Update: In deference to the wishes of Manti Te'o and his representatives, PETA is abandoning its plans to erect a billboard featuring an image of the Notre Dame standout next to the slogan "Sometimes Faking It Is Better. Score Faux-Chicken Super Bowl Recipes at PETA.org." Hopefully, people will still defer to the wishes of chickens and not rip their wings off.

Originally posted on January 28th, 2013:

Manti Te'o may have been buffaloed by a fake girlfriend, but he shouldn't feel too bad: Sometimes fake is actually better. That's why PETA created a billboard urging football fans to avoid unnecessary roughness to chickens on Super Bowl Sunday by intentionally grounding real chicken wings and opting for play-action fake fowl instead.

Those animals in PETA's "Glass Walls" video? Unlike Manti's make-believe girlfriend, their deaths are real. Birds slaughtered for their wings and other body parts are often dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still conscious and aren't covered by even the meager protections of the Humane Slaughter Act.  

The price of chicken wings is currently skyrocketing because of higher feed costs caused by this summer's drought, which makes now the perfect time to try vegan wings, such as Gardein Classic Style Buffalo Wings, a favorite of vegetarian and former Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams. 

This Super Bowl Sunday, opt for healthy and humane faux wings (find recipes at PETA's Living page). That way, nobody gets hurt. 

Honey Boo Boo has found something else that makes her holla: her new companion chicken. Alana Thompson's mother says that HBB and her BFF (best fowl friend) are practically inseparable.

Why, then, would the pint-sized reality star name her chicken Nugget? PETA wrote to Honey Boo Boo asking her to change Nugget's name to "Not a Nugget," after our youth outreach mascot, to honor her companion as a friend, not food.

But even if Honey Boo Boo "redneckognizes" that chickens are better as family members than value meals, that doesn't mean that she would have to give up her "chicken-nugget power." PETA is also sending the pageant queen our "I Am Not a Nugget" T-shirt and Gardein's faux-chicken tenders. Since meat-free nuggets have all the protein with none of the cholesterol, they'll give her more energy than Go Go Juice. And not eating chickens might earn her a whole new flock of fans.

If a dolla will make Honey Boo Boo holla, maybe a Gardein nugget will make her wanna hug it? (Note to June: Gardein also puts out good coupons.)

Keen to try some roasted puppy leg or a freshly carved puppy breast? A new billboard PETA is trying to place outside public schools across the country ahead of Thanksgiving should certainly give children and their parents not only the shivers but also some important food for thought:

Turkey: © iStockphoto.com/James Steidl • Dog: © iStockphoto.com/Eric Isselée

Turkeys are gentle, inquisitive animals who enjoy music and like to have their feathers stroked, but turkeys raised for food are kept in crowded, dark sheds where the ammonia from their accumulated waste burns their skin. At slaughterhouses, turkeys are slammed upside down into shackles and dragged through electrified water. Many birds have their throats slit while they're still conscious and able to feel pain.

Stuffing kids (or anyone) with turkey is also bad for their health: In addition to artery-clogging fat and cholesterol, they also could be gobbling up arsenic, which is used to combat disease on filthy factory farms. Other dangers of eating turkey include contracting listeria, salmonella, or campylobacter bacteria, which cause millions of cases of food-borne illness each year.

Kids can learn more about how to "love animals, not eat them" at the PETA Kids or peta2 websites. Adults who want to quit cruelty cold turkey this Thanksgiving can check out Gardein's delicious vegan holiday recipes and enter to win a free vegan Gardein Savory Stuffed Turk'y on our Living page.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

If fever, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and dehydration aren’t your idea of ‘healthy,’ step away from the turkey burgers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service recalled nearly 55,000 pounds of Jennie-O All-Natural turkey burgers when the meat was found to be infected with salmonella hadar, which is resistant to antibiotics. So far, cases have been reported in 10 states, although the turkey was distributed nationwide.
 

 
Besides the fact that turkey flesh is devoid of fiber and is loaded with even more fat and cholesterol than many cuts of beef, the USDA reports that one out of eight turkeys is infected with salmonella. The cramped, filthy conditions on factory farms enable bacteria to spread like wildfire, and the antibiotics routinely given to birds to keep them alive long enough to be slaughtered contribute to the development of drug-resistant "superbugs." 

The good news is that you can get the taste of turkey without the icky-ness by gobbling up Tofurky, Tofu Turkey, Native Food's Holiday Wellington, or Gardein's Veggie Turkey Breast.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow

The cruel treatment of chickens raised for food is reason enough for people to stop eating them, but Dr. Mehmet Oz just provided his viewers with yet another reason: On a recent episode of The Dr. Oz Show, he explained exactly what's in chicken flesh—chemicals, antibiotics, arsenic, drugs, and salt—and how it can lead to antibiotic resistance and other health problems.

Gardein vegan chicken anyone?

Written by Heather Moore

According to The Smoking Gun Lady Gaga's caught in a new romance, and this one ain't so bad. The website got its hands on Gaga's latest concert rider, and the newest addition to it is a request for Yves vegan hot dogs. Maybe she’s trying to do right by Miss Piggy after wearing her boyfriend as a coat.

Written by Shawna Flavell

barryskeates / CC by 2.0

According to Time magazine, scientists at the University of Missouri have created a soy-based chicken that tastes and feels, well, just like chicken. That should give meat-eaters and vegetarians something to salivate over. The owner of Turtle Island Foods, the maker of Tofurky, is reportedly thinking about purchasing the product, which is not commercially available yet. (In the meantime, Gardein, Boca, and Morningstar Farms make some pretty tasty faux chicken!)

If the University of Missouri's stuff is as good as Time says it is, then more meat-eaters will be swayed to stop eating chicken, which will help curb greenhouse gasses, reduce waistlines, and save billions of birds. The author of the article foresees a bright future. After he plugged PETA's $1 million prize offer for anyone who can bring in vitro chicken meat to market by 2012, he mused, "Maybe one day you'll order a chicken fajita at Chili's that is made with soy.* You almost certainly won't notice the difference, but the planet will."

What do you think? Will this soy in chicken's clothing change the way you eat?

Written by Heather Moore

*Rumor has it that Chipotle Mexican Grill is already a step ahead and is set to launch its vegan "Garden Blend" faux-chicken burrito nationwide any minute.

On my list of life's simple pleasures, right below "Cuddling with my cat during our Project Runway marathon": a cold beer, a pair of perfectly worn blue jeans, and a basketful of fried tofu. I'm not alone here: The Grammy Award–winning Zac Brown Band agrees with me—well, at least about the cold beer and blue jeans.

converse / CC

But I'm optimistic that the band will also be singing the praises of soy after it ponders PETA's proposal. We've asked the band members, who sing about their love of freedom in "Chicken Fried," to consider what life is like for chickens and other animals who are kept in constant confinement on filthy, crowded factory farms before they're cruelly slaughtered. We've also offered to partner with Zac and the band on a vegan "eat and greet" for fans on their upcoming West Coast tour. And to make our offer even more tempting, we've sent the band members a basket of delicious, protein-rich faux meats.

So now we wait to hear back from Zac and the rest of the band. In the meantime, I've started veganizing lyrics to some of my favorite country classics. Darling Dolly's "Jolene" becomes "Gardein," for example. Ante up by listing your favorite veganized honky-tonk tune in the comments section below.

Written by Karin Bennett

ideachampions / CC

Hospital employees should be ambassadors of good health—and Chattanooga-based Memorial Health Care System is embracing this theory. Well, sort of. The company has announced that in an effort to "further our mission of building healthier communities," it will no longer hire smokers and tobacco chewers. Smooth move? It seems so—after all, as FierceHealthCare.com points out, "On average, smokers cost employers between $2,500 and $4,000 annually for healthcare costs in comparison to nonsmokers."

But why stop there? Let's not tiptoe around the tofu anymore. We've written to officials at Memorial Health Care System urging them to take it a step further and implement a "vegetarians-only" hiring policy for area hospitals.

Here's just one example of why a vegetarians-only policy makes sense: Maybe more than anyone else, hospital employees should have an understanding of and appreciation for the effects of an animal-free diet on human health. Sadly, during a recent hospital stay, my mom was stuck eating PBJs day in and day out because the attendants who took her meal requests didn't know what "vegan" meant and seemed not to want to bother to figure it out.

People, I ask you: How's that possible?! Our nation's heath is at stake: While politicians argue about health care legislation, emergency rooms all over the country are bursting at their sliding glass doors with victims of America's three biggest killers—heart disease, strokes, and cancer, the origins of which are often traced back to meaty, cheese-laden diets. Forget pill-popping—prevention of these diseases is our (and animals') best bet.

If schools knowingly hired alcoholics to drive school buses, then we as a society would be outraged. I can hear parents crying out, "Irresponsible! Dangerous! Bad example!" Shouldn't we be equally appalled that hospitals continue to hire meat-addicted, unhealthy health care workers to spoon-feed Salisbury steaks to our sick and injured friends and family members? Becoming stronger and healthier starts with the food that goes into our mouths—and can be as simple as saying "Sayonara, salami. Hello, gardein!"

Written by Karin Bennett

wallpaperbase / CC

My interest in CBS's Amazing Race started to wane when PETA pal Mike White and his dad were bumped from the show.

Well, the announcement that scientists in Holland have created a sort of pork in a petri dish means a different kind of amazing race is on—one that can save tens of millions of animals every year. As you may recall, PETA announced earlier this year that we'll pay $1 million to the first team of scientists who could create test-tube chicken flesh that looks and tastes like the "real deal" by June 30, 2012.

The Dutch scientists definitely have their work cut out for them if they're to grab PETA's reward money. The article says their "meat" is presently a gooey blob that "requires exercise, like human muscles, to turn it into a tougher steak-like consistency" and that they expect to have laboratory meat within five years. It doesn't sound appetizing—yet—and five years is a little after our contest deadline, but we're hopeful that they'll work out the kinks and apply their findings to create in vitro chicken flesh for public consumption in time to win the prize.

Until then, my animal-defending compadres and I will keep serving up mouthwatering Gardein to entice meat-lovers to kick their cruel, unhealthy meat addictions.

Written by Karin Bennett