Written by PETA
Dean Foods is mooving out. It's closing two of its PET Dairy plants—one in Portsmouth, Virginia, and another in Kingsport, Tennessee, which means that milk production at the facilities will slowly dry up over the next two months.
PETA wants to lease the Portsmouth facility (located just across the river from our headquarters in Norfolk) and turn it into a Cow Empathy Museum, which would enlighten visitors about how cows and their calves suffer on dairy farms. The museum would offer interactive displays so that visitors could be hooked up to a milking machine or crammed into a small crate to give them a taste of the dairy industry's routine cruelty to animals. They'd also learn "cowlture" facts—for example, cows form social hierarchies within their herds, and many cows who have been separated from their calves will do anything they can to find their babies.
Once they are done learning about all the reasons that dairy is a downer, visitors could order soy ice cream treats and other tasty vegan foods in the Cow Empathy Restaurant. And everyone 12 years old or younger would receive a plush toy cow with a tag reading, "Cows Are Cool! Dump Dairy!"
Fingers crossed that the laid-off dairy employees will soon be toasting in celebration of their new jobs at the Cow Empathy Museum, with an ice-cold glass of Silk.
Written by Karin Bennett
Why has Cheers star Kirstie Alley packed on 83 pounds after her widely publicized diet as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig in 2007?
She told People magazine, "A vegetarian would probably be eating vegetables. But to me being a vegetarian meant I'm going to eat enchiladas with no meat, and I'm going to eat lots of bread, lots of carbs."
Hey, Kirstie: put the slimy, butter-slicked fork down! Vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters are, so we promise you'll see results!
If Nia Vardalos can drop 40 pounds by kicking cheese, Kirstie surely would slim down if she said, "Bye, bye, butter!" and gave vegan fare a shot. To help her in this endeavor, a copy of Skinny Bitch is on its way to her, courtesy of PETA.
"Hold the cheese, please!"
Nia Vardalos, star of the smash movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the upcoming film My Life in Ruins, dropped 40 pounds simply by repeating those four little words at every meal.
Nia attributes her skyrocketing "Wow!" factor to her dairy-free diet. She told People magazine, "I broke up with cheese. … [C]heese keeps calling me and trying to get me to meet at a cheap motel but I'm really committed to just staying single for awhile."
Drop dairy to shed flab and help cows? It really can be that simple.
It seems that menfolk in Montana have the highest rate of prostate cancer in the country. We suspect that this may be due in part to the link between chowing down on animal products and the increased risk of developing this deadly disease. According to a recent study, some smarties at Oxford University think so too.
Since hearing about Montana's prostate problem, PETA has sprung into action with this snazzy new billboard:
In addition to prostate cancer, slurpin' dairy products has been linked to a whole lotta no good, like an increased risk of heart disease and obesity in adults as well as allergies, ear infections, and juvenile-onset diabetes in children. Equally disturbing is the trauma that cows endure on dairy farms—and the fate of their babies (i.e., veal) is nothing short of horrific.
Now that I've depressed you all with the horrors of dairy, you can brighten your day by reading here about how easy it is to ditch dairy and meat. Then, once you're all pumped up, click here to explore the deliciousness of vegan cooking.
Come on, Montana—dump the dairy. You have nothing to lose but scary doctor's appointments.
Written by Missy Lane
OK, so our love affair with lists is no secret. We admit it. But really, who doesn't enjoy a quick bit of knowledge delivered in a no-frills, straight-to-the-point, no-expectations kind of way?
Our wandering eyes recently happened upon one list that really struck our fancy—or, shall I say, our stomachs. That is, it struck our stomachs with the sickening force of a swinging sledgehammer. Fellow list-lovers over at Men's Health compiled a list of the worst drinks in America, and we are horrified to inform you that sitting heavy in the top spot is Baskin-Robbins' large Heath Bar Shake, which contains a whopping 2,310 calories and 108 grams of fat! Oh yeah, and it contains 66 teaspoons of sugar. Pardon me, I just gagged a bit.
Of course, as with many of the drinks included on the list, the Heath Bar Shake is dairy-heavy, giving sippers an unhealthy dose of calories and the potential for a whole lot more than what's on the menu. You see, in every sip of milk there is the potential to swallow a mouthful of pus, unhealthy saturated fats, and possibly even antibiotics injected into the milked animals.
And one more thing: Cow's milk is intended for nursing calves just like human breast milk is intended for nursing human babies. And you know we have a love affair with breast milk too, right?
Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky
Start off the New Year right by making an animal-friendly resolution. And check out our cute New Year's e-card below, from us to you! Here's to a safe, compassionate, and cruelty-free 2009.
Written by Christine Doré
A milk processing plant in California exploded on Monday. Seriously—it seems that a spark landed in some powdered milk, and the whole shebang went up like a powder keg—or perhaps we should say carton. Tee hee.
Injuries were kept to a minimum, thank goodness. Only one brave employee was wounded—he was helping firefighters navigate the plant, and he had to be treated for heat exhaustion. He's fine now, though!
The milk fire did, however, get pretty big—seven fire engines had to be called in, and the explosion blew a hole in the side of the building. Goodness gracious, we already knew about some of milk's explosive effects, but this is just ridiculous!
Because it pains me to go out on a fart joke, perhaps I'll call your attention to the other dangers that are associated with milk—like breast cancer, heart disease, and prostate cancer—not to mention all the baby calves for whom the dairy industry is, quite literally, deadly.
Also, milk will blow a hole in the side of your factory. I'm just sayin'.
Written by Amanda Schinke
Firefighters in Hammonton, New Jersey, have been fighting fires in the Wharton State Forest since last Tuesday, saving not only the trees but also the animals who make the forest their home. We at PETA wanted to thank the brave men and women who are keeping the forest fire under control, so we sent them a refreshing treat—boxes of Tofutti Cuties (soy "ice cream" sandwiches), brought by friendly PETA beauties (ladies who … deliver "ice cream" sandwiches)!The smoke was too much of a hazard for our beauties to get too close, so the Tofutti Cuties were handed off to park officers to deliver to the firefighters (which I guess makes the park officers deputy PETA beauties!). The men who were directing traffic away from the fires also got to sample some delicious, cholesterol-free Tofutti Cuties. Judging by the pictures, it looks like the ladies brought the mint and chocolate varieties! (The chocolate just happens to be my favorite, so I'm trying to quell the feelings of jealousy here.)Check out photos of the ladies saying, "Thank you 'soy' much!" to the firefighters below. To learn how choosing dairy-free "ice cream" over the gross-out alternative saves your health and animals, visit MilkSucks.com
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According to Google Insights, searches for "human breast milk" skyrocketed in the last month. Searches for "breast milk recipes" have also more than doubled. (See the graphs below for more details.)
Never to miss an opportunity—especially during these tough economic times—PETA has decided to create a human-breast-milk cookbook, with all profits going directly to PETA's "Dump Dairy" campaign. In between recipes, you'll be able to read about how cow's milk has been linked to zits, mucus build-up, and flatulence. We'll also include full-color pictures of veal calves who miss their mommies. All we need now are the recipes!
Please share your human-breast-milk recipes by commenting below. (Note: Aside from the breast milk, all recipes must be strictly vegan.) We're looking for desserts, snacks, main courses, etc! Let us know how you'd like us to credit you if your recipe makes the cut.
We're planning to launch the book guerilla-marketing style. Click here if you'd like more information about our Cookbook Street Team.
Exhibit A: Graph of Searches for 'Breast Milk Recipes'
Exhibit B: Graph of Searches for 'Human Breast Milk'
Written by Joel Bartlett
P.S. This entire post is a joke, but given our history, it's understandable if you didn't get that.
So, last month we sent off a letter to Ben & Jerry's to urge the ice cream giant to drop cow's milk from its menu and start churning out recipes that use the only milk intended for human consumption—breast milk. It's a pretty simple concept to grasp. I mean, you don't see doctors taking newborn babes from their mothers' arms and suckling them up to a cow in a "drinking room" next to the infants ward. C'mon! That's absurd. Really.
Our letter to the company has garnered so much attention—and by that I mean impossible-to-walk-down-the-street-without-someone-asking-questions sort of attention—that stories about breast milk have been popping up everywhere! Not that we like to brag—OK, we love it!—but I do think our buxom beaut of an idea got the ball rolling.
Whether it's Angelina Jolie breast-feeding for a W magazine cover, the illegal duplication of breastfeeding pictures of Jamie Lynn Spears (which has prompted a federal pornography investigation), or—my personal favorite—the guy-next-door who sells his wife's breast milk for money (these are hard times, folks), stories about breast milk are spreading through the newspapers like a wildfire!
Of course, one of our favorite writings about breast milk appears in PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's newest book, One Can Make a Difference. Check it out: An entire chapter in the book focuses on how human breast milk is better for babies than cow's milk is: A pediatrician in India in the 80s found that if she urged people to switch from formula and animal's milk to human breast milk (she even started a human-breast-milk bank!), she could reduce incidences of diarrhea—which were leading to deaths! Deadly diarrhea—do you really think that does a body good? Neither do we.
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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