Say it ain't so! Last week, we told you about our brand-new 'Got Autism?' billboard, which was intended to give the drivers of Newark, New Jersey, a little food for thought. The billboard drew a connection between milk consumption and autism in children. This week, the advertising company that was hosting our billboard has pulled the plug and the billboard has been removed.

It's pretty safe to assume that the ad is not being removed due to a lack of attention! Just the opposite—our message has garnered tons of feedback, including support from parents of autistic children who have seen noticeable improvements after removing dairy from their child's diet.

We wanted to share the thoughts of a few individuals regarding this campaign:

My son at the age of 2 ½ had not talked or interacted with anyone for a year…right after his MMR shots that he had at 13 months. I took him off of milk last November (when he was 2 ½) to see if it did anything, and he is now talking and playing and catching back up to where he should be (he is 3 ½ now). … It may not have been overnight, but the progress started just weeks after taking him off cows milk …. —Jaimie

I have a child with autism and I love this ad. The "got milk" ads with the disgusting white upper lip make me sick. We have been GFCF for 12 years. Milk equals sleepless nights and stomach pain. —L Land

I am not personally a vegetarian, but last year when we took my 4 year old son off of milk, casein all dairy, we started to see amazing changes in his behavior and speech. He still has Autism, but is no longer in a black hole of darkness. And we are not done fighting yet. I think people who say this does not work, well how do you know everyone is different. And as a mother of a child with Autism, I do not at all find this offensive I find it truthful, at least for us. —Danielle Manglis

Thanks for the continued support of the campaign! Even though the billboard has come down, the message is still loud and clear.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Maybe you remember this phrase from your childhood: "Liar, liar, pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire."

Well, does that apply to Giorgio Armani, or did he hit his head—causing him to have a drastic about-face? Because the Armani who was once swearing off fur is now dressing babies in it just one short year later. Note to Armani: Rabbits are furry animals no different from dogs, cats, foxes, and minks.

So, shoppers who were on their way into his flagship store in Milan were treated to a glimpse of how Armani looks to us now that he apparently can't break his rabbit habit. PETA Europe posted this rather pointed portrayal of Pinocchio Armani just outside the store:

Because, seriously, what kind of person learns about the cruelty of the fur industry, pledges to be fur-free, and then decides to kill animals for "fashion" anyway? You tell us.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

The Pretenders are hosting a party, and you're invited—a listening party, that is! Their new album, Break Up the Concrete, comes out today, and they're so excited for everyone to hear it that they're putting it up on their Web site in its entirety! So before you head over to your favorite music vendor, you can check out the Pretenders' new album online with Windows Media Player or QuickTime.

And hey, if you want to win your very own hard copy of Break Up the Concrete—or even a signed Fender Telecaster guitar—you can enter to do that as well!

Rock on, Chrissie and the Pretenders! We love your new album, and we know the rest of the world will too!

Posted by Amanda Schinke

By now, you might have heard about Timothy Wayne Shepherd, the 28-year-old man who confessed last year to killing his ex-girlfriend and who is also charged with dismembering and barbecuing her—no, really.

While this story is shocking and terrible, it sounds awfully familiar. Oh, that's right! Last week on the PETA Files, we posted an entry all about barbecuing humans! It was a demonstration to get people to wake up and "meet their meat." In our demo, a woman had her body painted like charred flesh and lay on a mock grill while passersby gawked—forced to make the connection that those tightly wrapped, clean-looking meat packages in the grocery store once were living, breathing beings who felt pain when they were slaughtered.

In our case, the demo was thought-provoking and symbolic (flesh is flesh). In Timothy's case … it might have been a bit too real.

We're writing to the prison where Shepherd is being held. If he is convicted of the murder, he will receive a sentence presumably intended to prevent him from taking any more lives. Well, we certainly agree with this sentiment—and that's why we're asking Shepherd's jailers to stop the cycle of senseless killing by putting him on an all-vegetarian diet. We can never bring back the young woman who was the victim of Shepherd's crime, but we can try to prevent him from causing any more painful deaths.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Stumped about what to wear for Halloween? Forget trying to hustle up some horror out of a hockey mask, and for the love of all that is unholy, please leave that tired old Scream costume in the attic where it belongs. If you really, really want to scare the hell out of people this year—go as one of the Trollsen Twins!

Pelt-wearing party girls who don't give a crap that animals are gassed, electrocuted anally and vaginally, and skinned alive for their fur, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are a truly gruesome twosome. So, with Halloween creeping around the corner and our Trollsen Twins campaign in full swing, we thought, "Why not make Hairy-Kate and Trashley masks?" Then we thought some more and said, "Hmmm, why not give 10 of these terrifying things away?" Which is where you come into the picture: Just send us a comment telling us about your best Halloween costume by October 12, 2008, and you could be one of the lucky stiffs to walk away with either a Hairy-Kate or Trashley mask.

We'll contact the winners by October 13. Heads up, though: We can only send masks to people in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. … but that doesn't stop us from spreading the "troll-y" love—you can print your own mask here.

Be sure to read the contest terms and conditions and PETA's privacy policy before you comment. By commenting, you're acknowledging you agree to them both.

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

I am thrilled to announce the launch of the cutest campaign ever to exist: Save the Sea Kittens! In an effort to get people to think about fish in a whole new way, we decided to change their name for a while. If people had to order "sea kitten sticks" at a restaurant, I guarantee that the world would think a bit differently. Imagine that you open your menu and decide on the salmon—and then this image pops into your head:

Yeah, I think you'd go with a different menu item after that little reminder (might I recommend this dish if you're craving that flavor, as it's delicious and causes none of the cruelty).

It's easy to order and purchase meat when it's wrapped in neat, clean little packages, void of all the blood and pain that goes into creating it. Fish get an especially bad deal. People go fishing (a.k.a. sea kitten hunting) all the time without a care in the world—because fish can't scream and force people to think about the cruelty of their actions.

So we're changing things up a bit now and helping to give fish everywhere a voice. When people realize how fascinating (and adorable) fish can be, they might think twice. I took it a step further and dressed up my own sea kitten (which you can do, too, by clicking here). I'm pleased to introduce you to Ruth, my new swimmy lil' pal:

Isn't she grand? Probably the best sea kitten ever created—but you can try to prove me wrong. Dress up your own sea kitten and leave me a comment to tell me his or her name. We'll have ourselves a little sea kitten party up in here! In our new feature, we've pulled out all the stops. You can read sea kitten bedtime stories, grab your own sea kitten computer décor, and even take action to try and stop sea kitten hunting.

Enjoy!

Posted by Christine Doré

The whole of PETA India is on a roll, ya'll! I'd barely even finished writing my blog entry about the array of successful demos that the grown folk at PETA India have put on throughout the month of September, when their younger counterparts at petaDishoom squeezed in a grand finale!

To commemorate Gandhi's birthday and World Vegetarian Day, PETA India's youth wing, petaDishoom, teamed up with local groups and a just a few hundred activists for a veggie rally followed by the first-ever "Animal March" to the city of Pune. Donning animal masks and picket signs, these peaceful marchers chose the perfect way to honor the Mahatma's memory and carry on his legacy of compassion and nonviolence.

Here are some fun pics from the event:

You know, it's always the right time to cross over to the vegetarian side, so if you've been dying to kick it with the cool kids (like the ones pictured here) but you just need a little kick-start, you can get yourself a copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit" here.

On a side note, I've just learned that dishoom (which is now my new favorite word) translates roughly into one of my other favorite sayings, "to bring the raucous." Judging from the huge success of this march and PETA India's nonstop celebrity features and kick-butt campaigns, I'd say PETA India sure dishoomed it this month … eh?

Silliness aside, congratulations, PETA India and petaDishoom, for one very successful month!

Posted by Missy Lane

Michael B. Hennessy
carleton / CC

With Halloween this month and scary B movies certain to flood theatres (and the U.S. Postal Service via Netflix), we're going to honor October's worst vivisector with a special honor: the Frankenscience Award. We'll serve up two "scientists" with horrendous records of drugging, isolating, and otherwise torturing animals and allow you, dear readers, the honor of telling us who makes you gag the most.

Michael B. Hennessy, a psychology professor at Wright State University, spends his time tormenting baby guinea pigs. With help from over $350 thousand in funding from taxpayer dollars, Hennessy has learned a lot about sickness and stress in laboratory animals, but he himself isn't confident that the results can be safely extrapolated to humans.

Hennessy takes guinea pigs from their mothers when the newborns are less than 1 month old to observe the resulting "stress-induced sickness behavior." To worsen things, the babies are injected with a behavior-altering substance to see how it affects them. They are forced to endure invasive surgeries, including having their heads cut open, tubes stuck inside, and various chemicals and agents injected into them—including E. Coli bacteria!

To make matters worse, even Hennessy himself sees the obvious problem with his methods—the fact that guinea pigs aren't people. In a recent paper, he concludes that "caution is required in generalizing from studies of sickness in laboratory animals to depression in humans."

Owen Floody
bucknell / CC

Owen B. Floody, a psychology professor at Bucknell University, came to our attention after a concerned alumnus contacted us. We learned that Floody has spent more than 30 years performing deadly sexual and reproductive studies … on hamsters.

Floody starts with healthy female hamsters, carves into their skulls, damages their brains, and then examines how this affects their sexual behavior. To assess this, he drops them in a box with a male hamster or "manually stimulates" them (you don't want to know). At the end of this bizarre ordeal, the animals are killed and their brains are dissected.

Floody even gets his students involved in these experiments, allowing undergraduate students in his physiological psychology course to help with this torture. PETA has already expressed its concerns to Bucknell, and you can chime in to help end these experiments by clicking here.

What'll it be? The Wright State professor who grasps the underlying problem with vivisection but does it anyway? Or the Bucknell professor who "manually stimulates" then kills female hamsters? Leave a comment to let me know!

Posted by Sean Conner

The war in Iraq may be thousands of miles away and across one good-sized ocean, but there's another scuffle going on over desert lands that are closer to home. U.S. soldiers are in a territory dispute with one of the Mohave's oldest inhabitants: California Tortoises.

LA Weekly reports that after years of coexisting with these slow-moving, gentle animals—listed as threatened under federal and state endangered species acts—the U.S. military at Fort Irwin, California, has taken measures to airlift these native tortoises to another section of the Mojave, more than 20 miles from their home.

Click the photo to view the slideshow at LAWeekly.com Credit: C.R. Stecyk III

The tortoises, who in recent decades thrived on the restricted-access lands, are now having to survive on foreign grounds in a much busier, more unstable, and completely unfamiliar environment. Plus, they're now at a greater risk of danger from vehicles, hikers, campers, and mines.

Way back in 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed a Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan, which led to the construction of six critical habitat areas—and guess what? One of those habitats consists of much of the land currently occupied by Fort Irwin—and the land Fort Irwin wants.

The reason for relocating these reptiles? Military folks at the southern California training base need more land space to play their war games. Fort Irwin is a Hollywood-built Iraq—it's a perfect replica, complete with actors who portray shepherds, prisoners, lawyers, and any other individuals who stroll the Iraqi streets.

With all the strategizing, simulating, role-playing, and lifesaving training going on—not to mention the bottomless pit of cash the military seems to be harboring—the military should at least take a few moments to teach their soldiers compassion for all living creatures and be able to devise a better plan for the safety of these animals.

In an attempt to halt expansion plans, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal lawsuit against the Army and the Bureau of Land Management. This battle is sure to continue, and we'll be on guard.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Just in time for the release of Saw V and the craziness of the Halloween horror-movie season, PETA will be running one of our creepy KFC ads in movie theaters in Baltimore and Denver for the next four weeks. This will really make horror-movie lovers think about the horror that chickens go through just to end up in a greasy KFC bucket.

While people cringe in their seats at the blood and guts on screen, hopefully they'll think back to the ad and realize that the same bloody butchering scene goes on in slaughterhouses every day.

Check out the ad here and tell us what you think:

Find more PETA videos at PETATV.com

Posted by Christine Doré

Not to be outdone by PETA India, the folks over at PETA Asia-Pacific have certainly been busy lately—in the last week, they've had three tremendously successful demos!

First up, we have three activists in Seoul, Korea, who lay outside a fur store in "bloody" fur coats, caught in a steel-jaw trap. Calling attention to the cruel methods used to trap wild animals for fur, their message read: "Animals Suffer in Traps. This Is Fur."

A few days later in China, two of PETA Asia-Pacific's sexy Lettuce Ladies asked passersby in Guangzhou to "Turn Over a New Leaf—Go Vegetarian." As you can see from the pics below, they got a lot of attention! Not bad for the first PETA Asia-Pacific demo in China in five years, don't you think?

Most recently, Santa spread the joy of soy in Manila and Hong Kong, courtesy of PETA Asia-Pacific. In light of the much-reported melamine-tainted–milk scandal, which has killed at least four babies and sickened 53,000 others, jolly old Saint Nick is working with PETA Asia-Pacific to inform milk-drinkers that cow's milk is also loaded with cholesterol, fat, and other contaminants, including cow's blood and pus, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Over time, these can be just as dangerous as melamine.

Kudos to our friends at PETA Asia-Pacific for the string of amazing demos. We can't wait to see what they'll do next!

Posted by Amanda Schinke

In 2007, PETA received a call from a whistleblower who tipped us off to a Cleveland lab, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), that performed a fatal brain surgery on a dog for a useless medical-device sales demonstration.

Fast forward to 2008. PETA has received yet another tip from a whistleblower because of yet another alleged unnecessary dog death at the CCF—and this time it appears to be a violation of federal law.

The whistleblower alleges that a healthy dog—who had undergone an experimental transplant in which a heart was inserted into her neck—was killed after surgeons discovered that her airway was blocked by hay. Sadly, the whistleblower says that the dog was knowingly allowed to eat the dangerous hay from the pens of other animals while roaming around the laboratory and disturbing other animals who were recuperating from painful surgeries. I'm pretty sure that the surgeons needed that extra heart, not the dog…

PETA has filed a complaint against the facility with the USDA, and we are asking for an immediate investigation into alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The potential violations include failure to ensure proper nutrition for dogs (at least one was apparently allowed to eat hay) and failure to ensure adequate veterinary care for animals used in experiments, just to name a couple.

Many Cleveland residents, especially those who frequent the Dawg Pound, would be horrified to know that a lab in their city might be guilty of repeatedly killing healthy dogs who are used in useless experiments. The CCF needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for its apparent disregard for animal welfare, and we hope that the USDA will do just that.

If you want to help, please politely contact the CCF using the information below and ask that it conduct a full and thorough investigation of this matter and take all appropriate corrective actions.

Please send polite comments to:

Paul E. DiCorleto, Ph.D., Chair
Lerner Research Institute
Cleveland Clinic
Mailstop NB21
9500 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44195
216-444-5849
dicorlp@ccf.org

Sad news—House Peters Jr., the man we all know and love as Mr. Clean, passed away yesterday at the respectable age of 92.

I pretty much love the character of Mr. Clean. In a world of cleaning-product commercials featuring only women, Mr. Clean's gender-stereotype–defying presence was always refreshing. (Plus, he had an earring, which is cool—and pretty progressive for the 1950s, when the character premiered!)

What I don't love, though, is the company responsible for the product Mr. Clean—Proctor & Gamble (P&G), the infamous maker of animal-tested Iams! PETA's problem with P&G goes back pretty far—far enough, in fact, for us to have parodied Mr. Clean's image on a 1998 protest door hanger.

But that wasn't enough to convince P&G to stop abusing animals in the name of "research." While P&G has developed non-animal testing methods and worked to end much of its outdated testing program, even today, eight years later, P&G–owned Iams continues to keep up to 700 dogs and cats locked inside hidden laboratories.

So as we say goodbye to Mr. Clean, we urge you to honor his memory by, say, wearing white T-shirts and gold earrings—not by purchasing Iams.

For a list of dog and cat food brands that are not tested on animals, click here.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

xinhuanet / CC

Does anyone remember our sexy "Go Veg, Texas" campaign? Of course you do! Well, this time around, we're traveling a bit south of the border and asking Mexico to do the same thing (minus the bikini).

If you haven't yet heard, Mexico has recently started the "Vamos por un millón de kilos'' campaign to encourage all residents to lose weight. Well, we know a thing or two about lookin' fine and stayin' slim without all the grease and cruelty that meat-based diets offer. Check out our letter to President Calderón and let us know what you think:

His Excellency Felipe Calderón President of the Republic of Mexico

1 page via fax

Dear President Calderón:

On behalf of PETA, an international animal rights organization with more than 2 million members and supporters worldwide, I applaud your administration's "Vamos por un millón de kilos" campaign. May we add that the best way to help your citizens lose weight while improving their health would be to encourage them to choose a vegetarian diet? As you might know, consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products is linked to the major killers in the U.S. and Mexico—heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and strokes.

Animal flesh, milk, and cheese are packed with fat, calories, and cholesterol. It's little wonder that as Mexicans move away from a traditional Mexican diet high in healthy vegetables, grains, fruit, and beans and toward the typical U.S. diet, which is laden with fatty animal flesh and devoid of fiber, they are also following their neighbors to the north in packing on the pounds and becoming sick and prematurely incapacitated. Overwhelming scientific evidence shows that vegetarians are far less likely to be overweight than meat-eaters and far more likely to be in better overall health. They live longer and die less painful deaths. The American Dietetic Association—the largest group of nutrition professionals in the U.S.—reviewed hundreds of studies and concluded that vegetarians have lower rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer than people who eat meat. A healthy vegetarian diet provides all the nutrients that we need to thrive—without the saturated animal fats and cholesterol found in meat that cause weight gain and clogged arteries. In addition, every vegetarian saves hundreds of animals from the horrible cruelty of the meat industry, such as mutilation without any painkillers, intensive confinement, and violent slaughter.

To help kick off the "Go Vegetarian, Mexico" campaign, two of PETA's beautiful Lettuce Ladies would like to join you for an event at the National Palace to hand out delicious vegetarian fare—like tasty faux-beef tacos and soy-cheese and mock-chicken quesadillas—along with copies of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit." (The kit can be viewed online at SeaVegetariano.com.)

Please let me know when you would like to schedule this exciting event. Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

Posted by Christine Doré

© AP Photo/Lisa Poole

Hey all you animal-loving Pretenders fans! Do I have a treat for you! As you probably know, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders is not only a complete rock star in every sense of the word, she's also an incredible animal rights activist. We've reported many of Chrissie's actions on the PETA Files—such as leading protests in NYC against horse-drawn carriages, helping draw much-needed attention to the Australian wool boycott, and voicing her anti-leather stance when a company tried to name a leather bag after her (gross! I know, right?)—but that's really just a small sample of what this great woman has done in the name of animal rights.

Chrissie is front and center again with the upcoming release of the new Pretenders album, Break Up the Concrete, due out October 7, and in the middle of a whirlwind of press, she made sure to give PETA an exclusive Q&A and an early release of two of her new tracks (which can be found here). Without further ado ... I give you Chrissie Hynde:

Dan Mathews: Tell us about some of the highlights of your life as an animal activist.

Chrissie Hynde: I like the way that question is worded because I consider myself an animal activist first and my music as more of a hobby that gives me a platform to fight for animals. The big highlight was when I first walked into the PETA headquarters and looked at all the files of cases you've won and all the activity and campaigns planning. Having been a fairly dour vegetarian since 1969 when nobody really gave a shit about animals, it was the first time I ever felt optimistic about the movement really succeeding.

I also loved getting up at 4 a.m. after the first big PETA gala in Washington D.C. in the early 90s to go on a hunt sabotage. I like being on the front lines, though I'm not really on the front lines as I've never personally busted into a slaughterhouse. Those I admire most are the PETA investigators who infiltrate. At another PETA gala I was changed forever by James Cromwell's speech in which he said "You can't call yourself a true environmentalist unless you're vegan." That attitude is finally sinking in and people are realizing what they eat determines how responsible a citizen they are. I recently saw him in L.A. and jumped up and thanked and hugged him and made a huge fuss … but I don't think he knew who I was!

The thing I'm most proud of is going after the Gap and getting them to stop buying leather from the horrible black market in India. I love all animals but my main focus has always been cows, so it was a joy to go to jail with Ingrid after the Gap protest and have it succeed. I love Ingrid and always urge her to take a break once in a while; I even made her come over to my house in London to chill out and watch a movie.

Dan Mathews: What are your observations about PETA's often provocative way of doing things?

Chrissie Hynde: PETA is my favorite organization because there is such a great spirit of adventure in all the campaigns. We're all in this because of the horror stories out there but PETA manages to tackle the issues with such a winning spirit, even when all odds are against us.

Dan Mathews: You opened a vegan restaurant, Vegiterranean, in your hometown of Akron, Ohio, which has been a runaway success. Any plans to expand?

Chrissie Hynde: Yes! If a small Midwestern town can have a line out the door at a vegan restaurant, it can work anywhere. Times are definitely changing all over. I'd like to expand to Las Vegas so tourists from all over the world can see how great vegan food can be, and of course in L.A. I've read that Freedom Tower in New York City, the new development where the World Trade Center once stood, is looking for a notable restaurateur. I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. There's been so much horrific blood and guts and violence there that it'd be fitting to open a cool restaurant where no mangled, burnt bodies are on the menu.

Posted by Christine Doré

dogbreedinfo / CC

With Disney's new animated feature Beverly Hills Chihuahua slated for release on Oct 3, animal defenders like your good homies here at PETA are readying our disaster-prevention tactics. While it's sure to be an adorable film, the fantasy world it portrays can have devastating unintended effects. Remember the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie and its sequel? Immediately after the films, there were enormous spikes in demand for spotted pups. In the months after the release of each film, the number of Dalmatians who were abandoned at animal shelters tripled throughout the country. They outnumbered every other breed in 1996. According to an animal-shelter official, someone would turn in a Dalmatian and tell the workers, "This dog didn't act like Pongo in the movie."

Apparently, watching professionally trained dogs perform adorable tricks gives some people the illusion that those breeds naturally behave that way—and then they can't wait to take one home. Unrealistic expectations like this can create a dangerous trend. The impulsive purchases that ensue mean that the dirty backyard-breeding market booms. Ultimately, animal shelters overflow. Now can you see why we're not so happy about this Chihuahua movie?

Disney has included a disclaimer on its Web site and at the end of the film about the lifelong responsibility of taking in an animal companion. Quite impressively, they even encourage people to adopt rather than purchase an animal. While this is sure to do some good, it isn't enough. Not everyone will visit the site, and very few people will stay through the credits of a kids' movie. There was time early on for Disney to put signs in movie theaters and speak out to urge people not to buy Chihuahuas—to let people know that if they do buy the cute little dogs, it means a death sentence for dogs in animal shelters.

Now, if you find yourself among the responsible animal guardians who simply must adopt a beautiful Chihuahua—or you have friends who'd like to—please visit petfinder.com to view a listing of the thousands of animals—including purebreds—who are sitting in your local animal shelters right now. You can search by breed in animal shelters across the nation—and help save quite a few lives in the process.

Posted by Missy Lane

OK, I'll admit it—Mr. Peanut looked pretty sharp (who doesn't look good in a monocle?), but the real stars of last month's annual Virginia Peanut Festival parade were PETA's new mobile Animal Birth Control Clinic and the plucky 'pups' who walked alongside it. They were there to spread the word about the importance of spaying and neutering animal companions and to offer the services of our low- to no-cost clinic to the thousands of low-income families in attendance. The peanut-loving people of Emporia swarmed us to sign up their dogs and cats to be sterilized. Participating in a nutty parade (both figuratively and literally nutty) and doing something to stop thousands of unwanted puppies and kittens from being born—I'd say that's a pretty sweet way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

As I'm sure you are already aware, today is World Farm Animals Day! It's a good time for all of us to remember the pain that many farmed animals go through every day for human consumption, but it's also a good time to remember the joy that animals bring to our lives. In light of this holiday, we are hosting Kentucky Fried Cruelty demonstrations all over the country to encourage people to think about how their meal choices affect the environment—and the pain that meat-based diets inflict on farmed animals.

We're hoping that the demos today will really make people think, but it's not the first time we've donned chicken suits and sat in scalding tanks to make the public aware that KFC tortures birds and that chickens are intelligent, wonderful animals who feel pain and fear for their lives just like dogs and cats.

Please check out our slideshow of KFC demos from around the world and leave a comment to tell us which is your favorite picture! If you haven't yet, please order a copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit." World Farm Animals Day is the best time to take that first step!

Posted by Christine Doré

Though our "Meet Your Meat" video has always been successful at reaching people, wouldn't it be so much more effective if people had to watch it right before they went shopping for groceries? For shoppers at an Albertsons grocery in San Diego yesterday, that's just what we arranged.

Shoppers entering the store were greeted with two lifelike statues of pigs in gestation crates, allowing them to see firsthand the cruelty that pork, ham, sausage, and bacon purchases support. The statues illustrate the way that sows who are used for breeding are crammed into tiny, isolated metal crates—much like a jail cell fitted around their bodies—for months at a time. This is just one part of the life of hell that is guaranteed to pigs on factory farms, as a recent undercover investigation has shown.

Why Albertsons in San Diego? Assuming you haven't been living under a rock (where did that expression come from?), you've probably heard of California's "Proposition 2," which will appear on the state ballot this November. It includes many items related to space allotment (read: cage size) which would improve the plight of factory-farmed animals—picking up where the sorely lacking federal Animal Welfare Act left off.

Of course, even if you're not registered to vote in California, there's still something you can do to help—don't eat animals, duh!

Posted by Sean Conner

Grammy Award winner Bryan Adams is one heck of a hard-rockin' musician and a photographer extraordinaire to boot—this Renaissance man has even helped PETA with our own celebrity photo shoots. During his nearly three decades of entertaining the masses, his talents have garnered him 13 Grammy nominations; five Golden Globe nominations for songs he wrote for films, including the film Bobby; and three Oscar nominations. He's recorded hits such as "Straight From the Heart," "Heaven," and "Summer of '69"—a karaoke favorite 'round here!

He's also a vegan, and he's been one for quite some time—17 years to be exact! He says he gets the energy and endurance he needs to put on a rockin' show largely from the food he puts into his body.

Sadly, his tour isn't taking him to any U.S. venues this year, but you can check out his new veggie testimonial right here!

Other Viewing Options

Yes, it's safe to say you won't find this Canadian scarfing down an unhealthy, cruelty-filled bucket of fried chicken. In fact, you might remember that the Kingston, Ontario–born rocker spoke out against most of the KFCs in Canada before the new animal welfare standards were adopted there. To adopt a cruelty-free diet just like Bryan's, you can order your very own "Vegetarian Starter Kit" right here.

Too bad you're not coming to the U.S. this go-around, Bryan, but we'll keep our fingers crossed for next time.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky