Written by Michelle Kretzer
Presidential debate moderator Candy Crowley likes getting into meaty issues—but not into meat. Maybe it was her vegetarian diet that gave her enough energy to keep the candidates in line?
Newly vegan Kristen Bell doesn't miss an opportunity to advocate for animals—and she doesn't miss dairy products, either. "[H]onestly, there are so many good substitutes available now that I really don't miss anything," she told Shape magazine. Kristen also mentioned that as much as she loves sloths, she would never keep one because, she says, "I don't support the exotic animal trade."
Salma Hayek agrees. She told Jimmy Fallon, "I am completely against people having exotic animals as pets. This is completely, completely wrong." Gushing about her passion for rescue, she rattled off all the animals who inhabit her estate, adding, "See, I had no husband, no children. I only had my animals, and I'm not going to get rid of them just because I fell in love, and, you know, motherhood. "
Ben Stiller realizes that exotic animals don't belong behind bars, either. The funnyman got serious when asked how he feels about zoos, saying, "I used to be for it. Now I'm against it. I don't love zoos; I've taken my kids to them but I saw that documentary a couple of years ago, The Cove, and that affected me in terms of knowing how these dolphins get into these dolphin parks. So I stopped supporting them." What else have Stiller and his family stopped supporting? The meat and dairy industries—Stiller and his wife, Christine Taylor, are vegan and are helping their kids embrace veganism, too.
The winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, Sharon Needles, embraced flesh of the human variety for her Halloween-themed pro-vegetarian ad for PETA. Drag royalty Lady Bunny was one of the multitude of folks speaking up for animals on Twitter this week, posting her excitement about the new ad:
Leonardo DiCaprio knows that sometimes you need a little more than 140 characters, so he is devoting his Facebook page to the protection of whales, orcas, seals, and penguins. The actor asked for support for the Antarctic Ocean Alliance, which aims to create "the world's largest network of marine protected areas."
Pamela Anderson is ready to take her advocacy for horses face to face: She invited New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn on a date! Pam is set to host a gala that will benefit the campaign to replace horse-drawn carriages with eco-friendly replicas of classic cars, and she thinks that if Quinn attends, the speaker will reconsider her support of the horse-drawn carriage industry.
To keep up with what your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Leona Lewis and James Cameron are the latest compassionate celebrities to embrace vegan eating. Not surprising on either count, since James, who won a PETA Proggy Award for the animal-friendly film Avatar, said he planned to grow crops on his 2,500-acre rural New Zealand property, and Leona, a Sexiest Vegetarian alum, won't wear animal skins and unceasingly advocates for animal rights. Of the choice to eat vegan, James said, "It's not a requirement to eat animals, we just choose to do it, so it becomes a moral choice and one that is having a huge impact on the planet, using up resources and destroying the biosphere."
A very eloquent case for vegan eating, indeed.
© StarMaxInc.com
Adoption advocate Lance Bass spoke about his healthy eating convictions as well, saying of veganism that he is "getting close." He said the work he has been doing planting gardens with schoolchildren has inspired him: "I was eating way too much more protein and not enough veggies, and now I've completely changed that in my diet. … It's amazing, and I feel so much better, completely much better."
PETA UK's disturbing new undercover footage of foie gras farms is enough to make anyone go vegan. Celebrities were fired up on Twitter about British retailer Fortnum & Mason's cruel sale of foie gras and about other animal issues:
While these celebs rocked Twitter, another animal advocate was getting a rocking honor: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for the first time, voting is open to the public. Cast your vote for Joan, who never misses an opportunity to raise her powerful voice against cruelty to animals.
To keep up with what all the 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.
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A teddy bear and a dog shoot an ad for PETA … New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis and his dog Max ask everyone to make a plan for caring for their animals during natural disasters.
Once again, an accident on a factory farm has claimed thousands of animal lives. A drunken man shut off the power to three buildings that were packed with chickens, killing all 70,000 birds inside. You can help them: Go vegan!
How to solve the worldwide water shortage brought on by the exploding population? Scientists agree: Ditch water-wasting meat.
Raising animals for food also wastes a substantial amount of land, energy, and crops. If we're going to throw away as much as 40 percent of the food we buy, shouldn't we at least buy plant-based foods, which don't waste natural resources?
Yet another thing vegetarian and vegan diets have been proved to help limit: postmenopausal weight gain.
Disgraced John Galliano has been stripped of the Legion d'Honneur medal that France awarded him for his haute couture work, though the work itself was disgraceful as well since it included the skins of countless animals who were killed for their fur.
New Features
Tired of Ringling trainers' beating animals? Help stop it by organizing a demonstration when Ringling comes to your town.
The perfect way to end the week: Check out the video of Ben the Bear, who, after years of effort by PETA, is finally free of his barren cage at a dirty roadside zoo. Ben will now spend his days exploring the beautiful and spacious wildlife sanctuary that is his new home, splashing in a pool for the first time in his life. Just try not to get misty-eyed.
What better way to end the week than with a hearty laugh at some of the Internet's funniest dogs?
Man's—and woman's—best friend deserves better than dog shaming. PETA is turning the tables on dog-shaming guardians with a little "human shaming" reality check.
Here's simple, irrefutable logic against animal testing.
Watch a chef compare a factory-farmed chicken to one who wasn't factory farmed, and you won't believe the difference.
Elephants want to be free, as one elephant makes abundantly clear during a daring attempt to escape from captivity, which was caught on camera.
Help animals wherever you are with just a tap of your finger using PETA's free app for iPhone and Android.
And if you'd like to be where you can help animals most, check out the list of job openings at PETA.
Milk: It's a dark story of how the white stuff gets from the cow to the fridge.
Lea Michele is always helping animals win, and now it's Lea who's scooping up a trophy. At VH1's Do Something Awards, lovely Lea accepted the Do Something Award in the "TV Star: Female" category for her work with PETA and used her acceptance speech to remind the audience not to ride in cruel horse-drawn carriages.
Over on NBC, America's Got Talent judge Howard Stern used his critique of a performer with a cockatoo to speak up for birds used for food. "I recently stopped eating turkey and chicken and all birds and now I know why," he said. "They seem to have some sort of intelligence and I don't want to wreck their lives, so I'm not eating them anymore. I'm not, like, a bird vampire."
The singer who recorded the jingle for Marineland is now raising her voice against the notorious animal abuser. After eight former trainers publicly revealed that the park forced animals to swim in water so filthy that it blinded them and caused pieces of their skin to fall off, Suzie McNeil is trying to have her voice removed from Marineland's commercials and is encouraging people not to go to the park.
Lady Gaga found herself the target of massive backlash from fans, animal advocates, and fellow celebrities when she reneged on her vow not to wear fur and draped herself in the skins of foxes and rabbits. Russell Simmons wrote Lady Gaga a letter asking her to reconsider her support of the fur industry:
Lady Gaga, you are a great artist who has used your celebrity to fight for equality and fairness, so I know you are a compassionate loving human being who would not publicly defend others for their unconscious behavior. LET'S NOT SET OFF A CHAIN REACTION WHERE ARTISTS ACT AS SUPPORT FOR A SOCIETY'S UNCONSCIOUS BEHAVIOR. Let's instead do what artists have done throughout history and be on the side of love and compassion, because that is our natural state.
Olivia Munn, who starred in an anti-fur ad for PETA, tweeted, "When u see FUR, an animal was TORTURED for it. Watch this video & tell me if you think it's 'art'." As Olivia's fur-farm exposé makes clear, there is nothing artistic about skinning animals alive.
A host of other celebrities used their tweets to be sweet to animals:
To keep up with what your favorite celebrities are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
PETA NEWS ON TUMBLR
This mayor could lick your mayor any day of the week.
Art imitates life when art students join together to campaign to free the Philippines' only captive elephant.
Alright, North Americans, it's time for us to step up. Our birds are ingesting plastic waste at rates that are among the highest in the world.
f_trudeau|cc by 2.0
Well, well, look who's advocating a plant-based diet now: Bill Gates! (We did not add him to our payroll, we swear.)
No surprise, it's happened again. Another frustrated captive killer whale attacked a trainer.
And now for a bit of trivia. Who said it? "I had a lot of quirks as a child. One was that I didn't like to eat meat; didn't like to chew it, didn't like the taste or smell of it, and just wasn't having any of it."
NEW ACTION ALERTS
Every year, horses are killed during the Calgary Stampede. Urge Alberta Premier Alison Redford to help get at least the most deadly event—the chuckwagon races—canceled.
Tell Sarasota County, Florida, officials that letting feral pigs be mauled by dogs and stabbed is cruel, and ask them to use humane methods if they insist on killing hogs.
Thank you for saving dogs from being poisoned in San Pedro! After hearing from you, the mayor of San Pedro, Belize, agreed to cancel the city's plan to poison homeless dogs and will now let the local animal shelter take them in instead.
NEW FEATURES
Monkeys aren't laboratory equipment, and they aren't luggage either. Tell United Airlines to stop transporting monkeys to their deaths in laboratories.
Things got rockin' at our "Summer Is No Vacation for Animals on Fur Farms" demonstration in Portland, Maine, when Gavin Rossdale and his son Kingston stopped by:
Gavin thanked the demonstrators for being there and mentioned that he and his fur-free wife, Gwen Stefani, are teaching their children to be kind to animals.
Chad Ochocinco (whose sizzling PETA anti-fur ad might be part of the reason why he's considered "the ultimate catch") tied the knot last weekend with fiancée Evelyn Lozada. So PETA sent the happy couple—what else?—an elegant faux-fur throw from Donna Salyers' Fabulous-Furs.
Fur foe Lea Michele is being recognized for her animal activism. She earned a 2012 Do Something Award nomination for her work with PETA to shut down New York City's cruel horse-drawn carriage industry. Be sure to cast your vote here!
PETA pals are snagging nominations right and left this week. Eva Mendes, Penélope Cruz, Benicio Del Toro, Roselyn Sanchez, Martin Sheen, and Constance Marie are all nominated for 2012 National Council of La Raza ALMA Awards.
And vegetarian wrestler Austin Aries just claimed the title of TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
When 11-time Olympic medal winner Natalie Coughlin heads to London, she'll have some new reading material for the plane. PETA sent the swimmer vegan cookbooks and a vegetarian/vegan starter kit to help her maintain her nearly 100 percent vegetarian diet on the road.
NFL star Arian Foster is hopping on the vegan-athlete bandwagon. His inspiring tweets were some of the best in the Twitterverse this week:
Dominic Monaghan also took to Twitter to defend animals this week, calling the show Swamp People, which glorifies the killing of alligators, "death entertainment" that "continues to demonize reptiles as monsters and animals that are okay to torture and kill." He then vowed, "I'm gonna stop them."
Bob Barker is ready to put a stop to the Calgary Stampede. Everyone's favorite game show host said of the cruel 10-day rodeo festival, in which three horses have already died this year, "I would like very much to see them celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede by saying that is enough animal cruelty. Let's wind it up and close it down."
To keep up with what the stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
When the Olsen twins—the "Trollsens," as PETA calls them—trotted out a fur backpack, there wasn't a chance that Running Russell Simmons star and animal advocate extraordinaire Simone Reyes was going to let it pass without a comment. She blasted the Trollsens on her blog, saying that they are "unfortunately using their vanity and the pursuit of making a blessed buck at the expense of innocent sentient beings." Russell Simmons jumped in to help, tweeting Simone's blog.
The Trollsens could take a cue from Banana Republic, which is launching a line inspired by the costumes in the upcoming film Anna Karenina that will be designed with elegant velvet, lace, and faux fur.
You won't catch Constance Marie wearing animals or gawking at them in the rodeo ring. She tweeted, "Please boycott rodeos! #Video shows #Reno rodeo horses being shocked to perform: bit.ly/LLoUot #CrueltyIsNotEntertainment."
Horror movie king Eli Roth knows that what's really horrific is when animals are abused for entertainment. He tweeted in defense of elephants: "Elephants need you! Urge the Atlanta City Council to pass a total bullhook ban! bit.ly/LFIivF #NeverBeSilent."
Photo: Robert Sebree Grooming: Cheri Keating/The Wall Group Animatronic Snake: Greg Nicotero/ KNB EFX Group
Vegan pitcher Pat Neshek knows that people provide the best entertainment: The talented Norfolk Tides player just snagged Pitcher of the Week honors.
If you plan to spend part of the weekend knocking around the house, did you know that you can help animals every time you take out the trash?
Been jamming to some One Direction? Guess what really makes you beautiful.
Soccer moms aren't the only ones who can regale you with stories of their children's first words. Goats recall the sound of their kids' bleats even after they've been separated for a long time.
I can't top this headline, so I won't try: "Single Parent Beaver Dad Gives a Dam."
After a truck hauling 600 turkeys for Circle S farm overturned, workers left turkeys to suffer for hours and allegedly abused others. Help us put pressure on Circle S to develop a humane accident-response plan.
Officials with Florida's Suwannee River Water Management District are considering allowing bowhunting on district lands. Urge the board not to allow bowhunting, which often causes deer to die slowly and painfully when they are shot but not killed.
Thank you for helping to free birds trapped at an Illinois mall! After hearing from all of you, officials freed the birds, veterinarians treated those with injuries, and the mall is making its roof safe for birds.
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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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