On the heels of Ringling's recent cancellation of its tour in Germany comes another triumph in Europe. Following a campaign by PETA U.K. and other animal protection organizations against cruel Ringling Bros. shows across the pond, Ringling has called off its visit to Valencia, Spain.

PETA U.K. and AnimaNaturalis sent joint letters to Valencia officials informing them of Ringling's history of beating, chaining, and caging elephants, tigers, horses, and countless other animals. PETA U.K. and AnimaNaturalis also had plans to demonstrate outside the arena in Valencia at which Ringling was slated to perform.

With city after city taking a compassionate stance against animal abuse, Ringling's European tour is flailing—but it hasn't completely drowned yet. Ringling still has three stops scheduled on its Spanish tour. Our fingers are crossed that those will be cancelled too, but if they aren't, Ringling can bet its bullhooks that there will be protests at every stop.

Want to help end this transatlantic travesty? Urge the remaining venues in Spain to say "No" to suffering.

Written by Logan Scherer

For more than eight months this year, a PETA investigator worked undercover inside University of Utah animal labs, where she documented the miserable conditions and daily suffering of dogs, cats, monkeys, rats, mice, rabbits, frogs, cows, pigs, and sheep. Today, The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story about the investigation, including the response from Tom Parks, the university's vice president for research. The response is (not so) stunningly callous: "None of the things she alleges are substantive. It's a remarkably banal list of ordinary events in an animal-care facility."

Here's a list of the things the university considers "banal"—part of an "ordinary" day in the "animal-care facility":

• Cutting the spinal cords and tender eyes of rabbits and tying off the nerves in the paws of rats to study pain
• Buying homeless cats from animal shelters, drilling holes into their heads, and injecting their kittens' brains with harmful chemicals
• Cutting into the chests of dogs from animal shelters and implanting medical devices for deadly heart experiments
• Drilling holes into monkeys' skulls, confining them in tiny cages, and keeping them constantly thirsty so that they will "cooperate" in experiments in exchange for a few drops of water
• Inflicting mice with tumors the size of golf balls that covered the animals' bodies

Brain injections, desperate thirst, tumors, and holes in skulls: just another banal day in the lab, right?

We have filed complaints against the university with the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local law-enforcement officials, and you can take action to help animals at the University of Utah too.

Written by Logan Scherer

Tel Aviv has become the first city in Israel to prohibit horse-drawn carriages, thanks largely to years of tireless campaigning by Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI) and its sister organization, Hakol Chai. Their efforts included organizing international letter-writing campaigns, educational presentations in schools, a benefit concert, and a rousing demonstration outside City Hall.

Because CHAI and Hakol Chai were determined to make a difference, exhausted, sick, and injured horses and donkeys will no longer be beaten and whipped by metal and junk peddlers who force them to pull huge, heavy carriages in dangerous, busy traffic in Tel Aviv.

blogs.bootsnall / CC

This success story has inspired me to try to score a similar victory for exhausted, abused horses closer to home, so I've added, "Write to New York City councilmembers—again—re horse-drawn carriages," to the top of my to-do list. Won't you do the same?

Written by Karin Bennett