So long, So You Think You Can Dance?!

Tonight at 9 p.m. EST, I'll be watching the series premiere of ABC's animated sitcom, The Goode Family. Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-head, is bringing vegans to primetime. The entire Goode family, including the dog, Che, is vegan, and you can bet that their obsessive efforts to be politically correct will create some awkward and hilarious scenarios.

If you can't laugh at a reflection of your own efforts to be green—mine include raising two perfectly happy, healthy vegetarian dogs who don't attack their friend, Frank the cat—what can you find humor in these days?

Written by Karin Bennett

Since Vermont is America's top producer of maple syrup, we figured that the state capital was the best place to launch our international boycott of Canadian maple syrup. Of course, Vermonters have always had a soft spot for their state's delicious syrup, but now there's yet another reason for all consumers to buy only American syrup—it's cruelty-free! Check out the pictures from the demonstration:

PETA's "seal" wielded a hakapik (the weapon sealers use to kill baby seals) and was given the chance to take out his aggression toward sealers on a 6-foot-tall bottle of gooey Canadian "maple syrup."

The blood-red contents of this bottle are symbolic of the real blood spilled by Canadian sealers during their annual slaughter.

We definitely won the fight against this massive bottle of syrup, but we still have more to do to help end the Canadian seal slaughter for good—so urge your local restaurateurs to boycott Canadian maple syrup now!

Canada has ignored calls from around the world to stop the seal slaughter, but we're hoping that a plunge in maple syrup sales will get the government's attention. So, as one compassionate Vermonter so accurately screamed out his window as he drove by the demonstration, "Vermont syrup saves seals!"

Written by Liz Graffeo

PETA is poised to take the mic on Wednesday to speak in behalf of chickens at McDonald's shareholder meeting in Oakbrook, Illinois. We're all set to grill CEO Jim Skinner and plan on asking him to change the way that his restaurants' suppliers slaughter birds by switching to controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), a less cruel slaughter method.

For years, we've tried to convince McDonald's to require its suppliers to use CAK, which would eliminate some of the worst abuses suffered by the millions of chickens who are turned into McNuggets every year. But despite our efforts, the company still refuses to implement CAK.

After the meeting at 12 noon, we'll lead a protest at a nearby McDonald's restaurant, during which two PETA members will soak in "bloody" water to draw attention to the fact that many chickens at slaughterhouses that supply McDonald's are boiled alive in scalding-hot water.

If you live in the Chicago area, feel free to join the festivities!

Written by Karin Bennett

Olympic official Carol Gross really wants our Vancouver Olympics 2010 T-shirts off CafePress.com. As in, she literally wants them and all merchandise bearing PETA's anti-fur parody of the Olympic logo removed from the CafePress Web site. Gross e-mailed CafePress asking that it "take necessary steps to prevent Sellers to advertise [sic] Olympic merchandise via use of Olympic trademarks …."

Say what?

Because this is obviously a parody of that, PETA's legal team sent a letter to Carol Gross explaining why we will continue our efforts to protect seals from the bloody slaughter by selling merchandise bearing our protected spoof logo.

We might be open to striking a deal, though. If the Olympic Committee were to help us convince the Canadian government to stop allowing hundreds of thousands of baby seals to be slaughtered annually, maybe we'd agree to quit parodying the Olympic logo.

Written by Karin Bennett

The swine flu epidemic has hit Asia—and so has PETA Asia-Pacific's intrepid team of biohazard-suited protesters. They gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila to point out the fact that factory farms are breeding grounds for deadly diseases such as swine flu and avian flu.

Thanks for the guard detail, boys! We'll take it from here.

[Heavy breathing] "Luke, I am your father. Stop eating meat, Luke."

Want to help prevent another swine flu outbreak? Click here to send a message to your Congressional representatives. Oh, and don't forget to go vegetarian.

Written by Lianne Turner

Heads up, Pittsburgh: A menagerie of costumed wolves, rabbits, foxes, and other fake fauna are about to converge on your city.

And no, it has nothing to do with PETA.

Actually, it's all about Anthrocon—the world's largest "Furry" convention. OK, so if you don't know what a Furry is, I know you're dying to ask. In a nutshell, a Furry is a person who is totally into animal anthropomorphism (assigning animals human traits). I mean totally into it. We're talking loving fictional animal characters so much that they often wear mascot-like costumes of their fave animals (think Crayola-colored cheetahs in cargo pants).

Which is where PETA came into the picture. Don't get me wrong, we weren't trying to harsh their mellow. We just wanted to make sure that convention-going "Fursuiters"—as they like to be called—weren't parading around in the pelts of real animals. Here's the letter we sent to them:

Their response?

Written by Amy Elizabeth

Sometimes, Mother Nature isn't entirely on our side when it comes to outdoor demonstrations. Luckily for us, caring citizens don't let a little rain stop them from getting the word out about animal abuse. Just check out all these pictures that were sent to us this week:

Rain check? Not for these seal lovers!

We'll come in out of the rain when the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of baby seals stops.

Is that a banana, or are you just happy to see me?

I'm thinking the rain only made this demo sexier.

Not to rain on your parade, but ... Oh, sorry, it's too cheesy, even for me. Just boycott McDonalds, OK?

Thinking about getting active for animals? Well, don't let a gray day stop you! Check out PETA's Action Center and then hit the streets.

Written by Lianne Turner

"World Week for Animals in Laboratories" means demonstrations against animal testing around the world. At UCLA on Wednesday, hundreds of activists from PETA, Last Chance for Animals, In Defense of Animals, Orange County People for Animals, and Stop Animal Exploitation Now banded together and descended upon the campus to speak out for animals in laboratories.

There was no way that drivers could have missed these passionate people or PETA's posters.

These people caused quite a stir with the pro-vivisection rally happening at UCLA on the same day.

In addition to mice and rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, and many other animals experience unimaginable pain in the name of "science."

To all the folks who showed up to express their disapproval of UCLA's abuse of animals in laboratories, thank you. You guys rock our world.

Written by Karin Bennett

The whole world is coming out of hibernation for spring. What better time to get outdoors and get active for animals? There are all sorts of demos happening. Check 'em out!

This was a particularly moving demo in Calgary to fight the Canadian seal slaughter.

This demonstration took place outside the Canadian Consulate in Seattle.

These ladies are letting the world know that McDonald's scalds chicks to death!

Ladies taking showers to demonstrate meat's effects on the environment always get attention—and just in time for "Meat's Not Green" Week!

Did you know that the amount of water required to produce one pound of meat is the same as the amount used in six months of showers?

Check out what PETA Germany's doing. This pile of bodies doesn't even come close to the number of animals who are murdered for their flesh every day.

Can't get enough photos of demos? Well, stay tuned, because we're only too happy to share! In the meantime, why don't you upload a few photos of your own?

Written by Lianne Turner