After hearing the story of Lynn Jones, a baggage handler who, appallingly, was fired for protecting a suffering dog, we decided to do what her employer should have done—give her an award.

Jones was working at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada when she spotted an emaciated dog inside a carrier in the cargo area who was covered with sores. The animal's paws were raw and bloody, and he was too weak to stand. Jones doubted that he would survive the flight.

She refused to give in to her supervisor's demands that she load the suffering animal onto a plane until, finally, airport police called animal control, which arranged for the dog to receive veterinary care. The animal was eventually transported to his original destination, much to the dismay of Jones, who said she would have been happy to adopt the dog.

"I wouldn't have traded that job for anything," Jones said "I wouldn't have risked it for anything. But I just couldn't turn my back on that dog. ... My supervisor said it wasn't my concern, but animal abuse is everyone's concern who sees it."

Apparently shamed by the international attention Jones' story has garnered, her employer has now reportedly reconsidered and offered Jones her job back. We'd say a new policy regarding the transport of obviously sick and injured animals would be in order as well. Call it "Lynn's Law."

While the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and privacy advocates play hot potahto over proposed full-body scans at airport security checkpoints, we at PETA say, "Bring 'em on." Pourquoi? Well, several reasons, really:

1. Heaven knows, we at PETA aren't shy about flashing a little skin in order to save animals.
2. Day in and day out, TSA employees face an endless line of frazzled fliers in dirty socks. No wonder they get so bored.
3. To save animals' lives, PETA is ready to liven things up at security checkpoints with our new (drum roll, please) …

 

 

Metal underwear! That's right: Coming soon to security checkpoints everywhere, TSA employees will get an eyeful of our message to NASA as caring individuals educate TSA employees about NASA's plans to blast as many as 30 monkeys with one huge dose of radiation. The agency will then imprison the animals by themselves in tiny steel cages and subject them to years of tests in order to assess how the radiation damages their brains and bodies. Unlike the rays emitted by airport body scans, this extreme radiation may cause brain tumors and other types of cancer.

Officials at the TSA have already been alerted that PETA's metal underwear is on the way. But we are wondering—will you expose TSA employees to the truth about NASA's experiments on your next flight?

Written by Karin Bennett

I'm willing to bet my Tofutti Cuties that these TSA employees managed to get a (visual) full-body scan.

 

Can you say "bombshell" in an airport? Fans of Meet the Parents probably agree that it wouldn't be wise, and after the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane, I'm not sure. But I've no doubt that's what United Airways passengers were thinking as they feasted their eyes on PETA's Lettuce Lady yesterday. Our lavish lady was at LAX, sharing her lifesaving message, her charms, and Tofurky sandwiches with hungry fliers en route to Detroit.

 

Passengers at the gate ate up our Lettuce Lady's lifesaving message—and sandwiches.

 

While most Americans will never fall victim to a terrorist attack, those who consume pepperoni and provolone increase their risk of succumbing to other killers (heart attacks, cancer, or strokes) to one in four or less. The best security for airline travelers (and everyone else) is to jettison meat, eggs, and dairy products from their diets.

 

Written by Karin Bennett

My mom, my sister, and I always used to play "spot the celebrity" in airports. Not real celebrities, necessarily—just people who look like the rich and famous. So, for me, it's only fitting that PETA's new public service announcement—which we had hoped to run in New York City airports during fashion week but was rejected by the CNN Airport Network—is full of real celebrities to spot:

 

 

Just in case you need some help, we'll give you a few hints:

1. This person has been called PETA's "weapon of mass distraction" by her pal, PETA V.P. Dan Mathews.
2. This person's "Ink, Not Mink" ad showed us all that he has "Your Name" tattooed on his butt.
3. This musician was one of the first celebrities to get involved with PETA, with her 1987 hit record Don't Kill the Animals.
4. This celebrated writer and comedian firmly established her niche when she recorded a vegetarian testimonial about being Jewish, lesbian, and vegan.
5. This comedian just went viral as a "fried" Ronald McDonald.

So, can you spot all the celebrities?

Written by Amanda Schinke

So you've probably heard that the Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport (DFW) is having financial problems. And what is PETA if not a helping hand? We've asked the airport if they'd be so inclined as to sell advertisements in their bathrooms, and if so, we're first in line! While folks are busy evacuating (and forgive me, but we're not talking hurricane routes here), they could read about the benefits of a vegan diet, ensuring them less stuffed-up feeling (and we're not talking about a summer cold) and much happier insides (not to mention a happier environment and a longer life). Check out our suggested ad below:

 

 

Here's our letter to the DFW CEO. Let us know what you think.

Written by Christine Doré

Robert Dziekanski was killed by a Taser stun gun in a Canadian airport last month. Dziekanski’s death, which has been widely reported after a video of the incident was posted on YouTube last night, is one in a long list of fatalities that have been caused by Taser stun guns. And yet Taser International continues to claim that these weapons are safe, practical tools for law-enforcement. How are they able to do this and get away with it?

The strategy’s pretty simple, actually. For years, Taser International has been funding and performing crude experiments on pigs, horses, and other animals that serve no other purpose than to provide them with “evidence” that their weapons are safe for humans. And yet as Robert Dziekanski’s death shows, the information that Taser International has been able to gather from shocking pigs is utterly useless—except insofar as it serves to protect Taser CEO Rick Smith from mounting public opposition to the use of his dangerous weapons.

The Taser situation is a perfect example of a problem that is endemic to all such animal experimentation. As is the case with so many drugs that go to market after animal testing only to be pulled from the shelves when they’re shown to be dangerous to humans, the results of these experiments have no relevance whatever to how humans will be affected, because (as should be obvious to a first-grader) pigs and horses have fundamentally different physiologies to humans. We just don’t work the same way. And the inevitable result—as we’ve seen time and again—is that companies like Taser International manipulate the data from their meaningless experiments to justify whatever argument they care to make. And people like Robert Dziekanski pay the price.

This video shows one of the hideously cruel experiments that Taser International has been performing on bulls, pigs, and other animals since they first tried to rush their weapon to market. Do we really want to stake our safety on the word of a man who does this?

Answers/Creative Commons

The words "poetic justice" spring to mind. If you missed the story, America's most notorious animal trainer, Jack Hanna, got stuck in an airport turnstile yesterday when he was trying to transport a flamingo in a crate like she was carry-on luggage. Hanna also had a leopard and a mongoose in tow, so the terrified animals had to sit there for God knows how long while firefighters worked to free the flamingo’s crate from the turnstile. Or as he put it:

Boy, it must be really unpleasant to be stuck like that, Jack. I know it’s hard, but see if you can grind those mental gears just a little bit more and think about whether there might be something wrong with the fact that your entire career is based on putting animals through exactly the same kind of nightmare.

I know—those khaki pants and that corny sense of humor make Jack Hanna oh-so-likeable, but the bottom line is that he has a simply lousy track record when it comes to animals. It's abundantly clear from incidents like this one that the animals themselves aren't Hanna's first priority, since he clearly feels comfortable lugging them around in crates to be brought out and paraded around for people's amusement, and it shouldn't take a wildlife expert to figure out that this experience can be immensely stressful for the animals involved. You can click here for some more info about the tawdry exotic-pet trade, which Hanna helps to glamorize by pimping leopards and big snakes on TV.

For future reference, Jack, exotic animals don't belong in crates any more than they belong in a TV studio, no matter how much they pay you. Here's hoping that next time you end up behind bars, it's for good.