When I was 16 years old, I was invited to a picnic. When I arrived, I was shocked to realize that I'd actually been invited to a pig roast—big difference. The sight of a whole charred pig turning on a spit with an apple stuck in his mouth was all I needed to convince myself that I'd never eat pork, i.e. pig, again.

The pig was already dead, and I knew nothing about his journey from his mother's womb to the fire pit. I didn't need to—after all, I called myself an "animal lover," so it was a simple, logical decision. If I wouldn't eat my dog, I wasn't going to eat a pig.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that pigs and other animals on factory farms routinely endure horrific abuses, millions of people continue to happily chow down on hot dogs and ham. Today, Fox News offers food for thought—the Web site is featuring exclusive undercover video footage taken by Mercy for Animals at Country View Family Farms, one of Pennsylvania's largest pork producers and a Hatfield Quality Meat supplier.

The video shows a slew of horrors, including workers as they hurl baby pigs and slam them into transport carts, pick piglets up by their ears and tails, cut off the animals' tails with pliers, and rip off their testicles with their bare hands without any painkillers. (The sound of screaming piglets in the video made my skin crawl.) Their squealing mothers are shown scrambling to escape workers who slam spiked mallets into the animals' sides. Many pigs bear sores from their constant confinement—one mother pig suffered an excruciating prolapsed rectum for at least 13 days before she was killed.

Folks, this video is tough to view (I had to pause it three times), but as caring people, we owe it to ourselves and the animals it shows to watch it and then pass it on to others—along with a link to GoVeg.com. You can share the video and the link via e-mail, via a link on your Facebook page, and via "tweets." Anyone you know who still needs convincing that animals suffer on factory farms won't question it after they've watched this footage.

Posted by Karin Bennett

With winter rapidly approaching, it's time to get cozy, comfy, and cruelty-free. Forget about fur collars, trim, or accessories: 'Tis the season to go faux! Help save animals from becoming fashion victims with the click of a mouse! Just follow these five easy steps on Twitter:

Step 1: Burberry may be best known for its famous plaid frocks, but the company's use of fur is a great big faux pas.

How to Help: Post this twitition (that's right, I Twitter-fied it!) from your Twitter account:

@Burberry Stop supporting cruelty 2 animals & adopt a permanent fur-free policy NOW!

Step 2: More than half of the finished fur garments imported into the U.S. come from China. Animals who live on Chinese fur farms spend their entire lives in intensive confinement, only to be pulled from their cages, thrown to the ground, bludgeoned, beaten, and skinned alive.

How to Help: I'm sure by now you've probably seen our shocking undercover video from a Chinese fur farm. Please tell your followers about the horrors of the fur trade by posting the video on your Twitter page: http://ow.ly/zV9A

Step 3: Animals on fur farms around the world are often driven to cannibalism because of the extreme stress and frustration caused by intensive confinement.

How to Help: Because a picture speaks a thousand words, click here to retweet this Twitpic!

Step 4: By signing our fur-free pledge, you'll be sending a powerful message ("Hell no, we want faux!") not only to the fur industry but also to designers, retailers, and others who directly profit from the suffering caused by this cruel industry.

How to Help: Pledge to go fur-free and ask your Twitter followers to do so as well: http://ow.ly/zVf8

Step 5: Each year, the Canadian government allows sealers to beat and skin hundreds of thousands of seals. Baby seals—some of them only weeks old—have their skulls smashed in or are shot for their fur. If you haven't checked out our awesome "Save the Seals" celebrity ad series, take a peek: http://ow.ly/zVey

How to Help: Vote for your favorite "Save the Seals" celebrity using our twitter poll and ask your followers to vote too. Who will you vote for:
@Jayde_Nicole
@PamelaDAnderson
@BrodyJenner
@Perez
@hollymadison123

So, tweeps, you gonna help the millions of animals who need you? Pretty please, we'll ♥ you faux-ever!

Posted by Royale Ziegler, PETA's official twitterer

Recently, a good Samaritan from a rural Florida community saw an emaciated horse and became determined to find help for the animal. After his calls to local authorities failed to rouse a response (perhaps because the horse's owner allegedly has political connections), he issued a plea for help on Facebook, posting a photograph of the starving horse and urging his friends to pass the information along, hopeful that someone would know how to help rescue the animal.

The photo of the emaciated horse makes my skin crawl, but I can't help comparing his jutting bones to the ones shown in this diagram. He really appears to be a living skeleton.

The man's post went up, and PETA's phones started ringing with calls alerting our Cruelty Investigations Department to this urgent situation. We didn't waste a second in contacting local law enforcement, and within hours the sheriff's department seized the horse from the property. The horse was rushed to a veterinarian for evaluation and is now awaiting adoption.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can offer more than high school reunion pics. and "pokes"—as this incident shows, they can also save lives. PETA now has over 300,000 Facebook friends. May we count you as one, too?

Posted by Karin Bennett

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

americajr / CC

If you've already caught any of this summer's movie blockbusters, you may have seen Sprint's "turn off your cell phone" reminder, which features a live chimpanzee.

Witnessing animal abuse during the previews definitely ruins a movie before it starts, but—thanks to those who participated in our action alert and all of you who tweeted at Sprint—we're thrilled to announce that the company has decided to stop circulating the ads as of July 3 and has pledged never to feature great apes in future ad campaigns. Yay! Check out Sprint's full statement on its Web site.

Chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, are trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and are then discarded at filthy roadside zoos when they're no longer useful in show business. After learning about this abuse, progressive companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., SEGA, Honda, PUMA, Yahoo!, Subaru, and now Sprint have been quick to step up and take a stand for animals. Castrol, are you listening?

Posted by Liz Graffeo

aidinvaziri / CC

She had always dreamed of going on an African safari, but now that the time is here, Lily Allen feels like she could never take pictures of the animals because of the stalked feeling that she gets from the paparazzi in her own life. In two recent tweets, she wrote, "Safari is something I've always wanted to do. Don't think I'll sleep tonight," and then, "I already feel guilty about exploiting the animals with my camera, I've got a big long lenz, reminds me of some c***s I know."

Expletives aside, Lily's concerns show her sweet nature (her pooch is a rescue), and we're impressed with her sensitivity to animals. She did decide to go on a safari instead of to a zoo, after all. We're sure that Lily knows that zoos are nothing more than concrete jungles, where animals are held prisoner in tiny enclosures day in and day out, and that the animals resort to abnormal, repetitive behavior to alleviate the mind-numbing boredom of confinement. The animals are also stalked constantly by hordes of families, flashing cameras at the ready, all wanting to get a glimpse of the action. No wonder Lily empathizes with them.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

It seems like everyone and their grandma (literally) is getting into social networking. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are all the rage nowadays, so you know that PETA is all over it. As long as you're scanning your tweets on Twitter and poking friends on Facebook, why don't you check out what PETA is up to as well?

At the moment, we're fighting to end the Canadian seal slaughter. Here are a few easy tips for spreading the word about the seal slaughter through your social network:

Facebook

1. Become a fan of PETA's Facebook page. This takes two seconds, tops, and lets all your friends know that you're fighting the seal slaughter. You can opt to get daily announcements on new ways to get active and check our status updates throughout the day.
2. Sign petitions and join causes. Facebook makes it easy to take action with "Causes and Petitions" that you can sign with a click, post on your wall, and forward to all your friends in less than a minute. Check out this petition to help stop the Canadian seal slaughter.

MySpace

1. Add PETA as a MySpace friend. You can read our blogs and bulletins, watch videos, leave comments, and way more. PETA's MySpace page is your all-in-one center for staying up-to-date on animal rights.
2. Get interactive. PETA's MySpace page has all sorts of banners, badges, and videos to embed, making it easy for you to personalize your own page and voice your support for baby seals. We even have a brand new MySpace wrapper, so if you can copy and paste, you can give your profile a pro-seal makeover.

Twitter

1. Follow @OfficialPETA. By following PETA on Twitter, you can get the latest updates on the seal slaughter battle and chat with our lovely and knowledgeable Twitter rep (yours truly).
2. Tweet for seals. You could RT (retweet) our tweets, let your friends know that they can follow us, or even send a tweet to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (@pmharper) to ask him to stop the seal slaughter.

Now that you're equipped to fight the social-networking war against the seal slaughter, I'll see you on the field!

Posted by Lianne Turner