Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams already has enough accolades to span two lifetimes—Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, and Pro Bowl MVP, to name a few—and after he reigned over our Faux–Chicken Wing Taste Test today, we'd like to dub him an MVP: Most Valuable Palate.

The vegetarian NFL star hosted our event at his restaurant, Proof, in Miami. The winning wings may have been gardein buffalo wings, but considering all the chickens who got to keep their own wings, all the arteries that didn't get clogged, and all the taste buds that were more-than-tickled, it sounds to me like the party left everyone happy!

Written by Logan Scherer

Last week, PETA Germany released an undercover investigation inside a farm owned by "cage-free" Wiesenhof. The company is a giant producer in the world's chicken-meat industry, and it sells its chicken flesh worldwide, including right here in the U.S. Undercover footage taken at Wiesenhof's hatching facilities shows untrained workers breaking chickens' necks, failing to treat contagious diseases appropriately, and refusing to empty manure pits for 10 months. One worker punched a rooster who tried to escape and later urinated inside the barn next to the animals.

Unlike birds who are fattened and then slaughtered at the age of only 5 weeks, "parent animals" at hatching facilities suffer abuse and neglect for up to 10 months. PETA Germany has filed a legal complaint against Wiesenhof, claiming that the company is guilty of violating the German Animal Welfare Act, German slaughter and transport laws, environmental laws, and laws concerning epidemic outbreaks and hygiene.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Wiesenhof's parent company, PHW Group, has strong ties to Aviagen—owner of the turkey farms in West Virginia that were the site of PETA's landmark undercover investigation that led to the first-ever indictments for felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds as well as the first-ever cruelty convictions of turkey factory-farm workers. The owners of PHW Group and Aviagen's parent company are brothers. Cruelty apparently runs in the family, and if you aren't looking to support it, go vegan.

Written by Logan Scherer

Who needs a spa treatment when you can rejuvenate your soul by nuzzling 800-pound piggies at an animal sanctuary?

Well, a group of us kids from PETA and the PETA Foundation were lucky enough to do just that over the weekend. An hour north of D.C. lies a spectacular oasis called Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary. It consists of 400 acres devoted entirely to the rehabilitation of abused and/or neglected animals. This past Sunday, Poplar Spring hosted its annual Open House and Fundraiser. I don't think anyone could turn down yummy vegan nosh and cuddle time with the cuties pictured below, do you?

This is Bobby and yours truly. Before coming to the sanctuary, he and his friend Harry had lived their entire lives in cages and were used in insulin experiments. When they arrived at Poplar Spring, both of them were white as snow because they had never seen a single ray of sunshine. The first thing they did when they arrived at Poplar? They dove into a mud pool and stared up in amazement at the trees and stars. What a lucky guy, and such a looker too!

I'm telling you, folks, I highly recommend finding your nearest animal sanctuary and visiting. Or better yet, volunteer! With Thanksgiving coming up, most farm sanctuaries have special Thanksgiving celebrations that honor their turkeys. If my picture doesn't convince you, maybe these will.

Written by Missy Lane

Less than a month ago, we sent requests asking permission from the Louisville Department of Public Works to place our crippled-chicken statue, which was designed by renowned cartoonist Harry Bliss, on public property.

I should clarify—we submitted six separate applications, asking for our statue to be placed at six different locations, to nix any issue of public versus private property. We were pretty confident that we'd covered all the bases.

We've finally received a response. Apparently, Louisville has placed a 45-day moratorium on issuance of the very type of permit we requested.

Coinkydink? Methinks not. I suspect that Louisville officials and KFC don't want any attention drawn to the horrible abuse that millions of chickens suffer at the hands of KFC's suppliers.

Click here to read our response.

Written by Karin Bennett

famouschicken / CC

The day after the Senate votes on an extension of the Cash for Clunkers program, we're launching our new environmentally friendly program, "Cash for Cluckers."

Because a lot of nonvegetarian Americans are buy-curious about faux-meat products—and because factory farms wreak havoc on the environment—we've decided to offer consumers a rebate on their first taste of that faux goodness. For the first box of chickenless cutlets or nuggets that non-vegetarians buy, we're going to send them a $1 rebate and include a free copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit."

According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the equivalent of taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads. Our Cash for Cluckers program should inspire everyone to come out and try environmentally friendly products—such as those made by Boca and Lightlife—which offer the spot-on texture and flavor of chicken flesh, minus the animal suffering.

Want in on PETA's Cash for Cluckers program? Read the following rules and then head to the supermarket to explore the faux-chicken section—and remember to save that receipt!

Cash for Cluckers: Rules

• Receipts must be dated between August 6 and September 30, 2009, and must be received by PETA by October 5, 2009. Send your receipts to the following address:

Cash for Cluckers
PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510

• Refund requesters must be U.S. residents.
• The product must be vegan faux chicken (no eggs, dairy products, or other animal-derived ingredients). Entries must include a statement that the entrant was not yet a vegetarian at the time of the purchase and had never tried faux chicken before.
• Limit one rebate per household.
• Open to the first 5,000 entries.

Neither Boca Foods nor Lightlife Foods are affiliated with or otherwise endorse, sponsor, or support this promotion.

Written by Karin Bennett

What do you get when you combine our favorite hockey player with one of our favorite faux-chicken sandwiches?

Hat trick! Georges Laraque was so impressed by a Canadian KFC's vegan sandwich, he ordered two more to go.

While there is one major animal offense that keeps Canada in the penalty box, KFCs in Canada offer an awesome vegan sandwich—and they are also making efforts to phase in controlled-atmosphere killing. Partner that with Georges Laraque's insatiable hunger for animal liberation and I'd say you have one of the sweetest assists Canada's seen in some time.

Written by Shawna Flavell

You may have heard that hideous fast-food bird abuser KFC is currently doing its darnedest to promote itself as an icon of healthy eating. ROTFL!!

It's started grilling dead birds, as opposed to frying them, and so it's encouraging people to "unthink what you thought about KFC."

I can only assume that it's referring to our thoughts about how unhealthy KFC is—which, admittedly, is one of the things I think about KFC. Of course, I mostly think about its awful animal welfare record, which it doesn't appear to be asking us to "unthink." (Possibly because, well, it's still awful.)

Give me a break, KFC. You can put a shiny "Healthy!" sticker on it all you want, but cholesterol-filled, artery-clogging flesh is still unhealthy, whether you fry it or grill it—and grilled chicken has been shown to contain carcinogens. I think I'll pass on the three-piece breast and thigh meal with an increased cancer risk on the side. Thanks anyway.

I can think of a better response to KFC's new grilled chicken—how about we grill KFC? Click here to write to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and ask it to investigate KFC's false animal welfare claims.

Written by Amanda Schinke

Getting shanked in the shower is definitely a worry, but biting into pus-filled poultry? That's cruel and unusual punishment. Just ask the three Vermont men who are seeking $100,000 in damages from ConAgra Foods after reportedly purchasing bad chicken from the prison store at Lee Adjustment Facility in Beattyville, Kentucky. The sickening saga began three years ago when the trio, who were serving their sentences in Kentucky because of overcrowding in Vermont jails, apparently bit into a batch of Banquet chicken filled with pus. Brown-bagging the rank, three-year-old meat to court to serve as exhibit A, one litigant described the diarrhea and weight loss (as well as the harassment by other inmates) that he says resulted from ingesting the foul fowl.

Pusitively gross, right? Well, take heed, because food poisoning caused by putrid poultry isn't confined to prison food. Animals raised for food are intensively confined on disease-ridden factory farms. By the time they reach the slaughterhouse, many are suffering from pneumonia and other chronic illnesses, and some have cancerous lesions or pus-filled wounds all over their bodies. Wait—it gets worse! Pus-coated bird bits often go into a mixture called a "binder," which is used in chicken nuggets, patties, and "buffalo" wings.

And while eating contaminated meat is downright disgusting and dangerous, the real victims here are the chickens who are being knocked off to make these noxious nuggets. I say prisons should pardon chickens and all animals from their menus.

Written by Amy Elizabeth

So we all knew that KFC has some trashy practices, but did you know just how disgusting they can be? Recently, a delivery person recorded a KFC employee in Hong Kong picking fried chicken out of a trash can, putting it on a tray, and serving it to customers. While this might be shocking to those who still turn a blind eye to the company's hideous ways, I'm definitely not surprised. KFC has proven to be fairly heartless in the past, and we know they aren't big on that whole "ethics" thing. So, should it be such a big deal that employees don't mind serving deep-fried flesh from a trash can?

The delivery person who brought this to our attention says that trash-diving is a regular practice at this particular location. According to this source, the employees stop cooking and throw everything away before the restaurant closes. When anyone else orders, they serve them literal junk food. Oh yeah, and the manager approves of it because it saves money! Gross.

Know what else KFC seems to think is perfectly acceptable? Check out our undercover investigations to find out for yourself. I certainly know The Roost wouldn't take this laying down!

Written by Lianne Turner

treehugger / CC

While hope and optimism have struck a chord with humans for the New Year, it couldn't have started off worse for Amazon parrots. The extremely rare Brazilian species is part of a recovery project at a wildlife conservation center in Florida which is attempting to help save the species and reintroduce the birds back into their natural habitat. However, what the conservation center employees saw on New Year's Day was a big step back.

Spooked by New Year's Eve fireworks, one of the male parrots thrashed himself to death. When the catastrophe was discovered, the parrot had severe head and face injuries from which he ultimately died. The director of the conservation center said, "We're doing everything we can to save these species and the lack of enforcement on fireworks regulations is basically undoing our best efforts."

Unfortunately, this reaction to fireworks is not uncommon by any means. Animals' hearing is much more sensitive than ours, and they often panic at the confusing and frightening experience. Many holidays end in tragedy for dogs, cats, birds, and other animals as they attempt to flee and end up hurting themselves.

The conservation center director said, "This guy could have lived to be 50 or 60 years old and could have produced a generation of wildlife. The tragedy is that this animal's life is sacrificed for absolutely no reason."

And right he is. The holidays don't have to end in disasters like this one. There are many alternatives to fireworks, such as laser and light shows, which are affordable and much safer while still providing the grand experience for humans. We are sending a letter to the mayor of this Florida city asking for stricter fireworks enforcement and a letter to the conservancy about how to keep their animals safer during these situations.

To find out more and to learn ways to comfort your animal companion if he or she panics during fireworks, click here.

Written by Christine Doré