Written by PETA
Officials in Montréal may have banned Pamela Anderson's pro-veggie ad, but thongs—I mean, throngs—of folks in Victoria came out to greet these two bold PETA babes and hear their take on the subject:
Two things are certain: They're hot, and they give meat the cold shoulder. The big question is, do you?
Written by Karin Bennett
Forty spectators were hurt when a terrified, frantic, and injured bull leapt for his life from a Spanish bullfighting arena and ran through the stands trying to escape. We regret that there is no shame in Navarra: The bull was recaptured and killed.
Some media outlets have spun this story as if the bull were the aggressor, but what else would he have tried to do but flee when crowds of screaming people were taunting him? Unlike a typical bullfight in which bulls are repeatedly stabbed until they die in a pool of blood, in this particular twisted event, a bull is subjected to constant goading in multiple events until he eventually ends up in a typical—and deadly—bullfight.
Bullfighting is on the way out. Last month, Spain's Catalan parliament voted to ban bullfighting in response to public demand. Add your voice by asking Spain's prime minister to ban this hideously cruel blood sport throughout the country.
Thanks to Leo for sending this story our way.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
It's so hot in the city, you'd think I'd be making another batch of lemonade—but I've got a hankering for some Internet Soup. It's been a while since the last batch, so dig in!
Oof! I don't know about you, but I'm full after all that soup—and guac. This Special K needs a siesta. Until next time …
Update: If you missed the broadcast (or it didn't air in your neck of the woods) you can check out No Country for Animals here.
Tonight, our northern neighbors will get a big dose of animal rights when No Country for Animals airs on television. We haven't seen it yet, but we're optimistic that the documentary, which was cowritten, coproduced, and narrated by Global National anchor Kevin Newman, will give Canadians valuable information about cruelty to animals in their country and the many ways that they can alleviate it. I'm hoping for Food, Inc. meets I Am an Animal with a Canadian flair. What do you think?
Regarding No Country for Animals, Newman says, "We looked at the percentage of animal abuse cases that get convicted in Canada: 0.01 per cent. I can't think of another crime where 99.9 per cent of people charged with it get off. So, something is wrong with the law. It hasn't changed since the Criminal Code was written in the 19th century and it treats animals as property, as having no more rights than a table."
The documentary airs today at 10 p.m. Eastern time, so check your local listings! Watch it tonight with friends and family or anyone else you can find—and then share your review in the comments section below.
Speaking up for animals is a full-time, 24/7 job. Just ask Pamela Anderson.
As we told you earlier this month, when Montréal officials blocked the launch of Pamela Anderson's sexy new vegetarian ad campaign for PETA, she instead unveiled the ad during her previously planned news conference for the Just for Laughs festival.
Pam and PETA are grateful to Restaurant Globe for hosting the impromptu pro-veg event, but while she was there, Pam noticed that the restaurant serves foie gras. So when she wrote a thank-you note to Restaurant Globe, she added a plea, explaining the extreme cruelty that's involved in foie gras production and asking the restaurant to remove the "delicacy of despair" from its menu.
This is why Pam is an honorary PETA director—she never misses an opportunity to help animals. So if you ever notice foie gras on a restaurant menu, just think, "WWPD?" ("What Would Pam Do?") Then talk to the manager or owner, explain how foie gras is made by force-feeding geese sometimes to the point of causing their internal organs to rupture, and politely ask that the restaurant stop serving foie gras. Geese—and Pam—will be thankful!
Written by Jeff Mackey
Update: Six horses died during this year's Calgary Stampede. Please take action and ask the Stampede sponsors to disassociate themselves from the event.
As if Canada's annual seal massacre isn't enough, the Calgary Stampede adds to the country's annual death toll. This year it's rodeo business as usual—five horses have already died and the event doesn't end until Sunday.
A fifth horse died yesterday 40 minutes after being forced to participate in the chuckwagon races. These are the Stampede's deadliest events, in which teams of four horses pull old-fashioned "pioneer" wagons around a track at breakneck speed—and often break their bodies as a result. In previous years, we've written to all the sponsors of these endurance races asking them to pull the plug, and we've called upon the chief crown prosecutor to file cruelty-to-animals charges. The Humane Society of Canada has also called for a boycott of the event. So far, except for the death rattle of the horses and the yahooing of the crowd, silence!
Please get everyone you know to tell those who are still sponsoring the Calgary Stampede that the chuckwagon races must be canceled permanently.
Animals across Japan are making a bid for freedom (hopefully, captive animals everywhere are taking notes). First, a dolphin who was being forced to perform stupid tricks for loud, obnoxious audiences day in and day out at Japan's Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium decided that he'd had enough. During a performance, he leaped over the side of his tiny tank. Unfortunately, he landed on the concrete instead of being transported back to his ocean home.
Then, earlier this week, 15 monkeys at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute (PRI) escaped from an enclosure (dubbed a "forest home" in news reports—yeah, right) by using tree branches to fling themselves over a 17-foot-high electric fence.
Sadly, freedom was short-lived for the monkeys as well. All the runaways were eventually recaptured. The head of PRI said that the monkeys didn't stray too far, probably because they wanted to be near the monkeys who were left behind.
Someone should listen to the SOS signals that animals in captivity are sending. Instead of keeping dolphins in chemically treated tanks and forcing them to "dance" for fish or locking monkeys in enclosures so that vivisectors can drill holes into their skulls, attach electrodes to their brains, and fasten small wire coils directly to their eyes to study eye movement (which is what some experimenters at PRI do), we should be leaving animals in the wild.
Please take action today to help us free captive marine mammals and put an end to senseless and cruel experiments on monkeys and other animals.
Written by Shawna Flavell
Dear Cleveland,
We know that it's hard to let go of LeBron James. Our hearts melted for you when we heard that he signed with the Miami Heat, so we thought we'd cruise around Cleveland today, doing something really cool to lift your spirits: handing out free Tofutti Cuties in outfits that would make most cheerleaders blush.
These vegan cuties (the soy ice cream, that is) are the perfect way to "beat the heat." But we are also big softies for animals and the Earth. Did you know that raising animals for food is a major cause of greenhouse-gas emissions? A recent U.N. report concluded that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change. Plus, switching to a dairy-free diet reduces the suffering of cows and can help lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, and obesity—meaning that you'll be in your stadium seats cheering on the Cavs for years to come.
So keep your chin up Cleveland. You'll go on without LeBron. And please enjoy the Tofutti Cuties on us!
Love,
PETA's "Cleavage Cavalier" Cuties
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.
Written by Amy Elizabeth
The following is a Canada Day guest post from Bill Maher, the genius behind Politically Incorrect and HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher. Maher offered his wit for an op-ed, originally posted in today's Daily News, in a humorous protest against a deadly serious issue: Canada's annual slaughter of tens of thousands of seals—the largest massacre of marine mammals in the world.
Here's some good news from my friends at PETA, just in time for Canada Day on July 1: Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter is over—at least for this year—and more than 80 percent of the seals who had been marked for death were spared because hardly anyone wants to wear baby-seal fur anymore. But Canada won't cancel the massacre outright. Why?
There are a lot of things to admire about our neighbor to the north, but the country's strange seal phobia is not one of them. Canada is terrified of seals. Baby seals, in particular. I know, it doesn't make any sense to me either.
Canada's seal "hunt"—which happens every November to June off Canada's East Coast—is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet, leaving tens of thousands of animals dead every year. And let's be clear: The Canadian government may call it a "hunt," but impaling baby seals in the jaw with hooks, dragging them across the ice, and throwing them into a pile where they choke on their own blood before being skinned isn't a sport—it's a massacre. The video of it is like a starter snuff film designed for serial killers.
Opposition around the world is growing. Last year, the U.S. Senate—a group of people who usually can't agree that the sky is blue—unanimously passed a resolution calling for an immediate end to the annual slaughter. But the Canadian government just keeps putting its fingers in its ears and singing "la, la, la" so that it won't hear anything it doesn't like. Or, if it does hear, it responds with all the subtlety and sophistication of a fistfight in the men's room at a monster-truck rally.
The European Union, for example, recently passed a ban on seal products. So after stomping its feet and jutting out its lower lips for a while, Canada threatened to go tell mom that it's being picked on. Sorry, did I say "mom"? I meant the World Trade Organization. And as if that weren't tone-deaf enough, in response to the EU's ban, Canada's parliament also pushed—unsuccessfully—to incorporate seal skins into the uniforms of the Canadian Olympic team in a desperate attempt to legitimize the seal slaughter.
When Russia announced a ban on the killing of baby harp seals in that country, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the seal slaughter a "bloody industry that should have been banned long ago." Shortly thereafter, Canada's Governor General Michaëlle Jean cut open a seal and chowed down on the animal's raw heart, burbling inanely, "It's like sushi." I'm not making that up.
Note to Canada: When your officials are making Vladimir Putin look like the voice of reason and the U.S. Senate appears to be a model of civility, you're doing something wrong.
Let's clear up a couple of myths perpetrated by the Canadian government in defense of the "hunt." The sealing industry is not a subsistence trade for native peoples. The Inuit—most of whom live in the Arctic, far away from the main seal-killing regions of Newfoundland and Labrador—are responsible for only about 3 percent of the annual seal kill.
Nor is the slaughter important to the Canadian economy. In Newfoundland, where the majority of sealers live, revenues from sealing account for just about 1 percent of the province's economy. But even if it were more, that's still no excuse for clubbing babies.
You'd think that officials would have gotten the message that it's time to stop the slaughter when many sealers sat out this year's massacre in the face of plunging demand and record-low ice levels. Incredibly, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea instead increased the killing quotas.
In fact, Canada is spending millions of dollars—and despite what you may have heard, Canadian dollars are real money—on desperate efforts to prop up the dying commercial seal slaughter, including rushing Shea to China to try to peddle seal pelts there and posting a $75,000 contract for a "Social Media Reputation and Online Issues Management" advisor to track seal chatter on the Web.
Not long ago, Canada launched a "Keep Exploring" ad campaign to attract tourists. Vacationers may find it hard to have a really good time with all that shooting and beating going on in the background.
Reacting to the tourism campaign, PETA is pushing back with its own campaign, called, "Explore Elsewhere," encouraging people to leave Canada out of their travel plans until the seal massacre is stopped for good. I've never really been one to call for boycotting an entire country, but in the face of such heartless ineptitude, maybe it's worth considering.
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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