There are just two weeks to go until audiences see Kristen Stewart finally become a vampire in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part I, but last night, K-Stew told Jay Leno that even the bloodless aren't heartless—she would never wear real fur.

Leno showed what appeared to be a furry image from Kristen's W magazine photo shoot that left her fans asking a big "W": Why would she wear that? But Kristen was anxious to put the rumors to rest, saying, "That's not fur—I would never wear fur. … [People said] 'nobody does that [wear fur] anymore and look, she's willing to.' No, I'm actually not, so let's just clear that one up." 

Seems like the out-of-touch designers who still use fur are having a harder and harder time finding anyone willing to wear butchered bunnies. It's obvious that stolen skin is out and sparkly skin is in.

Before you head out to reserve your tickets for opening night, check out how Twilight stars Kellan Lutz, Christian Serratos, and Robert Pattinson are shining for animals too.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Things are getting muy caliente at the PETA office during National Hispanic Heritage Month. We rounded up some of our favorite ads starring Latino supporters and created a slideshow hotter than the month of August.  

From fighting fur and "fixing" animal homelessness to goring bullfighting and getting gorgeous with veggies, these Latin stars are true amigos to animals.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

In a protest called "massive" by a local television station, author and fitness guru Jillian Michaels led the charge alongside producer Sam Simon, Twilight's Christian Serratos, The Secret Life of the American Teenager's Renee Olstead, and hundreds of demonstrators outside the Los Angeles Staples Center to call attention to the abuse of elephants by the Ringling Bros. circus. 
  

 
Numerous elephants used by Ringling Bros. suffer crippling arthritis—a leading cause of euthanasia of captive elephants—because they don't get the freedom of movement and exercise that they need.

"Their enslavement by the circus means [elephants] spend their lives in chains and stuffy train cars with no freedom to roam, and they suffer painful, fatal ailments that come from such a stressful existence," says Michaels.

Other compassionate celebrities who supported PETA's protest via Twitter include Sophia Bush, Kellan Lutz, Alicia Witt, and Sasha Grey, among others.

Please never attend any animal circus performance, and contact PETA's Action Team to help plan your own demonstration when the circus comes to your city.
 

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

For those of us who repeatedly put Robert Pattinson's shirtless scene in New Moon on "pause" are fans of Robert Pattinson, there's a new reason to swoon. While he was filming The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn in Louisiana, the ultimate heartthrob went to the ultimate place to find a new best friend—an animal shelter—and rescued a puppy, who was traveling on a private plane with him the next day. "There is a deep connection between me and dogs," Rob noted, adding that if he could swap his human form for anything, it would be a dog. 

Rob's new pup might be scampering around the Twilight set with Kellan Lutz's pal Kola, who posed with the actor in his super-cute "Adopt, Don't Buy" ad for PETA. And they'll have plenty to talk about with Christian Serratos, who would rather go naked than wear fur.

Rob, I would love to have an "Adopt, Don't Buy" ad to hang up next to my "Sixteen Months of Robert Pattinson" calendar (hint, hint). But if you'd rather go naked than wear fur, I'm fine with that too.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

munn∙tas∙tic (mun tas′ tik) adj. Tremendously great; extraordinarily good {e.g., "Actor and Daily Show correspondent Olivia Munn is munntastic for posing for an anti-circus billboard and leading yesterday's PETA protest against Ringling Bros. Circus at the Staples Center in Los Angeles."}

Christian Serratos, Pink, and Jillian Michaels are also pretty darn munntastic for tweeting about the event. Ringling, on the other hand, is hideous. Animals used by Ringling live in fear, are beaten into submission, and are forced to perform tricks that to them are confusing and meaningless. Still-nursing baby elephants are captured and dragged away from their mothers. Baby elephants are stretched out, slammed to the ground, gouged with steel-tipped bullhooks, and shocked with electric prods. These abusive sessions go on for several hours a day for up to a year.

Now here comes the part where you can do something munntastic for animals who are abused in circuses. Check out the video and the ele-friendly advice that Olivia posted on her blog. Show the video to everyone you know and tell them to show it to everyone that they know. While you're at it, help elephants by signing this petition.

Written by Amy Elizabeth

The following posting originally appeared in The Sacramento Bee.

If anyone out there is still wondering about the superiority of alternatives to animal tests, look no further than what is happening right now in the Gulf of Mexico. In its efforts to assist the devastated region, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is saving time, money, and the lives of countless animals—those suffering in laboratories—by using efficient and effective non-animal methods to study the endocrine effects of chemical dispersants that could be used to clean up the oil gusher.

In fact, using non-animal testing methods is the only way that the EPA can get information about these chemicals in a short period of time—a few weeks as opposed to years. Without such sophisticated methods, the EPA would have to rely on crude and cruel animal toxicity tests that date back to the 1930s, and we would be waiting years to know anything at all about these chemicals. Considering the dire conditions of the region, waiting years for an answer is simply not an option.

The modern in vitro tests that the EPA has on hand to study the endocrine effects of eight oil spill dispersants are rapid and automated, in contrast to what the EPA calls "time consuming and expensive" animal tests. Testing one chemical on animals can cost millions, versus the EPA's estimated $20,000 using in vitro testing. And while cost considerations are important, turn-around time is even more essential as ecosystems totter on the brink of disaster. The EPA states that, on average, it would take a researcher "eight hours a day, five days a week, for 12 years" to conduct these studies using traditional animal tests. The computer-driven in vitro tests deliver results in three days. The EPA has already completed the first round of toxicity testing on these dispersants.

The situation in the Gulf highlights the necessity of toxicology testing reform. Most of the tests used in standard chemical screening today were developed in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. They are heavily reliant on animals, are slow and costly, and have yielded inaccurate information about the effects of chemicals on humans. And they have allowed dangerous chemicals such as benzene and arsenic to enter and remain on the market—even after millions of animals have been killed in decades of testing.

Our current system is overloaded and incapable of accurately screening the tens of thousands of chemicals reportedly in the environment already, with more entering every day. Scientists and government agencies are now recognizing that "it is simply not possible with all the animals in the world to go through new chemicals in the blind way that we have at the present time, and reach credible conclusions about the hazards to human health" (Dr. Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate in medicine).

Indeed, Congress and the EPA are now looking to overhaul the Toxic Substances Control Act to bring chemical regulation into the 21st century. The EPA and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) are among the scientific organizations calling for toxicity testing methods that are human-relevant, faster, and cheaper and that use fewer or no animals.

In its 2007 report, the NAS confirmed that scientific advances can "transform toxicity testing from a system based on whole-animal testing to one founded primarily on in vitro (non-animal) methods." Such an approach will improve efficiency, speed, and prediction for humans while cutting costs and reducing animal suffering. As it should, the newly introduced legislation supports the continued development and implementation of this shift toward non-animal methodologies.

As the case in the Gulf demonstrates, non-animal testing is the stuff of science—not "science fiction" as critics often contend—and it is surely the future of ensuring chemical safety.

Posted by Jessica Sandler, director of PETA's Regulatory Testing Division, and Dr. Kate Willett, PETA's science policy adviser

Thomas Lersch / CC by 3.0

Update: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has written to National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins urging him to scrap plans to transfer more than 200 "retired" chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research laboratory in Texas. He has also requested the return of 15 chimpanzees who have already been transferred.

"New Mexico wants to save these chimpanzees, who have already given so much of their lives to the American public as part of medical research studies," says the governor. "There is a compassionate and prudent alternative to the National Center for Research Resources' plan, and I feel strongly that we must save the chimpanzees."

Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico is also working hard to ensure that the chimpanzees are spared from further experiments. Stay tuned for more updates.

The folks at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must have had their fingers crossed behind their backs when they "retired" 288 chimpanzees—who had previously been used in Air Force gravity experiments—to the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) in New Mexico. I say this because NIH has now decided to "unretire" the surviving chimpanzees (more than 21 have died in the decade they've spent warehoused in cages at APF, including three who died by electrocution because of unsafe conditions). The animals will be sent to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) laboratory in Texas, where they will likely be subjected to cruel experiments.

SFBR might sound familiar to readers of this blog because it is the same laboratory where two baboons escaped from cages in May and attacked two employees. PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which then cited SFBR for failure to handle animals in a manner that does not cause trauma or physical harm as well as failure to provide animals with adequate and safe housing. SFBR had previously been cited twice—in 2009 and in February of this year—for failure to house animals in structurally sound enclosures in order to prevent them from escaping and injuring themselves and others. In one incident, a monkey escaped from a cage, got outside into the freezing cold, suffered from hypothermia, and later was euthanized as a result.

SFBR's "punishment" for these offenses? It gets more than 200 chimpanzees to confine, scare, poke, and prod.

Half of the chimpanzees at APF have been living in cages for at least a quarter of a century. As PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo wrote today in a letter to NIH, it's time to truly retire these primates to a sanctuary, rather than sending them back to a laboratory where they are sure to endure tremendous physical and psychological trauma, possibly for the rest of their lives—which could last another quarter century or more.

Please take a minute to send your own letter to APF and let it know that "retirement" means living the rest of your life free from stress (and not confined to a cage).

Written by Alisa Mullins

If you're counting down the days until The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hits theaters, here are a few Twi "bites" to tide you over:

Team Edward or Team Jacob? We're not supposed to take sides here at PETA, but after seeing Robert Pattinson's hilarious appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's recent Twilight special—RPattz suggests that the wolf pack has been "spayed and neutered"—I'm rooting for the vampire. You know how much we like spaying and neutering.

And Edward isn't the only member of the Cullen clan speaking out for dogs. Kellan Lutz and his rescued mutt Kola posed for PETA's "Adopt, Don't Buy" ad, and in this exclusive interview, the sexy star explains why buying animals from pet shops or breeders really bites.

If you weren't one of the lucky fans who witnessed Kellan showing off his Calvins at the Eclipse premiere in Los Angeles, here's something even better: Christian Serratos (aka Bella's friend and classmate Angela Weber) in the buff.

So tell us, who should be the next Twilight star to pose for PETA?

Written by Paula Moore

Did you hear about the head-turning, headline-capturing, and climate-defying event that hit D.C. this weekend? No, not the record-breaking blizzard—we're talking about Saturday's opening of "Naked Ambition: 20 Years of PETA's Sexy Celebrity Ads" at the Govinda Gallery in Georgetown.

While many people in the D.C. area were bundled up inside, Twilight star Christian Serratos, who flew in from California to be at the event, was right when she said of the weather, "It will ruin everything but PETA's determination." In fact, the weather seemed to provide PETA campaigner Michelle Cho with some inspiration—to take PETA's campaign back out into the street, where it first started.

Cho, in nothing more than a G-string, was accompanied by an underwear-clad Jack Ryan and Serratos—who remained fully clothed on the insistence of her mother—for a bit of frolicking fun in the snowdrifts just outside the gallery. The three of them literally stopped traffic—monstrous snowplows, to be exact—and captured the attention of plenty of curious onlookers.

Fifty people braved the snowstorm to attend the show, which features photographs of Pamela Anderson, Tyra Banks, Dennis Rodman, Alicia Silverstone, and tons of other celebrities—including, of course, Serratos herself.

The blizzard came and went, but the "Naked Ambition" exhibition will be at the Govinda Gallery until January 9. Holiday road trip, anyone?

Written by Logan Scherer