Written by PETA
When it comes to animals, Jada Pinkett Smith has a heart as big as her incandescent smile. We recently learned that the HawthoRNe star came to the rescue of a hungry puppy who was fending for himself on the streets of Beijing during the shooting of the hit film The Karate Kid—produced by Jada and her husband, Will Smith, and starring their son, Jaden (who also recorded a song for the soundtrack with Justin Bieber and Jackie Chan.
The lucky dog, nicknamed "Beijing Black," has now made himself at home with the Smith brood, along with a number of other animals. After recognizing how unhappy snakes are in captivity, Jada vowed not to take home any more caged animals. Now, she says, "I like to rescue dogs."
Written by Jeff Mackey
For many Americans, Fourth of July celebrations represent copious amounts of barbecue, beer, and fireworks. But for animals, the holiday means terror, thanks to the thunderous explosions that typically start days before the official holiday and never seem to end. Desperate to escape the ear-shattering booms of fireworks displays, even the coolest cats will scatter and the most docile dogs will chew, dig, claw, and otherwise try to break free from their confines and run for the hills. After all, their hearing is much more sensitive than ours.
Such escapes take place all over the country, and one story made national headlines last year: Knowing that their dog, J.J., feared fireworks, Spokane police thought it would be a good idea to lock him in a kennel. Wrong answer.
J.J. was so terrified by the fireworks that he used his teeth to bend open the steel latch to his kennel in order to escape. J.J. was found the next day—but countless dogs who flee are lost for days—or forever. Any animal shelter employee will tell you that the number of lost dogs and cats skyrockets every year after Fourth of July fireworks celebrations.
PETA needs your help as we collect data to strengthen efforts to convince communities across the country to celebrate with spectacular laser light shows instead of noisy fireworks displays. Until my city cans the explosions, I'll celebrate Independence Day inside, practicing these helpful tips for calming my dogs and cats. My curtains will be drawn, and I'll be playing Beethoven to drown out the neighborhood noise. After all, it's no holiday for me if it's a helliday for my animal companions. Don't you agree?
Written by Karin Bennett
Just when you thought things couldn't get any fuglier for Lindsay Lohan, the pelt-wearing party girl is now being sued by Church Boutique in Hollywood for allegedly conning the store out of $16,000 worth of items made of fur and exotic skins.
Says PETA's Dan Mathews, "We don't know if Lindsay stole the clothes from the boutique, but we do know that the skins were stolen from their rightful owners—animals. The only victims here are the snakes and other exotic animals who are nailed to trees, bludgeoned with hammers, and skinned alive in the name of 'fashion.'"
Oh, Lindsay, why do you have to be so cold-blooded? It's all about going fur-free, not getting furs for free.
Written by Amy Elizabeth
For those of you who grew up in more recent decades, "acid rain" is not the name of a death-metal band. In the 70s and 80s, sulfur dioxide emitted by power plants was turning rain into sulfuric acid, threatening fish, trees, and, yes, even statues. After the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got the power plants to clean up their act, we thought we had the problem licked for the great outdoors. But if you lick something outdoors now, your tongue might dissolve. Acid rain has returned in a new form—nitric acid—caused by nitrogen oxide emissions. And the number one source of these emissions? Intensive factory farms.
So now we can add the resurgence of acid rain to the long list of environmental disasters caused in large part by using animals for food. It remains to be seen whether the EPA will step in again to address the problem, but fortunately we don't have to wait for them to get involved—after all, what better way to fight the disastrous effects of factory farming than by going vegan?
These three:
In honor of Canada Day, we threw a little birthday bash at the Canadian Embassy in D.C. to remind the world that hundreds of thousands of baby seals have their skulls bashed in each year during Canada's annual seal slaughter.
Just because this year's seal hunt is over, it doesn't mean that we should let the Canadian government off the hakapik hook! Keep up the pressure all year round by staying active online.
As a writer, I've never really liked the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words." But even I had to admit its truth after looking at these jaw-dropping images of animals' last moments inside slaughterhouses. The photos are the work of Italian photographer Tommaso Ausili and are part of a series titled "The Hidden Death," for which Ausili won the prestigious L'Iris D'Or/Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year award. The series explores the fact that "Neatly packaged meat in supermarkets is often completely detached in consumers' minds from the process of its production." I could say more, but the photos are so powerful that I will give my keyboard a rest and let the images speak for themselves.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
For everyone who voted for Olivia Wilde, the female winner of PETA's 2010 Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity contest, the sizzling actor has some words of thanks:
Right back at 'cha, Olivia. Welcome to the Sexy Veg family.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Has Entourage star Jerry Ferrara gone vegetarian? He's definitely slimmer and trimmer after trading in "burgers and fries for tofu and organic fruits and veggies."
To ensure a definitive "yes" to that question—so that we can add him to the list of contenders in next year's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity contest—we're sending Jerry a copy of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit as well as a copy of Chef Tal Ronnen's bestseller The Conscious Cook. Here's hoping that the info about death-defying, sexifying cuisine will help everyone's favorite Turtle ditch the drama and make a commitment to a cruelty-free diet.
Court proceedings are underway that will decide the fate of dozens of animals who were recently seized from a Chattanooga pet store after an employee, Ashley Knight, went to officials at McKamey Animal Center to allege ongoing abuse and neglect at the store. Knight has testified that store manager Brandy Hallman threw a live hamster into a garbage compactor after the animal fought with a cagemate.
When shelter officials visited the store along with a representative of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, they reportedly seized the animals after apparently discovering that many of them were suffering from disease, heat, and lack of water, leaving them dehydrated and stressed. McKamey director Karen Walsh testified that they found one miserable dog in the store's poorly ventilated isolation area for sick animals standing in a cage that was filled with "voluminous diarrhea."
We'll continue to follow this trial closely, and we hope that you'll join us not only in wishing for justice to be served in this case but also in helping to prevent other animals from enduring such miseries by never, ever shopping at pet stores.
Once again, the PETA Files goes to the movies. First up: Vegans are hitting the big time on big screens across America, courtesy of Rob Schneider's vegan character in last week's box-office hit, Grown Ups. Sure, the movie made fun of vegans, but it made fun of everything—besides, we at PETA have a good sense of humor.
This week, we're curious to see whether Aang, the hero of The Last Airbender, will share his vegetarian views as he did in the beloved Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He should, of course, considering that it's in keeping with his steadfast Buddhist and Taoist beliefs—but the film is tied in with a massive McDonald's promotion featuring Airbender commercials and action figures. Go figure. Are Airbender producers and McCruelty execs banking on the hope that audiences won't notice—or care—that a corporation that refuses to make even minimal improvements to reduce its cruel treatment of billions of animals is pushing figurines of a passionate animal defender?
We're going to go ahead and cry fowl on this partnership—and then ask: Will you speak up for chickens?
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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