Written by Michelle Kretzer
Bill Gates has always been an innovator, so it's no surprise that one of the brightest minds of our time is tackling our most pressing environmental problems. "We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources," he wrote on his blog. His solution? Vegan food. Bill is getting behind faux meats and eggs, which taste like the real thing but don't require vast amounts of natural resources for production. "Companies like Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek Foods are experimenting with new ways to use heat and pressure to turn plants into foods that look and taste just like meat and eggs," Bill wrote. "I tasted Beyond Meat's chicken alternative and was impressed. I couldn't tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken."
Bill has been using Twitter to spread the word about faux meats, and plenty of other brainy people joined in to illustrate how smart it is to care about animals:
Greta Van Susteren shares with Bill the honor of being one of Forbes' Most Powerful People—and she also agrees that caring about animals just makes sense. She took to her blog to protest the cruel and deadly cat experiments at her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Bill Gates and Steve-O might seem like an interesting pair, but they are certainly in agreement on meat. Steve-O explained his feelings in his Huffington Post article "Crazy for Veggies: "I'm convinced that of all the changes I've made to my lifestyle, it's the adoption of a vegan diet that has been best for me—physically, mentally, and certainly spiritually. It's benefited every area of my life."
The computer whiz and the comedian are in good company with Jessica Chastain, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell, and Kristen Wiig, all of whom Celebuzz featured in an article about how "meat is so passé." And celebrity Mayim Bialik is helping New York Times readers make their Passover Seder vegan.
An anonymous person is helping animal advocate extraordinaire Sam Simon, who has been diagnosed with stage-four cancer, see how much everyone appreciates him, with a "Thank You Sam Simon" page on Facebook. Sam posted: "Well, Thank You to Whoever started this page. This is Sam. I'm overwhelmed by your kind thoughts. I want you all to know I have a great team of docs, traditional and alternative, and I plan on beating the cancer. If you'd really like to thank me, please vow to never buy a ticket to Sea World or Ringling Bros again! xo"
Please help show your appreciation for Sam's awesomeness by "liking" the "Thank You Sam Simon" page.
Last night at The Ebell of Los Angeles, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk kicked off her Naked Truth U.S. speaking tour to a packed house that included Sam Simon, Jennifer Tilly, Christian Serratos, Tony Kanal, and host Kevin Nealon. And listeners were moved.
While others come in bodies different from our own, we're all the same inside," Ingrid said. She asked the audience, "Who are they, and who am I, that I should live and they should die?
The goal of the tour is to show audiences that animal rights isn't just about "pets," pelts, or veggie burgers—it's about persuading people to view all animals as fellow citizens worthy of our respect. And the way that we accomplish that is by doing exactly what Ingrid went on tour to do: Speak. When we do, "we fail to reach some people sometimes, but when we don't try, we fail to reach everyone," Ingrid explained.
Determined to start speaking up, yesterday I suggested some activities that my friend could do with his daughter instead of taking her to SeaWorld. And tonight, I'm taking my date to try vegan sushi. That I can do. We all can. As Ingrid maintains, fretting won't win the animal rights battles, but activism will!
She is known for giving powerful, motivational speeches, so if you can make it to see her on the tour (tour dates to be added soon), please do, and take someone else with you. But if you can't, the one thing to remember is that the "naked truth" about advancing the animal rights movement, is simple.
Speak up—at every opportunity.
Pro athletes don't do anything halfway. So studly New York Jets safety Bret Lockett wasn't content simply to pose with a strategically placed faux-leather football for his PETA anti-fur campaign. Instead, he decided to play spread offense and turn his ad unveiling into a whole weekend. First, he helped PETA dedicate our Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters to longtime supporter and Hollywood heavyweight Sam Simon.
Later that evening, Bret hosted an unveiling party at Hampton Roads hotspot the Granby Theater, greeted fans, and talked about why fur should be sidelined. "What really hurt me was when I saw that an animal was still able to move and lift [his] head up after he was completely skinned," he said. "It brought tears to my eyes."
© Charles Long Photography/PETA
And the next night, he went with the PETA gang to laugh aloud as Bill Maher made fun of hunters and other animal abusers in his stand-up performance. All weekend, wherever he went, Bret dined on vegan food, sported PETA T-shirts, and enthusiastically discussed animal rights issues with fans who approached him.
It's easy to see why No. 26 is No. 1 for animals.
Written by Alisa Mullins
PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters has a new moniker—the Sam Simon Center—in honor of entertainment giant Sam Simon, the multiple Emmy Award–winning co-creator of The Simpsons and the writing genius behind hit shows like Taxi, Barney Miller, Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show, and Charlie Sheen's new FX series, Anger Management. Accompanied by a Dixieland jazz band, Simon arrived by boat to cut the ribbon at a dedication ceremony today, which was also attended by New York Jets safety Bret Lockett and other luminaries, including the glamorous Jennifer Tilly, TV host and producer Mark Thompson, and World Series of Poker champion Phil Laak.
Simon, who serves on PETA's Executive Committee, has been a vegetarian since he was 19 and a vegan since joining PETA years later. He is known for his work with The Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to help soldiers who return from war with physical and mental trauma. He attacks animal homelessness at its roots by sponsoring spay and neuter surgeries in low-income areas of Los Angeles. He also helped PETA launch our newest mobile spay-and-neuter clinic and hosts annual PETA fundraisers at his home in L.A.
Perhaps because he works in the entertainment industry, the plight of animals in entertainment is especially close to Simon's heart. He is an outspoken opponent of cruelty in circuses, roadside zoos, and marine parks, and he recently attended a PETA news conference with Bob Barker to call attention to the plight of animals on TV and movie sets. "[I]f you can't afford the CGI [computer-generated imagery], either do a rewrite," he said, "or do a cartoon show like I did."
Simon once donated his fee for an episode of The Drew Carey Show to PETA because the plot involved greyhound racing, and he felt that he could not in good conscience keep the money. As if he's not busy enough, Simon also hosts a weekly Friday Internet radio show on Radioio.com in which he always keeps animal issues in the spotlight.
"Sam Simon may be a big Hollywood figure, but it's his big heart that makes him a PETA soulmate," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
The Goddess of Pop is also a goddess to pups. When Cher tweeted, asking for information from PETA on how to help dogs left to face the harsh winter weather alone outdoors, many of her fans responded, and PETA sent her information on our "Angels for Animals" doghouse sponsorship program.
Elsewhere on Twitter, Miley Cyrus showed us some puppy love, Sam Simon spoke out for dolphins, and Olivia Munn helped us celebrate our victory for three soon-to-be-released elephants.
Charlotte Bobcats and Kentucky Wildcats fans already knew that the NBA's youngest player, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (MKG), is also a really kind person, and now MKG is proving it to animal advocates, too. When the gentle giant was ready to share his home with a new dog, he adopted a puppy who had been abandoned in the parking lot of the Humane Society of Charlotte.
Maybe fellow rescued-dog parent Chelsea Handler will invite Michael and his new pup on her show. Her conversations with guests often do turn to animal issues—like when Marion Cotillard stopped by and she and Chelsea both shared their disdain for SeaWorld.
You'll never catch our buddy Christian Serratos at SeaWorld, either—but you will catch her gracing the list of the 50 Brightest Latino Stars Under 25, with fellow PETA pals Daniella Monet and Marlen Esparza.
Awards abound for animal advocates this week: Paul McCartney, Pink, Carrie Underwood, Steve Aoki, Ellen DeGeneres, Trent Reznor, and Tegan and Sara have all been nominated for Grammys!
E!'s Catt Sadler lifted her voice for animals this week, too. She openly joined the ranks of the fur-free and fabulous in her piece "Real Stars Who Love Fake Fur," in which she name-dropped our friends Eva Mendes and Charlize Theron.
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Sometimes 140 characters are all it takes. Here are the best celebrity tweets of the week that honored animals and persuaded people to be compassionate toward them.
To get animal-friendly messages that can be retweeted sent directly to your Twitter feed, follow @PETA.
Written by Jeff Mackey
On the heels of a Los Angeles Times report about whistleblowers' allegations that oversight failures may have led to animal injuries and deaths during film and TV productions, PETA was joined by Hollywood animal advocates Bob Barker and Sam Simon for a news conference calling for immediate action to protect animals.
PETA was flooded with complaints from whistleblowers after we released leaked information earlier this year about the deaths of horses on the set of HBO's Luck. The complaints that we've received include an incident in which a horse and rider were allegedly swept downstream in a scene from the upcoming film The Lone Ranger and the deaths of three horses on the set of The Hobbit. Many of the alleged incidents reportedly involved pressure from industry figures to put animals at risk in a wide range of movie and TV productions, including some that are still being filmed.
During the news conference at PETA's Bob Barker Building in Los Angeles, legendary The Price Is Right host Barker and The Simpsons co-creator Simon backed PETA's appeal for the American Humane Association (AHA)—the organization assigned to monitor the use of animals on TV and film sets—to launch an immediate investigation into the allegations. To ensure that the AHA's ratings have any meaning, PETA presented a series of recommendations for an overhaul of the monitoring system, including the following:
Producers, directors, and writers must also do their part. They must make sure that animal trainers with U.S. Department of Agriculture violations are not employed, that scenes aren't written that would endanger horses and wild animals, and that computer-generated imagery, animatronics, and other technology are used to replace animals. Animals should never have to die for our entertainment.
You can help horses, great apes, and other animals used in the entertainment industry by contacting the AHA right now. Use the form below to urge the AHA to swiftly implement a plan to protect all animal "actors."
After three decades of treating patients, Dr. Drew Pinsky knows a thing or two about curing problems. And as one of the most listened-to physicians in America, he's prescribing the perfect remedy for the animal homelessness crisis: spaying and neutering. Along with his two dogs, Daisy and Lulu, Dr. Drew shot a new ad for PETA asking everyone to be a part of the cure:
At yesterday's unveiling of the ad outside the CNN studios in Los Angeles, he told the throng of reporters and fans:
"This is a really important campaign for me; something easy to get behind. All of us should get behind it. Eight million homeless pets in this country, four million (only half of them) ever get adopted. … If we are responsible enough to adopt a pet, we've got to be responsible enough to get them spayed or neutered."
The Sam Simon Foundation, which provides dogs and cats in the Los Angeles area with free and low-cost sterilization, distributed vouchers for free spay and neuter surgeries.
As Dr. Drew put it, "So now there's no reason not to include this in the healthcare of your animals." Join Dr. Drew in helping to end the animal homelessness crisis: Always spay and neuter.
Written by PETA
What do you get when you combine a generous donation to PETA, The Simpsons, NBA star Ron Artest, and NFL linebacker Aaron Curry? Thousands of free and low-cost spay-and-neuter surgeries!
On Friday at PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, along with Anna Ware of the Holland M. Ware Foundation and The Simpsons co-creator and PETA supporter Sam Simon, cut the ribbon on the latest addition to PETA's fleet of state-of-the-art mobile spay-and-neuter clinics. The new clinic, which was donated by the Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation, features photos of Ron Artest and Aaron Curry (and their dogs) emblazoned on the side.
PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, Sam Simon, Anna Ware, and Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim cut the ribbon on the newest addition to PETA’s mobile spay/neuter fleet.
Since PETA's first SNIP clinic began operating in 2001, we have spayed and neutered more than 70,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits in Southeast Virginia and Northeast North Carolina, preventing hundreds of thousands of unwanted births. The new clinic will allow us to provide many more surgeries every year.
You can help support the clinics (which operate at a loss and rely on donations to keep going) by making a donation to PETA and signing our pledge to end animal homelessness.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
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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