Written by PETA
If "fantasy football" for you means a stadium where healthy foods are more abundant than foam fingers, check out this year's ranking of the top five most vegetarian-friendly stadiums in the NFL.
Scoring honorable mentions are the San Diego Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium, the Seattle Seahawks' CenturyLink Field, the San Francisco 49ers' Candlestick Park, and the Detroit Lions' Ford Field.
Football fans don't have to leave their health to a last-minute Hail Mary. They can start and finish strong with foods that don't cause unnecessary roughness to their bodies or to animals and that taste so good that fans won't care if they get fined for excessive celebration.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Meet activist Nick Cooney! Nick is from Philadelphia and has devoted hundreds of hours to fighting the good fight for animals. There's no doubt that his hard work is making a difference, and we are thrilled to recognize him for his support of the animal rights movement.
Nick currently sponsors more than 20 vegetarian/vegan starter kit stands around Philadelphia and has spent countless hours promoting veganism by leafleting on college campuses and busy downtown street corners as well as on the Warped Tour and at other concerts and festivals. He raises awareness of the realities of animal agriculture and shows people that going vegan is one of the most effective ways to save animals (of course, with all the delicious vegan alternatives that are available today, it's also easy).
Oh, and that's not all. He also runs The Humane League, a nonprofit animal advocacy organization with offices serving the greater Philadelphia and Boston regions. Wait, there's still more. Nick also wrote Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change, which is a must read for all activists who care about any cause at all! PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk calls the book "mandatory reading for everyone with a good cause and a good heart," and it's getting rave reviews from everyone in our office.
So what do you say? Are Nick's endless efforts for animals enough to inspire you to take action too?
Written by Jessy Easton
No one—and I mean no one—rocks like Chrissie Hynde. Whether she's fronting the Pretenders or backing a PETA campaign, the vegan Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is never in the "Middle of the Road." In fact, she's always willing to go the extra mile (or "2000 Miles") to help animals.
Case in point? After helping us re-launch our McCruelty campaign last year—urging McDonald's to require its U.S. suppliers to upgrade to less cruel slaughter standards—Chrissie took time off from promoting her upcoming album in New York this week to kick off our new "i'm hatin' it" national ad blitz with an appearance in Philadelphia. And to make sure that people got the message, she not only unveiled her attention-grabbing billboard, she also passed out some of our thought-provoking Unhappy Meals to the fine folks of Philly!
Check out these pictures:
Written by Jeff Mackey
We're betting the dairy farm that the people of Philadelphia will be swapping out their 2 percent milk for deliciously nutritious soy milk (or rice or almond milk) after seeing this PETA public service announcement (PSA), which began airing in the Philly area yesterday:
Last September, PETA unveiled our five-month undercover investigation of a Pennsylvania-based factory dairy farm that supplies Land O'Lakes. Although we brought the abysmal conditions to Land O'Lakes' attention, the company has done nothing to address the abuse behind the butter. And the Pennsylvania legal system failed to spread any brotherly love—much less protection—to cows on dairy farms, which means that it's up to us to stop this stomach-churning cruelty.
Please pressure Land O'Lakes to implement and enforce the 12-point animal-welfare program that PETA has recommended. And, of course, it goes without saying that you should keep all dairy products out of your grocery carts, right?
Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth
We're going to need another tu to describe how adorable our tutu-cute dancing raccoon and fox were as they pliéd and pirouetted their ways into the hearts of balletgoers in Philadelphia:
Joined by local PETA supporters, our furry friends urged Nutcracker attendees and the many delighted onlookers to shun fur and go faux this holiday season. And the lucky kids who passed by got awesome anti-fur stickers.
A classic ballet and a timeless message—it's the perfect match. Bust out your classy moves for a compassionate cause by bringing our Tutu Cruel Campaign to a Nutcracker performance near you.
Written by Logan Scherer
My friends, this is breaking news. There looks to be a serious correlation between the Phillies' year-end season ranking and the ranking of Citizens Bank Park (home field of the Phillies) on PETA's annual list of the Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks.
If you'll take a gander at the nifty graph above, you'll see that 2005 was the first year in which Citizens Bank Park cracked PETA's Top 10, landing firmly in fifth place. The Phillies also improved their record that year. In 2006, despite adding veggie dogs to their munchies lineup—which already included flame-grilled Gardenburgers—Citizens Bank Park slipped a bit in our ratings, landing in seventh position. Subsequently, the Phillies record slipped three games. Coincidence? I think not.
In 2007, Kevin Tedesco, the head of Citizens Bank Park, took it up a notch and added a groundbreaking, delicious faux-steak sandwich piled high with grilled onions, mushrooms, peppers, and hot sauce. And Citizens Bank Park finally won the coveted title of the most vegetarian-friendly ballpark—and the players did pretty well for themselves, too, finishing with their best record in years and earning a spot in the playoffs.
During that offseason, Tedesco signed some huge free agents, including mock-chicken sandwiches and "crab-free crab cakes." (Of course, we don't want to forget the role-players, including hoagies with roasted veggies, soups, salads, "The Poppy" sandwiches—featuring roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes—and PB&J for the kids.) The results? Citizens Bank Park took home a resounding victory in Veg Ballparks, and, well—you heard it hear first, folks—the Phillies won the World Series.
What will Tedesco do next year for an encore? Perhaps add pizza with soy cheese? A Gardenburger riblet sandwich on a toasted bun? We don't want to put any pressure on our favorite Philadelphian, but if he continues to stack up the protein-packed, cruelty- and cholesterol-free offerings, we're thinking that Cole Hamels and company might sweep every round of the playoffs in 2009. If you want your home team to offer more humane veggie options (and maybe win the World Series!) be sure to shoot them a note with some tasty ideas.
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
Back in January, we told you about one of our cheekier stunts in our ongoing quest to help chickens who are raised and killed for KFC. Long story short: It involved the cemetery where KFC founder "Colonel" Sanders is buried and a headstone for PETA's own Matt Prescott (who, don't worry, is still among the living). The headstone is inscribed with a poem, the first letters of which spell out, "KFC TORTURES BIRDS."
Now, granted, we might have a slightly, um, off-center sense of humor, but what we saw as cheeky, others thought of as, well, morbid. One commenter even accused us of having "desacrated [sic] an entire graveyard." (Seriously? And people call us drama queens!)
Fortunately, a lot of other people "got it." Unfortunately, among those who didn't see the humor were the operators of the cemetery (and, just possibly, those chicken-pluckers at KFC). Suffice to say that we now find ourselves in possession of a homeless gravestone.
Cave Hill Cemetery forced us to remove Matt's headstone after cemetery officials caught on to the hidden message it sent. As such a unique piece of activism history, we'd hate to see it collecting dust when it can be out there getting the message out about KFC's real secret recipe. So now this piece of animal rights history can be yours just in time for Halloween, the creepiest holiday of the year—give or take Yom Kippur and Dia de Los Muertos. We're offering you the chance to own something that will scare the bejeepers out of your local trick-or-treaters. So head on over to eBay and make a bid—not only can you own a piece of animal rights history, you can help PETA put an end to the cruelty of KFC and other animal abusers as well.
Employees at a Burberry in Philadelphia were surprised to come into work yesterday morning and find these two lovely ladies painted from head to toe in Burberry's signature plaid design and a little fake blood to drive home the point that Burberry tortures animals for fur. Glorious.
Some great elephant news on two fronts for you today, as two famous elephants have found new places to live. The first, an elephant named Dulary from the Philadelphia Zoo, has been released to a sanctuary to spend the rest of her life following the zoo's decision to close down its elephant exhibit for good. It's amazing to me to think that before I got involved in animal rights, it never even occurred to me that there was something monumentally screwed up about keeping elephants (who walk up to 30 miles a day in the wild) in tiny enclosures in places like Philadelphia for people to gawk at. Anyway, awesome work The Philadelphia Zoo for figuring that out too. You can read the full story here.
The second elephant to find a home is a beautiful little anti-circus sculpture who goes by the name of "Ella PhantzPeril" (yeah, I know. Kill me.) Ella, a shackled, weeping pachyderm who wears a sign that reads, "Shackles, Bullhooks, Loneliness — All Under the Big Top" has been the subject of a few legal troubles over the past few years, even getting the ACLU involved when DC balked at displaying her as part of a citywide exhibit of elephant and donkey sculptures. Now, after a whole lot of back and forth with the New York City Parks Department, the New York Post has reported that the city has finally agreed to allow her a spot in Union Square Park this summer. So take that, circuses.
I was pretty much blown away by The Station Agent when that movie came out a couple of years ago, and I've been a fan of the movie's star, Peter Dinklage, ever since. Peter went on to have a recurring role in Nip/Tuck, and he's also landed the part of Trumpkin in the next Narnia movie (Prince Caspian, for those of you keeping track). It's going to be a little while until that movie comes out, but in the meantime, you might want to check out the awesome "veggie testimonial" that Peter Dinklage just starred in for us. So cool.
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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