Written by PETA
Celebrities took to Twitter yesterday to make a huge splash for seals. We asked compassionate celebrity supporters to tweet a message to their fans telling them that the Canadian commercial seal slaughter had begun and including a link to our "It's Time to End the Seal Slaughter" donation page. So many of them responded that our Twitter page looked like an A-list party.
Supporters who spoke up for seals who are bludgeoned and sometimes skinned alive for their fur include Ellen Degeneres, who also posted it on her blog, Pink, Sophia Bush, Daniella Monet, Jayde Nicole, Lea Michele, Vida Guerra, Alicia Silverstone, Dave Navarro, Stephanie Pratt, The Veronicas, Bill Maher, Ian Somerhalder, Diablo Cody, Sasha Grey, and, of course, Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson.
Get in on the action! Tweet this link to your Twitter followers: http://bit.ly/gNMLOJ. Or go to our donation page to help stop Canada's barbaric seal slaughter.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Clubbing seals in Canada is cruel, senseless, and shameful. But clubbin' bunnies—specifically those celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Playboy Clubs all over the world—that's a reason to celebrate. After all, many Playboy Playmates have shed their bunny ears and tails for PETA's campaigns. Behold:
All right, mates: Play "Name Your Favorite Ad" in the comments section.
Written by Karin Bennett
Grab your shades, dear readers. The lineup of stars you're about to see featured in our new "Save the Seals" ad series is shining super-bright. Ready?
A wide range of celebs, from Perez Hilton and Animal Collective to Kelly Osbourne and Brody Jenner, donated their time and donned our new baby seal T-shirt, designed by Lavish Lint, to support PETA's efforts to stop Canada's bloody seal slaughter.
Want a chance to win your own limited-edition "Hug Me, Don't Club Me" tee? OK, dumb question—of course you do. Simply tell us your most fantastic idea for a slogan for our campaign to stop the seal slaughter. We'll choose the entry with the biggest "wow factor" as the winner.
The contest ends on November 4, 2009, and we'll pick the winner on November 6, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!
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?
Those of you who still need convincing that fish sea kittens are smarter than a 5-year-old should check out today's New York Times. Molecular biologist and geneticist Sean B. Carroll writes about recent studies indicating that fish who inhabit coral reefs can learn to differentiate between targets marked with different designs and colors in order to obtain food. Other studies of coral-reef fish in their natural habitat show that fish are more drawn to "dummies" that closely resemble beneficial "cleaner fish" than to dummies with similar coloring but different markings.
If you can stand the cuteness, check out this photo of a teeny-tiny damselfish poking a target marked with an asterisk with his (or her) teeny-tiny nose.
Of course, it comes as no surprise to us here at Sea Kitten Central that fish are smart cookies. Previous studies have shown that fish have long-term memories and can learn to avoid nets by watching what other fish do. "[T]hey are capable of learning quickly," says Dr. Chris Glass, director of marine conservation at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences in Massachusetts. Dr. Phil Gee, a psychologist at the University of Plymouth in the U.K., says that fish can even tell what time of day it is: Dr. Gee trained fish to collect food by pressing a lever at specific times.
Still not convinced? You leave me no choice but to unleash … goldfish soccer.
Written by Alisa Mullins
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 43 percent of American adults—and nearly 60 percent of those under 30 years old—oppose the use of animals in experiments. If I made my money addicting animals to drugs and then killing them or drilling holes into their skulls for sexual behavior experiments, I would take this news as a sign that I should quit my day job and start looking for another way to make a killing earn a living.
Apparently, this kind of clear thinking is in short supply at the national conference of the Society for Neuroscience. Instead of embracing modern, humane non-animal research methods, some members of the society met in Chicago yesterday to brainstorm ways that they can drum up support for archaic and cruel experiments on animals.
PETA held a demonstration outside the conference, and was joined by Dr. Larry Hansen, whom the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease just named one of the world's top 100 Alzheimer's researchers. Dr. Hansen is one of many progressive, forward-thinking scientists who realize that animal experimentation should be replaced.
More than 100 million sensitive, intelligent animals are experimented on and killed in U.S. laboratories every year. Take a minute to visit StopAnimalTests.com and find out how you can speak up for these animals.
Written by Shawna Flavell
As a Muslim living in America, I know what it is like to be in the minority. But a recent Pew Forum study suggests that Islam is making inroads toward the cultural mainstream.
According to the survey, one in four people worldwide is Muslim, and the countries with the largest numbers of Muslims might surprise you. India, for example, whose residents are mostly Hindus, is home to the largest number of Muslims outside Indonesia and Pakistan. Russia, China, and Germany also have large Muslim populations.
In an effort to reach out to the growing Muslim community, a new Web site, IslamicConcern.com, has just launched which includes hadiths —sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)—and quotations from the Qur'an and Islamic leaders about compassion for all of God's creation, including animals.
At IslamicConcern.com, people can learn about how modern factory farming techniques—such as branding animals, amputating their tails and castrating them without anesthetics, and burning off birds' beaks—seem to violate the Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) teachings to cause no pain to an animal before she or he is slaughtered. Animals raised for food are often fed the ground-up bodies of pigs, chickens, and cattle along with chicken excrement and other waste products. Many Muslims believe this is most probably haram (forbidden).
Even if you aren't a Muslim, I encourage you to check out IslamicConcern.com. You might be interested to learn how much Islamic teachings about kindness to animals have in common with Christianity, Judaism, and other major religions.
Written by Mr. Hanif Akhtar, PETA Member
Actually, to be precise, Jerry's a steer. A PETA investigator found him hobbling around a field and scrounging for weeds at the appallingly filthy Pennsylvania dairy farm we told you about last month. This is how the investigator described the 5-month-old calf in her log:
[I] found a steer at the entrance to the barn (outside of the fence) who looked [to be] in a pitiful condition. He is thin, pot-bellied, buckled over at the front knees and pasterns … and when he looks at you he has a tilt to his head. Flies were covering both of his eyes, which appeared cloudy.
In addition to being crippled, the young calf was crawling with lice and was nearly blind because of pinkeye, a bacterial infection that spreads like wildfire in the disgusting conditions on factory farms. PETA's investigator bought Jerry and whisked him away to a "safe house" until he could be driven to his new home at a sanctuary.
Although he was initially (and understandably) terrified of humans, we're told that Jerry became mysteriously calm during the ride to the sanctuary. It was as if he considered the journey to be an adventure and knew that it would end at a safe and loving place.
Jerry has now almost fully recovered and regained most of his sight. He loves to wait outside the back door every evening at dinner time, and he's become the adopted "big brother" of another calf who was rescued from the same farm. If the younger calf strays too far, Jerry will go off in search of his adopted sibling.
Unfortunately, not all calves are as lucky as Jerry. Most male calves who are born on dairy farms are sent to slaughter, usually after they've been confined for up to 23 weeks to cramped veal crates that are intended to prevent the calves from moving so that their flesh will stay unnaturally pale. Making sure that you don't contribute to their suffering is as easy as giving up dairy foods.
To read a more about Jerry, you can head over to Facebook, where he is featured on our "causes" page.
PETA's headquarters in Hampton Roads, Virginia, is well known to local residents, many of whom volunteer to help animals in their spare time. Thousands in the area have taken advantage of our low-cost animal clinics and the Bea Arthur Dog Park, which is open to the community.
But every once in a while, someone visits PETA headquarters with ill intentions—like the guy who dumped this sweet, starving, nearly-naked bag of bones in our parking lot late one August night and then tried to drive away.
Not realizing that people were watching, the driver shoved an ailing cat, who has since been named Nadia, out of his car, and ignored the terrified and confused animal as she tried to get back into the car, running after it as the man drove away. Fortunately, he was spotted by two PETA Foundation staffers who immediately approached him and saw right through his lame excuses for dumping Nadia on the street.
It took us more than 10 days, during which time the temperature soared to more than 100 degrees, to catch the poor, petrified cat. When we finally did, we rushed her to a veterinarian, who determined that Nadia was 3 pounds (!) underweight—she weighed just 5 pounds—and that she was missing hair on more than half her body, likely because of a severe allergic reaction to fleas. Nadia has been recuperating in foster care ever since and is waiting for her new forever home.
As for the heinous man who attempted to abandon her, he had his moment in court on Friday. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of abandonment and received a suspended sentence of a $1,000 fine and five days in jail. He was also sentenced to two years of probation, during which time he cannot own or keep any animals, and he had to pay restitution to PETA. Most importantly, he learned that abandoning an animal is never an option, no matter the circumstances.
What do you get when you cross a turtle with a swimming pool? Salmonella soup.
According to a recent news report, two Union County, North Carolina, teenagers contracted salmonella after taking a dip in a backyard pool with two "pet" turtles. Both suffered stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting—one of the girls developed kidney failure and had to spend eight days in the hospital.
These girls are only two victims of the largest turtle-related salmonella outbreak in U.S history. More than 100 people in 34 states—most of them children—were sickened by the same strain of salmonella between 2007 and 2008.
Authorities believe that the outbreak may have occurred during the shipping process, when one infected turtle—who was probably being stored in an extremely crowded, cramped, and inadequate space before being mailed off to a pet shop or flea market—contaminated his buddies.
This outbreak isn't an isolated incident. The FDA reports that there are more than 74,000 "pet" turtle–related cases of human salmonella poisoning every year. And that's understandable when you consider how easily salmonella spreads. Simply by playing with turtles at school, kids can bring the germs home to family members.
Many of the parents of infected kids had no clue that turtles even carried salmonella. Um, hello—there's a reason why it's illegal to sell turtles with shells less than 4 inches long. After all, kids do the darndest things—like put baby turtles in their mouths …
So what have we learned? Let's see—don't buy turtles or other exotic animals, refrain from putting reptiles near or in your mouth, and never, ever invite turtles to your pool party.
Written by Amy Elizabeth
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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