Written by Michelle Kretzer
When rumors began swirling that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt intended to have live elephants as part of their wedding celebration, PETA wasn't buying it—after all, the couple had donated $2 million to an African wildlife sanctuary. A rep confirmed to us that Angelina and Brad have no intention of showcasing captive wild animals at their celebration and encouraged PETA to dispel the nasty rumor.
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The wildlife advocates at The Body Shop have a lovely new lady on their side. Leona Lewis is bringing her spirit to the company as its new brand activist. The cruelty-free company and the cruelty-free beauty will make one harmonious pair.
Looking at blue-eyed babe Jared Leto as he rocks the stage with 30 Seconds to Mars, it’s hard to believe that he’s 41! He credits his vegan diet and plenty of sleep for still looking like he did in his Urban Legend days.
It doesn't seem like 19 years since Tia Mowry burst onto the scene in Sister, Sister, either. Now that she's vegan, maybe she'll pull another sister act and get her twin, Tamera, on the bandwagon, too.
That wagon might fill up quickly, especially following the debut of Bill Maher's riotous take on the horse-meat scandal. The comedian threw in a scathing review of the meat industry for good measure.
Woody Harrelson got nothing but great reviews for his role in The Hunger Games, and while Catching Fire won't be out until the fall, Woody's already getting two thumbs up from animal advocates for requesting all-vegan clothes and accessories for the film.
And loads more PETA-loving peeps were on fire for animals this week, too:
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
When Amar'e Stoudemire shot his anti-fur ad for PETA, he said, "I wouldn't want to see anything cruel happen to any animals just for fashion." Now the New York Knicks' star forward is showing that he doesn't want to see anything cruel happen to animals just for food, either. Amar'e says his new vegetarian diet is helping him stay healthy after he had to have a third surgery on his knees.
Amar'e didn't go vegetarian in time to make Shape's list of the 25 Sexiest Vegan and Vegetarian Celebrities, but there's always next year. The mag did give a shout-out to PETA's reigning Sexiest Male Vegetarian Celebrity, Woody Harrelson, as well as our buds Mickey Madden, Casey Affleck, Russell Brand, Steve-O, and Mac Danzig.
Maybe Chicago's Rahm Emanuel will make Shape's list next year. "America's Fittest Mayor" is endorsing Rip Esselstyn's vegan Engine 2 Diet.
And these sexy stars made PETA's list of our favorite animal tweethearts:
As the U.S. Congress considers the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which would permanently ban the use of chimpanzees in invasive experiments and retire all 600 federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries, Rampart star Woody Harrelson has written a letter to one of his California senators, Barbara Boxer, on behalf of PETA imploring her in her key role as the chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to support the bill:
[N]early 1,000 of these complex beings are locked inside barren cells in U.S. laboratories—some for as long as 50 years—where they have been intentionally infected with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis and forced to endure decades of invasive procedures, fear, loneliness, and pain. This hellish experience leaves lifelong emotional scars on chimpanzees, and many of them resort to self-mutilation or suffer from depression and other psychological disorders for years after experiencing the trauma of having their minds and bodies violated.
Written by PETA
Victory: As a result of PETA's campaign, the Army announced that it is ending its cruel use of monkeys in chemical attack training exercises and will instead use advanced human simulators!
Woody Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of an Army captain in The Messenger, and now the actor is sending a real-life message to the Army's new chief of staff regarding the cruel chemical agent poisoning of monkeys at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. The star of the hotly anticipated Hunger Games film sent a letter to Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, describing how the monkeys who endure a forced overdose "suffer the wretched symptoms of chemical poisoning, including seizures, breathing difficulties, loss of bowel control, and convulsions," and asking the general to "stop this crude exercise at Aberdeen" and replace it with superior non-animal methods of simulating nerve agent attacks.
Woody's letter follows a PETA protest outside Army Secretary John McHugh's home and as thousands of compassionate people's responses to PETA's action alert—which I must ask you to respond to also and to pass on to everyone you know (get the whole office to sign—the whole neighborhood!).
Please join Woody in sending Army officials the message that not only is the image of America's armed forces tarnished by conducting crude warfare experiments on monkeys—who are snatched from their Caribbean homes and families and who endure frightening shipping conditions—these cruel procedures also violate military policies requiring the use of non-animal methods when available and prohibiting harming primates for training exercises.
Written by Jeff Mackey
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:
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Woody Harrelson has a heart for animals that's as huge as his list of acting credits. Now, he's teaming up with PETA to help 14 chimpanzees who have been yanked from retirement and sent to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in Texas to be used in invasive and painful infectious disease experiments.
As you may recall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) originally planned to transfer 202 "retired" chimpanzees to SFBR but shelved this idea following pressure from former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, members of Congress, PETA and other animal protection organizations, and tens of thousands of PETA supporters. However, 14 chimpanzees whom NIH had already transferred to SFBR are still imprisoned at the facility.
This morning, Woody sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and NIH Director Francis Collins urging them to "extend the same mercy" to these 14 chimpanzees. Writes Woody, "These aging chimpanzees have been imprisoned for their entire lives. They have endured decades of violence and torment, having been used in everything from space experiments to high-velocity seat belt tests. Only in the last few years have they enjoyed bedding, fruit, toys, the touch and companionship of other chimpanzees, and freedom from the knife. Will you please return the 14 chimpanzees at SFBR to these simple pleasures and allow them to continue the rehabilitation that they have more than earned?"
Will Woody's letter convince these decisionmakers to do the right thing? We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, let's add our voices to the chorus calling for these chimpanzees' retirement.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
You might already know that Spiderman's Tobey Maguire is vegan, as is Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson, Golden Globe–winner Joaquin Phoenix, and Ultraman Rich Roll. And you may remember that fitness trainer Bob Harper and the NBA's Amar'e Stoudemire both rely on animal-free cuisine to promote peak physical form.
Now The Boston Globe has introduced its readers to "hegans"—as in "he" plus "vegan" equals "hegan." Many hegans are middle-aged, and they all seem to be unassuming fellows who—in their individual pursuits of longevity, improved strength and energy, weight loss, or decreased risk of killer diseases such as cancer and heart disease—have all quietly embraced vegan lifestyles. They may also have read that vegan diets are the best for making sure that their kids have a planet to inherit, or they don't like the idea of eating Babe for breakfast. According to Rip Esselstyn, veteran firefighter, triathlete, and author of The Engine 2 Diet, "Real men eat plants.''
We absolutely agree—and so do the red-hot hunks in our 2010 Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door contest. After you've cast your vote, tell us: Will you use the term "hegan" to describe men who eat only animal-free foods—or are you inclined to stick with "vegan"?
Written by Karin Bennett
In a recent interview with Maxim magazine, longtime vegan animal defender Woody Harrelson talks about the chance encounter that made him go vegan. He says that "[t]he first thing was dairy. I was about 24 years old and I had tons of acne and mucus. I met some random girl on a bus who told me to quit dairy and all those symptoms would go away three days later. By God she was right."
I'm curious about how the actual conversation went down. "Hey, stranger! Your skin is gross. Go vegan!" seems a bit harsh, but if it worked ...
The star of Zombieland then realized that eating hamburgers and steak made him feel—and act—like the living dead, so meat was nixed from his menu too.
So tell us: How did you get the push you needed to go vegan?
Written by Shawna Flavell
Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning actor—and animal defender extraordinaire—Woody Harrelson might have played the laid-back Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, but he was almost as mad as his controversial character Mickey Knox when he learned about deadly medical training exercises involving cats at Texas Tech.
Homeless cats at the Odessa animal shelter—just a stone's throw away from the star's birthplace in Midland—are purchased by the university's Health Sciences Center and then abused and killed in medical training exercises. Faculty members and trainees force plastic tubes down the cats' throats and stab needles into their chests for procedures that invariably result in pain and death for the animals. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association exclusively endorse the use of modern, human-like manikins—not live animals—for this kind of training in their courses.
Here's part of Woody's letter to Texas Tech President John Baldwin:
Harming and killing shelter animals for these exercises is unjustifiable, especially as realistic manikins that more accurately represent human anatomy and better prepare medical professionals to treat injured and sick children are readily available. . . . I and countless others around the state are deeply discouraged to learn that Texas Tech is taking advantage of the tragic abundance of abandoned animals.
Cheers to Woody for speaking out against these cruel exercises. Wood you (ouch) join him in protesting these cruel, outdated procedures?
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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