Written by Michelle Kretzer
When one of Ricky Gervais' young fans tweeted the star with the message "my parents agreed if you retweet this they will buy my sister a dog & let you name it," Ricky agreed but with one important stipulation. "A rescue dog tho," he mandated. We would expect nothing less from the man who is a constant voice for homeless animals, urging people to adopt, never buy, and bashing greedy breeders and puppy mills. And like many compassionate celebrities, Ricky consistently uses his Twitter account to reach millions of people with animal-friendly messages.
We can always count on Ricky to get an animal rights point across while he's making people laugh. And Jon Stewart did, too, with The Daily Show's humorous coverage of Iran's launching a monkey into space: "Iran, you think the CIA is tough? You just got PETA on your ass, and those guys don't f**k around." We'd love to hear Jon's take on Funny or Die's spot-on spoof of Dodge Ram's pandering "God Made a Farmer" Super Bowl ad, "God Made a Factory Farmer."
And Waka Flocka Flame's hilarious Instagram photo had us laughing at how ridiculous people look in fur:
Happily, Beyoncé went fur-free at the Super Bowl, but she draped herself in python skin, iguana skin, and leather instead. PETA is urging the singer to take a cue from other beautiful, talented performers such as Carrie Underwood, who puts on a dynamic show in cruelty-free fashions.
And it was the epitome of a dynamic cruelty-free show when Vaute Couture designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart presented the first completely vegan runway show at New York Fashion Week. Celebrities are flocking to the line, which is named after "haute couture" but spelled with a "v" for vegan.
New York isn't the only city celebrating cruelty-free fashion. Across the pond, our affiliate PETA U.K. presented the first-ever Vegan Fashion Awards, with celeb judges Sadie Frost and Meg Mathews honoring animal-friendly fashion from top designers and retailers such as Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Topshop.
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Twitter cofounders Biz Stone and Evan Williams are putting their money where their beaks are, backing Beyond Meat, a company that produces cruelty-free faux meats. Now, every time cruel meat-peddling companies such as McDonald's use Twitter, they'll actually be helping to support the vegan cause!
Photo: Frank W. Ockenfels 3 For Solo Artist: Hair by David Gardner Makeup by Spencer Barnes
Tricia Helfer is tweeting to help end the Canadian seal slaughter and wearing her PETA pride on her sleeve chest:
After rescuing a dog himself, Josh Duhamel is a proud rescue advocate: "Pet adoption changed my life when we were looking to find a companion for our 7-year-old dachshund, Zoe. Soon after adopting Meatloaf, I learned that these pets are just grateful for the love you have to give them."
Yvonne Strahovski will be taking her animal rights advocacy to a killer new venue, as she will be appearing on season seven of Dexter, and Waka Flocka Flame's new album, Triple F Life, which debuted this week, is decidedly free of one "f" ("fur") and full of another ("fun").
Chelsea Handler is handling New York City's horse-drawn carriage problem by writing to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and asking him to support a proposal to replace the abused horses with vintage-replica electric cars, which she donated $15,000 to help build. "As if [the cars] weren't fabulous enough," she writes, "they also get a 10-12 hour drive on just one charge—even my vibrator doesn't do that."
The rescued dog guardian would be gleeful over Chris Colfer's new buddy. The Glee star tweeted, "I adopted a cat today from the West Valley Animal Shelter! His name is Brian, he's 8 years-old and 20 pounds! It was heartbreaking to see so many sweet animals needing homes. Please think about rescuing!" Go ahead and swoon.
And Lady Gaga now has two good romances in her life. The singer rescued a stray cat she named Polly and found her a home with Gaga's boyfriend Taylor Kinney of Vampire Diaries fame.
Not to be outdone, songbirds Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have reportedly gone vegan. People who won lunch with the couple report that they both ordered vegan food and talked about their healthy new eating habits. Can we look for Garth's new ode to raw foods, Cooking Outside the Fire perhaps?
Fiery rapper Waka Flocka Flame continues his quest to enlighten the hip-hop community about animal issues, with an interview in this month's XXL magazine. "The campaign I did with PETA was 'Ink Over Mink.' I never been a mink person period. I hate minks. I hate furs," he told the magazine. "I wouldn't put that s*** on and that was way before PETA. … It's just somethin' I stood by. Plus, I like dogs—my new PETA ad is for dogs. That's just what I stand for as a man."
To keep up with what the stars are doing right now to help animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Yep, you read that right.
We want to thank Kanye West for the shout-out to PETA in his new song, "Theraflu." While the aptly named tune does make us want to reach for an over-the-counter remedy as Kanye opines about his inexplicable penchant for slinging tortured dead animals across his back, the song did make #tellPETA trend on Twitter worldwide, giving us a great opportunity to educate people about the revolting cruelty of the fur industry. #TellKanye that 60 beautiful minks have to die to make one ugly coat.
Compassionate rapper Waka Flocka Flame could give Ye some pointers—his "Only Cowards Abuse Animals" PETA ad appears in this month's YRB magazine. (Last month, the mag featured Chris "The Birdman" Andersen's colorful anti-fur ad.)
The cover of the May issue of Vanity Fair features the fair face of fur foe Grace Park, looking as stunning in white as she did in her PETA "Save the Seals" ad.
Fellow seal savior Christian Serratos tweeted her support for PETA's campaign this week: "The Canadian seal slaughter has begun. Pls help @PETA stop the bloody massacre NOW!"
Mickey Rourke saved a stray dog he found on a movie set in Romania. Now Foxy has a great new home with Rourke and his other beloved pups, including Jaws, who stars with Rourke in his animal birth control ad:
Photo: Faubel Christensen
When Pamela Anderson visited Turkey and noticed that the country's streets were also teeming with strays, she went on a mission to persuade officials there to adopt an aggressive spay-and-neuter campaign.
Ryan Gosling was a savior for a woman who was almost hit by a taxi in New York City. His lifesaving heroics for people and advocacy for chickens make Ryan a heartthrob with a heart of gold.
Lance Armstrong seems to be made of steel, and now he's living strong thanks to eating mostly vegan foods.
Maybe he'll start whipping up homemade meals from the Candle Café like Christina Applegate.
A vegan eatery led to love for Alec Baldwin, who got engaged this week to Hilaria Thomas, whom he met at Pure Food and Wine.
Christina Aguilera took both her loves—her boyfriend and her son—to Cirque du Soleil, scoring herself a thank-you card from PETA for supporting a circus with only human performers.
To keep up with what your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
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Jason Mraz just went vegan and wrote about it on his blog:
My health and strength make me a better performer and all that combined gives me more confidence to go out in the world and shine my light. It also makes me a lot better in bed. Just sayin…
Just when you thought George Clooney couldn't get any sexier, check out what he told the media at the Golden Globes: "I've always had dogs. I've almost always had them out of the pound. Seems like a good place. They have a lot of them. It brings me a lot of joy to do it and they seem like the happiest dogs in the game. I only have one, but he eats for, like, four."
Academy Award–nominee and vegan beauty Jessica Chastain was spotted walking her pooch, who doesn't seem to be slowed down a bit by having only three legs. We wouldn't be surprised if Jessica were an advocate of rescuing!
Gracing the February cover of Self magazine, Kristen Bell asked readers to tweet questions for her to answer in the mag. When a fan asked her about being vegetarian, Kristen responded, "I've been a vegetarian since I was 11, because I couldn't understand why if we didn't eat the dog I should eat a burger. I love animals, and I stand by my values."
Another group of animal lovers just snagged big honors from peta2. Ke$ha, The Ready Set, Daniel Bryan, and many more celebs received Libby Awards for their work to protect animals. Check out peta2.com to see the winners and nominees.
Waka Flocka Flame proudly shows that he is a card-carrying member of PETA. Join him by becoming a member today!
Thanks to the new PETA mobile emblazoned with Waka Flocka Flame's anti-fur ad, the people in our D.C. office won't need to waka anywhere. Instead, they can flocka together in the car and spread an animal-friendly message wherever they drive.
The other side of the car shows actor Jenna Dewan Tatum's exotic-skins ad.
Written by PETA
Here's the situation: Abercrombie & Fitch has offered to pay Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and other Jersey Shore cast members not to wear the brand, saying that seeing the Sitch in Fitch is damaging the company's image. Well, Mike can't run around shirtless—at least not all the time―so PETA is sending him replacement clothing that's worthy of T-shirt time. Here's our mocked-up, fingers-crossed vision of what Mike would look like rocking a PETA tee:
Unlike A&F, PETA would be honored if The Situation were to wear our T-shirt and show his fans that real tough guys are kind to animals. By sticking up for animals, The Sitch would join other macho men with hearts of gold like Dennis Rodman, Amar’e Stoudemire, Waka Flocka Flame, Mac Danzig, Chad Ochocinco, Carey Hart, and Ron Artest.
We hope to see Mike fist-pumping in our T-shirt soon. In the meantime, you can pick up one of our "too sexy" tees for yourself at the PETA store at CafePress.com. As Pauly D would say, "Yeeeeeeeah, buddy!"
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Rapper Waka Flocka Flame keeps it cool in the studio, churning out rhymes, but if there's one thing that gets him hot under the collar, it's animal abuse. After seeing PETA's video about fur farms, he knew that he wanted to be the next face (and a lot more) of our "Ink, Not Mink" campaign.
Waka urges the hip-hop community to "understand what you buy." The musician couldn't believe that animals killed for their fur are bludgeoned, electrocuted, and skinned alive—and that that includes dogs and cats. "I don't want nobody to … skin my little puppy," he said in an interview at the photo shoot. "Understand where that fox fur came from before you spend $1,000 … Someone got their head beat in and electrocuted."
Waka Flocka Flame also calls circuses "whack" and shuns red meat after seeing how cows are slaughtered. You can see the exclusive video from his photo shoot (spoiler alert: He does a PETA rap); catch his other ad, in which he wears nothing but ice; and enter to win an autographed copy of his rockin', flockin' CD, Flockaveli.
And of course, to be among his flock of fans, always flee from fur.
Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame is the latest celebrity to pose in the buff for our "Ink, Not Mink" ad campaign, and as soon as we can stop ogling the photos long enough to get them posted, we'll give it 2 you. Meanwhile, here's a behind-the-scenes picture of the artist hanging out at the photo shoot:
Waka Flocka Flame might keep it real in his music, but he urges fans to go with the faux when it comes to fur. "Animals should be treated the same as you would a kid," he told reporters. "Would you want someone just to walk up and skin your kid? Hell, no!"
Speaking of Waka Flocka Flame fans, we got to meet his smallest (or, at least, hairiest) fan when a resident of a North Carolina senior living center contacted us for help getting her best friend neutered and groomed.
Her grandchildren had named the pup Waka Flocka Flame, and we're guessing that this fuzzy fan is the only one the musician wouldn't mind seeing wearing a real fur coat.
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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