As Scandinavian countries go, Finland is actually pretty awesome. They've got some kickass modernist architecture, the world's finest sauna technology, and—if you're into bands that play Metallica covers on the cello (which, honestly, who isn’t?)—an unbeatable music scene. Unfortunately, Finland also kills more foxes for their fur than almost any other nation, and we'd really, really like for them to go ahead and just stop doing that. Enter the wonderful Pamela Anderson, who's going to be visiting the country for the annual Rauma festival this year (Pam's ancestry is Finnish), and who took the opportunity to raise the issue with Finland's president, Tarja Halonen. You can read Pam's letter here, and I'll keep you posted on Tarja's response. Thank you, Pamela, for everything that you do. Don't forget to bring me back a souvenir.

Inexplicably, Hooters says, 'No Pam' Creative Commons

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Hooters restaurants, because, in addition to being such a wholesome, tasteful place to go to with the family, they make these truly amazing fried pickles. OK, the “wholesome, tasteful” stuff is a bit of a stretch, but those pickles are seriously out of this world. Anyway, my feelings towards the place have cooled a little bit since PETA VP Dan Mathews told me what went down this week when he tried to book a Hooters in New York for a private party to launch his new book, Committed: A Rabble Rouser’s Memoir. The plan was to have Pamela Anderson host the party, where they were going to serve veggie Buffalo wings to the guests. But Hooters execs refused to allow the event, because, evidently, "PETA mobilizes strong feelings on both sides of the fence. It wouldn't make good business sense for us." How hilarious is it that a place called Hooters (for God’s sake) is getting all holier than thou at the prospect of having Pamela Anderson eating veggie burgers in one of their restaurants? I guess they’re afraid they won’t be able to measure up. Anyway, there was a great piece about it in the New York Post today, which you can read here.

I’m not mad at you, Hooters, just disappointed. I don’t want to suggest that I’m an expert on how to run a business, but if you’re the Marketing Department at Hooters, it just seems like such a lousy idea to go out of your way to keep Pamela Anderson out of your restaurants. And, as Dan pointed out, "Hosting the book party would have showed that Hooters is well rounded in more ways than one. We're always looking for ways to keep the 'T' and 'A' in PETA."

Julien MacDonald, a fashion designer who is as notorious for his cruel use of fur as he is for a recent run-in with flour-wielding animal lovers (that's Julien on the right, next to Paris Hilton, also in white), recently extended an invitation to our dear friend Pamela Anderson to attend his Fashion Week show in London. In keeping with her character, Pamela—who could have responded in a number of ways—chose the classy route, politely declining the offer and recommending a few useful resources for Julien to educate himself about the fur issue.

As my mother always told me, "When pelting someone with flour fails, some gentle coaxing from a beautiful blonde will often do the trick." OK, my mother never said that. But it seems very apt in this case. Here's Pam's letter:

The lovely Pamela Anderson has a thing or two to say about a new postal stamp under consideration by the US Postal Service that would feature famed chicken torturer Colonel Harland Sanders. After a little detective work, it becomes pretty clear that the evil masterminds behind the projected stamp are none other than KFC themselves, but Pam's letter to the Postmaster has put a dent in their scheme. She writes,

Anyway, as is so often the case, hooray for Pamela Anderson—I couldn't have said it better myself. MSNBC reported on the story, and you can read Pamela's letter in its entirety here.

In related news, KFC already has some battery-cage egg on their faces this week after Yum Brands (KFC's parent corporation) put a bid on a warehouse in PETA's hometown of Norfolk for a million dollars. What they didn't realize was that the property was owned by the PETA Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides support services for PETA. We responded with what we felt was an extremely reasonable counter offer—that we'd give them the warehouse for free if they'd listen to their own advisors and make a few small improvements in their animal welfare standards. Unfortunately, they suddenly lost interest and decided that maybe they didn't want a warehouse after all. Weird. The New York Times ran that story, which you can read here.

If J. Lo really has no current plans to give up her weird addiction to promoting the fur industry, she may want to seriously consider giving up promoting anything at all in public. Because this is just getting too easy. In the past year, PETA has protested the opening of her Pasadena restaurant, shouted her down at movie premieres, and showed up while she was giving a radio interview to get her reaction to some fur-farm footage we happened to have handy. And just this weekend, some PETA members posing as "glow girls" had some more input for her during the auditions for her new Glow After Dark reality show. Our friends at TMZ.com have the exclusive video:

At PETA, we've always subscribed to the notion that if you have something really important to say that not everyone wants to hear, you just have to persevere until your message is heard. If that doesn't work—which, honestly, it often just doesn't—you take all your clothes off. And, just in time for this year's State of the Union Address, that's exactly what one brave PETA member has done. We're calling it PETA's State of the Union Undress, and we're hoping very, very, very much that President Bush doesn't do the same thing at the actual State of the Union on Tuesday. Check it out:

As winter grips the country, animals find ways to keep warm …

UPDATE: Victory! POM Promises to End Deadly Animal Tests. Check it.

The recent statement by POM Wonderful's owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick that "POM Wonderful pomegranate juice has ceased all animal testing and we have no plans to do so in the future" seems pretty great, until you read the fine print.

Why might a company that apparently sees nothing even faintly ridiculous about drowning rats to judge “The Effects of Pomegranate Juice on Cognitive and Motor Deficits in Aging” consider misleading consumers about whether it funds animal tests? My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that Whole Foods threatened to stop selling the juice if POM continued to kill animals in pointless experiments. Whatever the reason, if POM's intention is indeed to mislead customers who are making a good-faith effort to buy cruelty-free products, they can be certain that we're not going to just sit back and watch. PETA's campaign against POM Wonderful will continue until the company signs PETA’s assurance statement pledging an end to all animal tests—something that the company has refused to do so far. Go figure.

You can read PETA VP Bruce Friedrich's letter to POM here.
And for more information and ways to help, click here.

Up until a couple of months ago, I had never heard of POM Wonderful, but apparently they're this big company that sells pomegranate juice for like three times what any sane person should pay for a beverage that has no known alcoholic effects. If I'm going to pay five bucks for a drink, I want some kind of assurance that I'll be blathering incoherently or trying to breakdance by the time I'm finished with it, but all POM does is turn your mouth red.

Anyway, the reason POM is on my radar all of a sudden (despite the fact that I'm clearly not part of its target market) is that—in a twisted attempt to hide the fact that their juice is just some kind of glorified Grape Drink in a fancy bottle, the fine folks at POM have been asphyxiating mice and torturing rabbits so they can make claims about the juice's health properties.

Pam vs. Pom