PETA pal Stella McCartney never kills animals for her designs, but she certainly killed it at Paris Fashion Week with her cruelty-free collection. The star-studded front row raved about her fur- and leather-free autumn/winter 2013 ready-to-wear collection. An impressed Bono astutely observed to PETA Veep Dan Mathews, "Stella is PETA's number one ally in the fashion world." Jessica Alba said, "Her clothes are just as elegant as any line that uses animals." And Stella's proud pop, Paul McCartney, noted, "I thought it was beautiful. Very clean, very strong." 

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Stella's comfortable yet stylish designs are universally appealing to everyone from A-listers to young professionals like me, who make a beeline for the Stella rack at Last Call Neiman Marcus. They're comfortable pieces, yes, but there's also comfort in knowing that no animals died for my fashion statement. And there's comfort in knowing that my money is going to a design house that will continue blazing the path into a brave new fashion world where creativity reaches compassionate new heights. 

Last year, Atlanta Pride's raucous party at the Georgia Aquarium raised the ire of many members of the LGBT community. PETA Vice President Dan Mathews, who is gay, attended the party to ask the organizers to consider a different location in the future. When he published a piece in The Huffington Post describing what he observed and what aquarium employees told him about how the loud, booming music torments the aquarium's marine mammals, who navigate and communicate via sensitive sonar systems, people jumped to the animals' defense. But Atlanta Pride has planned another party, with amplifiers aplenty, at the Georgia Aquarium. And again, gay animal rights advocates are calling "party foul."

brian.gratwicke | cc by 2.0 

In captivity, these whales have little room for exercise and are cut off from their natural social groups. 

Jane Lynch wrote to Buck Cooke, managing director of Atlanta Pride, on PETA's behalf and urged him to move the party to a more humane venue:

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Animal advocates and the LGBT community often work hand in hand because we both understand oppression and cruelty, so there's nothing to be proud of about a Pride event that hurts animals. Please contact Atlanta Pride Managing Director Buck Cooke today and urge him to switch the event's kickoff party to a more humane venue. Atlanta Pride should be a positive, enjoyable experience for everyone, including the animals.

Lady Gaga has plenty of fans—especially in the gay community, which she has embraced so fervently. Gay Gaga fans at PETA loved her all the more when she came out against fur, telling Ellen DeGeneres, "I hate fur and I don't wear fur." But recent furry Gaga photos show that the Lady may be a turncoat. So PETA VP Dan Mathews has written to Gaga to find out if she's become a "Judas" to animals:

Dear Gaga,

Many of your gay fans, I among them, have long admired what you told Ellen: "I hate fur and I don't wear fur." I included a link because these recent photos of you in fox and rabbit and with a wolf carcass make it appear that you have amnesia. I'm also including this brief video hosted by Tim Gunn showing the violent cruelty that you promote when you wear fur. What happened? Are your stylists telling you that it's fake, or are you a turncoat? Many gays are animal advocates because we recognize that the same arrogance and indifference that some have toward animal suffering has at times been directed toward us personally because of our orientation. PETA has long participated in Pride events around the country, and just last week, we helped lead protests against Chick-fil-A. But by wearing those dumb furs in a heat wave, you're making yourself a target just like the mindless Kim Kardashian. As we plan our fall campaigns, please tell us whether what you gracefully told Ellen was heartfelt or just a pose.

We await your reply.

Sincerely,

Dan Mathews

Senior Vice President

PETA

What You Can Do

Gaga has refused to say whether the furs that she has been wearing are fake, so won't you chime in to try and get her to reply?

Presidents, hip-hop moguls, and now PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews have taken the stage at New York arts-and-culture venue 92YTribeca. Dan, together with new "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" model Cornelia Guest, New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott, and Newsweek and Daily Beast celebrity columnist Lloyd Grove, discussed how PETA's eye-catching naked campaigns and celebrity collaborations push animal rights issues into mainstream media outlets.

If the audience members came in with doubts or criticism, we're betting that they left with insight into PETA's tactics after hearing Dan explain that PETA has wonderful stories about building houses for "backyard dogs," rescuing animals from cruel circuses and laboratories, and much more—but what news outlets like Inside Edition want to cover is controversy, nudity, and celebrities.

Although he was there to serve as an unbiased voice, Stuart Elliott noted that PETA's ability to create "buzz" through naked ads and the use of celebrities in protests was decades ahead of modern social-media campaigns. He also commented that the success of PETA's "shockvertising" has persuaded other organizations to follow suit. I guess imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.

Shadow and Chambers, two dolphins who were forced to perform at a Swiss aquarium, died after a rave party was held at the facility. Authorities are trying to determine the cause of death, which possibly includes being blasted with deafeningly loud music or being poisoned by narcotics dropped into their tank.

PETA Germany had sent an urgent appeal to aquarium management and veterinary officials to cancel the rave and is now poised to file a lawsuit against those responsible if the necropsies (expected to take several weeks) determine that the rave was connected with Shadow's and Chambers' deaths.

Dolphins, whales, rays, and other fish and sea life confined to cramped tanks in aquariums already have it bad enough without being subjected to the stress of loud parties put on by marine parks in an attempt to make a few extra bucks. As PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews recounted after attending a party at the Georgia Aquarium, three guides admitted that music at such parties upsets the animals and causes them to fight.

In the wild, dolphins swim together in family pods or tribes of hundreds. Photo: lowjumpingfrog | cc by 2.0

Never buy a ticket to the Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld or any other facility that profits from keeping animals in captivity.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

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Her Highness of Halloween, Elvira, knows a thing or two about fright. And there are few things that she finds as terrifying as imprisoning marine mammals in an aquarium and forcing them to endure pounding music reverberating through their cramped tanks. But that's just what the ghouls at the Georgia Aquarium plan to do this Halloween.

The aquarium is apparently ignoring the complaint that PETA filed after the facility hosted a recent event with loud music that was visibly distressing to the marine animals, who are very sensitive to excessive noise. Elvira penned a letter to the aquarium's president and COO, saying:

"[T]hree separate aquarium employees said that many of the confined wild animals become aggravated and even fight when the music gets pumping—and they have no safe room to escape to. This disturbs me more than Freddy vs. Jason."

Hopefully, the Mistress of the Dark will help the aquarium see the light.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

After witnessing an ear-splitting dance party at the Georgia Aquarium to kick off Atlanta Pride festivities, PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews sent a letter to the aquarium's president and COO David Kimmel to set the record straight about how this kind of audio torture of animals is not only inappropriate but also likely a violation of Georgia's cruelty-to-animals law:

Despite actual knowledge that music and other noises at this volume are profoundly distressing to, at the very least, the belugas and the animals they attack when this stress and frustration manifests itself as aggression … the aquarium continues to willfully subject the animals in its care to excessive noise during planned events.

Dan described his experience at the prison aquarium in detail in a Huffington Post blog post, noting that belugas have a sophisticated sonar system that helps them navigate the arctic waters in which they swim thousands of miles every year in large, social groups. In captivity, the sonar bounces off tank walls, frustrating the animals. Dan spoke (or rather, shouted) with a tour guide who acknowledged that during high-volume events, the male belugas start to attack the harbor seals with whom they share a tank.

© Dave Riganelli/ iStockphoto.com

When PETA friend and gay rights supporter Martina Navratilova heard that Atlanta Pride held an event at the aquarium, she told Dan, "I cringe at any zoo or a theme park/aquarium with captive animals. But the big ones, whales, dolphins, giraffes, elephants, etc., the big cats—they make me cry."

You can help the animals affected by this event by contacting the Georgia Aquarium to ask that it implement a policy immediately that would allow only soft ambient or classical music at events. After all, it's not as though the animals don't have enough stress already by being held captive in a tank that—to them—is the size of a bathtub. 

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

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Since discovering how much being vegan improved his health, former president Bill Clinton has been belting out praise for plants like he belts out jazz on the saxophone. A new CNN article traces his progression from hamburger-and-fry guy to commander-in-leaf.

Not long after he left office, Clinton's penchant for hamburgers, steaks, and other high-fat foods, coupled with a family history of heart problems, left the ex-president in need of quadruple-bypass surgery, followed by two stents three years later. "I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," he told CNN.

After Clinton's second surgery, PETA sent him a vegan care package. Then, in spring 2007, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews was seated next to the former President at a dinner party in Las Vegas, and the two spoke at length about the health benefits and ethics of a vegan diet, which Clinton told Mathews had always intrigued him since his daughter Chelsea had been such an articulate vegetarian since she was 10. Mathews followed up by sending Clinton Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. After consulting with Dr. Esselstyn as well as Dr. Dean Ornish and Chelsea, Clinton decided to make the switch to a plant-based diet: "I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette .… So that’s when I made a decision to really change."

So began the era of Bill Clinton, vegan advocate and heart disease survivor. "All my blood tests are good, and my vital signs are good, and I feel good, and I also have, believe it or not, more energy," he says. We wondered who you think should be the next big political figure to get a smaller figure by going vegan? Will it be Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, or Sarah Palin?

Ding-dong, the wicked bill is dead—almost. A New York Senate bill—which, like similar bills in other states, aims to criminalize filming on farms—is dying on the vine because no one across the aisle on the Assembly side will cosponsor it.

The good news comes after PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews spoke at a news conference about the bill in Albany on Tuesday—just days after the bill was moved forward by the state's Ag committee. Joining him was New York Sen. Tony Avella, one of the lone members of the Ag committee to give the bill a thumbs-down. "Lawmakers and the public need to know how PETA works hand in hand with law enforcement on these cases," Avella said.

Making the case for the necessity of such investigations, Dan pointed out that a PETA investigation at a New York foie gras farm revealed horrors such as ill ducks who were unable to move  being eaten alive by rats, female hatchlings being drowned in feed sacks, and one duck with a neck injury so severe that water poured out of the wound when he drank.

While an "Ag Gag" bill in Florida is already history, similar bills are unfortunately still alive in Iowa and Minnesota. You can help by e-mailing the governors of both states and expressing your disgust at any law that protects animal abusers.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Thanks to the exhaustive researchers at The Awl, we now know that the New Yorker magazine, whose editors have historically shied away from profanity, never used the word "a******" until a reporter wrote about observing PETA VP Dan Mathews as he placed an "I'm an A******. I Wear Fur" sticker on a mink-clad shopper at a swank department store.  

Back in 1994, a New Yorker writer followed Dan to the fur department at Bergdorf Goodman, learning en route that animals killed for fur are electrocuted, bludgeoned, and skinned alive. A salesperson promptly called security when Dan mentioned to her that chinchillas are killed by genital electrocution. Unabashed, Dan slapped the aforementioned sticker on the back of an unsuspecting shopper's fur coat on his way out. Dan says he got requests from all over the country for the stickers for months after the article ran.
 

 
Who would have ever dreamed that Dan's playful prank would win animals a lasting legacy in the annals of New Yorker history? But wait—there's more! For a limited time (OK, it's not really all that limited), you can pick up some fun anti-fur stickers for yourself by visiting PETACatalog.com. You're #&*@% welcome.
 

Written by Michelle Sherrow