A lot. Is the short answer. But if you have a little bit of time on your hands, there’s a long answer currently available in the form of our 2007 Annual Review, and it makes for some excellent reading. There’s also a bulleted breakdown of the numbers (like, how much we spent on what), as well as a bunch of pretty pictures for the benefit of anyone who, like me, has trouble reading more than a couple of paragraphs on the Internet without taking break to see what the lolcats are up to.

Suffice it to say, 2007 was an insanely busy year—so it’s great to take a step back and see just how much we got done.

In case you missed it last night, here’s PETA President Ingrid Newkirk on Colbert talking about everything from her plans for her will to her recent book Making Kind Choices. Best Colbert Report ever, if you ask me.

For anyone who's done animal rights protests before, you'll know that—no matter what the issue—the first thing anyone ever asks you is whether your shoes are leather (seriously, the question is almost a reflex for some people—I've heard of people being asked that at naked demonstrations). So it's always a bonus when the demonstration is focused on the treatment of cows in the leather industry—at least then, you can stay on topic.

And this particular topic is an exceptionally gruesome one in India (which, along with China, provides most of the world's leather), as today's protest in Bangalore showed to dramatic effect. The powerful demonstration was staged by a pair of PETA India members (in what appear to be canvas shoes, in case anyone's wondering) and was covered widely in the Indian media. Great work, guys.

Yes, HBO’s I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA was insightful, well-made, and powerful. I’ll admit that. But WTF, HBO? Didn’t you forget something kind of important? Did all those times I found an excuse to walk by the cameras when you were filming in the office mean nothing to you? Did that week we spent together camped out in a parking lot in New Orleans just completely slip your minds? Or is there something I missed?

As anyone who watched the documentary last night will know by now, this lowly PETA blogger does not appear anywhere in the final cut of the film. Like, there aren’t even any scenes where you can hear my voice off camera, or see me wandering by in the hallways. But with the exception of that massive, massive oversight on HBO’s part, the film, which aired for the first time yesterday at 8 p.m., was absolutely riveting. I won’t give away too much, since you can still catch it on HBO On Demand, but the film takes as its central theme the period leading up to the release of our Butterball investigation, and it provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes view of exactly how that campaign and a number of other PETA initiatives go from an idea in a meeting to a major media story that highlights the suffering of animals.

If you get a chance to watch the film, you’ll notice that not all the viewpoints expressed in the documentary are flattering about PETA, but as an organization, we’ve never been particularly concerned about flattery—our goal has always been to get people thinking seriously about animal rights, and whenever possible, getting them to sit down and actually confront the horrors that animals are subjected to in the meat, fur, animal-research, and other abusive industries that are so often kept hidden from the public. I Am an Animal accomplishes that in spades, and for that reason I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about why we do what we do. I just hope that when they make the sequel, they’ll give the people what they want and spend a little bit more time filming me.

Sex and the City. People either love it or hate it. And since the series has ended, there has been no shortage of drama between the show's loyal fans and its detractors, and also between the actors themselves. But believe it or not, jumping into that fray isn't the point of this post.

The movie version of Sex is filming right now, and this picture is making its way all over the Internet. Apparently, there is a scene in the movie where people who call themselves PETA tell Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall's character) what they think of her choice of outerwear, as they throw paint on her. Here's the photo that's been doing the rounds of the Sex and the City fansites today, so you can judge for yourselves:

And for the record, PETA doesn't throw paint on fur wearers. What we suggest is giving them an earful while handing them one of these nifty anti-fur business cards, or maybe encouraging them to display one of these wonderful little warning labels:

Ah, MySpace. It can be so tacky, so infuriating, so unutterably ugly. But there’s no denying that it’s also completely addictive. And the good news is that it’s turned out to be a really powerful tool for activism—helping to encourage a sense of community among activists, and keeping people up to date on breaking news and campaigns. Which is why we’re very excited to announce the launch of the official PETA MySpace page. (Yeah, I know—those trendsetting hipsters over at peta2 have had their MySpace page since it was in Beta. We just took our time with this one.)

So for my fellow MySpace junkies out there, you don’t have to admit that you sometimes spend your Friday nights sending out bulletins about, like, what you ate for dinner, but please do take a moment to check out PETA’s MySpace page, and maybe even add us as your friend. Kthxbye.

I have a feeling that a lot of people would have been pretty surprised if they'd seen Michael Vick walking into PETA's offices recently—not once but three times. You'd think that would be the very last place on Earth he would consider spending time. But it happened, and here's how it came about: After Vick pleaded guilty to dogfighting charges, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk—a great believer in hammering away at the seemingly impossible—contacted him to ask him to hear about animals’ feelings, needs, and desires, and to hear firsthand why people are so outraged by the suffering of the dogs fought and killed in Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting pits. Vick confirmed our belief that he had never before been exposed to this kind of information, and, after a formal preliminary meeting at PETA HQ—during which we reiterated that we're still seeking a strong jail sentence and a lifetime ban on contact with animals—he left with study materials. He returned on September 18 to take an 8-hour course in empathy and animal protection. No cell phones allowed, no going out for lunch, just learning.

The full course that Vick took, which includes homework, workshop outlines, videos, and supplemental course materials, as well as the exam questions Michael Vick returned to answer under his tutor’s watchful eye, is available here. The class included scientific evidence that animals are thinking, feeling beings, capable of a range of behavior and emotions; presentations on the specific needs of dogs; and information about the well-documented link between acts of violence against animals and crimes against humans, which PETA shares with law enforcement officers every week.

I know people can see red when it comes to any mention of Vick, so I do want to be extremely clear about our position here: While we’re pleased to have been able to show Vick facts about animals—many things he’d certainly never heard before in his life—we are in no way going to bat for him. He may have passed our empathy course, but we have asked the judge to send him to jail and bar him from ever possessing or having contact with animals. We believe anyone who might consider abusing animals should see exactly how much a known animal abuser stands to lose.

We've also sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell urging him to make our “Developing Empathy for Animals” course a requirement for all NFL players. To help persuade Goodell to make humane education a part of the NFL's basic training for players, please click here.

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

Talking about the cosmetics company here. e.l.f. Stands for "Eyes, Lips, Face," and these guys are pretty rad. In addition to selling 100 percent cruelty-free cosmetics, e.l.f. have teamed up with PETA for a promotion to help draw attention to our fur campaign. They made these handy little tweezers with a faux-leather case so that their customers can be "fur-free" too, and they also released the following statement:

"Millions of fur-bearing animals including foxes, raccoons, minks, coyotes, bobcats, beavers, muskrats, otters, and others are killed in the wild by excruciating beatings, strangling, and electrocutions. e.l.f. does not test on animals and supports PETA in the Fur Free campaign."

Thanks, folks. If I ever have occasion to wear makeup, e.l.f. will be the first place I look. My friend and colleague Mylie—who presumably knows a whole lot about makeup, since she spends the bulk of her salary every month on black lipstick—wants you to know that we're running a contest right now to win a prize pack from the company, which you can check out here.

We've been working on a new-and-improved PETA.org for quite awhile. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you might want to have a look. It's beautiful. Like, Grand Canyon beautiful. The Great Redwood Forest. Frickin’ Niagara Falls. Seriously, have a look. Don't be a stranger!

Falcons Owner Arthur Blank gave a press conference this afternoon to present the Falcons’ official position on the Vick case. Here’s what PETA told the media about our reaction:

PETA commends Arthur Blank and the Falcons for not being satisfied with a voluntary leave of absence for Michael Vick. Regardless of the outcome of the trial, truckloads of illegal dogfighting equipment and 66 dogs—many of whom had injuries associated with dogfighting—were seized from Vick’s property. Based on those facts alone, a voluntary leave of absence would clearly not be satisfactory.

PETA also commends the Falcons for drafting the paperwork for a four-week suspension, mentioned by Blank as a “first step” in disciplining Vick. We continue to call on the NFL to suspend Vick immediately and to permanently bar him from the league if convicted of the charges detailed in the indictment.

PETA appreciates Arthur Blank’s statement, “How anyone could participate in dogfighting is incomprehensible to me,” which echoed the feelings of many millions of Americans and football fans.

Because of the Falcons’ willingness to suspend Vick, PETA is canceling plans to protest outside the Falcons’ training camp on Thursday. Instead, PETA will demonstrate outside NikeTown stores nationwide, demanding that Nike—which has stated that it will continue to sell Michael Vick merchandise—drop its corporate partnership with Vick.

OK, this one's from a few years ago, but these things are so damn popular that I thought I'd post it. A little context—this is the letter that PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich sent to Michael in 2004 to ask him to reconsider his anti-animal stance. The sad truth is that Bruce’s decidedly less sensational letter never received any attention at all—least of all from Michael Moore, who refused even to acknowledge receipt. But it's a cracking good letter, nonetheless. You can check it out here.

Well, despite the occasional offhand remark I may have made about lawyers over the past few months, it turns out our legal counsel really are quite spectacular! And this victory feels particularly good, since it shows that no matter how influential or rich or well-connected the corporation or—as in this case—entire industry that we go up against, we will not be intimidated, and we will not give up our mission of ending animal abuse and torture anywhere we find it, and we will win! This week, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), a trade group representing the Australian wool industry, abandoned the lawsuit they have been pushing for more than two years against PETA's boycott of Australian wool. AWI has pumped millions of dollars into this lawsuit, and this development is a big victory both for free speech and for animals. Here's what PETA President Ingrid Newkirk had to say:

"Our message is that when animal abusers sue PETA, it's at their own peril. AWI has wasted millions of dollars of woolgrowers' money, only to find that PETA's call for a boycott of Australian wool is going at full throttle as long as lambs have chunks of their rumps cut off with shears and sheep are herded onto export death ships."

In addition to withdrawing the lawsuit, AWI has had to agree to fast-track the development of genetic alternatives to the cruel mutilation that is one major cause of our boycott. This isn't enough in itself for us to end our demonstrations against Australian wool, but it's good news for the sheep, and it's an encouraging sign that the industry itself is starting to listen to the outrage of consumers over its cruel practices. To learn the full story and to help with our campaign, please click here. And for more on why we launched this boycott in the first place, check out the video below.

Michael Moore, for those of you not familiar with him, is a fat, bearded dude who makes political documentaries and occasionally angers conservatives. His latest work is a film called SiCKO—which exposes the inadequacies of health care in the U.S. and played to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. It's going into wide release on June 29. Well, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, has a few words of advice for him: As she points out in the letter she sent him this week, the best way to fight the U.S. health care bureaucracy is to take some personal responsibility and make positive changes that will lead to a healthy lifestyle—and there’s no better way to do that than by adopting a vegetarian diet. As Ingrid puts it,

“Although we think that your film could actually help reform America’s sorely inadequate health care system, there’s an elephant in the room, and it is you. With all due respect, no one can help but notice that a weighty health issue is affecting you personally. We’d like to help you fix that. Going vegetarian is an easy and life-saving step that people of all economic backgrounds can take in order to become less reliant on the government’s shoddy healthcare system, and it’s something that you and all Americans can benefit from personally.”

PETA is challenging Michael Moore to reduce his risk of fat-related illnesses by taking PETA's 30-day Veg Pledge. The idea is that if people didn't make themselves unhealthy in the first place by eating meat products that are known to cause heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes, the situation would easier for everyone. As Ingrid puts it, "Yes, America’s health care system needs to be fixed, but personal responsibility is a big part of why people look and feel as ill as they do." Here's hoping Michael Moore puts his money where his mouth is.

You can read Ingrid's letter to Michael Moore here. I'll let you know how he responds.

The wonderful Bea Arthur, whose record in terms of helping to advance the rights of animals is as impressive as her unforgettable performances in Golden Girls, has gone out on a limb once again for animals—this time to help the rats, lizards, and other animals who get a raw deal in pet stores, where they're inadequately cared for and often destined for a miserable life even if they do survive the lousy conditions they're kept in.

Bea, who was deeply affected by PETA's undercover investigation of a PetSmart store in Scottsdale where scores of small hamsters, birds, and other animals were left to suffer and die, has written to PetSmart CEO Philip L. Francis urging him to permanently end the sale of live animals in his stores. As she puts it in her letter,

“This was a store that, according to one of your executives, has ‘an outstanding pet care team and an exceptional pet care record. But PETA’s findings show a sad and different story. . . . I look forward to the day when you stop selling live animals. Until then, I cannot in good conscience shop at PetSmart, and neither can my friends or family.”

You can check out her letter here, and the investigation that she's referring to is below. Thank you, Bea Arthur. You rule.

This is an old video we made a while back to talk about why PETA has occasionally resorted to some more colorful tactics like naked protests to get our point across. It must have been put together in the early days of Internet video, when people had the attention span to get all the way through a 7-minute piece, but I highly recommend sticking around through the first 3 and a half minutes to watch George W. Bush reacting to a PETA manure dump a little while before he was elected President. It's seriously priceless.

If you haven't seen the PETA “Year In Review” video that was made for our annual New Year staff party yet, you should check it out. It’s a great snapshot of just a few of our accomplishments from 2006, and when I saw it at the party, I knew we had to get it on the Web ASAP. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong ... As it turns out, our legal department has all these issues with us using music without permission—yadda yadda yadda. So we had to replace the song that was originally in it. Luckily my buddy Coulter is all musical and stuff, and he gave us a great song that I think works better than the original anyway.

Anyway, here it is: PETA’s 2006 staff party video*:

*Warning: this video does not contain gratuitous nudity. Sorry.

Shaq's sensitive hands

So, after a few months of getting used to their new synthetic ball, the NBA has decided they need to switch back to balls made from cows next year. Because Steve Nash and Shaq didn't like the way the new balls grazed their delicate hands. This has been tough for us sports fans at PETA, because while we were delighted with the NBA's decision to use nonleather balls (as the NCAA has for years), we're also well aware of just how sensitive the hands of some NBA players are—much softer than college players' hands—and we'd hate for Nash, Shaq, or LeBron to ruin their manicures.

But we have a compromise that will save Shaq's skin and cowskins at the same time: Today, PETA's Campaign Manager Dan Shannon sent an open letter to NBA players, offering a lifetime supply of cruelty-free hand cream to anyone who's willing to give the composite ball another shot. You can read the letter here, and if you have any extra sensitive-skin hand cream lying around, you might want to send it along to some of these guys c/o the NBA. We just hate to see them suffer.

Burberry, still reeling from PETA UK's little visit to their London store last week, got another unpleasant surprise this afternoon when four activists showed up at their 57th Street store in New York. Here's how it went down, according to one of the campaigners who was there:

Two activists went in the store with posters while 2 more waited outside with their bloody fur coats inside out and tucked under their arms. The 2 activists inside were picked up by security (literally) and removed from the store, but not before one activist managed to get inside the Burberry store window and start spreading fake blood all over…

Meanwhile, on the outside, the protesters spread fake blood all over the window display, summed up the finer points of the fur issue for passersby with chants like "Burberry tortures animals!" and (for the visual learners in the crowd) used TVs strapped to their bodies to show footage of animals being skinned alive for their fur. Check it out:

More pics after the jump.