauty Annalise Braakensiek was recently asked by Cleo magazine to offer a signed photo up for auction to raise money for her favorite charity … which just happens to be our friends over at PETA Asia Pacific. The stunning image that Annalise is donating on PETA AP’s behalf was published in Cleo magazine with a blurb about why animal rights issues are so important to her. If you’re a fan (and who the hell wouldn’t be, after seeing this pic?), you can bid for the photo on e-bay until February 8. Happy auctioning!

Seems like there’s been quite a bit of naked going on lately, especially with all the work that went into putting together this year’s glorious State of the Union Undress, but these images—from a recent anti-fur demonstration in Barcelona—are way too good to pass up. Dozens of activists gathered to draw attention to the cruelty of the fur industry on Monday, and the results are just incredibly compelling.

Check out the photo gallery here.

And there’s a nice piece about the event here.

Now I know why my friends Allie and Virginia came into the office this morning a slightly different color than normal (respectively, a sort of off-yellow and a nice olive green). Pics from this beautiful demonstration in Times Square have been circulating around the ol' blogosphere today—the girls were outside the M&Ms World store to let passersby know that Mars Candy performs cruel tests on animals. In violation of its own written policy, the candy company is currently funding a study at UC San Francisco in which rats are force-fed by having plastic tubes shoved down their throats, then cut open and killed. In addition to our boycott of the company, PETA is filing a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Mars' false statement.

Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff for now. Check out the great pics below, and if you feel like helping out with our campaign, I’ve also posted the code for our anti-Mars Web banner for anyone who wants to put it on their site. You can learn more about the campaign here.

<a href="http://www.marscandykills.com"><img border="0" alt="xmas_mnm.gif" src="http://blog.peta.org/archives/xmas_mnm.gif" width="405" height="105" /></a>

Blogs that have covered this story

Faded Youth
Celebrity Mound
All that’s Fab
Jonathan Jaxson

Australian supermodel Imogen Bailey has helped us with numerous campaigns over the years, speaking out on issues as diverse as the fur industry, rodeos, and elephants in captivity. And she’s just launched a whole new website devoted to educating people about animal rights and giving animal-lovers a forum to discuss the issues. So I wanted to give it a quick shout out: You can check out Imogen Bailey’s ImForAnimals here. But before you go, have a look at this stunning ad she made to let people know about the cruelty behind rodeos. You’re a star, Imogen.

Alright people, fun’s over. You had your day with Joel talking about soy nog and “smiles”. Now it’s time to get back to work. Today we will be going over the finer points of whether a coherent liberationist ethic can be constructed from strictly utilitarian arguments (or whether some sort of deontological consequentialism is necessary to round out the debate), and throughout next week, I will be doing a series on recent addenda to the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. There will be a quiz on Friday to make sure everyone takes it all in.

Now, here’s a picture of the serious work I was doing yesterday while Joel was goofing off back at the office. We spent the afternoon outside the British Embassy in DC to remind the British Ministry of Defense that the “world is watching” while they continue to needlessly slaughter black bears for their ceremonial hats. Apparently this required that we remove all of our clothes and paint our naked bodies like flags. Hey, I just do what I’m told. The demonstration was a blast—we met some great activists, some friendly photographers, and some very bewildered passersby, and I think the pictures came out really well. Check em out.

A bunch of flags

I’m going to be in DC tomorrow, standing naked outside the British embassy painted like a British flag along with PETA members from seven other nations who will be reminding Britain that the “world is watching” while the nation condones the cruel slaughter of black bears for the Queen’s Guards’ silly ceremonial hats. Embarrassing as all this is for me, the real purpose of this post is to say that the PETA Files will be in the capable hands of my good friend Joel Bartlett during my absence tomorrow, so please treat him nice and try to bear with him if he goes off on long tangents about Star Trek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (as he occasionally has a tendency to do).

And yes—I have a weird job. Wish me luck!

Joel Bartlett

This beautiful, beautiful e-card starring Christina Applegate got leaked last week, and it’s been all over the blogosphere already. The Samantha Who? star posed nude to help remind people to stay away from fur and fur-trim during the holiday season. Check it out—it"s gorgeous.

Blogs covering this story

In Touch
Entertainmentwise
Seriously?OMG!WTF?
Agency Spy
Celebitchy

I know. I know. Steve-O would rather go naked than do just about anything. But it’s still cool that wearing fur makes that very long list. In fact, Steve-O feels so strongly that killing animals for their fur is just plain wrong that he jumped—literally—at the chance to star in these new ads.

While Steve-O is famous for putting himself in all sorts of painful situations, he’s totally clear about what he thinks of hurting animals. "Abuse yourself all you want," he says, "just leave animals out of it. Don't wear fur." Check out what else Steve-O had to say in this video from the photo shoot.

PETA's Senior Vice President Lisa Lange was on The O'Reilly Factor last night to talk about two of our latest ads, a sexy veggie testimonial starring Alicia Silverstone and a racy new promo for our Animal Birth Control (ABC) Campaign featuring burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese. The question at issue was whether these ads were somehow offensive. O'Reilly himself was very fair and balanced about the whole thing, and even made some positive comments about the animal protection movement, and Lisa did a great job of explaining why she believes that there's nothing wrong with a beautiful woman using sex appeal to make a point.

In fact, the only person who came out of the show looking bad was that Queen of Prudes, Fox News' Kirsten Powers, who was so scandalized by the super-sexy Dita Von Teese ad that she could barely string together a coherent sentence. Powers' blustering aside, I do think O'Reilly's question is an important one, and it's something we take very seriously at PETA. The way I see it, both Alicia's veggie PSA and Dita Von Teese's ABC ad are tasteful, professional, and, honestly, stunning, each in their own way. They do what ads are supposed to do—they grab your attention and they generate discussion about the issue.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what people think about this tactic. It won't mean that we're going to stop running sexy ads for our different campaigns to help animals (I'm busy working away on the script for next year's "State of the Union Undress" right now), but a little bit of healthy debate never hurt nobody. Except Kirsten Powers.

See Also

Politics of Power and PETA
A Photo Gallery of PETA's Naked Campaigns
Animal Rights Uncompromised: PETA's Tactics

OK, so essentially everyone in the developed world has at least heard of PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. At least everyone with access to a TV, computer, radio or newspaper. And, to be honest, we’re quite proud of the campaign’s success.

Other Viewing Options

It’s pretty clear we’re all about getting naked for a good cause, so I was thrilled to hear about UK-based Lush Cosmetics’ new “naked” marketing campaign. And since the company is as animal-friendly as they come, I love it even more.

TreeHugger/Creative Commons

Last night, PETA's Lisa Lange made an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor to talk about the "racy" alternative to Pamplona's hideous Running of the Bulls. The story brought tons of new people to the Running of the Nudes website last night to see what all the fuss was about, just in time to see all the amazing new pictures that’ve been put up there.

You can click the image above to check out the updated site, and if you let me know what you think of the new pics, or of the Running of the Nudes concept in general, I'll pick one commenter to win one of the highly coveted Running of the Nudes novelty pens, starring a naked (depending on which way up you hold the pen) Annamarie Lytle.

Just as an FYI, while all comments are welcome, if you leave a rant about Running of the Nudes being a shameful display of skin that's corrupting our nation's youth, I will assume that means you don't want a nudie pen.

P.S. I just got word from those laugh-a-minute party animals up in our Legal Department that if you want to be entered to win the pen it means you’re down with our terms and conditions.

The Running of the Nudes took place today in Pamplona, and, well, wow. This is the sixth year that PETA Europe has been organizing this fun alternative to Pamplona’s archaic bull run, and the thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I’ll be posting more news and pictures from the event as they come in, but here are the first shots from today’s naked “Human Race.”

I’m pretty excited about this one, as it’s the first time PETA is dipping its toe into Second Life. On July 12, we’re teaming up with cruelty-free designer Stella McCartney to co-host an event on a specially created island in the virtual world. Visitors to the island—which is inspired by the English countryside, with stables, picnic tables, and a Linda McCartney veggie burger stand—will be able to show support for PETA in virtual terms. All visitors will receive a bunch of cool anti-fur gear for their Second Life character to wear; you can donate money in Linden dollars, the community's currency, which PETA will be able to exchange for real U.S. dollars, and you’ll be able to dress your character in a sweet T-shirt with the slogan "I'd rather be pixilated than wear fur."

And check this out; there are real-world prizes to be won as well. We’re holding a competition on the island from July 12 - July 19 for a new PETA slogan based around the iconic tag line, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur." Prizes include two tickets to McCartney's spring 2008 show in Paris, one of the designer's Appaloosa bags and her entire Care skin care line.

For those of you already on Second Life, I’d be glad to email you when the island goes live. Just send me an email so I have your address.

Check out the gaggle of nearly naked PETA members who converged on the Spanish Embassy in Washington D.C. yesterday in a warm up for PETA UK’s sixth annual Running of the Nudes in Pamplona, Spain, to protest the cruelty of the Running of the Bulls. OK, so I guess this demo is more like the Running of the Almost Nudes since they were all rocking underwear, but still . . .

Of course in the real Running of the Nudes, most of those participants roll buck naked, save for running shoes and the red scarves that are traditionally worn during the bull run. And lots of body hair. Come on, it is in Europe after all.

Here’s the video from last year’s event.

Attention: Only watch this video if you are over 18 and if seeing naked people protesting cruelty to animals is legal where you live (the lawyers made me say that).

Click here if you want to get in on this year’s run in July.

You know what I’m saying? Seriously, it just makes me happy to be alive. Her name is Annamarie, the place is Fresno, and there was evidently a bit of a traffic jam for a while. As Annamarie puts it, "I’ll gladly bare some of my skin if it will help save animals’ skins. With all the luxurious alternatives available, there’s absolutely no excuse to wear animal skins."

And finally, in the interest of fairness, here are some boys too.

What do you do when you have more naked activists than life-size, cellophane-wrapped meat trays? Double up. At least that was how they handled it at Princeton University yesterday, to striking effect. The demonstration, which was a joint protest organized by PETA and the Princeton Animal Welfare Society to draw attention to the suffering of animals used by the meat industry, got two different front page stories in the Daily Princetonian, including this one, about a follow-up presentation given by Dan Mathews to explain in a bit more detail why PETA does these kinds of demonstration instead of just putting on a suit and tie and pointing out the various inadequacies in the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act. (The short answer, by the way, is that we do both, but people don't always show up for the latter presentation.) Anyway, here are some pics:

I've posted a couple of pictures in the past with some of the lovely ladies of PETA getting nekkid to help animals, so I figured it was high time I published a few pics of the dudes. This photo’s from a Tax Day demonstration conducted by PETA Campaigner Mike Brazell in Philadelphia to let people know that donating fur coats to PETA is tax-deductible. Mike quickly recognized that, while this is an important and useful piece of information, it doesn't exactly grab the attention like some of PETA's campaigns—so he did what any resourceful campaigner is trained to do in a difficult situation and removed his clothing. Nice work, Mike! Here are the results:

These particular photos reminded me of one of my favorite stories about my friend Matt Rice. PETA had sent out a press release about a demonstration that was going to take place in Corpus Christi, which went something like this:

"Nearly naked and covered head to toe in tiger body paint, one of PETA's beautiful "Tiger Ladies" will be in a cage in Corpus Christi this Friday to protest the cruel treatment of animals in the circus"

The press release did the trick, and a ton of media promised to come out and report on the event, which was all well and good until Matt got a call from the "Tiger Lady" at the last minute to say she couldn't make it. Fortunately, nothing fazes Matt Rice. Here's how he handled the crisis:

Rawr! Matt, you're a hero.

If for some reason you're still starving for pics of scantily clad PETA dudes, you can check out our old Broccoli Boys website here. That'll cure you for sure.

OK, I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but yeah, I saw this movie. Maybe it was the fact that I grew up with General Lee Hot Wheels cars, or that good ol' Willie Nelson plays Uncle Jessie in the movie. OK, it was neither of those things. It was because I thought Jessica Simpson looked hot in the previews . . . What can I say?

Anyway, I just found these shots of a naked anti-fur protest scene that was edited from the movie. Damn, I wish that would have made it into the final cut . . . for the animal rights message only, of course.

Now a brief note of caution: the ever so protective and well-meaning legal eagles upstairs want me to warn you that the pictures linked above show a bit of skin, and that if you’re not 18 and you look at them, your eyes will melt and your brain will explode, among other things.

Former PETA intern Ashley just sent along these great pictures from her "All Animals Have the Same Parts" pro-vegetarian demonstration yesterday for PETA’s Asia Pacific affiliate.

It seems like the whole thing went over pretty damn well. The photographers in particular look really pleased with themselves for some reason. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Ashley, who's always willing to go that extra mile to help animals (e.g., "Hey Ashley, would you mind going to Thailand, getting naked, and painting yourself like cuts of meat to point out the absurdity of treating any living being like an object? Great, thanks."). Ashley—you're amazing. Check out the pics:

The thing about the truth is that it just never gets old, especially when there's nudity involved. The truth about the chicks raised for KFC is that they're horrifically abused and often scalded alive. The infinitely more palatable truth about these two chicks, who happen to be colleagues of mine, is that they don't have any clothes on. The hope is that the one truth will make the other truth easier to process, and, based on the reactions of some folks in KFC's hometown of Lousiville where this protest took place, it's working like a charm. Be careful not to get the two truths mixed up though—there's absolutely no good reason for boycotting naked chicks.

There are 19 more photos where that came from in The Louisville Courier Journal. The photographer just couldn't stop for some reason ...