movieline / CC

Just a month after PETA wrote to the cast and producers of The Zookeeper to warn them that the company supplying animals for the movie's production has a long list of USDA citations, we have heartbreaking news to report. Tweet, a giraffe on the set who had also been forced to perform in Ace Ventura and a slew of Toys "R" Us commercials, has died.

Tweet collapsed in his pen while being fed on Friday. While giraffes in the wild can live into their mid 20s, Tweet was only 18 years old.

The results of Tweet's necropsy haven't been released yet, but according to a whistleblower who contacted PETA, Tweet's premature death may have resulted from his eating pieces of the blue tarp that covered his enclosure. The whistleblower alleges that Tweet's owner and trainers were notified that the giraffe had been eating the tarp but that they did nothing about it.

The whistleblower also said that Tweet spent the last few months of his life confined to a 20-foot-by-20-foot stall, which was barely large enough for the 18-foot-tall giraffe to lie down in. In their natural habitat, giraffes live in vast home ranges of up to 400 square miles.

PETA is now calling on the USDA to investigate Tweet's death. We're also asking for other people associated with the production of the movie to come forward with additional information about the treatment of animals on the set.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Who's serving detention for animal abuse? Read on to see how you can fight back against bullies and speak up for the little guys on Twitter!

Bully #1: TexasTech
These bullies have been caught red-handed! Participants in a training course at Texas Tech shove hard plastic tubes down cats' windpipes and repeatedly stab them in the chest with needles before killing them!
How to help: Post the following to your Twitter account: Hey, @TexasTech! Scratch your cruel training procedures on cats, and adopt non-animal alternatives! http://ow.ly/oEtw

Bully #2: Ross University
Class isn't the only thing they've been cutting at Ross University. Students have been forced to cut the nerves in donkeys' toes, sever their ligaments, surgically puncture their abdomens, and slice their tracheas.
How to help: Post a message on Twitter by clicking here.

Bully #3: Marquette University
College is a time for experimentation—but not on animals. A Marquette University faculty member bashes turtles over the head with a hammer and saws into their shells for a classroom experiment!
How to help: Tweet this: You've been nailed, @MarquetteU! Stop bashing turtles in the head with hammers, NOW!

Bully #4: Bucknell University
Pupils should be using their brains at school, not a hamster's. Bucknell University faculty members drill holes into the skulls of hamsters in sexual-reproduction experiments!
How to help: Spread the word on Twitter by posting the following: Did u know that @BucknellU faculty members drill holes into the skulls of live hamsters? Tell 'em 2 stop, & pass along! http://ow.ly/oEld

So how 'bout it, Twitterers? You gonna teach these schools a lesson? Complete all four assignments to earn an A+!

Posted by Royale Ziegler

Check out this stellar tweet from My Name Is Earl star Ethan Suplee:

channel14 / CC

Way to spread the word, Ethan!

Posted by Shawna Flavell