We all know that Stella McCartney's designs put the "hot" in haute couture. Unlike some designers who paradoxically try to revive lackluster collections by tossing in the skins of dead animals, Stella creates stunning designs without so much as a scrap of hideous hides.

fameball / CC

In the November 2009 edition of InStyle magazine, Stella takes the gloves off when talking about the colossal fashion faux pas of wearing animal skins:

"Just say no to leather, fur and python. Everyone knows this about me, but even if I liked leather, I just couldn't wear leather pants. It's so soft-rock trashy."

Now I realize why seeing snakeskin on the runway turns my stomach—it's the Muzak of the fashion world! Well, that and because snakes are skinned alive to collect steal it. Now, someone please make sure Marilyn Manson reads this month's InStyle …

Posted by Heather Drennan

PETA's naked "snakes" have been spotted recently on both coasts, drawing attention to the cruelty inflicted on scaly species who are killed for their skins. Not since Rebecca Romijn slinked around in painted-on scales as Mystique for the X-Men trilogy have people found reptiles so alluring.

In New Haven, Connecticut, many appreciative Yale students were drawn in by this sultry snake. One woman was so moved that she penned a poem about the display.

Media buzzed around our demo in Santa Cruz, California, as crews from The Santa Cruz Sentinel, Metro Santa Cruz, KSMS-TV, and Inside Santa Cruz lined up to interview the demonstrators, who pointed out that animal skins are not "eco-chic."

Our sexy "snake" and a team of supporters braved the cold rain to bare the facts—that snakes and alligators suffer when they're skinned alive for their hides.

Thanks to everyone who's helping to tip the scales in favor of kindness over killing.

Posted by Karin Bennett

greglasley / CC

While the Western cottonmouth usually preys on small warm-blooded animals, this spring, during mating season, these venomous snakes may be going after a different type of quarry: small-minded, cold-blooded Missouri duck hunters.

Rumor has it that water blinds (duck hunters' huts that are camouflaged to look like the water) in Oregon, Howell, Carter, Pulaski, Phelps, Wayne, Pemiscot, Mississippi, Scott, and Stoddard counties have been sprayed with the pheromones of female cottonmouths. The pheromones, taken from excrement evacuated from the cottonmouth's cloacal chamber, are guaranteed to attract aggressive males looking for some tail. I'm not a herpetologist, but I'm guessing that these randy reptiles are going to be pretty ticked-off when their booty call turns out to be a couple of dudes dressed like bushes.

So how can duck hunters avoid being bitten or, God forbid, part of a coital coil? We suggest that they hang up hunting and consider taking up golf or baseball instead. If they don't, then I agree with my friend and PETA's waterfowl specialist Hans Offdemall when he says, "PETA opposes gun violence, so when a 250-pound man hides on the water so that he can blow to pieces one of a bonded pair of 1-pound birds, we think that he should get a taste of his own medicine."

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

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evasitoe / CC

Jada Pinkett-Smith, who currently stars in the number one film in the country, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and is married to megastar Will Smith, recently made a compassionate pledge. The longtime animal defender recently told reporters that she just can't go on keeping her beloved animal friends in tiny cage prisons. Apparently, the rock-star frontwoman of Wicked Wisdom was moved to action by the family snake, Beauty.

"I think I'll never get an animal like a snake again where I have to keep her in an aquarium," Jada said, according to Contactmusic (via OneIndia). "We have this whole thing for Beauty outside for her to be in a natural habitat. But at the end of the day, she knows she's caged into her aquarium. We can't set her into the wild now, but I told [our daughter] Willow we won't do this again and won't have any animals that need to stay like that."

Good for you, Jada! Then she added this bit, which makes our campaigning hearts flutter: "Maybe when I get older, that'll become one of my activist endeavors."

Of course, we couldn't be more delighted to hear this! Jada and Will are one of Hollywood's hottest power couples, with considerable influence—and if Jada turns over a new leaf, that should have serious repercussions with her fans.

Posted by Missy Lane

From the category of "When Animals Fight Back!" comes a news story from Venezuela: A 29-year-old student zookeeper was strangled by a 10-foot python. It seems that the intern was working the nightshift and decided to mess around with the snake, who then bit him, suffocated him, and tried to eat him—a sensible interaction if you are a python.

i190 / CC

Now, I'm certainly not saying that this guy deserved to be digested by a giant snake (although some might argue that taking a dangerous snake out without permission or supervision might earn him a nomination for a Darwin Award). What I am saying is that the killing of one human being by one snake in an isolated incident is instant news (just Google it for proof), but the killing of snakes by humans every day—to make Eva Longoria's gauche python handbag or Jessica Simpson's hideous tote—goes unnoticed.

And what's more, the python was just doing what pythons do, on instinct. He saw prey, so he went into his strangle-and-swallow routine. You can't possibly tell me that humans have a slaughter-and-make-into-purses instinct, can you? The python got beaten by the way, unlike Jessica Simpson, whom we just make fun of.

Let me hypothesize here. Maybe, just maybe, people are so fascinated by this kind of news story because they feel guilty for all the human-on-animal atrocities, and when something like this happens … well, maybe it's a sign that sometimes the tables are turned, and it scares us.

Do you get what we mean now when we say that "payback is hell"?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Snake charmers, fairies, and leprechauns…if you thought all three only existed in the pages of fairytales, here's a surprise. Snake charmers have been and still are entrancing villagers into believing the myth that the sounds from their instrument can hypnotize a snake, who will "dance"—for money, of course.

Sound a little slippery? That's because it is. There is no magic involved, only cruelty. Here's how:

Snakes are trapped and taken from their natural habitats. Their teeth are yanked out without any painkillers, their mouths are often sewn shut (leaving a little gap to pour water or milk down), and their venom ducts are often pierced with a hot needle, causing the glands to burst and incapacitating this animals' most effective defense mechanism. None of the snakes lives very long, and death comes slowly and painfully.

The "dance" these snakes perform is actually a terrified reactive sway to the snake charmer's movements—as a means of self-defense from "attack" by the pipe. Snake charming is so violent, in fact, that the Indian Wildlife Act of 1972 actually banned it. But snake charmers show their disregard for the law and these animals by continuing their cruel ways.

With the upcoming holiday of Naga Panchami, which is held in honor of the Serpent God, PETA India decided to do a little charming of their own by releasing a brand-new ad urging people to boycott snake shows. The ad tells the story of a snake and a snake charmer, played by supermodel Jesse Randhawa and Hollywood/Bollywood dance instructor Sandip Soparrkar, and features the tagline "Snakes Are Not Natural Performers—We Are."

Jesse Randhawa and Sandip Soparrkar say, "Snakes Are Not Natural Performers—We Are," in a new PETA India ad.

The ad sends out a great message to people in India. It points out that a country that has worshipped snakes throughout its history can't "honor" the reptiles with acts of cruelty. Check out PETA India's new mesmerizing ad here!