PETA India—whose supporters gathered outside the main entrance of the International Leather Goods Fair in Kolkata last week—knows that the best way to get people to face the truth is to put its disembodied face right in front of them:

Most leather comes from developing countries such as India and China, where animal welfare laws are either nonexistent or unenforced. In India, workers force cows to get up and walk after they collapse from exhaustion on the way to the slaughterhouse by breaking the animals' tails and rubbing chili peppers and tobacco into their eyes.

Make sure that there's no blood on your hands (or feet) by sporting pleather or one of the many other compassionate alternatives to leather.

Posted by Logan Scherer

As promised, here are the photos from PETA India's protest yesterday outside the Calcutta Zoo. You'll probably remember the protest because of a certain police officer's arrest "Fail."

This protest is just one of PETA India's many actions to help animals in captivity—check out this latest ad.

Hmm … looks like somebody's out of uniform!

Posted by Amanda Schinke

My "case of the Mondays" went up in smoke as soon as I read about a capless, clueless cop who landed himself in hot water during a PETA India protest outside the Calcutta Zoo.

The officer, Assistant Commissioner Anil Kar, wasn't about to interrupt a smoke break to make an arrest. Instead, he held his coffin nail* (see note below) in one hand—and in the other, he held PETA India's own Chiranjeet Karar, who was decked out in a police uniform and monkey mask and was encouraging people to boycott zoos because they incarcerate and exploit animals, not to mention that Indian zoos are extremely substandard and that animals are frequently denied basic care.

The multitasking officer didn't realize that smoking on duty is a no-no (Yes, Rule 13 of the Police Regulation of Calcutta states that police officers in uniform are forbidden to smoke on the streets), as is abandoning various parts of his uniform.

(*Or is it "coughin' nail?" I guess either one works, right?)

Posted by Karin Bennett