When Tommy Lee hits the stage tonight in Calgary, Alberta, there may be a special guest in the audience to watch him drum upside down: Alison Redford, the premier of Alberta. Tommy invited her to the Mötley Crüe concert so that she could experience a "really wild show" that doesn't involve injuring and killing animals. He hopes to convince the premier to use her influence to put a stop to the deadly chuckwagon races at the annual Calgary Stampede. 

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In the races, teams of horses are made to pull "pioneer wagons" around a track at breakneck speeds. They often collide with each other or the wagons, and more than a dozen horses have died in the event since 2009. Even after Calgary Stampede officials passed new rules last year that were intended to make the races safer for horses, three horses still sustained crippling injuries and had to be euthanized. Tommy is all for having a wild and crazy time but not when animals have to die for it.

What You Can Do

Join Tommy Lee in asking Redford to put the brakes on the chuckwagon races and save horses' lives. 

Although some aquariums are still willing to host raucous parties despite knowing that the pounding music is hell on marine mammals' sensitive sonar systems, more progressive aquariums are refusing. Case in point: Rocker Tony Kanal teamed up with PETA to let the under-construction Ripley's Aquarium of Canada in Toronto know that rock belongs in arenas, not aquariums. Here's his letter asking the aquarium not to allow rowdy parties if it intends to keep whales and dolphins in the building:

Almost immediately, Tony received this positive response:

Not only is Ripley's saving whales and dolphins from becoming disoriented and agitated when deafening music disrupts their ability to navigate and communicate via sonar, the aquarium is also saving them from the lifetime of frustration, illness, and stress that they would have had in captivity.

While all marine mammals deserve their freedom, the least that aquariums can do is not torment them with blasting music. Join Jane Lynch in asking Atlanta Pride to move its upcoming party to a more humane venue than the Georgia Aquarium, and join Tommy Lee in asking SeaWorld to cancel its loud "Shamu Rocks" shows. 

Tommy Lee might be one of the "bad boys of rock," but he's always good to animals. While on tour in Southern California, the upside-down drummer flipped right side up to tell SeaWorld San Diego that it wasn't welcome to use his music at its "Shamu Rocks" shows. During these shows, sound-sensitive captive orcas are forced to perform while rock music blasts through the tank and lights flash all around them.

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In a letter penned on PETA's behalf to SeaWorld San Diego President John T. Reilly, Tommy wrote:

Tommy noted that while all of SeaWorld's captive animals should be released to sanctuaries, the least the park can do is spare orcas from being forced to perform while loud music terrifies and confuses them. To find out more about how orcas suffer in the tanks at SeaWorld, check out David Kirby's new book Death at SeaWorld. 

Collapsed dorsal fins are rarely seen in the wild, and when they do occur in the wild, it's usually only in orcas who are injured or ill.
Olivier Bruchez|cc by 2.0

You don't have to be a rock star to be a rock star for animals. Tell Reilly to stop tormenting orcas and cancel the "Shamu Rocks" shows.

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"!

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.

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.

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.  

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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:

• Ron Artest loves being a dad to his family, but he knows that dogs and cats are happier without their own brood of offspring and should always be spayed and neutered.
• Vegan dad Casey Affleck is starting his young sons out on a compassionate note, setting a great example by speaking out about the cruelty of the meat industry and lethal steel-jaw traps.
• Alec Baldwin is a proud pop who would never hop on a horse-drawn carriage.
• Tony Gonzalez and his wife could win an award for most beautiful parents, and this fur-free dad has a beautiful heart too.
• Happy first Father's Day to Carey Hart. He and his wife, Pink, seem like they'll be fun parents for their new baby girl, but they'll be pretty serious when teaching her about cruelty to animals.
• With a dad like Tommy Lee and a mom like Pamela Anderson, the Lee boys may grow up to work at PETA! We love any dad kind enough to give a homeless man $100 with the request, "Just don't buy KFC."
• Sir Paul McCartney obviously instilled animal-friendly values in his children, who are all vegetarian, including daughter Stella, who is also a cruelty-free fashion designer.
• Power dad Russell Simmons has been running with PETA for a long time, and he shows his children that being successful and being kind to animals go hand in hand.
• We're not the only ones celebrating fur-free father Amar'e Stoudemire. The Knicks captain is receiving a Father of the Year Award in New York City today.
• There's not a woodland creature who wouldn't love Forest Whitaker, and we're sure his kids think he's pretty darn great too.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

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:

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:

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