It's easier for us to think that the horrors of the fur trade—the electrocution, poisoning, and live skinning—happen overseas in faraway places like China and Norway, not in the States. But one PETA supporter sent us these photos taken at a fur processor in Mount Ayr, Iowa—gruesome evidence that the fur industry is still alive and kicking here in America, even if its victims aren't.

If you needed a reminder of why not to buy or wear fur—and to educate anyone you see wearing it about the cruelty involved—here it is. You're welcome.

When students at China's Guangdong University of Foreign Studies bustled onto campus for open day, little did they know that their education would begin on the sidewalk.

Armed with hundreds of leaflets and stickers courtesy of PETA Asia-Pacific, an enterprising group of students flooded the campus with messages about protecting animals and the environment using the slogan "We all live under the same sky."

Considering how eagerly their receptive classmates grabbed information about factory farming, zoos, and other animal rights issues, it's safe to say that these students opened the school year with a bang.

If you know students who want to get active for animals, let them know that they can "take charge" by visiting peta2.com

Thank you, China! In a move that breaks with a tradition reportedly going back 600 years—when dogs barked, giving away the army's position—officials have canceled an annual Chinese festival in which 5,000 to 10,000 dogs are killed and eaten on the streets of Jinhua City. The cancellation follows protests by thousands of animal rights advocates. This is a wonderful move by the Chinese government, and we hope to see many more compassionate decisions like this in the years ahead.

Damhyojung | cc by 2.0

One protester described what he had seen at previous festivals: "I've seen the dogs being stabbed, strangled and even beaten into comas and thrown into boiling water. Some dogs woke up in the extremely hot water and they struggled, but the vendors kept pushing them, plucking their fur."

If this sounds horrifying, bear in mind that animals by the billions meet similar fates in American slaughterhouses every year. Improperly stunned cows, turkeys, pigs, and chickens have their throats cut while they are still conscious. The beating and intentional abuse of animals by farm workers is rampant. And pigs, chickens, and turkeys are often still alive when they are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their hair and feathers.

Order your free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today and protect all animals from painful slaughter.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

When are Canadian sealers going to catch a break? Never, it seems, as long as they continue to hook baby seals in the eye or mouth, drag them across the ice, and bludgeon them to death.

Taiwan's forestry bureau is considering banning seal products, just as the U.S. and the European Union have done. Forestry officials say that the country's consumers have stopped buying seal products in the wake of a news conference last year that showed how seals are killed. Are you listening, Canada? People aren't cool with baby-seal beatings. Taiwanese officials say that Canada is concerned about the impact that the potential ban might have on the rest of Asia.

Yep, they should worry, all right. Chinese citizens said in January that they don't want the seal meat that Canada is trying to sell them either. Come on, Canada. Everyone else on the planet can't be wrong.

jomilo75/cc by 2.0

Written by Michelle Sherrow

China just passed a law improving conditions for some of its zoo animals. Now it’s time for other nations to follow suit.

The conditions at Bhawalpur Zoo in Pakistan are enough to appall any compassionate person—just take a look at this video, which shows the zoo's pair of lions being taunted by a zoo staffer. As if a life confined to a cement cell wasn’t bad enough?

The sad plight of the animals in the Bhawalpur Zoo moved photographer Amean J. so much that he recently published a book, BHV ZOO, which features a photo exposé of sad animals being neglected and isolated. Set against stark white pages, the black-and-white photographs illustrate the forlorn, ghost-like ambience of the zoo, with animals who wear expressions of abandonment and resignation. Click here for a preview of the photographs. BHV Zoo is also available as an e-book.

Are you as appalled as Amean J. at the horrid state of the Bhawalpur Zoo? Taking action is as easy as pledging never to support the cruelty of captive-animal displays.

unhindered by talent/cc by 2.0

Written by Agnes Tam

Although consumers don’t necessarily see “Made in China” on honey labels, a new exposé published in the UK’s Globe and Mail tells of the almost spy-thriller-like process in which honey produced in China travels through southeast Asia and onto millions of tables—and into millions of stomachs—around the world.
 

don hankins/cc by 2.0

In China, where the overwhelming majority of the honey ingested globally originates, beekeepers attempt to keep bees alive by feeding them antibiotics that are banned in North America because the drugs can seep into and contaminate the honey. The honey is often intentionally mislabeled as originating elsewhere, and is also diluted with sugar and corn syrup.

In a companion article, the National Academy of Sciences reports that the U.S. bee population has seen a dramatic decline in recent years due to inbreeding and habitat loss, and that changes must be made to end the bees’ spiral toward extinction. Agave nectar, anyone?

shannonyeh.photography/ CC by 2.0

China is saying "lights out" for all animal shows at its 300 state-owned zoos, telling zoos that they can either stop abusing animals in this way or be shut down. The circus act ban—which China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development passed in September 2010, earning it PETA Asia's Advancement in Animal Welfare Award—officially goes into effect this week, and already two zoos have shut down their circuses. Some of the cruel stunts used in these shows featured lions standing on horses' backs, bears walking tightropes, monkeys fighting each other, and live animals being fed to predators.

Banning these cruel shows could lead to improved conditions for other zoo animals as well. Last year, an investigation by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) revealed "more than 50 zoos where animals were suffering severely because of abuse." The SFA also received a PETA Asia Advancement in Animal Welfare Award for its investigation and the ban that it imposed in July 2010 on cruel circus acts.

Chinese zoos had defended the circus acts, saying that they made the animals "stars." But we're pretty certain there's not an animal out there who would prefer being beaten and forced to perform stupid, dangerous tricks to relaxing and playing with his or her family.

PETA Asia has been sending undercover investigators to zoos across China since July 2010 in order to monitor the zoos' compliance with the new policies, and the group is reporting violations to authorities.

Written by Michelle Sherrow 

Just when the Canadian government thought it had figured out a way to put the money-losing seal slaughter in the black by selling seal meat to China …

Hmmm … if China doesn't want the spoils of the world's largest marine-mammal massacre, what's Canada to do? How about, um, don't club seals? Just an idea …

Written by Michelle Sherrow

In an apparent effort to recoup profits lost as a result of the dwindling demand for seal products, Canada will begin selling seal meat to China. Why China? Well, the sealing industry can't seem to find anybody else to buy the stuff.

Amid an international public outcry against the seal slaughter—in which baby seals are hooked in the eye or cheek, bludgeoned, drowned, and sometimes skinned alive—the European Union recently banned the import of all seal products from Canada, and the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling for an end to the massacre (sales of seal products are already banned in the U.S.). As a result, the price of a seal pelt has dropped from $100 just a few years ago to only $15 last year.

You can help keep the pressure on by e-mailing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and telling him to stop the seal slaughter immediately. You can also post a pro-seal message on Facebook or Twitter.

jomilo75/CC by 2.0

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Animals Asia Foundation recently released photos of bicycle-riding bears and boxing bears in Chinese circuses, and the pictures are poignant reminders of the misery that animals endure in circuses throughout China. Not that the atrocities done to animals who are touring (if you can call living in a smelly boxcar and then in a dungeonlike stadium basement "touring") with circuses in the U.S. have been stopped. After all, in the U.S., elephants are routinely beaten with rods, sticks, and bullhooks, whipped into submission, and chained so that they are barely able to move.

Of course, no one had to get out the bullhook to convince PETA Asia staffers to work hard on China's first-ever animal protection laws. Earlier this year, they met with Chinese government officials and discussed ways to help animals—including improving conditions for animals in circuses. These photos are further proof of how urgently animals need us. Get the "Hot and Sour Scoop" on PETA Asia's work by visiting the group's blog. And help animals here at home by boycotting the circus.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor