If PETA's recent successes are any indication, down is going down fast.

The latest company to make the synthetic leap onto our anti-down bandwagon is Colorado's leading furniture manufacturer, Woodley's Fine Furniture. The Woodley brothers started their company decades ago with the intention of offering quality home furnishings that did not take a toll on nature—but they had been designing sofas stuffed with down. After PETA sent the company our down exposé, Woodley's agreed that its vision did not include using feathers that were yanked out of live birds or feathers from birds who had tubes rammed down their throats for the cruel production of foie gras and will no longer purchase down-filled upholstery. 

Ready to make the down industry's feathers fly? Check out PETA's top five ways to take action against down—because if people in the skiing capital of the U.S. are done with down, shouldn't the rest of us embrace warm and soft synthetic options, too?

Ever since punk provocateur rock band Pussy Riot was jailed in Russia after holding a cheeky performance art–style protest at a cathedral five months ago, vegan member Maria Alekhina has struggled to keep herself nourished on the minimal vegan options available, even collapsing from hunger in court earlier this month.

Photo: Dave Meyers

Actor and vegan nutrition advocate Alicia Silverstone has jumped to her aid, penning a letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on PETA's behalf:

As musicians such as Madonna, Franz Ferdinand, and Peaches call for the rockers to be freed, hopefully the government will at least agree to free them from having to choose between eating animals and going hungry.

Courtesy of Lelah Foster

Having a celebrity as the face of an animal rights campaign has helped PETA achieve huge victories. For instance, vocal protests by Sir Paul McCartney and Alicia Silverstone helped convince NASA not to blast squirrel monkeys with harmful doses of radiation. Celebrities such as Olivia Munn and Sarah Silverman have helped publicize Ringling Bros.' cruelty to animals, which recently resulted in the largest U.S. Department of Agriculture fine in circus history. And with the help of Lea Michele, the suffering of horses in New York City's carriage trade is garnering attention.

Michelle Cho, the senior manager of communications, dishes about what it's like behind the scenes of some of PETA's most visible work:

What is one of the most exciting things happening right now with PETA's work with celebrities?
So many professional athletes are enthusiastic about getting involved. Tony Gonzalez, Chad Ochocinco, Chase Utley, Gilbert Arenas, Amar'e Stoudemire, Willis McGahee, Lance Briggs,  Chris Andersen, and many others are allowing us to reach legions of sports fans about animal issues. 

What is one of your favorite celebrity stories?
When I first met Steve-O six years ago, I was interviewing him about elephant abuse that he had witnessed as a student at Ringling's clown college. I recall him saying that he didn't think vegetarianism was possible for him. Then began the phone calls inquiring about feathers, leather, wool, and even animal products in chewing gum! And just two years later, he had an "aha moment" in which he decided that he didn't want to contribute to the unnecessary suffering of animals and went vegan. He is one of the most inspirational people I've ever known, and I'm so proud to call him a dear friend.

Is Hollywood more animal-friendly than it used to be?
Definitely. Thanks to the Internet, we disseminate a lot more information, and it's reaching powerful people. Major ad agencies are pledging never to use great apes, filmmakers are using computer-generated imagery rather than using live animals, and TV shows and movies are including animal rights–related storylines. The support of so many influential people in show business can only pay bigger dividends for animals in the future.

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Join the A-list party! Become a PETA member today.

"What I really want to share with people is the possibility of them having the most healthy and abundant joy they could ever imagine," Alicia Silverstone told UCLA's Daily Bruin newspaper, before she spoke to hundreds of students on campus last night at an event hosted by UCLA's Bruins for Animals and peta2.

Alicia shared with students how changing her eating habits changed her life. "Being vegan truly is the secret to my life's joy and peace," she said. Afterward, she answered questions and signed dozens of copies of her bestselling book, The Kind Diet.

While some of the students likely came just to see the lovely Alicia, her message and the "Glass Walls" video that peta2 staffers screened left quite an impression. peta2 staff were bombarded with questions from people interested in learning how to change their eating habits to improve their health, protect the environment, and prevent cruelty to animals.

The vegetarian/vegan starter kits that flew off the tables and Native Foods Café's vegan Thanksgiving feast that they sampled got them off to a great start.

Steve-O flips pizza with Nanci Alexander at her restaurant, Sublime, in south Florida.

 
In honor of Culinarians Day, we've whipped up a list of some of our favorite vegan celebrity chefs, chefs who cook for celebrities, and cruelty-free restaurants where you might just catch celebrities chowing down. Tasty! Check it out:

• Tal Ronnen: A graduate of New York City's Natural Gourmet Institute, Ronnen was Oprah's chef when she embarked on Kathy Freston's 21-day vegan cleanse. His classic French technique is highlighted in his book, The Conscious Cook, which is a must for anyone who wants to impress dinner guests with gourmet fare such as succulent "chicken" scaloppini.
• VegiTerranean: There's no pretending that Chrissie Hynde's rockin' restaurant in Akron, Ohio, won't blow you away with robust vegan dishes such as Chick'n Fried Portobello Steak or Mango BBQ Pizza.
• Alicia Silverstone: We'd be clueless not to mention the sultry star who penned The Kind Diet. Alicia also stars in one of PETA's sexiest public service announcements ever.
• Sublime: Nanci Alexander has been serving up brick-oven pizzas and European fare such as Penne Puttanesca and Quiche Lorraine to the likes of Pamela Anderson, Ami James, and Steve-O. Can't get to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, restaurant? Pick up a copy of The Sublime Restaurant Cookbook, and you'll be impressing your friends with sophisticated Mushroom Ceviche and luscious Coconut Cake in no time.
• Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin: Coming out of the modeling industry, the authors of the Skinny Bitch series, which has been endorsed by Victoria Beckham and other celebrities, have taken the country by storm. If you haven't yet jumped on the bandwagon, don't fret—you can find the latest installment of the series in the PETA Catalog.

One lucky reader can win the Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. For a chance to win, just leave a comment telling us who your favorite vegan celebrity is.*

 
Written by Colleen Twombly-Borst

Celebrities took to Twitter yesterday to make a huge splash for seals. We asked compassionate celebrity supporters to tweet a message to their fans telling them that the Canadian commercial seal slaughter had begun and including a link to our "It's Time to End the Seal Slaughter" donation page. So many of them responded that our Twitter page looked like an A-list party.
 

 
Supporters who spoke up for seals who are bludgeoned and sometimes skinned alive for their fur include Ellen Degeneres, who also posted it on her blog, Pink, Sophia Bush,  Daniella Monet, Jayde Nicole, Lea Michele, Vida Guerra, Alicia Silverstone, Dave Navarro, Stephanie Pratt, The Veronicas, Bill Maher, Ian Somerhalder, Diablo Cody, Sasha Grey, and, of course, Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson.

Get in on the action! Tweet this link to your Twitter followers: http://bit.ly/gNMLOJ. Or go to our donation page to help stop Canada's barbaric seal slaughter.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow

Peter Dinklage © Starmax

 
Compassionate celebrities want a little less conversation and a little more action. Somebody alert the Elvis Presley fan club:

• Were there vegetarians in medieval times? There might be at least one in HBO's Game of Thrones, if Peter Dinklage has anything to say about it.
• Sexiest vegetarian Kristen Bell loves bluefin tuna—swimming freely in the ocean, of course.
• Fur won't fly on Delta airlines. They assured us that Eva Longoria's throw is faux.
• Like mother, like dogter. Mom-to-be Alicia Silverstone is already a mom to several rescued dogs, and she encourages everyone to adopt too. Proud pooch parent? You, too, can rock a tee like Alicia's. 
• Ted Danson's new book cheers efforts to combat overfishing and tells everyone how they can help save the oceans.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Proving yet again that people who are kind to animals are winners, lovely animal rights supporter and vegetarian Brandy Kuentzel triumphed on season 10 of The Apprentice last week. Brandy was the most levelheaded and polished of all the contestants, in my book—and apparently in The Donald's as well.

Brandy, who went vegetarian while she was in law school, has volunteered at animal shelters for nearly a decade and admires the way that PETA pal Alicia Silverstone promotes a vegan lifestyle. Let's hope that Brandy's animal-friendly ways will rub off on the entire Trump organization!

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

The ever-awesome Pink has just released a new video, "Raise Your Glass," which is filled with both cool and disturbing animal imagery, including a row of women producing breast milk that's being consumed by a calf. (Pink isn't afraid to knock fans out of their complacency!) The video also features an anti-bullfighting segment in which Pink shows a matador how it feels to have someone come at you with a sword.

It's little wonder that Pink's video is so cutting-edge and thought-provoking. After all, it was directed by another PETA friend—the fabulous (and vegan!) Dave Meyers, who directed our sizzling Alicia Silverstone public service announcement.

Watch the video and tell us what you think about Pink's unique way of getting the animal rights messages across.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

Victory Update: Following a year of vigorous campaigning, PETA has learned that government officials have grounded plans for a cruel and ineffective radiation experiment on monkeys. Learn more about this victory for monkeys.

Employees at Brookhaven National Laboratory might have thought that their ears where playing tricks on them when they showed up at work Wednesday morning to find a message on their phones from none other than Alicia Silverstone. The not-so-Clueless actor is so fired up about NASA's plans to fund an experimenter to bombard up to 30 squirrel monkeys with radiation at the facility that she sent a passionate phone message to each of Brookhaven's more than 1,000 employees urging them to reject the experiments.

Alicia informed Brookhaven staffers that if the experiments go forward, then intelligent, social primates would be locked up in cages for the rest of their lives. The radiation could cause them to suffer brain damage, cancer, or even blindness.

She also told them that NASA's European counterpart—the European Space Agency—has publicly condemned such experiments on monkeys.

Your tax dollars would be paying for these cruel and unnecessary experiments. Please add your two cents' worth to Alicia's by dropping Brookhaven's head honchos a line, letting them know that you oppose NASA's planned experiments on monkeys, and asking them nix the experiments right now. And don't forget to urge everyone you know to pick up the phone too. We can save these monkeys.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor