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PETA is always determined and serious in our efforts to raise awareness about—and to stop—animal suffering. Sometimes, our methods are loud, boisterous, and even a little silly, but they are never naïve. That said, we admit that we're floored by the discrepancy in media coverage surrounding two recent events.

After President Obama killed a fly with one swat, media all over the world swarmed PETA for a response. But when landmark cruelty convictions against pig abusers were issued as a result of our undercover investigation, there was barely a buzz.

We know that countless people turn away from upsetting details about how pigs are beaten and sexually abused by pig farmers, raccoons and foxes gnaw their paws off to escape steel-jaw traps set by furriers, and immobilized rabbits writhe when wrinkle creams are smeared into their eyes. And so do many media outlets, lest they anger advertisers and lose money.

So, headlines everywhere mock PETA for suggesting that people consider employing kind methods of dealing with tiny unwanted visitors. Meanwhile, the pigs get zilch. Please help us change that by writing letters to editors to draw attention to this historic victory against animal abusers and spreading the word to your friends and family.

Written by Karin Bennett

animalvegetablemiracle / CC

Late last year, some factory-farm employees got their pink slips from Aviagen Turkeys, Inc. in response to PETA's undercover investigation, which documented that workers were breaking turkeys' necks, stomping on their heads, and shoving feces and feed into turkeys' mouths.

Then, in February, a grand jury handed down 19 indictments, including 11 felony charges, against three former Aviagen workers, marking the first time in U.S. history that factory-farm employees have faced felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds.

Fast forward: Two of the three ex-employees, Scott Alvin White and Edward Eric Gwinn, recently pleaded guilty to cruelty charges. On June 8, White was sentenced to serve one year in jail—the maximum period permitted by law! Today, Gwinn was sentenced to serve six months' home confinement—the maximum period permitted by law—on each count, concurrently, and is banned from living with, owning, and working with animals for five years. The case against the third ex-employee, Walter Lee Hambrick, is pending.

Can't get enough? In September, a grand jury in neighboring Monroe County, West Virginia, may well issue further felony indictments against White and Hambrick.

These historic victories by no means even the score for the turkeys who were punched and thrown or the many other birds who suffered when they were forced to watch as other turkeys were abused at Aviagen. After watching our undercover video, animal behavior expert Dr. Lesley J. Rogers stated, "It is now known that when social animals, like turkeys, see and hear other members of their species under stress or suffering physical injury, their levels of stress become elevated. Hence, the behavioural stress is widespread in the birds in the vicinity of those that have been injured and/or handled roughly."

Still, these convictions will remind workers on other factory farms that if they don't clean up their acts, PETA investigators (and the whistleblowers who tip us off) will have their eyes on them.

Written by Karin Bennett

PETA's bikinied beauties are on a mission to help residents of the fattest cities in America shed some weight. First stop: San Jose.

What better way to encourage locals to adopt a vegetarian diet than to give them a sampling of delicious, nutritious vegetarian cuisine? Though our beauties may be decked out in nothing but lettuce leaves, vegetarian means more than just salad. So, behold! The veggie hot dog:

Phew, talk about putting the "hot" in hot dog.

One veggie-dog virgin was so impressed with the taste that he double-checked with our Lettuce Ladies to make sure that his meal was meat-free.

Whether they were served up plain or with all the fixin's, our veggie hot dogs proved irresistible to passersby. San Jose locals scarfed down more than 400 of them!

Meat consumption has been directly linked to obesity, but adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters. If that isn't enough to make even the most die-hard carnivore go vegetarian, maybe knowing that ditching meat will also help fight heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and certain types of cancer will.

Written by Liz Graffeo

This week, we approached the city of Ashland, Ohio, with a little business proposition after we learned of the city's efforts to find a more cost-effective way to run its curbside recycling program.

We sent the director of city services a letter offering to offset the program's costs by paying to place our Lettuce Ladies' "Vegetarians Do It to Save the Planet" ad on the city's recycling trucks:

With all the bottle-sorting going on in Ashland, its citizens might be interested to learn that they can cause far more damage to the Earth with the foods they eat than they can by chucking some bottles onto a garbage heap. In fact, the production of 1 pound of meat generates the same amount of greenhouse-gas emissions as does driving an SUV 40 miles. Of course, we're not suggesting that anyone stop sorting those bottles, but why not also try a meat-free diet that won't hurt animals or the environment?

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

This past weekend, the Southern California desert town of Indio was steamier than usual. PETA's lettuce ladies made a special appearance at the three-day Coachella Music Festival—where our beloved Morrissey was performing—and wooed broiling-hot fans to the joy of soy by giving away free Tofutti Cuties. The ladies report that the icy-cold, nondairy treats were a smash hit and even turned skeptics into fans.

And what about Morrissey, you ask? Well, he proved once again that he will never let animals down. In front of a crowd of thousands, Mr. M. halted his own performance to let the meat vendors inside the venue know their presence was not welcome, shouting: "I smell burning flesh, and I hope to God it's human. This smell of burning animals is making me sick."

Check out some photos of our ladies at the festival:

They couldn't even make it through festival gates before being stopped.

Everyone wanted pictures with the Lettuce Ladies.

Our ladies were working hard to the very end.

Hmm, anyone else think a Morrissey and Lettuce Ladies world tour is in order?

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Today, amid a flurry of tourists and cameras, PETA unveiled our new "Let Vegetarianism Grow on You" ad in Times Square. In the ad, the always witty Cloris Leachman wears a dress of red cabbage and leaf lettuce. The release follows last week's publication of the results of the biggest medical study ever to conclude that avoiding meat gives people a better chance of living longer. Who better to illustrate the point than Cloris, a vibrant 82-year-old vegetarian?

As if her performance on Dancing With the Stars wasn't proof enough that vegetarians age gracefully

For those of you who were unable to make the trip to the unveiling, no worries. We've got exclusive photos of the event as well as video of Cloris for ya.

Thanks Cloris—you're now in our Lettuce Ladies Hall of Fame!

Written by Shawna Flavell

PETA's Lettuce Ladies are on the road again! And this time they're kicking America's poor eating habits to the compost heap.

The lettuce-clad ladies are hittin' the streets to greet folks with delicious and free Tofurky sandwiches. Their goal: to get people to turn over a new leaf and go vegetarian for the new year. Check out these photos from the road:

Lettuce Lady and satisfied Tofurky customer in Iowa

Lettuce Ladies adored by the masses in Nebraska

The Lettuce Ladies don't have to be the only sexy veggies roaming the streets. If you make PETA's 30-Day "Pledge to Be Veg" before the end of the month, we will donate money to a program that plants fruit trees! Now, you can help yourself, the environment, animals, and the hungry just by making one simple change to your diet. That's a pretty sweet deal.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Those zany kids at PETA Asia-Pacific are never content to rest on their … um, laurels—and thank goodness for that! Not satisfied to raise awareness about animals in China, Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the Philippines (among other countries), they're now moving into new territory: Mongolia.

In a new pro-vegetarian ad proclaiming, "Turn Over a New Leaf, Try Vegetarianism," Mongolian singer-songwriter Nominjin wears a spectacular full-length gown made of fresh lettuce leaves. This will be the first PETA Asia-Pacific ad to appear in Mongolia.

"Kicking the meat habit is one of the most rewarding actions I've ever taken in my life," Nominjin said. "The best thing that anyone can do for animals, the Earth, and their own health is to go vegetarian."

You can't just grab a lettuce-leaf dress at the nearest department store, of course. It involves a trip to the market—and then a whole lot of work to assemble, as you can see in these pictures from the shoot:

BTW, that's PETA Asia-Pacific Director Jason Baker stringing together the peppers—proving that there's nothing he won't do to help animals!

Written by Jeff Mackey

Not to be outdone by PETA India, the folks over at PETA Asia-Pacific have certainly been busy lately—in the last week, they've had three tremendously successful demos!

First up, we have three activists in Seoul, Korea, who lay outside a fur store in "bloody" fur coats, caught in a steel-jaw trap. Calling attention to the cruel methods used to trap wild animals for fur, their message read: "Animals Suffer in Traps. This Is Fur."

A few days later in China, two of PETA Asia-Pacific's sexy Lettuce Ladies asked passersby in Guangzhou to "Turn Over a New Leaf—Go Vegetarian." As you can see from the pics below, they got a lot of attention! Not bad for the first PETA Asia-Pacific demo in China in five years, don't you think?

Most recently, Santa spread the joy of soy in Manila and Hong Kong, courtesy of PETA Asia-Pacific. In light of the much-reported melamine-tainted–milk scandal, which has killed at least four babies and sickened 53,000 others, jolly old Saint Nick is working with PETA Asia-Pacific to inform milk-drinkers that cow's milk is also loaded with cholesterol, fat, and other contaminants, including cow's blood and pus, pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Over time, these can be just as dangerous as melamine.

Kudos to our friends at PETA Asia-Pacific for the string of amazing demos. We can't wait to see what they'll do next!

Written by Amanda Schinke

In 2007, PETA received a call from a whistleblower who tipped us off to a Cleveland lab, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), that performed a fatal brain surgery on a dog for a useless medical-device sales demonstration.

Fast forward to 2008. PETA has received yet another tip from a whistleblower because of yet another alleged unnecessary dog death at the CCF—and this time it appears to be a violation of federal law.

The whistleblower alleges that a healthy dog—who had undergone an experimental transplant in which a heart was inserted into her neck—was killed after surgeons discovered that her airway was blocked by hay. Sadly, the whistleblower says that the dog was knowingly allowed to eat the dangerous hay from the pens of other animals while roaming around the laboratory and disturbing other animals who were recuperating from painful surgeries. I'm pretty sure that the surgeons needed that extra heart, not the dog…

PETA has filed a complaint against the facility with the USDA, and we are asking for an immediate investigation into alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The potential violations include failure to ensure proper nutrition for dogs (at least one was apparently allowed to eat hay) and failure to ensure adequate veterinary care for animals used in experiments, just to name a couple.

Many Cleveland residents, especially those who frequent the Dawg Pound, would be horrified to know that a lab in their city might be guilty of repeatedly killing healthy dogs who are used in useless experiments. The CCF needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for its apparent disregard for animal welfare, and we hope that the USDA will do just that.

If you want to help, please politely contact the CCF using the information below and ask that it conduct a full and thorough investigation of this matter and take all appropriate corrective actions.

Please send polite comments to:

Paul E. DiCorleto, Ph.D., Chair
Lerner Research Institute
Cleveland Clinic
Mailstop NB21
9500 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44195
216-444-5849
dicorlp@ccf.org