Written by Jeff Mackey
If you've suffered through having your heart broken (and who hasn't?), you know it feels like you want to die. But if your heart actually were to (physically) break, you really could die. So as Valentine's Day nears, PETA is placing this digital billboard in two locations in Montgomery, Alabama—a state with one of the highest rates of heart disease in the nation.
Why do vegetarian hearts have an edge over carnivorous tickers? A recent study found that vegetarians are 32 percent less likely to suffer from heart disease. In fact, staying away from all the saturated fat and cholesterol in meat, dairy products, and eggs gives vegans a significant advantage in avoiding a range of life-threatening diseases, including cancer, strokes, and diabetes.
And when your healthy heart starts beating in rhythm with that special someone's, it's good to remember that vegans also get a boost in their love life because we're less susceptible to sexual dysfunction. So whether your heart needs Cupid or a cardiologist, there's one prescription: Go vegan!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
As half of one of the world's cutest on- and off-screen couples, we figured that Lea Michele would have some great ideas for how to spend Valentine's Day. We were right. Lea doesn't want expensive jewelry or a massive bouquet of flowers. Her idea of a lovely evening is laid-back and simple.
"My idea of the perfect romantic Valentine's Day is staying at home, cooking a yummy dinner, and watching a really scary movie," she told us.
Sounds like the real-life Rachel loves simply snuggling up under a blanket with her beloved. But Lea made it clear where we'll never catch her canoodling: in a horse-drawn carriage.
"The one thing I find the least romantic is taking a horse and carriage ride," she said. "I can't express enough how unhappy these horses are and how much pain and suffering they go through each day. Please do not ride [in horse-drawn carriages]. Take a beautiful walk together with your loved ones instead of bringing more pain to these beautiful animals."
Yeah, there are few things less romantic than watching horses breathe exhaust fumes and dodge traffic. Watching your loved one breathe in yummy aromas coming from the oven and dodge a playfully lobbed strawberry, however …
If this "Fur Out, Love In" demonstration brings to mind a John Lennon–Yoko Ono bed-in, why not celebrate Valentine's Day peacefully—without the skins of tortured animals? Imagine all the animals living life in peace …
Written by PETA
Check out how PETA Europe and PETA India celebrated Valentine’s Day a few hours ago. I love it. Love the bed, love the signs, love it all. As you can see, they’re a tiny bit more conservative in Mumbai than Dublin, but I gotta be honest, those wings and the heart bow and arrow are pretty hot.
Sky News in Britain did a really cool slideshow of both demos. Check it out here.
Sure, if the signs were a little different and our girls weren’t drop dead gorgeous, it could be mistaken for a Hooters audition, but lucky for us—and the animals—the girls are super hot and instead of “Fried Pickles and Chicken Wangs” their signs read: “Fur Out Love In”.
Our traveling campaigners are on a nationwide anti-fur tour right now, and oddly enough, they are getting crazy amounts of attention at every stop. Here’s an article from Austin. Enjoy.
Oh man . . . sad, weird news. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Anna Nicole Smith passed away today. And I’m sure everyone in the world will have an opinion on how and why she died so young.
She worked with PETA on a lot of campaigns over the years, and as strange as it may sound, I always thought she was an absolute perfect fit for us, because just like PETA, you couldn’t ignore her and, love her or hate her, everyone had an opinion. What you see is what you get—I loved that about her.
I always got a kick out of the stories from my friend Michael, who worked with Anna Nicole on all of her PETA projects, and thinking back on it now, she really did a lot for PETA and for animals all over the world.
She spoke out against Iams for its cruel animal tests, spoke up for baby seals in Canada, and gave fur-wearing celebrities an earful, but in my mind her crowning achievement was this amazing anti-fur ad.
After being exposed to animal rights over the years, Anna Nicole even became a vegetarian, and was nominated for the 2006 World’s Sexiest Vegetarian, and looking at her ad you can certainly see why.
It's a tragedy when anyone passes away before their time, but with Anna Nicole, the animals have lost a true sympathiser, and PETA has lost a good friend. We’ll miss you, Anna.
Going vegetarian, that is. A friend of mine from Cleveland sent me this news clip about teenage vegetarians, and it made my morning. Working for PETA, of course I hear stories all the time about the growth of vegetarianism among kids, particularly teenagers, and the folks at peta2 can hardly keep up with their growth—how about zero to 800,000 peta2 e-news subscribers in four years? But it was nice to see the media taking notice of what we’ve known for years . . .
Anyway, enjoy the clip:
Here at PETA, we track trends and statistics on the use of every species used for fur, and sometimes the findings of our research can be a total bummer, like when we uncovered the horrible abuse of dogs and cats for fur in China.
But more and more we are finding that designers and society in general are turning away from the cruelty of fur, and consequently, entire species of animals are being spared. Take, for instance, the great news released yesterday in Dallas, TX, where the findings of a very scientific years-long study revealed the following:
“The fur trade has strangely had no effect on the liger population.”
This is a great day indeed. It always warms our hearts here at PETA when even just one species receives a little bit of justice in the world. ... Yes, even when it happens to be a fictional species popularized by a movie.
And just in case you’ve never seen a liger (or Napoleon Dynamite), here is a very realistic artistic rendering of the rare and elusive species. Meeeeeeeeowwww!
UPDATE: OK, so I’ve received a lot of e-mails. ... Apparently, ligers aren’t fictional at all. Readers have just informed me that, among other things:
Who knew?
Lost season premiere tonight folks! I was a casual fan of the show until a weekend-long season 1 & 2 marathon turned me into a full-on addict. Now, let’s just say that 10pm tonight can’t get here fast enough.
What triggered the aforementioned binge weekend was when Dominic Monaghan shot a pro-wildlife ad for PETA. It's pretty damn wonderful anytime a celebrity takes time out of their schedule to speak up for animals, but Dominic really takes it a step further. Check out this interview about why he did the ad:
And if you need me between 10 and 11 tonight, don’t bother calling. I’ve got a TV date with my girl. The beer and catnip are already on ice.
In some ways, there's just so much to say about Rocket Boy, and yet now that I'm sitting down to write about it, it kind of leaves me a little speechless. Rocket Boy was an ad that we created about 10 years ago (when I was but a Rocket Boy myself) to highlight the connection between eating meat and impotence, and it recently resurfaced in all its glory when some genius in our Campaigns Department dug it up and circulated it around the office today. The Rocket Boy ad comes from the same brilliant minds that brought you "The Three Stages of a Weiner," and "I Threw a Party but the Meat-Eaters Couldn't Come."
Please direct all complaints to WTFRocketBoy@peta.org, with the subject line "Please, please, please stop with the impotence jokes already. Think of the children!" And without further ado ... Rocket Boy, ladies and gentlemen:
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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