Written by Michelle Sherrow
It's a boy for Tommy Lee and his girlfriend, singer and dancer Sofia Toufa. On National Puppy Day, the pair rescued their new pup, Bowie, from a shelter.
Mia anelli
Of course, Tommy rescued his new best friend rather than buying him. What else would we expect from a guy who chooses ink over mink, blasts SeaWorld, and famously gave a homeless man $100 with the caveat, "Just don't buy KFC"?
Congratulations to the proud puppy "parents"!
Written by Alisa Mullins
As usual, the commercial lineup during Super Bowl XLVI featured some real dogs—and we're not just talking about CareerBuilder's tired old re-tread of the "immature chimpanzees" storyline. Yes, the chimpanzees are immature—that's because they're babies who should be with their mothers, not being forced to perform tricks for an ass-backwards company's cruel and unimaginative Super Bowl ad.
As for the dogs, I'm also referring to the actual dogs who appeared in many of this year's Super Bowl ads, including Bud Light's real-life rags-to-riches rescued mutt, Weego, who tirelessly fetches beers every time someone utters Bud's slogan, "Here we go!" "He's a rescue," proclaims Weego's proud guardian, and the ad ends with a plea to visit Bud Light's "Help Rescue Dogs" Facebook page.
We have to throw a penalty flag on Skechers for promoting greyhound racing in its ad featuring a sneakers-clad French bulldog. The ad was trying to be cute, but greyhound racing, with its legions of abandoned, shot, and starved ex-racers, is about as ugly as it gets.
Hyundai fumbled when it used a real cheetah in its ad. Wild animals used for ads often spend most of their lives confined to cages or chains and may be routinely beaten in order to "show them who's boss." Hyundai should have taken a cue from fellow carmaker Kia, whose ad starred a lifelike computer-generated rhinoceros (not to mention a very animated—but not animatronic—Tommy Lee).
Animatronics and CGI technology are so good that it can be hard to tell the real animals from the robots, which is why there's no excuse for dragging real chimpanzees, cheetahs, or other wildlife onto a sound stage.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Quite a few longtime PETA friends and faves were among the celebs who told the Associated Press about their animal-oriented New Year's resolutions, including Bob Barker ("To continue urging folks to have their pets spayed and neutered—including rabbits."), Lea Michele ("I wish that [my cat] Sheila would stop going into my bathroom, taking out all my cotton balls out of the jars and spreading them all over."), and Katherine Heigl (whose dogs want her "to feed them consistently on time in the morning"), not to mention superhot Josh Duhamel and music legend Roberta Flack, whom we love all the more after hearing about their rescued animal friends.
Other pro-adoption superstars? How about George Clooney, who recently talked to Esquire about adopting his shelter mutt, Einstein? Or Charlize Theron, who wants more people to, well, be like George?
If anyone you know needs convincing that tofu scramble is the real breakfast of champions, you can remind him or her that vegan WWE superstar Daniel Bryan has been awarded the world heavyweight title. Then break a chair across his or her back just to get the point across. (PETA's lawyers would like us to note that this is a joke and that violence is never the answer.)
Not to be outdone, the UFC took to Twitter to urge fans to vote for Jake Shields for peta2's Most Animal-Friendly Athlete Libby Award.
A number of other stars offered up pro-animal tweets as well:
And the always amazing Oscar-winner and Raising Hope star Cloris Leachman raised some hope for animals abused in circuses by writing to the mayor of Orlando and asking him to protect the elephants scheduled to perform in the city with Ringling Bros.
Written by PETA
Whatever Milwaukee is brewing, we want some of it. We were already rooting for the Brewers because of veggie royalty Prince Fielder, and now we learn that vivacious outfielder Nyjer Morgan, with whom Fielder shares this week's Sports Illustrated cover, attributes his out-of-the-ballpark energy and .306 batting average to his healthy vegetarian diet.
Could Roseanne Barr be the next star to "do a Clinton" and convert to a vegan diet? Extolling the virtues of faux meat and tweeting at McDonald's to stop abusing chickens sounds like a great start.
Eli Roth is such a talented tweeter for animals that we gave him his own web feature. (Wait 'til you see what he says about Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons. #hilarious.)
Fellow animal-friendly tweeters Pink and Tommy Lee took to Twitter to express their outrage over Indiana's barbaric "snapperfest." And Indiana native Bree Olson was so determined to stop the turtle torture that the Green Goddess posted the local sheriff's department's contact info on her website and asked people to call and complain.
Not to be out-tweeted, Glee star Lea Michele opined about her dream of retiring all the horses who are forced to spend long, hot days hauling around carriages full of tourists in her native New York City.
The next time she visits New York, Lea may spot Whoopi Goldberg out buying toy and treats for the lucky kitten she adopted after he was tossed from a moving car. Adopting instead of buying is catching on across the pond, too, if we can judge by Camilla Parker Bowles and her new rescued pup, Beth. We think dedicated dog guardian Michael Vartan, who stars in this weekend's highly anticipated thriller Colombiana, as well as a new PETA ad, would approve.
While Michael steams up the big screen, fellow PETA pal Bethenny Frankel will be taking over the small one with her new talk show. Will she get naked for animals again? Stay tuned.
To stay up to date on all celebrity/animal happenings, follow PETA on Twitter.
In honor of Father's Day, here are some fathers who are friends to the furry, feathered, and finned. We had way too many great dads like Kevin Nealon, Bryan Adams, Woody Harrelson, Iggy Pop, and Chad Ochocinco to choose from, so here are just a few of the fellas who make us glad for awesome dads:
As if Tommy Lee's original letter to SeaWorld about the park's disturbing orca-breeding practices weren't high-five-worthy enough, it gets even better!
A SeaWorld rep responded, "The process of collecting semen for [artificial insemination] doesn't differ in any meaningful way from the techniques employed in managing livestock or other species for zoological display. … [O]ur trainers do not now nor have they ever entered the water with Tilikum for this purpose."
But Tommy is standing his ground and has sent the following response to SeaWorld:
Terry W. PratherPresident, SeaWorld Dear Mr. Prather, SeaWorld's PR line about the breeding of Tilikum falls flat, given statements PETA has from SeaWorld's own former employees, and it doesn't explain how exactly SeaWorld collects Tilikum's semen without having anyone get into the pool with him. Former SeaWorld scientist John Hall says in this article, "Early in the morning, the animal-care crew would take hot-water-filled cow vaginas and masturbate the males in the back tanks." In this YouTube video, SeaWorld trainers demonstrate semen collection by standing in shallow water next to an orca and grabbing his penis until he ejaculates into a plastic bag. Linda Simons, SeaWorld's former health and safety director, confirmed to PETA that trainers are in fact in the water with Tilikum when masturbating him. When she asked about safety concerns with this, the response was, "This is how we've always done it." It doesn't matter if trainers are ankle deep or totally submerged in the pool during this masturbation. Orcas commonly capture prey by leaping out of the water, grabbing the animal, and dragging him or her beneath the surface of the water. To settle this, how about PETA and I come to SeaWorld and videotape the process, and then people can decide how natural it is? It might make your dramatic news releases about a new orca pregnancy or birth less appealing, but the public deserves to know. And they've undoubtedly never seen a sex tape like this. Sincerely,Tommy Lee
Terry W. PratherPresident, SeaWorld
Dear Mr. Prather,
SeaWorld's PR line about the breeding of Tilikum falls flat, given statements PETA has from SeaWorld's own former employees, and it doesn't explain how exactly SeaWorld collects Tilikum's semen without having anyone get into the pool with him.
Former SeaWorld scientist John Hall says in this article, "Early in the morning, the animal-care crew would take hot-water-filled cow vaginas and masturbate the males in the back tanks." In this YouTube video, SeaWorld trainers demonstrate semen collection by standing in shallow water next to an orca and grabbing his penis until he ejaculates into a plastic bag. Linda Simons, SeaWorld's former health and safety director, confirmed to PETA that trainers are in fact in the water with Tilikum when masturbating him. When she asked about safety concerns with this, the response was, "This is how we've always done it."
It doesn't matter if trainers are ankle deep or totally submerged in the pool during this masturbation. Orcas commonly capture prey by leaping out of the water, grabbing the animal, and dragging him or her beneath the surface of the water.
To settle this, how about PETA and I come to SeaWorld and videotape the process, and then people can decide how natural it is? It might make your dramatic news releases about a new orca pregnancy or birth less appealing, but the public deserves to know. And they've undoubtedly never seen a sex tape like this.
Sincerely,Tommy Lee
Please back Tommy up—and speak out for all the whales at SeaWorld too.
Written by Sunny Subramanian
Caring folks continue to plead for basic compassion at SeaWorld and call on officials to enforce anti-cruelty laws. But Tilikum, the orca who has killed three people, is still confined to a cramped, claustrophobic tank that's barely bigger than the size of his body to prevent him from having any physical contact with the trainers—except when they masturbate him.
Rock and roll's bad boy and PETA friend, Tommy Lee, who's been known to raise a few eyebrows, was blown away to learn about SeaWorld's perverted treatment of Tilly—and expresses his disgust in this letter to officials:
Terry W. PratherPresident, SeaWorld Dear Mr. Prather, After learning about the bizarre way you breed killer whales, my friends at PETA and I are stumped about SeaWorld's announcement that no people will ever again have direct contact with Tilikum, the orca who has killed 3 people including his trainer this year. We understand that you refuse to release this frustrated whale because he is your chief sperm bank, and we know from SeaWorld's own director of safety (as well as videos on the web) that the way you get his sperm is by having someone get into the pool and masturbate him with a cow's vagina filled with hot water. Even during my wildest days with Motley Crue, I never could've imagined something so sick and twisted. Simply put, how can SeaWorld claim that trainers no longer have direct contact with this whale when they are jacking him off? That is about as "direct" as it gets. I hope it doesn't take another tragic death for SeaWorld to realize it shouldn't frustrate these smart animals by keeping them in tanks. Sincerely,Tommy Lee
After learning about the bizarre way you breed killer whales, my friends at PETA and I are stumped about SeaWorld's announcement that no people will ever again have direct contact with Tilikum, the orca who has killed 3 people including his trainer this year. We understand that you refuse to release this frustrated whale because he is your chief sperm bank, and we know from SeaWorld's own director of safety (as well as videos on the web) that the way you get his sperm is by having someone get into the pool and masturbate him with a cow's vagina filled with hot water. Even during my wildest days with Motley Crue, I never could've imagined something so sick and twisted. Simply put, how can SeaWorld claim that trainers no longer have direct contact with this whale when they are jacking him off? That is about as "direct" as it gets. I hope it doesn't take another tragic death for SeaWorld to realize it shouldn't frustrate these smart animals by keeping them in tanks.
It's perfect-Lee put, wouldn't you say? Please back Tommy up—and speak out for Tilly— by writing to SeaWorld too.
Written by Karin Bennett
"These animals are kept in stables that are too small, often they're cold, they work long hours and they don't have time off. … There was a horse about three months ago that got his foot caught on a parking meter and had to be destroyed—it's awful. You know, it looks nice when you go to the park and see a horse-drawn carriage, but unless there is some way to care for these horses properly, and it doesn't appear that there is, I think we should ban it completely." —New York Governor David Paterson
"These animals are kept in stables that are too small, often they're cold, they work long hours and they don't have time off. … There was a horse about three months ago that got his foot caught on a parking meter and had to be destroyed—it's awful. You know, it looks nice when you go to the park and see a horse-drawn carriage, but unless there is some way to care for these horses properly, and it doesn't appear that there is, I think we should ban it completely."
—New York Governor David Paterson
In the wise words of Alicia Keys, "Let's hear it for New York!" With this gubernatorial compassion and Bethenny Frankel's scorching new ad, I've never been more proud to be a New Yorker—or more inspired tell all my friends in NYC to contact their councilmembers.
Written by Logan Scherer
Mario Barth is a trendsetter in the tattoo world—he owns and runs the internationally renowned Starlight Tattoo, hosts the annual Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth, and has a loyal celebrity clientèle.
Mario might look tough, but he has a soft spot for animals. That's why he's taking a stand for those exploited by the fur industry and is starring in PETA's latest "Ink, Not Mink" ad.
Yesterday, Mario unveiled his ad at the star-studded opening day of this year's Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth:
Eager for more? Go watch the behind-the-scenes interview to see what Mario has to say to anyone who wears fur.
Written by Liz Graffeo
Sex sells, but if you think it's only ladies who bare all to bring attention to the plight of animals—think again. Feast your eyes on some of the sexy male celebrities who've spiced up PETA's campaigns by stripping, and then name your favorite in the comments section below.
Grab some ice water, because it's about to get very hot.
You're welcome.
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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