Written by PETA
Here’s the quote, which came after a Chinese reporter asked the increasingly irrelevant Stone what she thought about the recent earthquakes in China:
"Well you know at first I thought I'm not happy with the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans ... and I've been concerned with should we have the Olympics because they're not being nice to the Dalai Lama who's a good friend of mine. And then all this earthquake and stuff happened and I thought, 'Is that Karma, when you're not nice and the bad things happen to you?"
A lot of bloggers have been justifiably outraged by her insensitivity to a national tragedy, though given her vocal support for turning anything that so much as meows into, say, a lapel pin, I can’t say that I’m all that surprised at her inability to empathize with the suffering of others.
Which raises a couple of somewhat disturbing questions: 1) Isn’t it just a wee bit dangerous for someone who’s responsible for the excruciating torture of countless foxes, rabbits, and unsuspecting viewers of Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction to be talking about karma? And 2) If karma really does catch up with her after this, will that mean that her days of dragging that dead beaver out in public will be finally at an end?
‘Cuz that’d be a real disappointment for her five remaining fans.
-Jack
OK, so maybe he wasn't really arrested. But either way, Yosuke the parrot ended up in police custody earlier this month after being rescued from a rooftop near Tokyo. Doing his best stool pigeon impersonation, he didn't talk to the cops. Yosuke was eventually transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital, where he started talking to the vet that cared for him.
Interestingly enough, what he said was his full name—Yosuke Nakamura—and address. The vet checked up on the address and found that it was inhabited by the Nakamura family, which gladly welcomed him back home.
It's not much of a logical leap to assume that Yosuke feels emotions, has desires of his own, and has a meaningful investment in his happiness—as all animals do.
You can see CNN's full story about Yosuke here.
Tired of drinking Cosmopolitans all by your lonesome? You're in luck. After six long years of reruns to keep you company, the bawdy bunch from Sex and the City are back for their big screen debut. Here's a little quiz to get you in the mood for the new Sex movie:
OK, it's a trick question. The answer is "all of the above." But let's just concentrate on "C." Unlike SATC's man-eating cougars, real cats don't have a choice of whom they sleep with when they're in heat. So fix your cat. While you're at it, fix yourself a Cosmo and watch our hilarious "Sex and the Kitty" spay-and-neuter spot. To poke fun at a serious subject, nothing is funnier than amorous animatronic animals poking each other:
Seriously, though, not only do we employ James Bond-caliber infiltrators, what they uncover is more sinister—and of far greater value—than any Hollywood glam, pyrotechnic diamond heist too.
So just who are these fearless, selfless souls? Well, allow me to introduce two of PETA's MVPs: spy couple Hannah and Philip Schein. (It's cool. I can out them 'cause they are semi-retired and have already been sued.)
Get a load of this rap sheet:
So if watching these videos makes you want to throw things, just imagine being the one that filmed and edited the footage. These courageous folks risk their necks by enduring abysmal circumstances to uncover abuses that are deliberately hidden by powerful industries. And their work saves countless animals' lives. Think about it. How many of you are now veg because of a film with this kind of footage? I see quite a few hands raised. (Of course, there's no shame for those of you lured into the fold by a hot half-nekkid girl preaching the good "pro-veg" news with nothing but a few lettuce leaves covering her naughty bits. By any means necessary, yo.)
"Hannah and I know how important and effective it is to make the abuse of animals behind the scenes public," says Philip. "We are proud of our undercover work for PETA and glad that it is something we've been able to do as a couple." Suffice it to say that these heroes and their team deserve our relentless support for educating the masses while stickin' it to the man.
On behalf of animals everywhere, we the cruelty-free thank you!
From the category of "No Shit, Sherlock" experiments comes this gem from Yerkes National Primate Research Center. A posse of animal-experimenters, led by vivisector Mark Wilson, has concluded that female monkeys who experience psychological stress will eat excessive amounts of fatty foods.
Really? I wouldn't have guessed that from the way I reach for chocolate peanut-butter brownies instead of broccoli salad when I'm stressed from a looming deadline or a crazy busy schedule. But unlike Yerkes' Wilson, I don't receive grants (read: taxpayer dollars) from the National Institutes of Health to come up with the groundbreaking conclusion that stressed females eat and that the foods we eat when stressed aren't the best for us.
Wilson is right at home at Yerkes, where his coworkers also receive tax dollars up the yin-yang to imprison and abuse monkeys for equally revelatory results. Yerkes' Maria Sanchez removes baby monkeys from their mothers and concludes that the babies become extremely depressed, Stuart Zola has shown that baby monkeys who are taken away from their mothers are more likely to become addicted to drugs, and Michael Davis has proved that motherless monkeys are more prone to feeling fear and anxiety. Your tax dollars hard at work.
Following Eight Belles’ breakdown and euthanasia at the Kentucky Derby on May 3, PETA called for congressional hearings into the abuses of the horse racing industry and we urged immediate improvements. Visitors to peta.org sent thousands of emails to congress backing our call for hearings. I'm thrilled to say that after only 3 weeks of action on our part and your part as activists, it’s been announced that hearings will, in fact, be held.
To everyone who took action: THANK YOU! Because of strong activists like you we are able to make strides in important campaigns such as this one. You can read more about this here.
We will now be focusing our energy on the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection by asking them to focus on the cruelest practices of racing: legal and illegal drug use, track surfaces, whipping, racing horses too young and too often, and discarding “used up” thoroughbreds to slaughter. You can take action by sending an e-mail to subcommittee chair Bobby Rush by using this contact form.
Thanks again for speaking up and I hope these congressional hearings really shine some much needed light on the horse racing industry. These improvements are a matter of life and death for horses.
I’m not one of those people who see anything wrong with legumes and root vegetables getting married. I say, if they’re in love, let them celebrate that love. And that’s exactly what Chris P. Carrot and Penelo Pea Pod did this past weekend at the Veggie Pride Parade in NYC. The New York Times has the story, along with what may be my favorite quote of the year, from a hot dog vendor in Washington Square:
“It’s because of the vegetarians,” he said. “It’s one of my worst days in four years.”
Every so often, there's a pro-animal story so darn cute that the webmasters of ICanHasCheezburger.com get jealous.
According to this piece in the Wrexham Leader, 11-year-old Gaby Trotter seems to have established more as an animal advocate than many adult activists can boast. She managed to research Mars' history of animal testing, set up her own Web site on the subject, and speak to school administrators about banning Mars products in her school.
I think at that age, I was busy playing video games, impressing friends and family members by eating frosted cupcakes in a single bite, and arguing with my sister. Way to raise the standard, Gaby!
As well it should! This is a good way to end World Vegetarian Week, and after all, everyone loves basking in the light, crispy, delicious glory that is the waffle, especially when waffles are bejeweled with yummy chocolate chips, flaked coconut, and walnuts; smothered with Earth Balance buttery spread; and topped with light and luscious Soy Whip. But what we really don't get is why anyone would ruin a perfectly fabulous masterpiece by throwing in bovine mammary secretions or a hen's ... umm ... menstrual stuff.
Plus, when you hold the cholesterol and saturated fat from the disgusting milk and eggs, you can go a little crazier with the Soy Whip! Yum!
I hate to "out" myself as a listener of Mancow's Morning Madhouse Show, but I actually caught him praising Frommer's Travel Guides this morning as his preferred companion while globe-trotting. Funny he should mention that, 'cause we love the folks at Frommer's too!
In a very progressive move, Frommer's Travel Guides is now advising readers not to support the horse-drawn carriage industry in New York City. In the New York Experiences to Avoid section of the 2008 Frommer's Guide to New York City, tourists are instead urged to "[p]ity those poor beasts of burden," who appear "so forlorn, as if [pulling carriages is] the last thing they want to do." The guide recommends pedicab rides to people who "want a slow, leisurely ride through Central Park, minus the ripe and frequent smell of horse poop ...."
While it is of course excellent that Frommer's is making this statement on behalf of horses in the city's carriage industry, I can't imagine that any reader of the guide—as a person with enough intellect to be literate—would find it too surprising that horses might not want to die in a car crash or, worse, spend a life in servitude to visiting yuppies. New York is famous for a host of other things—from window shopping to the good eats at Red Bamboo—so I don't think visitors will be at a loss if they can't spend a half-hour getting a buzz off the smell of feces.
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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