Written by Michelle Kretzer
Arianny Celeste never shies away from a fight. In fact, she cheers on Ultimate Fighting Championship heavy hitters as an Octagon Girl. So, of course, she doesn't shy away from fighting cruelty to animals, either. The fiery Latina, who despises breeders almost as much as she loves dogs, is tackling cruelty to animals in PETA's brand-new online game, Cage Fight: Knock Out Animal Cruelty.
When Arianny met with PETA, she chatted with us about how she first became a PETA fan, what animal issues irk her the most, and why she’s so excited to get involved.
In Cage Fight, players take control of actual mixed martial arts fighters Aaron Simpson, Georgi Karakhanyan, and Jake Shields (who are also all veggie-fueled tough guys) and fight their way through an animal testing ring, freeing the caged animals and giving the experimenters an old-school smackdown. And all the while, Arianny will be popping up to cheer players on and help them unlock bonus content, such as exclusive interviews with the fighters.
Ready to join Arianny in giving animal testing a beatdown? Check out Cage Fight!
The still-undefeated Timothy Bradley, who brought down Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao like a blue ghost on Saturday, might have had an unfair advantage: He follows a vegan training regimen. The welterweight is famously hard on left-handers, but he's easy on animals.
In this clip, in which he talks about why he loves eating vegan meals, Bradley explains, "I just feel completely different. I feel superior over any athlete I get in the ring with. You know, energy is there."
PETA's love is there for Bradley and his cruelty-free training sessions, so we're sending him some congratulatory flowers to thank him for joining athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Rich Roll, Jake Shields, Mac Danzig, Daniel Bryan, and many more in proving the power of plants!
Written by Jeff Mackey
Quite a few longtime PETA friends and faves were among the celebs who told the Associated Press about their animal-oriented New Year's resolutions, including Bob Barker ("To continue urging folks to have their pets spayed and neutered—including rabbits."), Lea Michele ("I wish that [my cat] Sheila would stop going into my bathroom, taking out all my cotton balls out of the jars and spreading them all over."), and Katherine Heigl (whose dogs want her "to feed them consistently on time in the morning"), not to mention superhot Josh Duhamel and music legend Roberta Flack, whom we love all the more after hearing about their rescued animal friends.
Other pro-adoption superstars? How about George Clooney, who recently talked to Esquire about adopting his shelter mutt, Einstein? Or Charlize Theron, who wants more people to, well, be like George?
If anyone you know needs convincing that tofu scramble is the real breakfast of champions, you can remind him or her that vegan WWE superstar Daniel Bryan has been awarded the world heavyweight title. Then break a chair across his or her back just to get the point across. (PETA's lawyers would like us to note that this is a joke and that violence is never the answer.)
Not to be outdone, the UFC took to Twitter to urge fans to vote for Jake Shields for peta2's Most Animal-Friendly Athlete Libby Award.
A number of other stars offered up pro-animal tweets as well:
And the always amazing Oscar-winner and Raising Hope star Cloris Leachman raised some hope for animals abused in circuses by writing to the mayor of Orlando and asking him to protect the elephants scheduled to perform in the city with Ringling Bros.
Written by PETA
Fighters, schmighters―after Jake Shields' recent tweet, the people he'll really need to shield himself from are all the clamoring vegan girls. And they're probably in pretty good shape, too, if they've been fueling up on the healthy fare that Ellen DeGeneres shares on her website's "Go Vegan With Ellen" page. Hope they leave room for Anne Hathaway's luscious vegan treats.
Alicia Silverstone is raising a little vegan Bear, of course. Maybe she has some words of wisdom for cruelty-free mom-to-be Emily Deschanel?
And PETA has words of wisdom for Diane Kruger, about her photo shoot in which she was draped in coyote. Hasn't she heard it's better to go naked than wear fur? Furry Alexander McQueen may have passed on, like so many of the animals he killed for clothes, but at least he did make a kind decision in his will. Where was his compassion when he was alive?
Well, it's very obvious where Bree Olson's compassion is―you can't miss it. And Olivia Wilde and Emma Stone are going to have cruelty-free written all over their faces.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
The Daily Meal recently compiled a list of top vegetarian athletes, including Mike Tyson, Billie Jean King, and Joe Namath. We were inspired to compile our own list of 10 animal-friendly top talents who have gotten brawn from broccoli and endurance from eggplant:
Meat-munchers have nothing on lean, green vegetarian machines. As the front page of the UFC's website shows, the competition is getting fiercer as more fighters follow in the footsteps of Jake Shields and Mac Danzig and get in prime shape with vegetarian and vegan diets.
Want to get into fighting shape? Order your own tough guy (or girl) kit free from PETA.
When you see muscular men duking it out in the ring, does it make you think of spinach? It should. It turns out Popeye was right all along. Yahoo! Sports is reporting on the growing trend of vegetarian diets among mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters.
Strikeforce MMA champion and our Most Animal-Friendly Athlete winner Jake Shields is always ready to talk to other fighters about his life-long vegetarian diet. And they're listening. (I would, too—geez, look at him.)
Jake's training partner, Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz, and Nick's brother Nate Diaz, an Ultimate Fighter winner, both adopted vegetarian diets after watching Jake work his magic in the ring. UFC fighter Jon Fitch has also almost entirely ditched his meat-and-potatoes habit and is considered to be one of the top three welterweights in the world.
And who could forget studly Mac Danzig? We would totally not pick a fight with him (thank goodness he's our friend), but this tough guy has a soft spot for animals and went vegetarian after seeing a truckload of pigs being sent to slaughter. He's now vegan and continues to wipe up the floor with meat-eaters all over the world.
Wonder if we could get them to do an Ultimate Vegan Fighting Championship? That would be enough to make a good vegan girl go bad.
What do you do when a U.K. survey reveals that some lasses are suffering under the misapprehension that eating meat is "manly"? You show off a slew of veggie-powered super-studs and let the ladies decide for themselves. Here ya go, and you're welcome.
As a lifelong vegetarian, Jake Shields is no stranger to sticking up for the little guys. Maybe that's why the XC welterweight champion agreed to appear in a recent episode of MTV's Bully Beatdown, a show that puts teenage bullies in the ring with professional fighters to give them a taste of how miserable it feels to be the underdog.
In an interview with our friends at The Discerning Brute, Jake said, "Well I'm a life-long vegetarian and the diet obviously works. I also have two brothers that are strong and healthy. But you do have to have a good balanced diet and eat healthy foods. There's plenty of ways to get protein other than eating meat."
Awesome athletes like Jake and his fellow fighter Mac Danzig are evidence that not only is a vegetarian diet a possible diet for athletes, it might even be the best diet.
Written by Amanda Schinke
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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