Written by PETA
We'll love him at 64 or 104, because he's kind. But now our favorite vegetarian sexagenarian (say that aloud) is officially the sexiest man over 60.
Sir Paul beat out a list of Hollywood heavyweights to be voted Sexiest Sixty-Something.
Any man who spends his free time between benefit gigs and singing to his daughter (have you heard "Two Magpies"?) to urge Armani to go fur-free, razz Kentucky Fried Cruelty, or rile people up for a worldwide boycott of McDonald's is the sort of man you'd want to bring home for a bean casserole and chips. And his vegetarian lifestyle gives him good odds to outlive most of the other men on the list!
Written by Shawna Flavell
Day-um. Humane societies are getting serious this week. First, the Atlantic City ASPCA busted a Wal-Mart for cruelty to birds; now, the Lake Tahoe Humane Society & SPCA has taken a bite out of puppy mill crime. At the urging of the humane society and other animal advocates, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted this week to ban the retail sale of dogs and cats. Two non-opposable thumbs up to you, South Lake Tahoe!
The law bans pet shops from selling animals; instead—fabulous, fabulous—they can display animals who are up for adoption from local animal shelters and rescue groups. Animal defenders pushed for the ban because they know that, despite pet shop owners' protests that they "only buy puppies from 'brokers'" and "licensed facilities," this is just code for "we've never actually laid eyes on the kennels we get our dogs from so they could be seeping cesspools of toxic sludge, for all we know."
Next time you're passing by a pet shop, play this fun game: Pick out a puppy at random and ask for the address of the kennel where he or she came from. I guarantee that you'll get some run-around about brokers and dealers and AKC papers. Keep pushing—you want an address, and you want to know if anybody in the store has ever personally visited the kennel. What do you want to bet that, if you ever do get a straight answer, the kennel is hundreds of miles away in some puppy-mill–enabling state like Missouri or Pennsylvania? Go ahead—give it a try, and let us know what you turn up. Thanks!
Written by Alisa Mulins
In our fight to get KFC to enact minimal welfare standards for the more than 350 million chickens slaughtered for its U.S. restaurants each year, our supporters have helped us choose billboards and dressed up like the Colonel for Halloween. Now we'd like to ask your help with an even bigger task.
We're filing a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking it to take action against KFC for the chain's deliberately deceptive and unfair statements to consumers about the treatment of chickens raised and killed for its buckets and boxes. KFC allows its suppliers to house chickens in crowded sheds—with waste on the floor so thick that the ammonia burns the chickens' skin, feet, eyes, and throats. It allows its suppliers to use a slaughter method in which birds' throats are cut while they are still conscious. A company like that should not be allowed to claim a "commitment to animal welfare."
Please, take the time now to file your own, polite complaint with the FTC about KFC’s false claims of humanity and send this video to 10 friends so they can see just how "humane" KFC chicken really is.
Yes, Angelina Jolie was spotted wearing what appeared to be a chinchilla-trimmed hat and cape on the set of her latest movie, spurring one of the best blog headlines that we've seen all week. But our L.A. staffers—knowing that Angelina is a longtime fur foe—were on it faster than Liza Minelli can open a bottle of Scotch, and they've received word from the film's publicist that (phew!) the chinchilla is actually synchilla.
Don't worry, Ange, we knew a big-hearted U.N. Goodwill Ambassador like yourself would never wear the skins of achingly adorable little animals who go "coo, coo" when they're excited and like to hold things in their cute little pinkish-gray hands. We just knew it.
Written by Alisa Mullins
With Easter just a few days away, I have two things on my mind. Vegan Peeps candy … can it be done? And wittle baby aminals.
Lucky for me, the peeps (Ha! Get it?) over at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary have my baby-animal fix covered with their live, streaming video of baby chicks.
Let me know if you figure out the vegan Peeps candy thing.
Someone needs to cut Boston's bookworms a break. First, one of the ducklings from the Make Way for Ducklings tribute statue in Boston's Public Garden was stolen. Then, the city announced budget cuts that will result in layoffs for 26 library employees.
Since lots of Boston's book lovers must be duck lovers too, we just might have the solution to save the city's Mallard brood and the librarians' jobs. We are offering to pay the Boston Parks & Recreation Department to erect a permanent sign behind the Make Way for Ducklings tribute statue that reads, "Say 'No' to Foie Gras!"
No one who's read Make Way for Ducklings would support the sale of foie gras, especially once they learn that Mrs. Mallard's close relatives are force-fed by having pipes shoved down their throats until their livers become painfully engorged and their internal organs sometimes rupture. The ducks and geese used for foie gras shiver with fear and pain between feedings and become so ill that they stop preening and have difficulty walking. That several restaurants in Boston still sell this ugly, cruel "delicacy" means that some people apparently didn't read the book—or are just "ducking" the issue. That sign would be a hard-to-miss reminder of how Mrs. Mallard and her brood shouldn't suffer for someone's gluttonous, fatty meal.
We were pretty disappointed when we heard that Mattel was planning to release a "Kentucky Derby Barbie." Barbie has a long history as an animal defender (she's been fur-free for years)—why would she get all, ahem, "dolled" up for an event that centers around animal abuse?
Then it occurred to us that Barbie could very well go to the Kentucky Derby (or, as we say in Louisville, "the Derby") and still maintain her animal-friendly image. How, you ask? By protesting the Derby, of course!
That's why PETA sent a letter to the CEO of Mattel asking him to provide Kentucky Derby Barbie with two special items to take with her to Churchill Downs. She should have her very own to-scale protest sign—reading "Horse Racing is Horse Abuse"—as well as a memorial wreath commemorating Eight Belles and all the other horses who die every day on race tracks. In addition, Kentucky Derby Barbie's box should come with a sticker that explains why Barbie is on her high horse about the dangerous practices that are rampant in the horse-racing industry, such as pumping horses with steroids and other drugs to enable them to run with injuries, breeding horses to have fragile legs, running horses too young (before their bones have fully formed), and racing them on hard dirt tracks.
Barbie's a smart girl. After all, she has been a surgeon, an astronaut, and President of the United States. Surely she knows that there are better ways to spend a Saturday in May than at a "sporting event" that is all too likely to end in tragedy.
Written by Amanda Schinke
In 2006, when Barack Obama was an Illinois Senator, he wrote a letter to a group of constituents to thank them for their support of a resolution against the Canadian seal slaughter. He assured them that he would use his seat in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to support the resolution.
"But Amanda," you may be thinking, "what does a three-year-old resolution have to do with the price of tofu?"
The resolution, S. Res. 33, wasn't just any old resolution. In no uncertain language, it listed a number of reasons why the "cruel and needless" Canadian seal slaughter is "inconsistent with the well-earned international reputation of Canada" and urged the Canadian government to "end the commercial hunt on seals."
In his letter, then-Senator Obama wrote that "the United States should not condone" the slaughter, and vowed, "As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I will work with my colleagues to ensure that we take the necessary steps to express our outrage with this inhumane measure".
We applaud Obama for taking such a strong stand—and now, PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews has written a letter to President Obama asking him to express that same passion now, as president, in an appeal to the Canadian government to stop the seal slaughter.
If you share Obama's outrage, please lend your voice here.
After we heard about Michael Jackson's apparent desire to include exotic animals in his upcoming London concerts, my heart sank. As superfan of MJ's music since birth and also a staunch animal defender, I'd never felt so conflicted. Luckily, after PETA Europe sent a letter regarding the King of Pop, we got word that he will not be using any live animals in his concert series at London's O2 arena.
Too bad he still has a spotty past when it comes to compassion for animals. It had been widely reported that Jackson planned to ride an elephant on stage and use panthers, but subjecting animals to amplified noise, bright lights, and the fast pace of a massive concert production is cruel. Plus, his rap sheet from the not-too-distant past includes dumping his chimpanzee, Bubbles, with a Hollywood trainer. And many of the animals he left behind at Neverland Ranch ended up being sold at auction, despite repeated offers from PETA to help place them in sanctuaries. His orangutans were reportedly sold to a private owner in Connecticut, two of his alligators are languishing at the disgusting G.W. Exotic Animal Park, his giraffes in the care of a private owner in Arizona are on the verge of being evicted, and more.
Michael, it's bad, it's bad, and you know it.
We know that Michael's "Off the Wall," but his treatment of animals crosses the line to cruel and unacceptable. Hopefully, this new announcement is a sign that things are moving in a new direction. I mean, this is a man who holds the Guinness World Record for giving more to charities than any other entertainer, so you'd think he'd be generous with animals, too … but as much as I love singing "Dirty Diana" into my hairbrush, his cruelty toward animals leaves me less than "thrilled."
Written by Christine Doré
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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