Pamela Anderson and PETA prez Ingrid Newkirk celebrated a joint birthday party in Florida yesterday with a gigantic vegan birthday cake at Sublime restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Asked how she felt about turning 40, Pam said ''I have no problem with being 40. … I think 40 is the new 20,'' which—I can't help but point out here—is easy to say when you look like Pamela Anderson. Happy Birthday, ladies! Check out the beautiful pics:

The wonderful Bea Arthur, whose record in terms of helping to advance the rights of animals is as impressive as her unforgettable performances in Golden Girls, has gone out on a limb once again for animals—this time to help the rats, lizards, and other animals who get a raw deal in pet stores, where they're inadequately cared for and often destined for a miserable life even if they do survive the lousy conditions they're kept in.

Bea, who was deeply affected by PETA's undercover investigation of a PetSmart store in Scottsdale where scores of small hamsters, birds, and other animals were left to suffer and die, has written to PetSmart CEO Philip L. Francis urging him to permanently end the sale of live animals in his stores. As she puts it in her letter,

You can check out her letter here, and the investigation that she's referring to is below. Thank you, Bea Arthur. You rule.

I am very, very excited about the fact that it's finally summertime and, by extension, barbeque season. My roommate and I kicked off the season a couple of weeks ago with a Memorial Day barbeque to end all Memorial Day barbeques—Boca burgers, chick'n patties, grilled portabella mushrooms, vegan potato salad, veggie bratwurst, veggie dogs, and pretty much every other fake meat you can think of. Doubtless inspired by our legendary cookout, the folks in PETA's Vegan Campaigns Department have cooked up a little BBQ recipe contest of their own, with a sweet-ass portable grill as first prize and some other cool stuff, including a cookbook and some barbeque sauces, for the runners-up.

Anyway, if, like me, you have an unbeatable vegetarian recipe for a summertime barbeque, you should enter that bad boy here—the winners will be featured on VegCooking.com and PETA.org, so even if the portable grill isn't enough of an incentive for you, you may enjoy that opportunity for instant Internet celebrity. Also, if you have any cool vegan BBQ recipes that you'd like to share, feel free to post them. Barbeque king though I may be, I'm not above learning something new every now and then.

In a bizarre move for a network that prides itself on shocking viewers, Fox Television’s New York affiliate has banned a paid PETA ad—narrated by Ocean’s 13 star Casey Affleck—despite the fact that the ad has been accepted to run on other networks in Los Angeles and in Affleck’s hometown of Boston. We wanted to run the ad during none other than Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen in a bid to show his viewers what happens to animals before they’re turned into ingredients in his kitchen.

Remember when this version of the ad was rejected a couple of months ago for being too graphic? Well, since then, we’ve toned down the factory farm and slaughter scenes in a big way, which worked in LA and Boston. Could the Fox rejection in New York have anything to do with this PETA UK protest of Ramsay’s promotion of horse meat?

Hey, I say if the animal-hating Ramsay gets an hour to promote ways to slice and dice animals, viewers deserve at least 30 seconds of the animals’ side of the story. Here’s the toned down version so you can judge for yourself . . .

And on a lighter note, yes, I will be first in line for the 9 o’clock showing of Ocean’s 13 tonight . . .

OK, so it’s no secret how I feel about hunting.

But I just couldn’t resist this one. It seems that from the start, hunters have had trouble not shooting each other with their weapons . . . could it be that this was the world’s first hunting accident?

Sometimes, when you have serious concerns about the way something's being done, you just have to take it to the top. And PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich, who takes in all the latest political happenings with his bran flakes and soymilk every morning, has no qualms about doing exactly that. Bruce just dashed off a letter to President Bush offering a "modest proposal to help you win over your critics" about global warming. As Bruce puts it:

The letter, which you can read here, details a comprehensive plan of action for fighting climate change by going straight to the source—the meat i

Bruce Friedrich

Bruce's arguments are much more cohesive than mine, though, so you should definitely check them out here. Note how he slips in a vegetarian starter kit for the President to peruse when he has a free moment. Love it.

For all you Internet radio listeners out there, be sure to check out PETA VP Dan Mathews’ interview on Wake Up America this Monday at 9 a.m. If you’ve never experienced a Dan Mathews interview, you’re in for a treat. Dude is hilarious. Check out this site for more details.

I hadn't been planning on writing too much more about Michael Vick, given that most people are on the same page that dogfighting is reprehensible and that if Vick is found to have any involvement in the sport—which is looking more and more likely—he needs to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. But this story I read on The Fanhouse today is just too much. Apparently, the much-maligned Falcons QB is building a second property near the site where 60 abused dogs were found more than a month ago. Vick's plans for the property? To build two horse stables on the land so that he can hunt deer. How is it that, with weeks of scrutiny focused on this guy related to deadly serious allegations of animal abuse, he seems to have completely failed to grasp the fact that now is just a really bad time for him to be seen in public acting out his apparent need to see animals suffer. How about making a donation to an animal charity? Or coming out publicly to talk about the horrors associated with dogfighting? No, Vick’s response to all the outrage is to throw himself into his work building a place where he can kill deer. Regardless of what the legal outcome of this case is, Vick has made it abundantly clear to anyone who's been following this story not just that he couldn't care less about animal abuse, but that he doesn't even see why it's a problem.

Check out this great Boston Globe article about the growth of vegan fashion. While I’m not exactly what one would call an expert in the field, it’s great to see so many companies recognizing that there is a huge market out there just waiting to be tapped. And you know the market is there when there are personal stylists who specialize in vegan fashion . . .

And as always, anyone looking to emulate the ever so hip look I’ve got going on, feel free to get in touch and I’ll try to help you out.