The following is a guest post from actor and animal rights advocate Brigitte Bardot. A dedicated activist, whose foundation to help animals has tackled issues such as fur, horse slaughter, and companion animal overpopulation, Brigitte was the first celebrity to stand up for Canadian seals. Here, once again, she speaks out against the sinister seal slaughter.

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When, in 2003, some politicians and talk-show hosts called for a boycott of French products because of my country's politics against the war in Iraq, sales of French wine dropped by 26 percent in the United States in just a few days. This boycott may have cost French winemakers $112 million because of lost sales overseas.

There is little doubt that consumer boycotts hit where it hurts the most—in the wallet!

These massive ethical reactions from consumers can sometimes convince a government or a corporation to change the way that it does business. That is why I am supporting PETA's boycott of Canadian maple syrup until the Canadian government agrees to ban the slaughter of seals on the ice floes, the largest massacre of marine mammals on Earth, forever.

Canadian law authorizes seal pups to be legally killed as soon as they have lost their white baby fur, which happens about two weeks after birth. On the ice floes, the seals are bludgeoned, and some are skinned while still alive. Each spring, this vision of horror returns: The ice floes become an open-air slaughterhouse, where some pups are left in agony, their mothers trying desperately to revive their small bloody bodies.

This gruesome bloodshed has only one purpose: to fuel the fur trade!

Canadian officials are accomplices to these massacres and spend huge amounts of money to support this dying industry, which is a stain on their reputation in the eyes of the world.

This is why we must act and make Canada understand that it would be criminal, irresponsible, and economically suicidal to continue with the commercial seal slaughter.

The United States and the European Union have banned seal products, but Canada produces about 85 percent of the world's maple syrup―the maple leaf is even the symbol of this country.

As French wine was the ideal product designated by Americans to protest France's pacifist stance, maple syrup is the ideal product to boycott in order to protest Canada's aggressive stance.

Refusing to buy maple syrup so as to refuse to be an accomplice to the slaughter perpetrated on the ice floes can send a strong message to Canadian officials. That's why I am asking you to join PETA and boycott Canadian products to let the leaders of this country know that the seal slaughter is inhumane and disgraceful and that it represents a threat to Canada's economy.

I've been leading this fight for more than 33 years now, and I've already had some victories―with you today, we can win the final fight. I'm really counting on you!

Written by Brigitte Bardot

I’m sure everyone has seen our Sexiest Vegetarian contest by now, and hopefully you’ve voted for your favorite already. The number and quality of entries has been truly inspiring.

If we ever decide to have a Dumbest Vegetarian contest, however, there won’t even need to be any voting because this girl will definitely win. ... Not much to say about it, huh? Wow.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is really good at ignoring people. He"s ignored millions of outraged Canadians and concerned people around the world; he's ignored countless representatives of the animal protection community; and he even managed to ignore Sir Paul McCartney, when the former Beatle pleaded with him to put a stop to the seal hunt taking place in his country. So no one’s doubting Stephen Harper’s capacity to be ignorant. But, after a letter from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk to Mrs. Laureen Harper, Mr. H may have to add his wife to the list of people he gives the cold shoulder to. Here’s hoping she has a more compassionate response than her husband.

I love me some Disney—hell, it still brings a tear to my eye every time I watch that little redheaded mermaid thing turn into a real live human girl and walk onto the beach—so, as you can imagine, it pains me more than anyone to hear bad things about the company. But Disney’s latest project, Snow Buddies, which used a number of purebred dogs in the production, sends kind of a different message than the "save the animals" stuff you get from most Disney movies. In fact, the whole thing was such a mess that PETA is now calling on Disney to dump distribution plans for the movie after dozens of the puppies fell ill and several died from parvovirus during production.

Apparently, the puppies were imported for use in Snow Buddies from an unlicensed commercial breeder in New York, even after the dogs started getting really sick, and most of them have died or become badly ill at this stage. Our stance is that Disney is being a bit disingenuous by distributing cute little movies about adorable, cuddly puppies when they’ve been working behind the scenes with sketchy-ass breeders who evidently have no idea how to properly care for dogs in the first place. You can learn more about the whole business here.

I’m sure most everyone is already aware of Burger King’s recent animal welfare improvements, but I still wanted to share this little tidbit with you. The BK story was covered all over the media, but the Houston Chronicle took it a step further and published this amazing editorial on corporate responsibility and animal welfare.

It’s not every day that animal issues get the coverage they deserve, much less with phrases like “Though most consumers are vaguely aware of it, cruelty is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to producing the meat most of us buy” and “On factory farms, pigs exist packed into wire or wood pens; tails are hacked off so they won't gnaw each other from stress and boredom. Sows are entrapped in "farrowing crates" so tiny they cannot turn around” so I was pretty psyched to read this.

So anyway, yeah, there you have it. Props up to the Houston Chronicle for taking an uneqivocal stance on this issue.

First of all, Happy Easter from everyone at PETA!

Now, as a little food for thought for the Easter holidays, here's the transcript of the 2007 Easter Message by the Slovenian President (and my new personal hero) Dr. Janez Drnovsek. President Bush, I really hope you're paying attention:

In 2000, I was still busy trying to figure out how "electronic mail" worked, and PETA, for all its marketing brilliance, was still just kind of feeling its way in terms of having an Internet presence. But we did hit on a campaign that ended up having a real life of its own on the ol' World Wide Web—it was all over blogs and forums, and it's still talked about on religious websites—and, with Easter just around the corner, I thought I'd raise that burning question again:

Was Jesus a Vegetarian?

Here is the website that started the debate, and you can read some more of the controversy here. Have a great Holy Saturday, everyone!

We actually didn't say "I told you so" in this instance, just:

I thought that was pretty nice of us, under the circumstances. Here's the back story: Whiteford Agricultural Schools’ superintendent Craig Haugen is receiving a bouquet of flowers from PETA after breaking his arm in a donkey basketball game. PETA had contacted Haugen more than a week before the game, pointing out the cruelty and dangers that go along with these ridiculous events and citing incidents where people have seriously hurt themselves during games. But Mr. Haugen ignored the letter and actually went on TV to say that the game would go on and that he saw nothing wrong with it. Anyway, after we heard he broke his arm, there were just so many possibilities … but apparently my boss Ingrid has this whole big thing about "being compassionate," so he got flowers and a note and that was it. So there you have it. Enjoy your flowers, Craig, and at least read our letter this time—it'll do you good.