therockhandle / CC

As those of you who have been keeping up with your NCAA "March Madness" brackets will know, this year's college basketball championship series is down to the final four schools, all vying for the top spot. Unfortunately, they're all losers.

I say this because, in a tragic irony, the universities that have the most talented athletes also seem to hire some of the cruelest animal abusers in the nation.

Need proof?

Villanova University vs. University of North Carolina

Villanova experimenters inject methamphetamine into rats' stomachs to determine whether the drug influences the rats' response time in behavioral tests (gee, I wonder). Unfortunately, as you might have seen in our "Who Cares?" video, this kind of pointless and cruel test on rats and mice is still legal—in fact, no experiment on them, no matter how painful, is against the law.

Maria Boccia, a vivisector at UNC–Chapel Hill, removes rat pups—at 2 to 14 days old—from their mothers for extended periods of time in order to induce a deep depression in the mother rats. She then places the mothers in cylinders of water from which they can not escape in order to see how quickly they are overcome with a sense of helplessness and stop swimming.

University of Connecticut vs. Michigan State University

At University of Connecticut, experimenters implant steel rods into rabbits' spines to keep them immobile. They then shock the rabbits with electrodes and measure the animals' brainwaves while they are still awake.

Not to be outdone, the returning "champion" from last year's contest, MSU vivisector Arthur Weber has continued his "work" removing the eyes of cats while the animals are still alive. Weber attempted to justify his cruel and pointless experiments last year; on Weber's behalf, an MSU official stated, "The animals are completely anesthetized, receive painkillers, and once the animals come out of the anesthesia, 10 minutes later you can't tell the difference." Yeah, you're probably right. I'm sure eyes are overrated anyway. What?! And don't forget the part where you keep them alive for a week after the operation and then kill them—I'd be willing to bet my March Madness pool money that they notice that too!

Of course, it's not the basketball players' fault that their schools hired such colossal creeps—animal experimentation is big business. As shown above, though, no amount of money can keep animal abusers from being morally bankrupt.

Posted by Ryan Huling

neobeans / CC

The owner of the Montréal Canadiens is considering selling the team, and guess who's throwing an offer on the table? In our letter to team owner George Gillett, we're offering to pay $10,000 Canadian to rent the team for a week, during which time we'd change its name to the Canadian Seal Pups and encourage every spectator to sign and mail our postcards to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to end the seal slaughter.

Give the seal pups some hockey sticks, and then let's talk about blood on the ice.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

jerriroberts / CC

Here's what we're told: Lou Packer, a 55-year-old musher, struggled to finish the race, and even after two of his dogs died, he continued to push his team until he eventually scratched. It now appears that two more of his dogs may have perished after he was removed from the trail. The whistleblower claims that Packer may have denied his dogs food and left them out in the open throughout the night during a bitterly cold storm, while other mushers took their dogs to the tree line to protect them from the wind. If true, that would have been a death sentence.

Now that the death toll may have reached eight, we have renewed our request to Col. Audie Holloway, Director of the Alaska State Troopers, to launch a vigorous criminal investigation into all the deaths related to this year's Iditarod. Alaskan cruelty-to-animals laws specifically prohibit people from knowingly inflicting "prolonged suffering on an animal." The conditions under which the Iditarod is run are no secret. Anyone with half a brain and one ounce of compassion knows that no dog chooses to struggle to survive for days and nights in the freezing cold while being pushed to or beyond his or her physical limits. Or are Iditarod racers exempt from anti-cruelty laws—or the laws of human decency?

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Today, amid a flurry of tourists and cameras, PETA unveiled our new "Let Vegetarianism Grow on You" ad in Times Square. In the ad, the always witty Cloris Leachman wears a dress of red cabbage and leaf lettuce. The release follows last week's publication of the results of the biggest medical study ever to conclude that avoiding meat gives people a better chance of living longer. Who better to illustrate the point than Cloris, a vibrant 82-year-old vegetarian?

As if her performance on Dancing With the Stars wasn't proof enough that vegetarians age gracefully

For those of you who were unable to make the trip to the unveiling, no worries. We've got exclusive photos of the event as well as video of Cloris for ya.

Thanks Cloris—you're now in our Lettuce Ladies Hall of Fame!

Posted by Shawna Flavell

When public school systems fall on hard times, they know they can count on PETA to pitch in. Remember when we sent message toilet paper to a struggling Detroit school? So, of course, we jumped into action when we heard about a cash-strapped school in Idaho that's limiting how much writing paper teachers can use.

One of Pocatello High School's teachers has actually begun selling ad space on the writing paper he uses in his classroom—one pizza joint has already placed an ad. While we respect his initiative, we thought we could one-up him. So we've written to the school's principal, Don Cotant, offering to provide the whole school with an entire semester's worth of recycled writing paper printed with our snazzy Meat's Not Green logo on it.

We'll let you know if Pocatello High takes us up on the offer! It would definitely be a more eco-friendly way to ease the budget crunch than encouraging kids to spend $5 on a pus-laced pizza. Plus it would be one step in the right direction toward being listed as one of the most vegetarian-friendly school districts next year.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

In my first year working at a grossly substandard animal shelter in Maryland, I forced myself to go in early to euthanize dogs by holding them in my arms and gently helping them escape an uncaring world without trauma or pain and to spare them from being stabbed haphazardly—while they were fully conscious, terrified and aware—in the general vicinity of their hearts with needles blunt from reuse and left to thrash on the floor until they finally died by the callous people who would arrive later to do the job.

I always wonder how anyone cannot recognize that there is a world of difference between painlessly euthanizing animals out of compassion—aged, injured, sick, and dying animals whose guardians can't afford euthanasia, for instance—as PETA does, and causing them to suffer terror, pain, and a prolonged death while struggling to survive on the streets, at the hands of untrained and uncaring "technicians," or animal abusers.

Diamond was suffering from a painful facial tumor that was slowly eating away at his face

Sasha had a severely infected bite wound.

It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the "dirty work" caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals—even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn't have enough heart or homes with room for them. It makes it easy for people to throw stones at us, but we are against all needless killing: for hamburgers, fur collars, dissection, sport hunting―the works. PETA handled far more animals than 2,124 in 2008. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats and work very hard to persuade people to spay and neuter their animals and to commit to a lifetime of care and respect for them. We go so far as to transport animals to and from our spay/neuter clinics, where they are spayed or neutered and given vet care, often for free! Since 2001, PETA's low- to no-cost spay-and-neuter mobile clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized more than 50,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them. And on a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem through our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign.

Big Girl was still alive when a field worker found her

If anyone has a good home, love, and respect to offer, we beg them: Go to a shelter and take one or two animals home. The problem is that few people do that, choosing instead to go to a breeder or a pet shop and not "fixing" their dogs and cats, which contributes to the high euthanasia rate that animal shelters face. Most of the animals we took in and euthanized could hardly be called "pets," as they had spent their lives chained up in the back yard, for instance. They were unsocialized, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head. Others were indeed someone's, but they were aged, sick, injured, dying, too aggressive to place, and the like, and PETA offered them a painless release from suffering, with no charge to their owners or custodians.

Every day, PETA's fieldworkers help abused and neglected dogs—many of them pit bulls nowadays and many of them forced to live their lives on chains heavy enough to tow an 18-wheeler—by providing them with food; clean water; lightweight tie-outs; deworming medicine; flea, tick, and fly-strike prevention; free veterinary care; sturdy wooden doghouses stuffed with straw bedding; and love.

What we see is enough to make you lose faith in humanity. One pit bull we gained custody of, named Asia, looked like a skeleton covered with skin when PETA released her from the 15-pound chain she had been kept on for years. Asia suffered from three painful and deadly intestinal obstructions, which prevented her from keeping any food down. She faced an agonizing, lingering death, so our veterinarian recommended euthanasia to end her suffering. We pursued criminal charges against those responsible for her condition, leading to their conviction for cruelty to animals. That is just one of the dozens of cases we see every week.

The majority of adoptable dogs are never brought through our doors (we refer them to local adoption groups and walk-in animal shelters). Most of the animals we house, rescue, find homes for, or put out of their misery come from miserable conditions, which often lead to successful prosecution and the banning of animal abusers from ever owning or abusing animals again.

Santana had facial injuries so serious that his right eye was swollen shut and his jaw was ripped and hanging

This dog was suffering from advanced cancer

As long as animals are still purposely bred and people aren't spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society's dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis. PETA is proud to be a "shelter of last resort," where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms.

Please, if you care about animals, help prevent more of them from being born only to end up chained and left to waste away in people's back yards, suffering on mean streets where people kick at them or shoo them away like garbage, tortured at the hands of animal abusers, or, alas, euthanized in animal shelters for lack of a good home. If you want to save lives, always have your animals spayed or neutered.

Posted by Ingrid E. Newkirk

In a recent Houston Chronicle article, Rockets small forward Ron Artest openly admits that he doesn't have the best track record when it comes to animal care. In the article, he confesses that because he spends a lot of time traveling, he once left one of his dogs vulnerable to neglect. In a refreshingly candid admission, he says, "I was an irresponsible pet owner."

What sets Artest apart from other "irresponsible pet owners," though, is that he is man enough to admit that he's made mistakes, and he's now doing all he can to educate others so that they don't make the same mistakes he did. "PETA came and showed me how to be a better pet owner," he says. "I loved my dogs. You just need to be more mature and accountable for how you treat your animals. I had to be educated."

These days, Artest can be found volunteering his time to help the Houston Humane Society or lending his star power to PETA's campaigns. "I've told my people that whenever [the Houston Humane Society] need[s] me for something, they've got to make it happen," he says. "I've always loved animals. Now I've learned how to be responsible."

In a video that was shot behind the scenes at the photo shoot for his PETA spay-and-neuter ad, Artest talks about his passion for helping animals, and he also condemns dogfighting. (He has even placed a plea right on the front page of his personal Web site to urge people to spay and neuter their animal companions.) Check out the interview b-roll here:

Speaking of dogfighting, another star athlete who has had run-ins with the law over his treatment of dogs isn't exactly jumping through hoops in an effort to show that he's learned the error of his ways. Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick did attend PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" seminar, but he has not gone out of his way to show the public or his fans that he feels any remorse for torturing and killing dogs.

Now, just as he is on the verge of being released from federal prison, Vick is reportedly shopping around for a book deal. It's pretty unlikely that his book will be subject to the "Son of Sam" law (which is a type of law that aims to prevent criminals from profiting from their crimes) because Vick's victims were dogs. Unless the book basically consists of the words, "I was a sick, cruel, despicable jerk, and I'm sorry," and all the proceeds go to animal protection charities, we ain't buyin' it.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

The design for our pothole ad, which doesn't promote torturing chickens

KFC even hired a Colonel Sanders lookalike for the kickoff of the program in its hometown of Louisville.

KFC might concentrate instead on improving conditions for the chickens it abuses, but it won't, so we're offering to double the money that KFC offered the City of Louisville—if the city will use our ads against KFC cruelty on its potholes instead. After all, drivers have a right to hear the chickens' side of the story—and it isn't pretty.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

media.photobucket / CC

First stop on the Midwest Victory Tour is a school district in Wisconsin. A concerned citizen contacted us after learning that the district was offering a kids' summer science course that included six dissections as well as an activity in which students were given a live rat to "care for" throughout the duration of the course. We contacted the school immediately about cutting out the old-school classroom dissections and to inform school officials that rats need constant care and compassion, not a summer course's worth of "caretaking." After nearly a year of persistent follow-up, we are excited to let you know that this course is finally history!

Our next stop on the tour takes us to a Utah educational nonprofit that was recommending experiments in which live goldfish were put in ice baths in order to cause hypothermia. Since the experimenters probably wouldn't do this sort of thing to Fluffy, the family kitty, we sent the nonprofit a letter outlining why it's cruel to freeze any kitten—including sea kittens. After hearing our suggestion for cruelty-free coursework, the nonprofit has agreed to no longer suggest shocking the nervous systems of these adorable goldkittens for classroom experiments.

Well, that's the end of our Midwest Victory Tour. See, it's not all beef-expos and pus-farms in the Midwest. There's some compassion for animals too.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

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That's right, a recent study by Queen's University is making headlines by declaring (once and for all, we hope) that crabs and other crustaceans experience pain and react to it in a way that anyone can relate to. They quickly get away from what's causing the pain and then try to avoid it in the future. Makes sense. If you were to, say, touch a hot stove even though your mother told you not to, you probably wouldn't do it again. Same goes for the crab.

The only questions that remain are: How much did it pain Sebastian to be exploited by Disney for the awful (unfortunately I know this from firsthand experience) straight-to-DVD flicks The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, and how long will he remember it?

P.S. Not surprised by this news? Well maybe that's because you're already a hermit-crab expert. Take the PETA Kids Hermit Crab Quiz to test your crabtelligence.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Back in 2004, PETA launched our Holocaust on Your Plate (HOYP) traveling display, which juxtaposes images of animals in slaughterhouses and factory farms with images of humans in Nazi concentration camps. The display was inspired by a passage from Nobel-prize–winning Jewish author Isaac Bashevis Singer's book, The Letter Writer: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka." This struck a chord with one of our Jewish staffers, who proposed the idea of creating a display that he hoped would encourage people to consider that the same mindset that allows the routine and systematic murder of animals also allows the routine and systematic murder of human beings.

The HOYP display—which was also funded by a Jewish PETA member—traveled all over the U.S., where it sparked a tremendous amount of debate and discussion about both animal rights and human rights issues. Then across the pond, PETA Germany took the idea and ran with it. And that's where the trouble began. Yesterday, Germany's high court banned PETA Germany’s Holocaust display, stating that it would have made "the fate of the victims of the Holocaust appear banal and trivial."

This ruling left the staffers of our German affiliate scratching their heads, because the display only renders the humans' suffering "banal and trivial" if the animals' suffering is considered banal and trivial. Which is the whole point of the display …

Anyway, PETA Germany is, of course, appealing the ruling, and it is confident that free speech will win out in the end.

So what do you think, PETA Files readers? Did the campaign go too far? Was the German high court justified in banning it—or should free speech have reigned supreme?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

You have to wonder why the seal slaughter is allowed to continue even though almost everyone is opposed to it, including most Canadians. Helpless baby seals are beaten to death while their mothers scream in anguish. The babies are dragged across the ice with boat hooks, and some are even skinned alive.

So you see why we're doing all we can to stop the massacre, right? And we're definitely not alone in this fight. This week, U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Susan Collins introduced a resolution asking the Canadian government to put an end to the seal slaughter. Hooray! We'll keep you updated on the resolution's progress. In the meantime, try sending a letter to Canadian officials urging them to stop the seal slaughter (and asking your friends to do the same), signing our petition (and asking your friends to do the same), and posting our alert on your Facebook page (and asking … well, I think you get the idea). We need the support of everyone we (and you) can possibly contact to stop this slaughter.

But before you get started calling, e-mailing, and IMing your friends, check out these pictures from PETA's protest in Toronto this week:

Don't do it! You don't want their blood on your conscience.

I bet the kids on those buses have already posted our alert on their Facebook pages!

Posted by Lianne Turner

Our McCruelty campaign has been raging on for about a month now, with no word from McDonald's about improving welfare standards for the animals killed for its restaurants. But since when has a little resistance stopped us? That said, we think it's the perfect time to kick the campaign up a notch, don't you agree?

Our latest efforts have us thinking big—as in billboard big. Check it out:

We plan to place the eye-opening billboard in select cities across the country. We're certain it will have motorists seeing red once they learn that the biggest seller of chicken meat in the country refuses to compel its suppliers to switch to a better slaughter method.

Contrary to what Ronald would like consumers to believe, it's not all Happy Meals and hamburger patches under the golden arches. Far from it.

Please take action now by urging McDonald's to support only suppliers that use controlled-atmosphere killing.

I know if I were a parent, I certainly wouldn't allow my child to visit the home of a scary giant-shoe–wearing clown with blood on his hands. But that's just me.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

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The King of Pop has a sordid past when it comes to the way he treats animals, but we were still shocked by Michael Jackson's reported plans to ride an African elephant and use other exotic animals during his upcoming 30-day stint at The O2 arena in London.

PETA Europe wrote a letter to The O2 to let officials there know about Michael's sketchy track record of animal neglect. The letter included some basic information about how exotic animals actually don't want to perform stupid tricks on a stage surrounded by screaming people, bright lights, and stage explosions.

So come on, Michael, pull a "Britney" and leave exotic animals out of your performances.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

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Six dogs. Dead.

And for what? A belt buckle. A long shot at some money, a pickup truck, and a few endorsement deals. I suppose they think that they're covering themselves in glory, too, but it looks more like blood to me.

Consider this: Two of the dogs may have frozen to death in the punishing weather. Two others died with fluid in their lungs. The most recently reported death apparently happened during a turbulent plane flight after the "musher" gave up. Even the generally Iditarod-supportive Anchorage Daily News called the number of deaths—only five, at the time—"troubling," but that misses the point: Even one dog dead is too many, and it is unacceptable that the dogs who survive are run to exhaustion or injury, only to be stuck back on a chain until the next race.

To paraphrase a classic cartoon, we say it's cruelty, and we say the hell with it. PETA has asked the Alaska State Troopers to open a criminal investigation into the deaths of these dogs in the Iditarod. We'll keep you posted on any major developments. In the meantime, even though this year's event has mercifully ended, it's not too late to tell the 2009 Iditarod sponsors to make this the last year that they contribute to dogs' deaths.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Paw Prints tiger

It's not surprising that Time Warner Cable would want nothing to do with a business that has been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failure to provide animals with veterinary care or appropriate and sufficient food as well as failure to handle animals so that there is minimal risk of harm to the animals and the public. In announcing the cancellation of the event, Time Warner's Director of Media Relations Melissa Buscher stated, "The safety of our customers and the well-being of the animals are a top concern for Time Warner Cable." You'll find a lot of things in our factsheet on Kelly's Paw Print Productions, but customer safety and animal welfare are two things that are noticeably lacking.

Big props to Time Warner Cable for not wanting to associate itself with Kelly's Paw Print Productions, but the truth is that most animal exhibitors have similarly miserable records of animal care. Please thank the Time Warner Cable Store for its decision to cancel the Paw Prints event and ask Time Warner to take one more progressive step and enact a policy permanently prohibiting the display of wild animals at any of its locations.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

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Specifically, meat increases your chances of dying prematurely.

That's right, we weren't just making it up. Research has, once again, linked the consumption of meat with heart disease and certain types of cancer—and this time, it's more conclusive than ever. As The Washington Post explains, a new case study has just been published—the first large examination of the relationship between eating meat and overall risk of early death—and guess what it found?

"The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality," concluded the leader of the study, Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute.

Women in the study who ate the most red meat were 36 percent more likely to prematurely die of any cause than those who ate less (or none), and they were 50 percent more likely to die of heart disease! Maybe it's just me, but those kinds of odds would definitely shock me into seriously reconsidering my meaty habits. Men who ate the most red meat didn't do much better—they were 31 percent more likely to die prematurely of any cause.

Amusingly, the only defense that the American Meat Institute could muster was that meat products "provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control." So don't worry about the cancer and heart disease, say the meat guys, because filling your stomach with disease-linked animal flesh makes you full, and that keeps the weight off! Um, nice try, fellas.

Nope, I'm not buying the meat guys' argument—and something tells me a lot of other people won't be, either. This could end up as a real victory for our arteries—and for animals.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Thanks for all of your wonderful comments on this Win It Wednesday. The winners of the humane mousetrap are Christina Eckhart, Ipstenu, and Jennifer Short. Congratulations!

It's almost spring, the time when a young mouse's fancy turns to thoughts of love. Next thing you know, you may start hearing the pitter-patter of little mouse feet on your attic floorboards. Now, we know you would never want to hurt one of these cute little guys, but we can understand if some of you don't want them setting up a love nest in your box of old LPs. That's why we're offering up three of our popular humane mousetraps for "Win It" Wednesday.

PETA's mousetraps are great because mice can be caught alive and unharmed and released outdoors. The same can't be said of glue traps, which we've been begging Lowe's for months to stop selling. It's like they don't care that animals caught in these traps can suffer for days before finally succumbing to starvation, dehydration, or suffocation.

How do you win? Post a comment with your thoughts on why Lowe's should stop selling glue traps. The three people who post the most persuasive answers will each win a humane mousetrap.

The contest ends on April 1, 2009, and we'll choose the three most persuasive comments as the winners on April 3, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Check back every Wednesday for new prizes. Good luck!

Posted by Lianne Turner

It's been almost a year in the making, but three lions and two tigers in Kansas will soon be on their way to new homes after PETA pressured local authorities to act. We were first alerted to the big cats' plight back in May 2008, when a passerby informed us that the animals were being kept in what essentially amounts to a junkyard. Behold, the "Prairie Cat Animal Refuge" in all its splendor:

In June, we sent a team of exotic-animal experts to assess the situation, and their reports were included in the local sheriff's case, which recommended that charges be filed against the cats' "owner" and that authorities take custody of the animals. Unfortunately, the case encountered reams of politically-charged red tape. Then, last month, a man "under the influence" who was working and staying at a so-called "hotel" on the property (it's called the "Free Breakfast Inn"—infer what you will from that), wandered up to the cages and was promptly bitten by a lion. That incident, while not so good for the man (he was hospitalized for surgery on his arm), finally galvanized the authorities into action.

In the meantime, PETA was lining up homes for the animals to be taken to once they were given a clean bill of health: The Detroit Zoo (a progressive zoo that closed its elephant exhibit for humane reasons and has provided a home for numerous rescued exotic animals, including one of the Suarez polar bears) has agreed to take all three lions, and the tigers will go to Carnivore Preservation Trust, a sanctuary in North Carolina. The zoo is covering all expenses for testing and transporting the lions, while PETA is covering the cost of testing and transporting the tigers. That cost is estimated at $3,000. We're hoping that the animals will be moved at the end of the month—we'll keep you posted.

So there you have it—the latest installment of "Your PETA Dollars at Work." Just doin' our job, folks.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

health.qld.gov / CC

As an organization that helps people fight another addiction (meat addiction, that is) we feel the quit line's pain.

That's why, after hearing about the help line's financial woes, we wrote a letter to the director of the Department of Community Health in Michigan offering to team up and help cover the hotline's costs. Our proposal includes renaming the quit line The Cancer Prevention Hotline (because that's the point, isn't it?) and including copies of PETA's free "Vegetarian Starter Kit" along with the other distributed materials.

Are you a smoker who needs another reason to quit? Did you know that most cigarettes are tested on animals? Gross.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

Spoiler alert: If you haven't watched the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, do not read any further. Simply look at the photos below, then leave a comment telling us which public service announcement is your fave, Tricia "Six" Helfer's or Jamie "Lee Adama" Bamber's.

So the greatest show in the history of the universe, Battlestar Galatica, has come to an end, and now I have no idea what the frak I'm going to do with my Friday nights. (Wait, did someone just whisper Dollhouse into my ear?)

I loved that an underlying theme of the series was mankind's failure to learn from our mistakes and that it was our worst traits that led directly to our unraveling again and again. That leads me to lovely Tricia Helfer's character, Six, and the character everyone loves to hate, Gaius. Isn't it ironic that a version of the Six Cylon and Gaius would end up being angels (naughty, naughty angels) who would start the cataclysmic events that would end humankind? I think someone here at PETA anticipated that Tricia's character would turn out to be an angel; after all, we did ask her to star in our first-ever "Angel for Animals" ad in behalf of felines long before the finale was in sight.

The finale, while amazing, left me with mixed feelings. I was so excited to watch it, but at the same time, I was sad that the show had come to an end. I admit that I expected more … um … well, more carnage. I was positive that all the humans were actually Cylons, and I was convinced that more of the prominent cast members would die. And I kept thinking that the Cylons had one last sinister plot up their sleeve. Or that they were going to blow up the Galactica and kill everyone. I'm so glad I was wrong!

I would have been devastated if they had killed off my favorite characters, like Helo (did someone mention Dollhouse again?) and Lee "Apollo" Adama (aka Jamie Bamber), who, by the way, looked amazing in the last few episodes (and is by far the cuter of the two Adama boys), but not as good, of course, as when he took it all off to speak up for bears who are killed for their fur in the super-hot "Bare Skin, Not Bear Skin" ad. Oh, Jamie. And I love that, like every episode before, they kept us guessing. Well done, BSG writers!

As pretty as Tricia's ad is, Jamie's is still my favorite. Sigh. Check out their ads below and then tell us which one is your favorite. The reader with the most convincing response will win a copy of the ad of their choice.

You can enter the contest by posting a comment before April 13, 2009. We'll contact the winner on April 14, 2009. By commenting, you are agreeing to the contest terms and conditions and our privacy policy.

Thanks for some awesome television, BSG. I miss you already.

Posted by Patricia Trostle

P.S. I have to say that I think the high point of the finale for me was when Chief strangled Tory for shooting Cally out the airlock. I actually yelled out, "Yes! Finally!" It made my night.

realitytvmagazine / CC

I'm sure you all remember Khloe's sexy ad, which we unveiled not too long ago. Well, on Keeping Up last night, she really went above and beyond by showing—on national television—the gruesome and heartbreaking video footage that caused her to go fur-free. Hopefully, many of the millions of people watching were touched and inspired to make the same compassionate choice. After seeing a fully conscious animal having his or her skin ripped off, it's hard to sport that fur coat.

On the show, Khloe admitted that she had a hard time stripping down for the ad because of insecurity about her body. When you're tall and curvy and from a family full of petite models, that's definitely understandable. But lucky for us, animals, and the rest of the world, she laid her insecurities to rest and rocked the you-know-what out of the shoot. She summed it up best at the end of the episode when she said of the shoot, "It really helped me be comfortable in my own skin. In turn, I really hope this helps animals keep their skin."

Posted by Christine Doré

Not since we were pitted against Nazi attack dogs when we first escaped from Castle Wolfenstein 17 years ago have we seen such barbaric treatment of dogs in video games as we did in Call of Duty, World at War. During the course of the game, you are forced to shoot attack dogs and you can actually unlock a "reward" that allows you to unleash a pack of attack dogs on enemies. In a post–Michael Vick world, you'd think that Activision Blizzard, which publishes the popular game, would take abusing dogs for entertainment purposes more seriously.

Fortunately, some students at a Massachusetts high school are not keeping quiet about their disgust with Activision. Breanna Lucci serves as president of the Animal Rights Club at the Academy of Notre Dame (NDA) in Tyngsborough. The following is from the Lowell Sun's interview with her (via GamePolitics.com):

"Killing dogs as a form of entertainment … over and over again. That's one of the objects of the game," says Lucci, 19, a senior at NDA. "Parents need to know what they are buying their kids. Killing animals should not be a form of entertainment."

. . .

"My little 12-pound Pomeranian, Winnie the Pooh, is sitting next to [Lucci's brother as he plays the game], and I'm thinking, 'This looks horrible!'" Lucci says.

Lucci then adds, "My brother is a sweetheart. He won't be killing dogs after playing. But some people might."

To help the folks at Activision Blizzard learn about the ethical treatment of animals (something we're sorta experts on) we're offering to let them take PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" seminar free of charge, and we're sending a package of dog-friendly Nintendogs games to their office.

With a little Nintendogs influence, perhaps the next Call of Duty game will have you unlock achievements for petting the dogs you encounter and going on walks or playing Frisbee with them.

Source: GamePolitics.com

Posted by Joel Bartlett

This is it, people. If you haven't written to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee yet, today is the day. Not only did Canada's annual seal slaughter start today, they've actually increased the quota of seals that can be slaughtered. This means that seal killers can legally bash in the heads of up to 338,200 seals in the coming weeks. That's right—the world's biggest marine mammal slaughter just got bigger.

If you need a refresher course in just how disgusting the seal slaughter is, watch this video:

That's what the Canadian government has the unmitigated gall to call "humane." I kid you not.

Help stop this senseless massacre. Click here and here for a list of easy actions you can take for seals today. And please encourage your friends, family, and everyone you see on the street to do the same.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

As a woman and an as-proud-as-you-can-be resident of New Jersey, I have to say that this latest piece of news frightened me right down to my … toes. The New Jersey State Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling was seriously considering a ban on any and all waxing of our lady-parts—particularly "Brazilians"—after two women wound up hospitalized with infections they contracted following their, ahem, extreme waxes. The idea of a ban has been dropped but that’s not stopping us here at PETA. As you know, we are decidedly anti-fur—at least when it comes to fur that's been stolen from animals—and think women should have the right to shed as much fur as they want!

I mean, let's face it—if you're popping into the back room of your nail salon for a $15 Brazilian, you're probably going to get what you pay for, but that's no reason to consider a universal ban on waxing.

With that in mind, we're dispatching our lovely Leopard Ladies to the garden state to speak up for every woman's right to go as bare as she dares—and, more importantly, to call attention to a much grosser type of fur trim. You know, the stuff you see on the coats and jackets of people who don't know any better? And what better way to get tongues wagging about this very important issue than a billboard—specifically, this billboard:

Look out, Trenton! This will hopefully be coming soon to a billboard near you.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

110livingston / CC

Well, after several personal e-mails to Urban Outfitters' CEO followed by a PETA action alert, I'm happy to report that just a few months—and a few thousand e-mails—later, Urban Outfitters has become fur-free! In an e-mail I received from the company late last week, a representative wrote, "[T]here is no fur in our stores, and this will continue to be the case."

Kudos to Urban Outfitters for making this compassionate decision, and kudos to all our great supporters who help us win victories for animals by participating in campaigns like this one.

Unfortunately, not all companies are as easily convinced. We sure could use your help persuading Macy's to go fur-free.

Posted by Matt Prescott

wowowow / CC

While the original, ill-fated touring productions featured such starlets as Carol Channing, Joan Collins, Linda Evans, and Mary Martin as aging rivals parading around in furs, the PETA-friendly revival will feature Whoopi Goldberg and drag legends Charles Busch and Lypsinka in some pretty spectacular faux furs. Hmm—the productions that used real fur never made it to New York, but the fur-free production has … weren't we just talking about curses?

How, you may ask, did this production get to be so animal-friendly? As PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews explains, "When Lypsinka heard about all the mink that was going to be used in the show, she asked PETA to help make sure that the fur was as fake as the leading ladies." Dan introduced the producers of Legends! to Donna Salyers' Fabulous-Furs, and the rest is fabulous costuming history.

This one-night-only revival of Legends! opens and closes tonight in New York's Town Hall, and the proceeds will benefit Friends in Deed, a crisis center for people with life-threatening illnesses. If you happen to be in the New York area and want to help out a good cause—and see some truly ravishing leading "ladies"—tickets may still be available through the organization's Web site.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Colonel Sanders got a taste of his own medicine when PETA marked the Association of Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchisees Convention in Maryland last month by "slaughtering" the Colonel outside a nearby KFC restaurant.

Luckily for the brave actor portraying Colonel Sanders, our slaughter methods are a bit more humane than those employed by KFC's suppliers. The Colonel was not slammed into shackles (which often breaks birds' legs), he wasn't jolted by an electrified "stun bath," and he wasn't dunked into a scalding-hot defeathering tank. Nope—we just strung him up, poked him with a plastic knife, and let the red paint fly. But it made a darned nice visual, didn't it?

Notta Nugget prepares for battle.

My, what big orange feet you have!

He seems to be enjoying this a little too much …

Posted by Alisa Mullins

It's sunny again here in Norfolk, Virginia—a welcome change after a week of gloomy skies and muddy shoes. Speaking of shoes, a few ladies around the office (yours truly included) are beginning the official "Hot Vegan Shoe Parade" here at work. And the competition is fierce! I'll keep you posted.

In the spirit of distracting you, let's get down to the task at hand: to collect as many weird animal-related things as we can and throw them into the pot for Internet Soup. Let's begin, shall we?

• First up: a meowing couch.
• Folks are swearing off ham sandwiches after watching this. I want a "Kingsford Is My Homeboy" T-shirt!
• A mother's love has no limit.
• I never thought you'd hear this from me, but I want a mounted moose head for my living room.
• At last, the creepy sea kitten pedicure era has ended in Florida.
• Runners of the world, go vegan! I hear others have lost minutes off their race time.
• The next time you're booking a trip to Mongolia, check out this awesome vegetarian-friendly travel agent.
• Hens (and vegans) rejoice: Boca will go egg-free by the end of the year!
• Another reason to love Victoria's Secret (as if the sexy lingerie weren't enough): vegan body-care products!

Well, golly jeepers. This covered quite a variety of issues. I'll leave you now, as you have a load of links to explore. I must attend to the serious business of shopping for ammunition to dominate the vegan shoe war. Oh, it is on, Campaigns Department. Brang it!

Posted by Missy Lane

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Most people don't realize that captive elephants are beaten, chained, and denied almost everything that is natural and important to them. This understandably causes aggression and poses a risk to humans—since 1990, rampaging elephants have killed 13 people and injured 120. Just a couple weeks ago, 12 children were injured by an elephant at the Shrine Circus, and in 2004, Nosey herself hit a Liebel Family Circus employee on the back of the head with her trunk, sending him to the hospital. I'm guessing that the parents who let their children take a ride on Nosey had no knowledge of this attack.

To be fair to Nosey—and all captive elephants—it's pretty clear what they're so mad about. After Nosey's outburst in 2004, the injured man described an incident in which a trainer "used the bullhook handle, turned off the lights in the performance ring, and beat the elephant." The trainer also encouraged others to take part in the abuse by striking her with objects such as a sledgehammer and shovel handles. When the USDA investigated the facility, they found that the Liebel Family Circus was not providing the animals in its care with adequate food, shelter, or veterinary care.

Don't you agree that it's time to put a permanent end to the abuse of elephants in circuses?

Posted by Liz Graffeo

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Project Runway finalist Kenley Collins has reportedly used her cat as a weapon by throwing the animal at her sleeping fiancé's head. Oh yeah, she also allegedly chucked a laptop and three apples and slammed a door on his head as he crawled across the floor. I guess her precious sewing machine was too valuable to throw. Police have charged Collins with assault and criminal possession of a deadly weapon (i.e., her cat). Thankfully this alleged assault is being investigated, but c'mon, what about the cat?

We are so disgusted that Collins has reportedly endangered her feline companion that we think, if Collins is found guilty, she should be barred from owning any animals in the future. Anyone who would throw a cat in a fit of rage should not be trusted with the care of another life.

Her fiancé might want to watch his back, as well. More than one killer got started by hurting animals. I'm no Doctor Phil, but I'd venture a guess that these two love birds won't be walking down the aisle anytime soon.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

If you've been keeping up with your British celebrity chefs lately, you'll know that Naked Chef star Jamie Oliver has been pushing pork products on the public (try saying that three times fast). He's encouraging people to "save our bacon" by buying British pig meat instead of the cruel other kind.

Wait. What?

Now, we know that Jamie is aware of the horrors behind factory farming in Europe (he even has a campaign against it), but we're hoping he'll realize the obvious: That the best way to stop cruelty to animals is to stop eating animals—including British ones. Good thing we've got friends in the U.K. who are only too happy to educate Mr. Oliver on the horrors of all factory farms.

Check out these pictures from PETA Europe's Mother's Day demo (yes, across the pond they honor their mums in March), in which two very sexy, very pregnant volunteers portrayed a typical day in the life of a mother sow in front of Jamie's flagship restaurant, Fifteen.

These hot mamas have hearts as big as their bellies.

Happy Mother's Day, Jamie!

Pregnant sows are forced to live in gestation crates that don't even allow them enough space to turn around.

Mama pigs have their piglets taken away after only about four weeks.

I think Jamie got the message.

Posted by Lianne Turner

Yesterday, attorneys working on behalf of PETA and two plaintiffs won a lawsuit to stop the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA) from granting licenses to animal shelters that use cruel gas chambers to kill cats and dogs.

Is that a victory cheer I hear?

You might remember our post a couple of years ago about the GDA's refusal to uphold Georgia's 1990 Humane Euthanasia Act, which banned the use of gas chambers by most animal shelters. Well, thanks to the hard work of attorneys with the law firm Schiff Hardin LLP, a permanent injunction was entered against the GDA's practice of approving and encouraging the illegal use of gas chambers. That's right—the very institution that was supposed to be upholding the law was breaking it. And it's been busted. Now, counties in Georgia with a population of 25,000 or more must provide animals with the best form of euthanasia available: intravenous injections of sodium pentobarbital.

We are still waiting with fingers crossed to see if Georgia's bill to ban all gas chambers permanently has made its way to the Senate. But for now, we are throwing a little victory celebration for all the shelter animals who will be spared a cruel death thanks to this courtroom victory.

Posted by Shawna Flavell

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Like I said: geniuses.

As you might expect, we filed a criminal complaint, but the prosecutor's office refused to take the case. So, because the Clay County brain trust had decided that they were qualified to conduct experiments on animals, we filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) because this impromptu experiment appeared to violate numerous Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations.

Now, the USDA has cited Clay County Animal Control for no less than five—count 'em, five—violations of the AWA. From the USDA's memo:

Clay County Animal Control does not have an IACUC [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee]. No protocol was prepared, and a veterinarian was not consulted for this project. There were no searches for alternatives, nor were there any attempts to demonstrate that this project did not unnecessarily duplicate previous experiments.

The animal control brainiacs said that they didn't think that this kind of atrocity experiment was regulated, but, as the USDA official dryly noted, "I explained to them that this was." Apparently, the explanation was slow enough and used one-syllable words, because the violators understood it well enough to assure the USDA that "they will not perform any research activity in the future." Phew!

Clay County's dogs (and other animals) should be able to rest easier—and so should the human residents, as it's now likely that county officials will think twice before deciding that they're qualified to, say, perform open-heart surgery.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

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• Elephants are chained for an average of more than 26 hours at a time, sometimes for as many as 60–100 hours straight on extended trips. Chained and barely able to take a step, the elephants sway neurotically.
• Kenneth Feld—CEO of Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling—had to admit that he's seen handlers use bullhooks to hit elephants in the secret places where the wounds don't show up as much (i.e., under the chin, behind the ear, and on the back of the leg).
• Ringling's animal behaviorist testified that an elephant who had been struck with a bullhook was seen dripping blood on the arena floor during a show.
• In internal e-mails that came to light, a Ringling veterinary assistant reported, "After this morning's baths, at least 4 of the elephants came in with multiple abrasions and lacerations from the [bull]hooks. … The [lacerations] were very visible …. [A handler] applied … wonder dust just before the show." (Wonder Dust is a gray dressing powder that circus workers can use to conceal bloody bullhook wounds.)
• Another internal report documented that Troy Metzler, a longtime Ringling elephant trainer, struck Angelica, a female Asian elephant, three to five times while she was held in stocks before unloading her and then shocking her with an electric prod.
• Two former Ringling employees, who had previously blown the whistle to PETA, described the abuse that they witnessed while working for the circus, including a violent beating of an elephant that lasted at least 30 minutes.

Check back with the PETA Files in the coming months for an update on the verdict. We hope that the elephants win, but regardless of the outcome, the trial has already generated lots of deservedly negative publicity for this miserable circus. And that's a good thing considering how hard Ringling works to put a misleading, positive spin on clamping elephants in irons, dominating and intimidating them with bullhooks, and confining them to boxcars and arena basements for much of their lives.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

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Colbert interviewed Ingrid on a subject that's either revolutionary or revolting, depending on your point of view: in vitro meat. As you may remember, PETA is offering 1 million dollars to the first team of scientists that can develop a method to produce viable, commercially available, lab-grown chicken meat by 2010. If the in vitro meat looks and tastes just like the "real thing" and can be sold at a competitive price, then even those who refuse to kick their meat addictions will have no justification for the continued slaughter of animals for food.

As you may have seen in last night's episode, scientists are already tackling this, ahem, meaty issue. And hey, who knows—maybe the "Colbert Bump" was exactly what this contest needed! We anticipate an absolute flood of entries in the very near future.

As for in vitro meat, what does the PETA Files nation think—revolutionary or revolting?

Posted by Amanda Schinke

It's that time again—"Win It" Wednesday! What's the prize this week? It's our brand-spanking-new "Mean People Wear Fur" T-shirt, in honor of our equally brand-spanking-new "Stolen for Fashion" PSA.

"Stolen for Fashion" follows an alligator and a bunny (voiced by Pink and Ricky Gervais, respectively) as they confront the people who stole their skins. It's the first and only animal rights video using CGI (computer-generated imagery), so it's pretty special, just like these awesome T-shirts.

The tee comes in milky red and black amethyst, so if you win, you'll have to let us know which color you want, in addition to the size.

How do you win? Leave us a comment letting us know why you think people should only wear their own skin. The three people who post the most creative answers will each take home a "Mean People Wear Fur" T-shirt.

The contest ends on March 25, 2009, and we'll choose the three most creative comments on March 26, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Check back every Wednesday for new prizes. Good luck!

Posted by Lianne Turner

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The premise of Ted, which sounds sort of like a cross between The Office and Big Bang Theory, is that smart and successful, if somewhat nerdy, employees are forced to use their powers for bizarre, if not downright unethical, endeavors by a soulless corporation. They are asked to weaponize pumpkins (which doesn't sound all bad, really) and to create uncomfortable, scratchy office chairs (some chairs do seem to have gone missing from the PETA office). They even cryogenically freeze a company scientist for a year as part of an experiment (now that's the kind of animal testing we can get behind—just kidding, c'mon).

But back to that in vitro meat. We can't help but think that the show's creators were inspired by PETA's call to scientists to develop a commercially viable lab-grown meat by 2012. As an incentive, we're dangling a big, juicy carrot in the form of a $1 million prize. Hey, we already have lab-grown candy—how big of a leap is from it Pop Rocks to test-tube T-bones?

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Considering that Tiger Woods' life is essentially a media circus, we hope that the superstar golfer can relate to the plight of his namesakes in the circus. That's why we've written a letter to Tiger asking him to tee up for one of our ever-popular naked tiger demos. We're hoping that Mr. Woods will show his true stripes by stripping down to his skivvies and painting his body with orange and black stripes—something like the (awesome) photo illustration below:

We think Tiger would look great in body paint.

Quite a change from the traditional polo shirt and Nike cap, but, hey, we can dream, can't we?

Posted by Alisa Mullins

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

PETA first wrote to JCPenney about its support of the cruel fur industry in 2001, and we have kept the pressure on the company ever since, including sending complaints to the company over its mislabeling of fur items.

In making this decision to become fur-free, JCPenney joins dozens of other major companies—including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Wet Seal, and Forever 21—that also refuse to sell the fur of abused animals. Like most modern retailers, these companies know that the fur trade is violent and bloody, and they refuse to support it. They know that animals who are trapped and farmed for their fur are often beaten to death, drowned, anally electrocuted, and skinned alive. They know that today's shoppers don't want to support this abuse, and they have responded by refusing to sell any fur, including fur trim.

Three cheers for JCPenney and everyone who helped persuade the company to become fur-free!

If you want to help PETA win more victories like this one, please take part in our current campaign to convince Giorgio Armani to become fur-free by using this automated form to write a letter to his company.

Posted by Matt Prescott

Have a fantastic, delicious, and compassionate St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy our e-card, straight from the PETA Files to you!

Top o' the mornin' and happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Since you'd never find a real leprechaun at a KFC (leprechauns are far too smart for that), PETA sent out our own sexy Leprechaun Ladies to encourage passersby to opt for pots of gold, not buckets of chicken. Check out these photos for a leprechaun sighting that doesn't require a rainbow:

This sexy Leprechaun Lady encouraged people to go for the gold, not the chicken, this St. Patrick's Day.

That greasy bucket looks even less appetizing when you see who suffered for it.

This driver got an eyeful and an education.

"Even on St. Patty's Day, chickens raised and killed for KFC are the unluckiest animals in the world," says PETA Leprechaun Lady Kristina Addington. "Once people find out about the cruelty behind every bucket of chicken, they won't eat at KFC for all the pots of gold in the world."

Posted by Lianne Turner

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the seal slaughter:

Credit: Sea Shepherd

Yeah. We thought that it was awful too.

How can you help end this atrocity? Glad you asked. Click here.

Posted by Christine Doré

eldoradonews / CC

Maybe it's just me, but it seems obvious that slaughterhouses would be linked to violent behavior. Pilgrim's Pride is infamous for employing cruel workers, some of whom were videotaped stomping on chickens' heads, ripping off their beaks, and slamming them against walls in an undercover PETA investigation. We hope that Gov. Riley will take our advice to help prevent future killings—of both humans and nonhumans.

Posted by Lianne Turner

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This hard-hitting documentary follows a hog-farm investigation and gives viewers a rare glimpse at the process of trying to bring cruelty-to-animals charges against the meat industry.

As often happens, a tip was received from one of the farm's employees who claimed that workers were killing pigs by hanging them with chains. The bizarre part is that the investigator recorded the owner's son stating that the "euthanasia" guidelines followed by the farm are approved by and posted on PETA's Web site! Needless to say, it took about five minutes for our lawyers to put out a letter demanding an apology. If this investigation rings a bell, here's why: We featured it on the PETA Files in fall of 2007 when Iowa veterinarian Dr. Paul Armbrecht defended these hangings as acceptable and stated that kicking, dragging, and dropping sows off a 4-foot ledge—routine practice at this farm—are appropriate methods of transporting animals. And wife-beating is great discipline.

Tune in tonight and then come back tomorrow and leave us a comment letting us know what you thought.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

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But I digress. Perhaps you heard that a long-lost statue of our arch-nemesis Colonel Sanders was dredged out of the Dotonbori River in Japan earlier this week, supposedly ending a 24-year curse on the Hanshin Tigers, whose fans tossed the statue in the river in the first place. Can't say I blame them. Well, the folks over at KFC are now offering the statue to the Chicago Cubs as a way to break the team's own "Curse of the Billy Goat," stemming from an incident in 1945 when a fan and his companion goat (yep) were tossed out of Wrigley Field's bleachers because of the goat's unpleasant odor.

Today, PETA wrote to the Cubs recommending that they turn down KFC's offer. If Cubs fans believe that they haven't won a World Series in 60 years because the ghost of one goat has it in for them, think about the consequences of offending the nearly 1 billion chickens who are tortured and killed for KFC every year. Here's my prediction—if the Cubs accept this Colonel Sanders statue, there won't be a World Series game at the friendly confines until KFC's slaughterhouse suppliers stop scalding live chickens to death and the company adopts PETA's recommended animal welfare program.

You heard it here first.

Posted by Dan Shannon

Longtime PETA supporter Judith Yeargin fought hard not only in her 30-year battle against breast cancer but also against the use of animals in experiments. That's why Judith, who died on March 2, left her body to the New York University Langone Medical Center (NYUMC) She hoped to spare some of the countless animals who are sickened and maimed during painful, deadly, and wasteful experiments.

Judith was a tireless crusader for animals. She attended countless protests and helped raise money to build a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic. Everywhere she went, she always kept an eye out for animals in distress. She rescued several strays during her travels, including a cat in France who had been hit by a car. Judith rushed the cat to the vet for immediate care while Judith searched for her guardian. While on vacation in Italy, Judith rescued a dog and wouldn't rest until she found the animal a good home. In France, she rescued another dog named Lucky, who accompanied her back home to Manhattan and lived to a ripe old age. When her elderly dog, Daffodil, was ill, Judith even managed to drag herself out of her sick bed just two weeks before her death to take Daffy to the vet. Daffodil was another of Judith's many rescues, adopted as a puppy from a local shelter after Judith heard on the news that Daffodil had been thrown into a trash compactor.

By donating her body to NYUMC, Judith not only promoted awareness about the suffering endured by animals in laboratories but also contributed to legitimate scientific research into breast cancer. Experiments on animals are not an accurate reflection of the effects of cancer in humans. It's bad science, and cancer patients deserve the best that medicine can offer.

"Judith never turned her back on any animal in need," says her dear friend, Lia. "[S]he just felt it was unethical to use animals and better if the science community could learn something from her body rather than cause pain and suffering to animals."

A great way to honor Judith Yeargin and other cancer victims is by refusing to support cancer charities that fund animal experiments and by purchasing only from companies that refuse to test their products on animals.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

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"Horse slaughter." Ugh. Just the phrase alone turns your stomach, doesn't it? Well, it's time to turn that nausea into action by supporting H.R. 503, The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2009, which is currently making its way through Congress.

Some background: In recent years, animal advocates have succeeded in ending horse slaughter in the U.S., but now, greedy folks determined to profit from their horses even in death have begun sending horses to Mexico and Canada, where slaughter is still legal. Horses suffer tremendously on the long trip to shoddy foreign slaughterhouses, often arriving with all kinds of injuries and illnesses, only to be shot or stabbed repeatedly in the neck and spine. Paralyzed but still conscious, they're shackled and hoisted up by one leg so that their throats can be cut. Then they hang there, bleeding to death.

That's where H.R. 503 comes in. If it becomes law, this legislation would prohibit the slaughter and/or export of horses for human consumption. It's a huge step in the right direction and could greatly reduce the number—and therefore the suffering—of the estimated 100,000 horses who are exported for slaughter every year.

Please contact your U.S. representative and politely ask him or her to cosponsor and vote for H.R. 503.

If you want to do even more to protect horses, additional measures are needed, including specifically making horse abandonment a crime (as Oregon is currently considering) with stiff penalties on a state-by-state level; requiring people who can no longer provide for their horses to find new homes for them or have them euthanized by injection; and funding enforcement to prevent the smuggling of horses across our nation's borders under false pretenses. To learn how to become a citizen lobbyist for horses and other animals, check this out.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Our cup runneth over with the latest season of Dancing With the Stars. As if last season, which featured spunky octo-vegetarian Cloris Leachman, weren't enough, this season we have two PETA supporters to root for.

How can we be expected to choose between Steve-O—star of "Rather Go Naked" and "Ink, Not Mink" ads as well as a video testimonial about the abuse of animals in circuses—and "girl next door" Holly Madison, whose naked ad and PSAs raised more temperatures than a flu outbreak?

We need your help with this one, dear PETA Files readers. Post a comment below letting us know which animal-friendly hoofer you think has earned the most PETA props.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

This Sunday, March 15, is International Day of Action Against the Seal Slaughter. Why it's not on all the calendars between Purim and St. Patrick's Day, we'll never know, but, hey, we're doing our part to get the word out.

OK, so this event is big—international, even, as the name suggests. Animal protection groups of all sizes from all around the world have lots of things planned for Sunday. But you don't need nonprofit status to get in on the action. In fact, all you need is your own dang self—or just a group of your like-minded BFFs. Here are some entirely do-able ways to become an action hero for seals:

• You've probably already followed through on our action alert, but if not, this would be the time for it, don't 'cha think?



• If you're a Facebook fanatic, you can post our action alert to your page or sign our petition—and get your friends to sign it too.



• Think of someplace where lots of people will be on Sunday and set up a table there with information about the seal slaughter.



• Pick out a busy street corner or sidewalk—in front of a fur store, say—and hand out our attention-getting "Blood on the Ice" leaflets.



• Share our YouTube video with everyone you know.



• If you don't have time, but you do have money, donate some to us and support our work for seals and all animals.



• If you really want to get the message out loud and clear, host your very own demo against the seal slaughter! Don't worry, we've got your back! Click here to order a poster for your event and click here to order a seal mask. Take photos at your demo and e-mail them to our activist liaisons at ATeam@peta.org. We've got a guide that might help, too; you can check that out here.

And that's just for starters. For more ways to be an action hero for animals all year 'round, click the "Get Active" link at the top of this page and check out our Guide to Becoming an Activist—that is, if you're ready to become a superhero!

Posted by Jeff Mackey

One of the monkeys who was abused for experiments at ONPRC

For those of you who have hit-and-miss memories like mine, here's a quick recap: Our 2007 undercover investigation at ONPRC found that monkeys were tormented by laboratory staffers, forced to eat food out of waste-filled trays, denied medical care or pain relief, and driven mad by horrific laboratory conditions. Still, despite undeniable video evidence, the USDA somehow didn't see anything wrong at ONPRC.

At that point, ONPRC may have thought that it had won and that we would slink away. But, hey, this is PETA, after all, so think again, monkey abusers!

This past fall, we obtained new internal documents from ONPRC that detailed further abuse and neglect, so we submitted a new complaint to the USDA. In it, we outlined the following incidents:

• A sick, pregnant monkey was denied veterinary care and pain relief because the experimenters "didn't know the signs of animal pain and distress" (the mother and her unborn baby both died).


• A surgical sponge was left inside a baboon and was only discovered after the monkey was killed for an experiment.


• ONPRC experimenters accidentally performed surgery on the wrong monkey.

Wow. Cold-hearted and inept—a deadly combination.

Based on our complaint, the USDA inspected ONPRC, and this time, it confirmed our allegations. So ONPRC was cited for three violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including causing monkeys trauma, stress, harm or discomfort and failing to adequately monitor and provide veterinary care to animals.

And the agency didn't stop there: In December, the USDA issued an "official warning" to ONPRC that it may face civil or criminal penalties if additional violations are found in the future.

It's a hopeful sign of progress, but we're hardly done with ONPRC. After all, these incidents are only a small part of the cruelty still being inflicted on the more than 4,000 primates there.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof usually writes about Darfur and other far-off lands, but this week, he ventured into America's heartland to talk about a plague that is afflicting a small town in Indiana that happens to be home to factory hog farms. The plague is MRSA—methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, aka "flesh-eating bacteria." You can read Kristof's fascinating column here.

There's no proof—yet—of any link between Camden, Indiana's MRSA outbreak and the surrounding hog farms, but Kristof notes that a strain of MRSA has been linked to hog farms in the Netherlands, and that same strain has been found in 45 percent of pig farmers and 49 percent of pigs tested by a researcher at the University of Iowa.

Of course, MRSA is just one of many scary life- and health-threatening bugs found lurking in pig flesh. Other, common pork-borne bacteria include listeria, salmonella, and E. coli. Pig flesh is also host to trichina and tape worms (one of the latter was recently removed from a woman's brain—blecch). And let's not forget the SARS epidemic that swept Asia a few years ago and may return—not to mention the loads of saturated fat and cholesterol in every slice of ham, bacon, and sausage.

Kristof cautions that MRSA is just the tip of the disease iceberg that can likely be traced to the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms. And with all that filth on factory farms, antibiotic use is rampant. Stay tuned, because Kristof plans to talk more about that issue in his Sunday column.

Meanwhile, you can check out previous columns that Nicholas Kristof has written about factory farming here and here.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

With only three days left until the International Day of Action Against the Canadian Seal Slaughter (for the math-impaired, that's March 15), we're gearing up to show our snowy neighbors to the north that the world is watching as they prepare for their annual massacre of hundreds of thousands of baby seals. People are understandably outraged that baby seals are bludgeoned and skinned alive for their fur, and some people are directing that anger into creative ways to spread the message and get others involved. Check out this Claymation video that some folks with a rather wicked sense of humor put together:

We're not condoning violence in any way, but according to this video, even the Abominable Snowman is ticked off at Canada's seal killers.

Don't worry, even if you're not the creative type or can't make Claymation videos, you can still speak up for seals. Click here to write to the Olympic Organizing Committee and the Canadian Prime Minister to demand that they help bring an immediate end to the seal massacre.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Over the past 16 months, PETA has waged a relentless campaign to end the military's archaic trauma-training exercises. In these exercises, thousands of live goats and pigs are shot, stabbed, cut apart, and burned, and monkeys are poisoned with nerve chemicals. We called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to investigate the military's methods immediately, and they appear to be taking our request seriously.

The DoD has chartered a Joint Analysis Team (JAT) to "examine the use of animals for medical education and training across the Services." The JAT will also submit a report containing "actionable recommendations" for the DoD to follow.

DoD regulations specifically state that non-animal methods must be used whenever scientifically valid and comparable alternatives are available. The DoD's use of live animals in trauma-training exercises is unnecessary. Various installations in the Air Force and Navy have been using alternatives, such as high-tech human patient simulators and rotations in trauma hospitals, for several years. Additionally, these second-rate training methods put our soldiers at risk.

We're hopeful that the JAT will come to the obvious conclusion that the DoD should end these cruel tests immediately and opt for more humane, educational alternatives. Check out the letter we sent to them about this issue here, and leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Most kids love animals, but not all kids are aware of the horrors that elephants and other animals in circuses face, so PETA and Ellie Elephant decided to tell local kids what goes on behind the big top. Ellie was a huge hit with children and parents, handing out activity books to show kids why circuses are no fun for animals. The kids were excited to get their hands on the fun workbooks, and the parents appreciated the educational message. Check out these photos of Ellie making friends and spreading the word about why elephants would rather be left at home in nature with their families than endure the chains and whips used by circus trainers.

An elephant never forgets … to wear her "Circuses Are No Fun for Animals" button!

The pair on the right couldn't wait to get home to use those books.

Ellie's new BFF, John the crossing guard, took a few activity books home for his grandkids.

If your kids missed out on Ellie's visit but still want to help animals in circuses, they can check out this fun comic and visit PETAKids.com to find out the facts and get active.

Posted by Lianne Turner

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

babble / CC

We must admit that George is a handsome man, so it was hard for me to overcome the temptation to just sit in a corner and fondle the towel until the end of time, but we learned that there is technology that can convert perspiration into a flavoring! Now, we're always looking out for new ways to spice up our tofu, so we decided we'd see about mixing up a little George Clooney–flavored tofu—"CloFu"—for supper. We wrote to Clooney to see if he finds this idea as amusing as I do.

How does this work? Well, it involves gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, but here's one easy way: Researchers have used a panel of trained individuals with sensitive noses to pinpoint unique components in any individual's odor. Once the odors have been identified, the right combination of flavors can be synthetically replicated, infused in bean curd, and voilà! CloFu.

Some people don't try tofu because they expect it to taste bland, but we know it can absorb any taste—so CloFu could make your taste buds and your heart melt. Of course, what's even better is that after everyone gets a piece of George and realizes how delicious tofu truly is, diets will be revolutionized.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

doggies / CC

Can we finally put to rest the myth that dogsled racing is OK because the "dogs love to run"? Dogs don't love to run until they collapse from exhaustion, choke on their own vomit, or get killed by a snow machine (as happened last year). That's abuse, not "sport."

It's especially galling to me that I share a last name with the defending "champion," Lance Mackey. I'd certainly leap at the chance to give him a piece of my mind at the Mackey family reunion. While that might not be possible, fortunately, there's plenty that we can all do to help put an end to this annual nightmare for dogs.

For example, be on the lookout for any TV or radio programs that attempt to hide the cruelty that dogs endure during the Iditarod. A recent radio show with travel journalist Rick Steves failed to mention the suffering of the dogs, so perhaps you'd like to let Steves and his producers know what they missed?

Posted by Jeff Mackey

thailand / CC

Like so many animals who are exploited for profit, the monkey, whose name is Brother Kwan, was frequently denied rest and beaten if he refused to climb.

This story comes on the heels of a report last week about a chimpanzee in a Swedish Zoo who collects stockpiles of rocks and then chucks them at zoo visitors.

How much more proof do we need that primates are intelligent animals with the ability to reason, get mad, and fight back? Better watch your back, Castrol.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Just as David Novak, CEO of KFC's parent company, Yum!, stepped up to address a crowd of Louisville business owners yesterday, two animal rights activists entered the stage, commandeered the mic, and told the assembled captains of Kentucky industry that "David Novak tortures animals," a reference to the millions of chickens who have their wings and legs broken in shackles and transport crates and are scalded alive (among other abuses) by KFC suppliers because KFC won't take any action to stop it.

The women were removed by security, but their words had already caught the attention of reporters and was front-page news on the Louisville Courier-Journal's Web site.

Consummate "suit" that he is, Novak proceeded by leading the crowd in the "Yum! cheer" (which we assume is not to be confused with the Bronx cheer that KFC so richly deserves).

Novak also—presumably with a straight face—told the crowd that he rewards outstanding employees with rubber chickens. I'm not making that up. "It does not take a lot of money to give away a rubber chicken," he said. It wouldn't take a lot of money for KFC to implement the minimal animal welfare standards we've asked for, but that's not of any interest to him. Who came up with this business model—Stalin?

We have some lovely shots of PETA protesters outside the event. Check it:

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Barbie turns 50 this year, so of course sista-girl had to come correct with a groovy new vibe. Ever the trend-setter, the Queen of Pink is sporting a new look called Totally Stylin' Tattoos Barbie. That's right, as the perpetual 18-year-old reaches the dawn of her golden years, she's steppin' out inked up, tattoo gun in hand.

Barbie's a girl after our own hearts, not only for embracing ink over mink (Barbie is officially fur-free, after all) but also for her knack for attracting media attention. Even though some parents are miffed at Barbie's new look, she's still flying off the shelves. So to congratulate Her Plastic Highness on selling out in stores across the U.S., we humbly suggest that these ridiculously adorable tattoos would look stylin' on Barbie, or even you for that matter. You can click here to get a PDF file that can be printed on clear-label paper to create "tattoos" for Barbie and click here for a kid sized version.

Out-of-control cute, right? And just in time for the International Day Against Seal Slaughter.

And who knows? Now that Babs is showing her friskier side, maybe she'll even be interested in taking a cue from a few of her virtual sisters and baring some plastic to save animals' pelts.

BARBIE is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. Mattel has no affiliation with PETA and does not endorse, sponsor, or otherwise support PETA's activities.

Posted by Missy Lane

scienceblogs / CC

Of course, the museum would also promote compassion for animals and educate people about the suffering endured by the 9 billion chickens who are killed for food every year. What better job is there for a former factory-farm worker than to educate others about how wonderful chickens really are?

Most people don't realize that chickens are sensitive animals who are as intelligent as cats, dogs, and even primates. Probably the coolest thing that you didn't know (but would if you visited our proposed museum) is that mother hens actually cluck to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to their mothers and to one another from within their shells!

Oh, and did I mention that the museum would also include a fancy restaurant with an array of delicious vegetarian options and would offer free plush chickens to all kids under 12? Post a comment to let Gov. Jindal know that you'll be booking your ticket to Farmerville as soon as the museum is up and running.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

With the Canadian seal slaughter about to begin, we're doing everything we can to get it stopped. Hundreds of thousands of baby seals are murdered in this annual massacre. Can you imagine the horror a mother seal experiences when her baby's skull is smashed in right in front of her? We can't either, so this week, we're giving away a limited-edition plush seal pup to help remind the world to hug seals, not club them.

Comment below to win or click here to order a baby seal plush now.

How do you win? Post a comment below letting us know what you're doing to help stop the seal slaughter. The response that shows the most initiative will win a plush seal pup.

The contest ends on March 25, 2009, and we'll contact the winner on March 27, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting.

Not feeling lucky? You can go ahead and buy a plush pup now. Or two or three. No need to feel guilty for splurging—all the money goes to a good cause!

Posted by Lianne Turner

How adorable is Mike White? You can find out for yourself by tuning in to The Amazing Race, which airs every Sunday at 8 p.m. (check local listings). The quirky School of Rock and Nacho Libre writer/director/actor is teamed up with his dad (see "adorable" above) in the latest installment of the hit reality show. We probably love Mike the most, though, for his work on the incredibly touching movie Year of the Dog, about how the love of a dog inspires a life dedicated to animal rights. Not only did the death of Pencil in the beginning of the movie turn me into a hot mess of emotions, but I was thrilled that the movie touched on so many different animal rights issues.

We're rooting for Mike and his dad Mel because Mike is a vegan and an avid PETA supporter who has worn not one but two PETA tees on the show (and we suspect there are more to come!):

The plucky duo have proven to be tough competitors, placing first in episode 3, during which Mike bravely donned a Romanian gymnast's leotard and demonstrated his stylin' moves on the balance beam.

Need more reasons to pull for Mike? He spoke out in favor of the groundbreaking California Healthy Pets Act, which would have mandated that nearly all dogs and cats in the state be spayed or neutered.

Speaking of which, check out Mike's interview with PETA in which he talks about Year of the Dog and why he went vegan:

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Alright, 'fess up—scores of you loyal PETA Files readers are just as out-of-your-mind obsessed with America's Best Dance Crew as I am. C'mon! Who among us hasn't called upon our inner Justin Timberlake and tried a move or two—hopefully with no sprained ankles or dented walls resulting.

Last season's finale was foot-stompin', hip-poppin' insane. Drop for drop, the talented ladies of the Beat Freaks commanded the stage. Shockingly, they didn't win. What's up, America?

It's alright, though, because these ladies are about as cool as cool can get. Aside from their rockin' moves and killer style, the Beat Freaks have huge hearts—several of them are vegetarian. Even hotter—these ladies were spotted sportin' PETA T-shirts during a recent interview. Check out the interview for yourself below. Skip forward about one minute and 50 seconds to see which shirts they wore on camera.

Now, I can't help you master that head spin, but if you want to look fabulous and help animals like the Beat Freaks do, the PETA Catalog is your one-stop shop.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Update 03/25/2009 Here's another video in which the Beat Freaks rep PETA.

Santino
telegraph / CC

Can you blame him? If I'd been snatched from my family and forced to live on public display, I'd probably start throwing things too. Santino has also been observed tapping on concrete boulders to find weak spots and breaking off loose chunks to add to his arsenal.

Researchers say that Santino is demonstrating the ability to plan and think about the future. We thought this was already obvious, but some people persist in the mistaken belief that animals act only on "instinct," while we humans always act with intelligence. Well, guess what? Chimpanzees are clearly intelligent, and yet they are still bred and raised to be shown off in zoos, circuses, and other forms of so-called "entertainment." What will it take for these animals to get the respect that they deserve?

Posted by Lianne Turner

If you aim a wind-up toy at a brick wall, logic would tell you that the toy is going to continue slamming into the wall unless the wall is removed, right?

Well, as long as the horse-racing industry exists, tragedy is going to follow. Case in point: Two more horses at the Aqueduct Race Track had to be euthanized last week after suffering broken legs on the track. One of the breakdowns was so catastrophic that five horses slammed to the ground. You can watch footage of the race below.

One would think that the horse-racing industry would at least make some changes to protect these horses better, such as mandating turf track, which is softer than either dirt or synthetic tracks. Instead, as The New York Daily News reports, the industry simply tries to cover up fatal falls. When questioned about its decision not to show footage of the fall that brought down five horses, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) claimed that it didn't want the footage to get into the wrong hands, meaning animal rights groups. Oops! Looks like that didn't work out so well, did it?

My favorite quote about the decision not to air the footage comes from a NYRA spokesperson, who said: "It was a judgment call on a particularly scary-looking spill."

Exactly. Don't want to scare off those railbirds and their lucrative bets, do we? As if the tragic deaths of Eight Belles last year and Barbaro in 2006 haven't already given race fans enough to think about.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Pink and Stella McCartney took time out of their busy schedules this afternoon to unveil our new TV ad, "Stolen for Fashion," at Paris' fashion week. In the 30-second spot, a loveable alligator, voiced by Pink, and a feisty rabbit, voiced by U.K. funnyman Ricky Gervais, confront the fashion felons who stole their skins. Check out pictures of the unveiling below:

Pink and Stella McCartney

Pink and PETA VP Dan Mathews

Oh, and if you haven't seen the ad yet, check it out here. Don't forget to post a comment below letting us know what you think!

Posted by Liz Graffeo

portland / CC

The staircase collapse isn't the first dangerous incident involving an elephant used by a Shrine Circus. In 2005, a trainer working for the Shrine Circus in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was stomped to death as he loaded elephants onto a trailer. In 2003, an elephant at the Shrine Circus in Muskegon, Michigan, escaped from a tent and fled into a busy downtown area. In 2002, two elephants with the Shrine Circus in Dunn County, Wisconsin, bolted out of a circus tent, scattering frightened circusgoers.

In other Shrine Circus news, we've learned that an exhibitor whose bears were used during a Shrine Circus performance last year at Knox County Middle School in Tennessee was cited by the USDA for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including seating people within 20 feet of the bear without a barrier of any kind. We've written a letter to the school principal urging him to ban circuses with animal acts from appearing on school grounds in the future.

Many people don't realize that the Shriners do not operate their own circus. Shrine temples either hire an existing circus or put together a collection of animal exhibitors and other acts that perform under the Shrine Circus name. Many of the animal exhibitors the Shriners hire have deplorable records of animal care. Click here to read our factsheet on the Shrine Circus.

People, run—don't walk—away from any circus that uses animals. And whatever you do, don't let any guy in a fez talk you into placing your tots on the back of some poor elephant whose own kids have been taken away from her and who now spends her days being chained up and jabbed with a bullhook. Today just might be the day she snaps. And really, who could blame her?

Posted by Alisa Mullins

With Watchmen hitting theaters recently, comics are having yet another moment in the pop-culture sun. And if you're a fan of the indies, you probably know Bluewater Comics. You may have read their "sequels" to some of your fave Hollywood mythology films—like The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, and Jason and the Argonauts—or you might be more familiar with their monthly books, such as 10th Muse. But I bet you didn't know that the people behind Bluewater are huge PETA supporters. Although, based on how awesome they are, I'm sure it's not exactly a shock.

Our friends at Bluewater have just created the latest ad in PETA's "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" series, featuring four of their biggest stars—Emma Sonnet from 10th Muse, Diana Moore of JudoGirl, Scarlet of VSS: Nemesis Rising, and Isis from the Legend of Isis—posing au naturel to protest the cruel fur industry. Check out the ad below:

Why are the lovely ladies of Bluewater taking it up (er, off?) with the fur industry? Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy cages and are killed by neck-breaking, head-stomping, or anal or vaginal electrocution.

Who's the next comic book character you want to see in an ad for PETA? Let me know by posting a comment below. Personally, I'm voting for my man Hellboy (I just finished Darkness Calls and it was great!).

Posted by Dan Shannon

politicsonline / CC

Sure, we already have the wildly popular OffsetAlGore.com, where you can go to compensate for some of the carbon and methane that Al Gore releases into the atmosphere every time he eats one of his daily Angus steak dinners or lunches by pledging to go vegetarian for 30 days. But OffsetAlGore.eco has such a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Click here to read PETA's letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the corporation that approves new domain names) expressing wholehearted support for the opportunity to introduce legions of people to the idea that the harm their sea kitten sticks and pepperoni pizza inflict on the environment may be the most inconvenient truth of all.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

In case it's never been said before, I'm going to go ahead and say it: Colorado activists rock!

Activists in Colorado Springs showed that they are fed up with Fort Carson for stabbing and reportedly burning and shooting live goats in bloody trauma-training exercises that attempt to mimic human battlefield injuries. They staked out a busy intersection near Fort Carson and got busy alerting commuters that the exercises are not only cruel but also archaic and unnecessary.

PETA "troops" expose Fort Carson's dirty little secret.

An activist makes darn sure that no driver gets by without getting the message.

PETA signs caught the attention of many military folk on their way to the Fort Carson base.

Oh, did I mention that some of the activists in attendance were ex-military? You know that things are shady when even former soldiers start breaking rank. (I can think of a few other soldiers who would probably agree.)

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

olifantenhuis / CC

Annabel entered a deep state of shock. Once freed, the 3-ton elephant was unable to stand up, so she had to be euthanized. Heartbreaking images of her struggle can be viewed here.

The zoo was aware that elephants regularly fall into this ditch and strain to drag themselves out, but even after this tragic incident, a spokesperson has announced that the zoo has no plans to modify the elephant's outside area because of space concerns. If this horrible situation doesn't cause the zoo to think twice about the environment it provides for the animals, I shudder to think what would.

No animal deserves to live his or her life in a pitiful cage, but zoos have the obligation to provide—at the very least—a safe facility for animals. In the end, Annabel paid the price for the zoos' irresponsibility. It is time for the zoo community to stop capturing and breeding more animals to be put on display and to leave animals in their natural habitat where they belong.

Please, never support the cruel zoo industry.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

As the highly anticipated trial concerning the abuse of elephants by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus rolls on, Kenneth Feld, the head of the company that owns the evil Ringling empire, has taken the stand.

On Tuesday, the multimillionaire CEO spewed his slick half-truths about how Ringling's elephants live (they live in cramped barns, where they are chained much of the time and are at risk of developing tuberculosis) and how bullhooks are just used to "guide" the animals. He actually said, "I don't view what I've seen as abuse."

Feld's self-serving double-talk is sickening, but this trial has him backed into a corner. The fact that he can no longer deny that circuses use beatings and chains to force majestic elephants into a lifetime of servitude is exciting news for elephants.

Now for those of you a-wonderin', here's a point-by-point refresher course on Ringling's checkered history of animal care. It'll help you see through this smooth-talking CEO's elephant pucky.

Posted by Missy Lane

With the start of the annual Canadian seal slaughter just a few weeks away, PETA took to the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa to help stop the killings. Skaters looked on in wonderment as activists recreated the "crime scene" from an attack on a baby seal. Check out these photos from the demo:

If you haven't witnessed the seal slaughter firsthand, you'll have to trust us that it looks a lot like this bloody mess—but with seal babies' corpses and wailing mothers nearby.

A voice from above says: "Stop the Seal Slaughter!"

Lord knows you don't want this muck on your skates—or on your hands.

Inspired yet? Learn more about our campaign against the Canadian seal slaughter and what you can do about it.

Posted by Lianne Turner

If you're as big a fan of Whale Wars as I am, you probably already have a pretty good idea of the evil that is whaling. For those of you who can't afford cable, suffice it to say that the Japanese continue to kill hundreds of whales every year under the guise of "research"—except that they also happen to have a thriving business in the sale of whale flesh and other whale products. Hmmm … sounds pretty fishy (or should I say "sea-kitteny"?) to me.

Do we have to paint a picture for you? No worries—our good friends over at Experience Project already have. Check out their short but extremely powerful video on whaling here:

If you can watch it without reaching for a hanky, you are a stronger person than I am. While there, you can also take a minute to put your John Hancock on a letter to President Obama urging him to stand by his campaign promise to strengthen the international ban on whaling (which the Japanese and Norwegians are pretty much thumbing their noses at).

Posted by Alisa Mullins

First, they brought us The Miracle Beer Diet (a weight-loss fad sweeping college campuses across the country). Now, the folks at Liv Films—the evil geniuses behind some of the hottest and most hilarious videos ever to hit YouTube—are back with what I consider their masterpiece: "Go Naked or Wear Fur?"

Inspired by our popular Jenna Jameson ad, this hilarious short features Mona Gillen (the hot half of the husband-and-wife team behind Liv Films) battling Totally Traci (don't ask, just watch) as Mona tries to prove to PETA why we should let her flash her flesh for a "Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad. Mmmm, let's see: She's hot, she's vegan, she loves animals, she likes to get naked, and she's pleading to work with us. Yeah, we think she has what it takes. As Mona requests in her video, we did get in touch with her and her hubby Jed (the writer/director) and are looking forward to working together on future projects. So keep an eye out for that. Until then, here are a couple of things that you can do to keep busy:

A. Get your read on with the recently released second edition of Jed Gillen's book Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs & What It Really Means to Be Vegan.

B. Get your watch on with "Go Naked or Wear Fur?":

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

You may have noticed that PETA has been working hard to give our finned friends a PR boost. Well, it seems that some sea kittens in South Korea may have heard about our campaign and decided to do their own makeover. According to an article in the U.K.'s Telegraph, two female carp in a small pond in Chongju have adapted to look like humans! Check out their distinctive noses, eyes, and lips:

thegreenhead / CC

We already knew that sea kittens have complex social systems, communicate with each other using low-frequency sounds, and use tools just like humans do, but now they even look like us! Cannibalism is generally frowned upon, so do you think this might persuade people to finally stop eating sea kittens, once and for all?

P.S. If this story has inspired you to give up fish for good, try out this recipe for grilled tofu with blackened seasoning. Looks just like grilled fish, tastes a million times better, and I promise it never resembled Mr. Limpet.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

Well, you gotta give the guy points for trying. Courageous Canadian Senator Mac Harb introduced a bill on Tuesday to ban Canada's annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals, but he failed to find even one other senator with a backbone (or heartbeat) to support it. Despite the fact that most Canadians—and everyone else on the planet—think that the baby seal massacre is as revolting and indefensible as, well, clubbing a baby human and stealing his or her candy, Canadian government officials, who apparently live in sound-proof igloos, inexplicably continue to defend it.

Senator Harb's bill marks the first—but hopefully not the last—time that a Canadian politician has proposed banning the seal slaughter. It was inspired by a pending EU ban on the importation and sale of most seal products. Even Russia—Russia, people!—is poised to ban its own seal hunt, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has described as "such a bloody hunt, and it is clear that it should have been banned a long time ago." Yes, Vladimir "Tiger Tamer" Putin. That Putin.

Canada, when Russia starts making you look like a big, blustering bully, you know you've got an image problem.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Happy "Win It" Wednesday to you! With Canada's annual seal slaughter looming this month, we decided that a real hero for seals should be featured in our weekly giveaway. Musician and animal rights activist Morrissey has refused to play shows in Canada until the government agrees to stop letting hunters smash in baby seals' skulls. The former Smiths frontman just released his ninth solo album, Years of Refusal, and we snagged three limited-edition vinyl copies to pass along to you.

How do you win? Post a comment about your favorite thing that Morrissey has done for animals. The three people who post the most heartfelt answers will each win a copy of this limited-edition vinyl.

The contest ends on March 18, 2009, and we'll contact the winners on March 20, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Check back every Wednesday for new prizes. Good luck!

Posted by Lianne Turner

As hard as it is to believe, animal shelters in some states—including Georgia and North Carolina—continue to kill unwanted animals in gas chambers, with all the accompanying horror that such an image conjures. Fortunately, legislation has been introduced in both states to ban these horrendous contraptions for good.

It can take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes for animals to die in gas chambers. Oftentimes, they bark, meow, howl, whine, gasp for breath, fight to claw their way out of the chamber, vomit, convulse, and/or urinate and defecate in terror. Animals sometimes have to be gassed repeatedly before they die. Some animals—like Davie, the North Carolina bill's namesake—have been known to "wake up" later after being put in a freezer or dumped at a landfill.

To get a better idea of the horror that these animals go through, just look at these pictures of some of the gas chambers that are currently being used:

Linda Cordry, an animal control officer in Liberty County, Ga., has written in support of Georgia's bill. "I know from firsthand experience that the gas chamber is a barbaric piece of equipment," she says. "I can say without qualification that being killed in a gas chamber is terrifying for the animals and heartbreaking for the humans involved. It is the ultimate nightmare, and no horror film could even come close to depicting the experience."

Both Georgia's and North Carolina's laws would require that animal shelters use only intravenous injections of sodium pentobarbital to euthanize animals. This is key because, in addition to using gas chambers, some animal shelters in rural areas still shoot unwanted animals. No, I'm not making that up. I wish I were.

If you live in North Carolina, click here to find your representative so that you can speak up about this legislation. Time is of the essence—the Georgia bill will be killed if a Senate version isn't introduced by March 12, so if you live there, click here to find your representative's contact info. If you don't live in North Carolina or Georgia, you can leave a comment below in support of these new bills.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

OK, it's official—we're wild about Wilmer. Feztastic on That 70s Show, unforgettable in Fast Food Nation, and smooth as hell as the dude in charge of doling out disses on MTV's Yo Momma, Wilmer's latest television role is his most heartfelt yet. He recently took the time to crack the whip on the circus industry in a brand-spankin'-new PSA for PETA. But that's just the tip of the iceberg—Wilmer also granted us the following for-PETA-Files-eyes-only exclusive interview:

Posted by Amy Elizabeth

smashin / CC

We contacted James Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase—which recently acquired WaMu—and explained that animals entangled in glue traps often suffer from torn flesh and even broken bones resulting from their panicked efforts to escape. JPMorgan Chase's vice president promptly announced that the company has ditched glue traps permanently and will be opting for more humane methods of resolving conflicts with mice and rats (we recommend these). Yay!

As a leading company, we hope that JPMorgan Chase will inspire other companies (ahem, Lowe's) to ditch glue traps too.

Feel free to post a comment below thanking JPMorgan Chase for sticking up for mice.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

It should be no surprise to regular readers of this blog that we keep an eye on happenings at KFC, so this caught our eye: According to news reports, the manager of a KFC in Manchester, New Hampshire, received a hoax phone call from someone who claimed to be from KFC's corporate offices and told her to test the fire-suppression system. When she did so, she and two staffers preparing sandwiches were coated with a chemical powder that is a respiratory irritant. Authorities were summoned, who took the unfortunate trio to the hospital for decontamination.

Just a couple of observations:

1. Even without being doused with firefighting chemicals, KFC's chicken sandwiches are already contaminated.



2. Pulling a dangerous hoax on unsuspecting people is cruel, but it's much less cruel than what KFC does to chickens.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

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As America's most listened-to radio personality, Mr. Harvey formed a connection with his audience like none other. His quirky delivery style and fascinating tidbits drew in a loyal audience of more than 25 million listeners.

Mr. Harvey used his popular radio show to call attention to cruelty to animals on numerous occasions, earning him a PETA Humanitarian Award and my unending admiration. Mr. Harvey often told his listeners of the cruelty, redundancy, and worthlessness of animal experiments and spoke out forcefully in support of animal rights activists. Fearlessly opinionated, he criticized the Boy Scouts and the military for killing animals in survival exercises and educated public about the cruelty inherent in circuses.

One of our fondest memories is the day he denounced the National Institutes of Health for funding a researcher who gave baboons hallucinogenic drugs and shocked them until they went into convulsions, resulting in brain damage. His determination to open his listeners' eyes to the gut-wrenching facts about testing on animals changed millions of minds and saved countless animals' lives.

While Mr. Harvey's powerful voice is now silent, the people he touched will continue to spread his message of compassion for animals.

Posted by Kathy Guillermo

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Part of a traveling zoo hired by Busch Gardens, Bob and his buddies allegedly left lots of dander, urine, feathers, and feces for Ms. Valdez-Castillo to clean up. After falling seriously ill, she was hospitalized for two weeks with skin lesions all over her body, which doctors attributed to coming into contact with exotic animals. Five years later, she still has recurring lesions and a painful infection that has spread to her nervous system. But wait, there's more: Ms. Valdez-Castillo also claims that she was kidnapped by two men who took her to a cemetery and warned her to drop the lawsuit (I'm thinking that Valerie Bertinelli should play her in the Lifetime movie).

So what did lawyers for Busch Gardens have to say about all this? It's Valdez-Castillo's fault that she was allergic to the animals. In other words, stop bitching and take a Benadryl. Honestly though, how much sympathy can you really expect from a corporation that carts animals around to "entertain" at basketball games, schools, and other events? After all, animals used in roadside menageries and traveling zoo exhibits are deprived of just about everything that is natural to them. Their lives are a constant cycle of traveling in cramped cages and being gawked at, poked at, and mishandled by noisy crowds. Not to mention the fact that animal exhibits are public-health disasters waiting to happen. We're talking tens of thousands of cases of salmonella and E. coli from casual contact with animals every year!

So, what have we learned? Let's see—steer clear of all animal exhibits and hotel rooms with monkey crap on the carpet.

Posted by Amy Elizabeth