Elvis Presley has left the building—to help PETA's hound dog "fox" and "rabbit" ask Nashville shoppers to leave animal skins off their holiday gift lists. 

One shopper who stopped to talk had to fight back tears—and not because she touched the King of Rock and Roll. She was appalled when the demonstrators explained how sheep used for wool have chunks of skin and flesh cut off their backsides with little to no pain relief.

There's nothing "tender" about the way animals killed for fur are beaten, electrocuted, and skinned alive or the way animals killed for leather have their throats cut and are skinned and dismembered, often while still conscious.

Even if you don't live in Music City, you can still make your holiday shopping list music to animals' ears by choosing gifts that are free of animal skins. And if you receive a dead animal's skin as a present, you can gently "return to sender" and explain why. We think the King would approve.

8notes / CC

We've just found out that a 155-acre estate in Horn Lake, Mississippi, that formerly belonged to Elvis Presley has been put up for sale. Since home is where the heart is, fans are eager to get their hands on Elvis' "honeymoon ranch." Unfortunately, buyers may be all shook up when they find out that since Elvis left the building premises, it has been turned into a cattle ranch.

I guess you could just sit right down and cry, but we have a better idea for salvaging Elvis' former home. While the ranch is on the market, PETA would like to rent it and transform it from a heartbreak hotel for cows into a "Don't Be Cruel" (to cows) education center for kids.

Kids deserve to know that the animals who are turned into hamburgers and blue suede shoes are living, thinking, feeling beings who deserve more from life than to end up on a dinner plate. In the U.S., more than 41 million cows are killed for the meat and dairy industries every year. You'd have to have a heart of stone to be unmoved by their suffering.

So, Mr. Cattle Rancher—I beg of you—will you take us up on our offer? It's now or never*.

Written by Liz Graffeo

*I've put the titles of nine different Elvis songs in this post—how many can you identify?

celebritysmackblog / CC

Elvis swiveled his hips to that hit single decades ago, and today his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, is singing a similar tune in behalf of a baby chimpanzee who is named after her.

An anonymous whistleblower at an Illinois Park District contacted PETA after witnessing the owners of Ed and Annette's Monkeys & More—a company that provides animals for parties and other functions—transport Lisa Marie (the baby chimpanzee) in a Rubbermaid bin to and from events.

Ed and Annette purchased Lisa Marie from a Missouri primate breeder who removed her from her mother within weeks of birth. Now, when she's not being dragged to community events and children's parties, Lisa Marie lives alone in a barren cage. She will likely grow too strong for her handlers by the time she's 8 years old and be tossed aside to a roadside zoo to languish for decades—if she doesn't have a breakdown and hurt someone first.

To show support for our efforts to rescue Lisa Marie and other baby chimpanzees from abuse in the entertainment industry, Lisa Marie Presley has written to Ed and Annette's Monkeys & More urging them to release her namesake to an accredited sanctuary.

As a lifelong Elvis fan, I think he'd agree that any business that cashes in on chimpanzees is "Too Much Monkey Business."

Written by Karin Bennett