dd258 / CC

Today, my love affair with Norfolk's own Bella Pizzeria vegan pizza was solidified. As I was browsing through the morning paper and munching on my heavily soy-milked cereal, I came across this gem, which made me gag a bit.

I was already aware that cheese is a glob of coagulated goo that comes from cow's udders (complete with all the bovine misery inherent in milk production). Apparently, it's much, much more than that.

I'm horrified to inform you that behind the taste of this slimy, smelly concoction lies stomach lining, pesticides, and pure fat. And if that doesn't sound bad enough, experts say that no cheese would taste quite the same without the thousands of bacteria that are in and on it. And the fat is what gives cheese its flavor! Worse? Many of the bacteria in cheese are unidentified by scientists, and nobody knows what effects they may have. If your dinner plans included mac and cheese, you may wish to reconsider. Personally, I'll be ordering one large pizza, with extra soy cheese. To find the best soy-cheese pizza in your area, check out our Top 10 Vegan-Friendly Pizzerias.

Written by Liz Graffeo

animalrahat / CC

What if you could help a truly worthy cause, which helps animals who have some of the worst lives on the planet? Well, snap, you can!

Forget Heifer International (I'll tell you why in a minute)—here's the wonderful Animal Rahat, which means "animal relief." Animal Rahat is based in Indian villages that produce bricks and sugar cane and was created (with PETA's help) to provide relief to the working bulls, donkeys, ponies, and horses the impoverished villagers rely on. Animal Rahat has greatly improved the lives of these animals by giving rest to the lame—something the owners could never afford by themselves in their hand-to-mouth existence. Animal Rahat also provides free medical relief to lame, sick, and injured animals. The owners of these animals are often too poor to afford even the most basic nutrients that the animals require to stay strong and healthy—let alone pay for veterinary services.

Animal Rahat has even created a retirement program in which owners are offered a small subsidy to "retire" older animals and allow them to live out the rest of their lives with their human families—rather than send them to hideously cruel slaughterhouses.

With the holidays upon us, kind folks are opening their checkbooks in the spirit of helping others. Please, let's not forget about those hard-pressed working animals who need a day's rest, a poultice for a wound, a bridle that doesn't eat into their faces, and more.

And let's not be fooled by organizations like Heifer International, which send animals to families abroad. This only perpetuates the cruelty to which animals raised for food are subjected—and they always end up slaughtered. And in addition to preventing daily cruelty, it's far more efficient to feed the hungry on a vegetarian diet, as the resources stretch a lot further. After all, it takes 6–16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat—and that's a lot of wasted food …

So, why not save a life this holiday season and help these working animals? You know you want to …

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

PETA's sexy "fashion police" are on patrol again. Last week, they took their beat to the street - in New Haven and Providence, handing out citations to leather-wearers for "violating common decency." For some reason, every "offender" loved being "detained." In fact, this is pretty much what happened every time:

Fashion Cop: No more leather, promise?Passerby, hanging head in shame: OK.

Of course, looking at photos of our cops, I have to say—they look like they mean business! I wouldn't want to argue with them, either.

And, if you're looking for some pleather boots as awesome as those (I know I am!), we have a few cruelty-free suggestions for your consideration.

Written by Amanda Schinke

As we reported last week, now is the time of year when we on the anti-cruelty side of things need to step up our fight against ugly, ugly fur. It's cold outside and we're at the height of the shopping season—and what goes along with cold, conspicuous consumption, and callowness? Fur buyers, natch!

So we've been stepping up our protests—as you may have noticed—and one of the latest demos featured a caged PETA member in downtown St. Louis. Her presence reminded shoppers that fur does not come from the Fur-Coat-Tree Forest in Magical Ignorance Land.* Fur comes from caged-'til-they're-insane animals on farms and trapped-'til-they're- stomped-on animals in the wild—and we're not going to let consumers forget it.

You can check out photos of the demo below—and don't forget our tips on how to be the best fur fighter you can be.

*Not to be confused with Imaginationland, where those who skin animals alive would surely live on the bad side of the barrier. Too bad furriers are real.

Written by Amanda Schinke

wired / CC

President-elect Barack Obama has promised Americans a "21st century government"—one that we at PETA feel needs to address animal welfare. The growing concern for how we as a nation treat our animals is evidenced by last month's majority support for California's Proposition 2, which will require animals on factory farms to be provided more space in their cages.

Now, PETA's brilliant minds are asking the Presidential Transition Team to consider the creation of two national councils—a National Food Policy Council and a National Toxicity Council—to work toward improving the government's pitiful record on food and toxicology policy.

Point One
PETA's recommends that the government put human health before the agriculture industry. Both the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program are currently in the hands of the USDA—an agency that appears to be more concerned with improving factory-farming profits though animal exploitation than it is with improving human health. Both of these programs offer an overwhelming amount of meat and dairy products, but little to no vegetables or fruits.

For the sake of human health, it is vital that the NSLP be transferred into the Department of Education, and the WIC program become a part of Health & Human Services—recommendations that we are sure our suggested National Food Policy Council would agree on.

Point Two
PETA wants the government to form a National Toxicity Council to improve the way our nation deals with risks from toxic chemicals. As we know from the number of drugs that are approved after they are tested on animals only to be determined later to be harmful to humans, it is clear that tests conducted on animals do not provide sufficient results.

The National Research Council Report states, "the vision takes full advantage of current and expected scientific advances to enhance our understanding of how environmental agents can affect human health. It has the potential to greatly reduce the cost and time of testing and to lead to much broader coverage of the universe of environmental agents. Moreover, the vision will lead to a marked reduction in animal use and focus on doses that are more relevant to those experienced by human populations." Our suggested National Toxicity Council would focus on attaining the National Research Council's vision within a reasonable amount of time.

We hope that President-elect Obama will take these issues to heart and implement our suggested interagency food and toxicity groups. By doing so, he will be able to achieve his goal to "leave our children with a better world," and his actions will reduce waste, protect human health and the environment, reduce animal suffering, and save money. Couldn't ask for much better, really … and you can help! Click here to find out how.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

hollywoodtoday / CC

Sadly, I still remember the first time I heard Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time." I was in the eighth grade and TRL was still wildly cool. My skinny, stirrup-tights-wearing, headgear sportin' 13 year-old self just couldn't get enough of the song. I remember thinking we had found a true pop princess.

But man, how quickly America's sweetheart fell from grace. And it wasn't pretty.

Now, at the bottom of the barrel, she's sporting elephants dressed in circus attire for her new video titled—what else—"Circus."

As Britney is such a victim of the paparazzi and always complaining and crying about how she hates to be held up in her guarded house and can't feel free, she of all people should be able to relate to the horror that captive animals go through when they're used for entertainment. Except Britney chooses to perform, and the lifestyle just comes with it. Animals are ripped away from their mothers at a young age, kept in chains, and prodded with electric shock devices to make them perform. That doesn't sound so voluntary to me.

Britney is now just an "outrageous" and "toxic" mess. I certainly don't want her to "gimme more," and neither do the animals who have been abused so that she can feel "lucky."

Well, we're not takin' this sitting down. We've got a killer action alert ready for those of you who want to fight with us and tell Brit to stop using animals in her acts, once and for all. Click here to take action today.

I must confess that I still believe she can turn herself around.

Written by Christine Doré

One of twelve men—including three supervisors—who forcefully threw turkeys into coops for transport.

Last week—just in time to give the turkeys who are still suffering at Aviagen something small to be thankful for—Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., announced that it had terminated all the employees who were found to have violated Aviagen's animal welfare standards. (I hope the guys who stomped on turkeys' heads were the first to go.)

This is a great, although small, step for the turkeys who are still tightly trapped in Aviagen's dark, dusty sheds—at the very least, they won't have to suffer at those individuals' hands or under their watch any longer. So far, however, Aviagen seems to have passed on the opportunity to press for a criminal investigation and prosecution of the dismissed workers. If the executives at Aviagen were really serious about cracking down on cruelty to animals, wouldn't they join us in asking officials to prosecute these individuals?

Also, Aviagen has announced that it has "outlined a series of actions" that will improve its "existing welfare guidelines" and "ensure [that] violations do not occur in [the] future." That sounds nice—but based on what the company's "existing welfare guidelines" failed to prevent, I think I'd feel a little more comfortable with some specifics, don't you? Gosh, it sure would be nice if somebody were to provide Aviagen with a list of specific steps to take to improve animal welfare—oh wait … we did.

Please help by writing a polite letter to Aviagen asking the company to implement PETA's Seven-Point Animal Welfare Plan and to call on officials to prosecute any employees—past, present or future—who abuse or neglect animals. Aviagen has made some small progress already—let's hope it continues its much-needed reforms.

Written by Amanda Schinke

tvgasm / CC

Did you see last night's episode of The Office? You may have guessed that my favorite part was at the end, when Michael, clad in his new fur coat, told us this valuable lesson: "You should know that some people think it's cool to throw buckets of fake blood on you as you are walking out of Burlington Coat Factory." Bwaha! That's true—although flour does seem to be more popular these days.

Original Office star Ricky Gervais spoke out against fur, too, when he teamed up with PETA Europe in the worldwide fight to stop Canadian bears from getting slaughtered for silly hats.

All of you Office fans can breathe a sigh of relief—the coat they used to film the episode was (hooray!) faux. However, if Michael Scott were a real person, he very well could have marched into his nearest Burlington Coat Factory and bought himself a hideous dead skin. That's right, for all of you who were wondering (and for all of you who called and e-mailed us to ask), "Burlington Death Factory" does, in fact, sell actual fur—a fact that we happily informed everyone who asked.

So, figuring that Burlington might notice a sudden drop in its sales right when all the conscientious consumers are gearing up for the holiday season, we were kind enough to send its execs an e-mail with an explanation: Hey Burlington, we told everyone who asked that you sell fur, and we suggested other (fur-free) places where they can take their money.

So, hey, Burlington, how about you follow other retailers like Zappos.com, Burton, and so many others and change your furry ways? We'll even accept your leftover fur stock as a taxable donation. Sweet of us, right?

Written by Amanda Schinke

The wonder crusaders over at PETA Asia-Pacific have been crossing country borders nonstop for the sake of animals. Their efforts as of late have reached crowds of people in China and Australia, and even more individuals are tuning in via news circuits and the Internet. We say, rock it, PETA A-P! Of course, we fancy our readers to be in the know about everything animal rights—so we've compiled a few photos of our affiliate's latest efforts below. Enjoy!

PETA Asia-Pacific's naked holiday chicks assembled outside a KFC in Adelaide, Australia, where they encouraged bystanders to have a cruelty-free holiday. The brave ladies wore nothing but a banner that read, "Make It a Merry Chickmas: Boycott KFC!" The back of the banner read, "Turn Your Back on KFC Cruelty."

In Hong Kong, locals were greeted by sexy angels outside the Giorgio Armani flagship store. The wretched designer buys his rabbit fur from China—which is now the world's largest fur exporter. PETA Asia-Pacific's investigation of rabbit fur farms in China revealed that the fur industry there is one in which cruel practices—such as shooting animals in the head with electrical stun guns—are rampant.

The Asia-Pacific crew held another Armani demonstration, this time in Sydney, Australia. Activists held oversized posters of the designer sporting an extra-long Pinocchio-esque nose because he went back on his earlier promise to remove fur from his collections permanently. I guess when you're already an animal abuser, lying doesn't bother your conscience that much.

Now, don't those pics just make you want to get out there and do something? Well, get to it!

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Here are the top four reasons why Fred Willard is the man:

4. This Is Spinal Tap: Seriously, put it on your bucket list.

3. Waiting for Guffman: A travel agent–slash–community theater star who's all tracksuit and no talent—nice.

2. ABC PSA (ad-libbed version): Known for his improv skills, Fred ad libs on the acronyms in this funny bit focused on our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign.

And the number one reason Fred Willard is the man? Well, you'll just have to see for yourself:

Written by Amy Elizabeth