Written by PETA
Imagine how it must feel to have to wear a heavy coat outside in August! PETA members in Lansing, Michigan, no longer have to wonder after sitting in cages on a hot sidewalk in order to illustrate the misery of animals on fur farms during hot weather, when they have no escape from the heat.
Summer brings extra hardships for animals who are already suffering physical and psychological distress from constant confinement in a small wire cage. And there is no peaceful end to their suffering. Animals killed for their fur endure some of the most gruesome deaths imaginable, including death by neck-breaking, bludgeoning, poisoning, anal and genital electrocution, and being skinned alive.
"We may be hot, but it's worth it to raise awareness about the suffering of minks, raccoons, and other animals and—their babies—when they are left in feces- and urine-covered cages in the searing heat."
There is never a good season to wear real fur. Send a message to the fur industry by adding your name to PETA's growing list of people who have pledged to be fur-free forever.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Nearly nude professional model—and vegetarian—Megan Currie sudsed up in a tub in Edinburgh, Scotland, for World Water Week while policymakers met in Sweden to discuss global water issues. The bathing PETA UK beauty informed passersby that it takes the equivalent of 50 bathtubs filled with water to produce just one steak.
"Not only does the meat industry inflict cruelty, it also wastes huge amounts of water and damages the planet," says Megan. "You can't eat meat and be an environmentalist."
A recent U.N. report calls the livestock industry "a key player in increasing water use" and "probably the largest sectoral source of water pollution."
On top of that, billions of animals raised for food each year endure routine abuse on crowded, filthy factory farms, where they are subjected to painful mutilations, before being sent to slaughter, where many are butchered while still conscious.
You can help fight the worldwide water crisis and save up to 100 animals per year by going vegan today.
Via PETA.org.uk
When President Obama held an economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, on Tuesday, PETA supporters were there getting piggy with it.
A staffer was passing out leaflets at the forum when a group of enthusiastic young people ran up to her and offered to help with the demonstration. One donned the pig costume, and the others handed out leaflets explaining the benefits of a tax on meat.
Because meat is a leading cause of climate change and drives up health-care costs by contributing to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, among other illnesses, it only makes sense that meat should be subject to a "sin" tax just like alcohol and tobacco.
Taxing meat would not only help balance the budget, it would also encourage people to cut the pork out of their diets, saving countless lives—both human and animal.
What do cows, snakes, and foxes all agree on? That they would prefer to keep their skin right where it is, thank you very much. All three species (represented by body-painted PETA members) joined forces in Knoxville, Tennessee, to ask people to wear their own skin, not animals'.
The "animals" grabbed a lot of attention from people coming and going from the surrounding offices, and many people took home leaflets about animals killed for their skins. Even the local police couldn't get enough of the models, assuring them that they would "keep an eye on things." They certainly did—with huge smiles on their faces!
PETA's macabre protest outside the Louisville, Kentucky, leather goods store Leatherheads on Tuesday morning was apparently really scary—so scary that employees refused to open the store until our corpses made ghosts of themselves.
Instead of a dead animal skins, everyone who passed by Leatherheads during our protest left with pictures of the "deceased" and information about how cows and other animals are abused and killed for their skin. And while the police were at first busy trying to figure out something they could put the protestors in the pokey for, they relented and took pictures instead.
Not into the zombie look? See our guide to fun, not fatal, fashion.
The following was first published on Animal Writes: PETA UK's Blog
Looks pretty good, doesn't it? Almost 100 PETA U.K. supporters took part in an eye-catching photo opportunity in London Saturday to demand that the government not adopt lower standards of protection for animals in laboratories when it incorporates the E.U.'s new directive regulating animal experiments later this year. If the government adopts the directive without changes, all animals will be affected. But dogs and cats in particular would become far more likely to be used in experiments because they would lose the special protections that Britain has given them for more than 25 years.
"Britons don't want more cats and dogs experimented on or more suffering for the millions of other animals used in laboratories. They want fewer animals used and less pain," said PETA U.K. policy adviser Alistair Currie. "We are calling on the public to send a clear message to the government that the citizens will not accept the laws that protect British animals to fall to the level of the EU's lowest common denominator."
A big thanks to all the fantastic PETA U.K. supporters who sent that message loud and clear.
Sometimes, when you're trying to show people the benefits of a vegan diet, you have to get a little cheeky.
These PETA beauties' bottoms came out on top when Charlotte, North Carolina, residents came out in throngs to take pictures of their thongs. Their supply of hundreds of vegetarian/vegan starter kits was gone before the crowd was, and the ladies had to stay late to accommodate the long line of picture-seekers.
Tired of jiggling when you wiggle? Order a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit and get started trimming your own assets.
Even through-the-roof mercury levels couldn't stop our mootivated herd of cows from descending on the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas to demand their skins back.
Folks attending the shoe convention inside became curious when they heard the musical stylings of lead bovine Meggan Anderson on the cowbell and came out to snap pictures of the cows hoofing it up and down the sidewalk. After reading their signs about how leather hurts cows, people had great reactions, including one man who said that he was going to share the photo of our "cows" on Facebook and tell his friends to boycott leather.
The cows replied, "Amoon."
The world didn't come to an end when road crews shut down 10 miles of one of Los Angeles' busiest freeways this past weekend, but the absence of the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405 was certainly an other-worldly scene. Then there was a heavenly vision: PETA members reminding the hardy motorists who dared to brave Carmageddon that going vegan clears up arteries faster than $5-a-gallon gas.
If we want to get serious about unclogging arteries, maybe road crews should put orange cones in front of slaughterhouses and factory farms.
When our beauties in the buff graced Bourbon Street to show that baring skin is better than wearing skin, one passerby was so inspired that he shed his shirt and joined in.
While it takes a lot to raise eyebrows in New Orleans, the ladies (and gent) managed to capture the attention of hundreds of passersby, who walked away with informative leaflets about the cruel fur and leather industries.
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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.