Diddy flaunting his dead animal coat

When Diddy promised to remove the raccoon dog fur coats which were mislabeled as "faux" from his store and stop production of the cruel garments, some people began to think that the rapper might actually care about something other than bling. Now it appears that they might have jumped the gun ...

According to the New York Post, as of Christmas Eve, Diddy still had yet to take the dog-fur coats off the racks of his Fifth Avenue flagship store:

What's next Diddy, kitten-trim earmuffs?

The AP reported last week that Macy's has pulled two styles of Sean John hoodies following an investigation by the Humane Society which revealed that they contained fur from raccoon dogs, despite the fact that they were being advertised as faux fur. A spokesman for the store talked about its "long-standing policy against the selling of any dog or cat fur," (which, by the way, it's frickin' illegal—hence the policy) and P-Diddy also expressed his outrage and concern, saying "I was completely unaware of the nature of this material, but as soon as we were alerted, the garments were pulled off the Macy's floor and Web site."

Here's what I don't get. Why is it that both Macy's and P-Diddy freak out when they discover there are cats and dogs in their clothes, and yet they're perfectly content to produce and sell fur garments made from other animals? I would love to hear them try to come up with a rational answer to that question.

I know that I posted this video a few weeks ago, but this is what happens every day to raccoon dogs who are used for their fur. Not for the faint of heart.

The BBC just reported on a study by Southampton University scientists which showed that individuals who were vegetarian by the age of 30 recorded an average of five IQ points higher than meat-eaters. The initial IQ tests were performed in the '70s, and the results of the study (after adjusting for social and economic factors) demonstrated that the intelligent children were significantly more likely to become vegetarian later in life. Researchers have hailed this study as a compelling explanation for why "higher IQ in childhood or adolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adult life."

Incidentally, the study also showed that vegetarians were more likely to be female, which may be evidence that girls are smarter than boys. But I don't really need to think about that.

Virgil Butler, the former slaughterhouse worker from Arkansas who dedicated his life to educating others about the horrors of factory farming, died last night in his sleep at the age of 41. Virgil spent 9 years working in Tyson slaughterhouses, killing as many as 80,000 birds a shift in extremely dangerous working conditions and for very little pay. But in 2002, Virgil contacted PETA to say that he had had enough of the human and animal suffering that he witnessed every day, and asked what he could do to help. Discussing his and his wife's feelings at the time, he said,

For the next four years, Virgil played David to the poultry industry's Goliath with courage, resourcefulness, and a limitless supply of patience and good humor. He gave news conferences about his experiences, spoke forcefully about animal and human rights issues on his blog, The Cyberactivist, and inspired thousands of people to make changes in their lives based on his own compassionate example. His legacy is one of kindness, hope, and perseverance, and his loss is very deeply felt.

After reading about Christina Ricci's continued refusal to stop wearing dead animals (including, for God's sake, reindeer), Dodger, the owner of Ricci's biggest fansite, replaced all of the site's information about her—including more than 900 photos—with PETA anti-fur ads and the following inscription:

When E! Online's gossip columnist heard about the story, he immediately contacted Ricci's publicist, who was evidently all dismissive and uppity about it … until she found out that Dodger's page is the second thing that comes up on Google and a bunch of other search engines if you search for Christina Ricci. You can read E!'s take on the story here, and check out Dodger's powerful message to Christina here.

Meggan, a PETA activist in California, just sent in some great ads she made for peta2.com. This one changed my world a little bit.

This one's for you die-hard Law & Order: CI fans (and closet Wonder Years fans) out there: We spent some time hanging out outside Vogue in New York this week, with some information for the magazine about their continued fur promotions, when who should show up but the lovely Olivia d'Abo? Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool, especially since she's in one of my all-time favorite movies, Kicking and Screaming. Check it out—here she is at the Vogue Christmas party:

So we just heard from Christina Aguilera that she has replaced the fox-fur stole she wears on stage with a faux-fur version after receiving a letter from PETA. Apparently, she had specifically asked her tour's costume designer, Roberto Cavalli, to only use fake fur, but in a press release to Women’s Wear Daily, Cavalli bragged that he had sent her a stole made from real, dead white foxes.

It may be that Roberto Cavalli was still sulking after PETA members disrupted his Milan fashion show this fall and decided to take it out on some foxes, but we're very grateful to Christina for doing the right thing from the start: After PETA VP Dan Mathews emailed Aguilera the Cavalli item and a link to Stella McCartney’s video exposé showing how foxes are anally electrocuted for their fur, he got an immediate response saying that Christina is “very upset” because she “only ever wears fake fur.” The fox stole has already been replaced with a faux-fur version, and the tour is continuing in Europe 100 percent fox-free. Thank you, Christina!

Shaq's sensitive hands

So, after a few months of getting used to their new synthetic ball, the NBA has decided they need to switch back to balls made from cows next year. Because Steve Nash and Shaq didn't like the way the new balls grazed their delicate hands. This has been tough for us sports fans at PETA, because while we were delighted with the NBA's decision to use nonleather balls (as the NCAA has for years), we're also well aware of just how sensitive the hands of some NBA players are—much softer than college players' hands—and we'd hate for Nash, Shaq, or LeBron to ruin their manicures.

But we have a compromise that will save Shaq's skin and cowskins at the same time: Today, PETA's Campaign Manager Dan Shannon sent an open letter to NBA players, offering a lifetime supply of cruelty-free hand cream to anyone who's willing to give the composite ball another shot. You can read the letter here, and if you have any extra sensitive-skin hand cream lying around, you might want to send it along to some of these guys c/o the NBA. We just hate to see them suffer.

This video is pretty cute. It's an award-winning PSA that a PETA member gave us to help encourage people to get their pets spayed or neutered. I'm not entirely sure where the narrator's odd accent is from, but I feel like it adds to the overall effect.

On a vaguely related note, when I first got Princess Cuteyface (she just came in through my window one day), the vet told me that she was at least a few months pregnant. This freaked me out because it was already kind of a big step for me to be committing in the first place, and, I don't know, everything was just happening so fast. Fortunately for both of us, it was a false alarm—turns out she's just a very big girl. Plenty of Princess C to go round. Anyway, I have a new vet now.