Not even kidding. According to The Austin American Statesman, grief counselors were made available to employees of the University of Texas Keeling Animal Research Center after an adult chimpanzee who escaped from the experimentation facility was shot and killed near the campus. Anyone else find it odd that employees of a facility that cages animals and performs cruel experiments on them against their will would need specialists to comfort them when the animals die due to their facility’s negligence?

PETA filed a formal complaint today, calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the laboratory for alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, including failure to ensure that personnel are qualified to perform their duties and failure to provide structurally sound housing for nonhuman primates. Here’s what PETA Primate Specialist Dr. Debra Durham told the media:

"Chimpanzees are intelligent, sensitive, and resourceful—they shouldn't be incarcerated in laboratories in the first place. Research on chimpanzees is banned in many countries. The very least that this laboratory can do is ensure that these animals have safe living spaces."

Which doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment, given that this is the second chimpanzee escape from the facility in the past six months. You’d almost think these animals don’t want to be there.

Maybe they can send in a team of basic human decency counselors along with the grief folks. Just a thought.

DannySeo/Creative Commons

First of all, a huge congratulations to Stella McCartney for being named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards last night. Stella beat out Luella Bartley and Anya Hindmarch to score this prestigious award, which solidifies her well-deserved place amongst the world’s top designers.

As an aside, I should point out that I don’t normally get quite this excited about women’s fashion, but Stella’s win is more than just an accolade for a talented designer—it’s a message to the fashion world that truly innovative and progressive designers can do just fine without using fur or leather. Stella, who has been a great friend to PETA over the years, has always been outspoken about her desire to keep her designs animal-friendly, and even took the time to narrate an anti-fur video to help us to persuade other designers to follow suit. Congratulations, Stella—and thanks for everything that you do.

When our Campaigns department heard about a bull run taking place in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, they sprung into action, immediately firing off a letter to the Mayor asking him to cancel the event permanently. Well, I’m happy to report that the city has agreed to do just that! Way to go R&I.

For those of you who read Spanish, you can check out the letter from San Miguel de Allende Mayor Jesús Correa Ramírez below. Thank you Mr. Ramirez!

And just a quick note to the city of Pamplona: The world is changing and you’re getting left behind . . .

Here’s the letter.