Written by Michelle Sherrow
If it walks, hops, crawls, flies, slithers, has got eyes, a momma and a daddy, it's meat.
It's the first week of the new year, which means that gyms are flooded with folks determined to keep their resolutions to lose weight and be healthier in 2012. Chicagoans burning up the treadmill to Fox News Chicago's morning edition got some advice that may have made them stop panting through the "uphill" setting and take notice: To lose weight, go vegetarian.
Dr. Terry Mason, chief medical officer of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System, asked Windy City residents to quit eating meat for a month and see how they feel. And by "meat" he means, "If it walks, hops, crawls, flies, slithers, has got eyes, a momma and a daddy, it's meat."
Dr. Mason has created the Restart4Health program, advising people on what he calls "TLC"—total lifestyle change. For people outside Chicago who are ready to start giving their bodies TLC in 2012, try the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart.
Written by PETA
Those of us who enjoy the benefits of a green, healthy, and humane vegan diet may be tempted to think of people who still eat meat as dinosaurs, but besides being rude to our fellow man (after all, most of us used to eat meat), we may be slandering real dinosaurs by clinging to such attitudes.
Researchers at Chicago's Field Museum have theorized that many theropods—members of a family of dinosaurs that included legendary predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex and the velociraptors—were vegetarians. This comes on the heels of findings that contradict the previously held notion that large carnivorous dinosaurs roamed Australia during the Cretaceous Period.
Not only is this fascinating, it also has practical uses—if your dino-loving kids balk at eating salads, just tell them it's the dinosaur way to dine!
Written by Jeff Mackey
Honorary PETA director Bea Arthur had no intention of letting a little thing like, say, death stop her from speaking out against cruelty to animals. The Golden Girl is taking on the Golden Arches' chicken abuse in a full-page PETA ad in Thursday's Chicago Tribune—paid for by Bea herself through a gift in her will.
PETA members dressed in black will also hold a spirited protest outside a downtown Chicago McDonald's to mark the ad's debut and the one-year anniversary of beautiful Bea's passing.
Will Bea's plea from beyond the grave inspire McDonald's to lessen the hellish suffering of the chickens who are killed for its restaurants? Please join Bea and PETA by taking action and urging McDonald's to demand that its suppliers switch to a less cruel slaughter method called controlled-atmosphere killing. If Bea's eternal activism has inspired you, please also consider joining PETA's Augustus Club (which Bea helped launch) to ensure that your efforts to help animals live on long after you've gone!
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
I'll take a Venti soy mocha Frappuccino with no whip, please. (Oh, how I've longed to utter those words.) Apparently, Starbucks has been getting all those requests that I've been stuffing into its suggestion boxes, because it's introducing vegan Frappuccinos nationwide starting May 5!
Frappuccinos − dairy = frozen dream come true. And did I mention that Starbucks also carries yummy vegan cookies? Sweet.
Via Quarry Girl
Written by Amy Skylark Elizabeth
The recent theft of bleachers from Chicago's Orr High School has left students without seating and robbed them of their school spirit. "It felt good to be out there beating on the drum, rooting the team on. All the people from the community coming to support us and everything. And now you wake up and all the seats are gone," said one student.
Well, PETA has just the thing to raise morale at Orr High and the community's awareness of the suffering that's endured by chickens who are killed for McNuggets. We're offering the school $5,000 and a veggie-burger lunch in exchange for placing this McCruelty ad on its new bleachers:
If there's one thing rivaling teams and fans can agree on, it's that scalding chickens in defeathering tanks is a real fumble. By spreading the message that McDonald's needs to push its suppliers to adopt controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—a less cruel method of slaughtering chickens—Orr High could rally for chickens every day of the week.
Written by Logan Scherer
This is one of those bizarre stories that could easily stump the panel on a "Wait, Wait … Don't Tell Me!" pick-the-fake-news-story segment.
On Wednesday night, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources dumped 2,200 gallons of deadly poison into a 5.7-mile stretch of a canal in order to prevent Asian carp from escaping the canal and entering Lake Michigan while an electronic barrier was turned off for servicing. They poisoned every single fish in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal with Rotenone, which kills fish by depleting oxygen from their blood and causes them to float to the surface of the water, where they gasp for air as they slowly suffocate.
Tens of thousands of animals lost their lives in order to kill a few carp who they thought might be in the waterway. So far, a lone carp has been found among the carnage. At a price tag of somewhere around $3 million, that has to make him or her the most expensive dead carp in history.
Asian carp, who consume nearly half their body weight in plankton every day, were originally imported in the 1970s to clean aquaculture and wastewater treatment facilities' retention ponds. Flooding throughout the 1990s allowed the fish to escape into the Mississippi River, which is connected to the Great Lakes through a series of rivers and canals. If the fish reach the Great Lakes, it is feared that they will crowd out other species of fish and threaten the lucrative sport and commercial fishing industries.
In other words, this is a manmade threat to manmade industries that carp and other fish are paying for with their lives.
I know what you're thinking: Surely they would only kill thousands of animals if there were no alternative? But you would be mistaken. The fish could have been kept at bay with sonic and light deterrents or by simply closing the locks while the barrier is down. But the latter would have caused shipping delays, and we can't have that.
We understand that a plan for a back-up barrier is in the works, which is great—it just would have been nice if they'd thought of that a little sooner, before killing tens of thousands of animals and threatening the lives of other animals and humans who may inadvertently come into contact with the toxic stew they have created.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Last year's McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago was chock-full of behemoth balloon characters and live entertainment (was that the cast of Jersey Boys I saw serenading their way down State Street?), but something was missing …
Wait, I know! Where was the killer clown? Considering that McDonald's refuses to adopt controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—the less cruel slaughter method that would spare birds from having their throats cut while they're still conscious and from being scalded alive—no parade sponsored by the fast-food fiend would be complete without a bloodstained float full of terrified birds being butchered by "Raging Ronnie," the grand marshal of gore. That's why we recently submitted a request to sponsor the following float in this year's parade:
This float idea? I'm totally lovin' it. No word yet on what the parade organizers think. While we're waiting for an answer, tell us about an animal rights–themed float that you would like to see in a major parade …
Written by Amy Elizabeth
How would you react if you learned that your father was Charles Manson?
DJ Matthew Roberts was adopted as an infant. When he recently found out that his biological father is the infamous criminal, he made it very clear that he's nothing like his old man:
"My hero is Gandhi," said Roberts. "I'm an extremely nonviolent, peaceful person and a vegetarian. I don't even kill bugs."
By not eating meat, Roberts is saving the lives of more than 100 animals each year. File this one under "sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree."
A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 43 percent of American adults—and nearly 60 percent of those under 30 years old—oppose the use of animals in experiments. If I made my money addicting animals to drugs and then killing them or drilling holes into their skulls for sexual behavior experiments, I would take this news as a sign that I should quit my day job and start looking for another way to make a killing earn a living.
Apparently, this kind of clear thinking is in short supply at the national conference of the Society for Neuroscience. Instead of embracing modern, humane non-animal research methods, some members of the society met in Chicago yesterday to brainstorm ways that they can drum up support for archaic and cruel experiments on animals.
PETA held a demonstration outside the conference, and was joined by Dr. Larry Hansen, whom the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease just named one of the world's top 100 Alzheimer's researchers. Dr. Hansen is one of many progressive, forward-thinking scientists who realize that animal experimentation should be replaced.
More than 100 million sensitive, intelligent animals are experimented on and killed in U.S. laboratories every year. Take a minute to visit StopAnimalTests.com and find out how you can speak up for these animals.
Written by Shawna Flavell
For months, we had received calls from tourists, residents, and whistleblowers about six horses in Chicago who were under the "care" of carriage-ride operator JC Cutters. These horses were reportedly forced to endure Chicago's freezing winter weather in a tent without adequate food or water. In February, we let you know that Chicago officials had investigated the horses' living conditions and their quickly diminishing weight and had impounded the horses.
After receiving endless complaints about these cruel operators, working with tireless Chicago activists, and making repeated calls and sending numerous letters to city officials, we're glad to report that two former employees (a manager and horse owner) of JC Cutters were found guilty Wednesday on six misdemeanor counts related to animal neglect and one misdemeanor count for failing to meet the minimum standards for feeding and sheltering the animals in their care.
The story of these six horses has a happy ending, but unfortunately, there are still countless others in the carriage industry who are living in decrepit conditions in cities across the U.S. How about taking a cue from our friend Jon Stewart? While you might not have an Emmy-winning talk show, you can speak up for the tired and weary horses who are forced to pull carriages day in and day out. Let city officials know that horse-drawn carriage operations should be shut down in Chicago, New York City, and in your own hometown. With the widespread availability of humane transportation around the world, horse-drawn carriages are clearly a thing of the past.
Written by Liz Graffeo
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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.