We know that there weren't any pigs on your table this Christmas, but were there pigs at it? At a festive Christmas party in Goa, India, not only were pigs at the table, they were also the guests of honor.

The Panjim Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) had intercepted a group of people who were illegally transporting about 100 pigs and who intended to slaughter and sell them for holiday meals. But PAWS rescued all the pigs and took them to safety at its shelter. So, since the pigs were no longer becoming the feast, PAWS and PETA India decided to throw them one instead.

The gleeful pigs happily munched on corn, spinach, strawberries, grapes, and other treats, while their proud rescuers doted on them. And as news cameras caught the pigs' mirthful antics, they also captured the not-so-subtle message that PETA India had prominently displayed at the table: a sign that implored, "Give Pigs the Gift of Life: Go Vegan."

Ho, ho, no! Looks like Santa's been indulging in a little too much eggnog:

Share: Twitter | Facebook

How does milk (and other animal products) contribute to impotence? The saturated fat and cholesterol in even so-called low-fat 1 or 2 percent milk (which are actually about 20 and 30 percent fat calories, respectively) clogs the arteries leading to all your organs, not just your heart. Milk is also loaded with female hormones, since cows are kept almost constantly pregnant on today's dairy factory farms. One Harvard University scientist estimates that cow's milk accounts for up to 80 percent of the estrogen in the average person's diet.

So if you want to keep Mrs. Claus happy, better make it soy or almond milk with those cookies on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, Rudolph might be the only one who gets up in the air this holiday season.

The Black Friday shoppers who were standing in line at midnight to score deals on video games weren't necessarily parents of teenage boys. Some of them might have been pig guardians.

It's true: Pigs love a good video game. Surprised? Then try this one on for size: Pigs can answer to their names within a week of being born. Yep. That skill takes people, what, two years to master?

Pigs are super-smart. In fact, they're classified as the fourth-smartest animal on the planet—ahead of cats and dogs (who haven't the foggiest idea what a Wii is).

And here are some other things that you may not know about pigs:

• They enjoy listening to music.
• They "Eskimo kiss" like humans by rubbing their noses together.
• The intense bond between mother pigs and their babies is just as strong as that between human parents and their children.
• Pigs are chatterboxes, and their wide range of grunts, squeaks, snarls, and snorts all have distinct meanings.
• Just like human beings, they have widely varied personalities: Pigs can be shy or outgoing, serious or playful.
• Piglets play like human children: chasing each other, pretend fighting, squealing, and playing with toys.

Pigs can also suffer from depression, as many on factory farms do. And they don't want to be slaughtered and turned into a centerpiece. This holiday season, serve a hearty and delicious Field Roast and save a pig from your table.

You may just wind up with a new favorite gaming partner.

If holiday shoppers needed divine intervention to persuade them to keep animal skins off their lists, that's exactly what they got. A saintly duo of PETA "angels" has been crisscrossing Canada in cherubic attire to help people in the frozen north be angelic to animals this winter by eschewing fur, leather, wool, down, and exotic skins. 

And while crowds of pedestrians were stopping to take pictures of the holy encounter and offering to buy the angels some hot tea, the dreamy pair was busy explaining that torturing and killing animals for their skin is an unholy nightmare.

The angels are hopeful that people will show good will toward animals this holiday season so that this year, every time a bell rings, an angel will get her wings and animals will keep their skin. 

The following was excerpted from an article that originally appeared on McClatchy.

As my mom and I were walking through a department store recently, she spied a colorful plaid quilted vest. "Ooh, that's pretty," she said and reached for the price tag.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the contents label. "Uh-oh, it contains down," I told her.

"Oh, no," she said, dropping the vest as if it had bitten her. "I guess I won't be buying that."

Like me, Mom loves animals. She's a vegan, and she refuses to wear anything made of leather, silk, or wool—or down.

Much of the down used in coats, comforters, vests, and blankets is "live-plucked"—ripped from the bodies of birds who are still alive. Plucking may begin when the birds are just 10 weeks old and be repeated every six to seven weeks until the birds are slaughtered at around age 4, far short of their natural lifespan of 10 to 20 years.

Workers are paid by the goose, rather than by the hour, so speed is of the essence, leading to rough handling and injuries. Undercover video footage shot on a Hungarian goose farm shows workers picking up and carrying geese by their necks or wings. The frightened birds are flipped upside down and pinned between workers' knees while they rip out fistfuls of feathers. One worker was photographed sitting on a goose's neck in order to prevent her from escaping.

The good news is that there are several alternatives to down, including Thinsulate, PrimaLoft, and Polarguard, that are less expensive, less bulky, easier to launder, and excellent insulators. They also perform well when wet, unlike down, which absorbs moisture, loses loft and insulating ability, and takes a long time to dry.

In fact, many brands sell quilted vests insulated with PrimaLoft. Don't tell my mom, but she just might be finding one under her Christmas tree this year.

They may have been born as strays on a porch, but thanks to the efforts of some wonderful volunteers, seven Labrador retriever–mix puppies spent their first Christmas indoors, surrounded by their loving adoptive families.

Thanks to a Christmas display at the framing shop of John Esty and John Bartlett, anyone wearing fur on New York City's Greenwich Avenue will feel like the West Village idiot.

Since, as the holiday classic explains, "the weather outside is frightful," you have to admire the dedication of PETA's "Mistletoe Misses," who have been braving Arctic breezes wearing nothing but mistletoe-covered bikinis to share "kisses"—along with the word about the many advantages of a vegan diet.

The delightful duo has been giving away vegan chocolates with tags saying, "Be Sweet to Animals," along with PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kits.

Sophie is a rescued dog who accompanies PETA Vice President Lisa Lange to work at PETA's Los Angeles office. Not to be outdone by Bubbles, Sophie has also written to Kris Kringle, asking him to help less fortunate dogs.

Bubbles, one of the resident cats at PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, has written a letter to Santa (with a little help from the author of 250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You):