therapycatguardian/ CC by 2.0

For the next four days (November 9–12), every donation that you make to PETA using the PayPal option at PETA.org will be matched by PayPal. The good folks at PayPal will match up to $5,000 per charity, but there is an added bonus of $1,000 for the charity that raises the most money.

Just think how many cats and dogs we could spay and neuter, vegetarian/vegan starter kits we could distribute, and undercover investigators we could equip with $11,000. Help us take full advantage of PayPal's generous offer and help even more animals by making your donation today!

The terrible destruction in Pakistan is a chilling reminder that disasters can strike anytime and anywhere. More than two weeks of relentless monsoon rains have left at least 1,600 people dead and millions more homeless, and health officials are concerned about the spread of cholera.

Animals are even more poorly equipped to survive a disaster than humans are. They are even more likely to suffer and perish since rescue efforts invariably focus on getting vital food, water, and medical care to human survivors. According to news reports, hundreds of thousands of cattle have drowned in Pakistan's floods. Surviving goats, sheep, and other animals desperately rummage for food that isn't there on muddy patches of wasteland.

As we did during other crises, including the earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina, PETA is providing support to organizations and volunteers in the affected areas who are working to care for injured and starving animals. But we can't do it alone.

Please consider making a donation to PETA's Animal Emergency Fund. With your support, we can continue our vital work to help animals wherever they may be in trouble.

Written by Paula Moore

A bear owned by notorious Ohio animal exhibitor and convicted felon Sam Mazzola has mauled a 24-year-old man to death. PETA has campaigned against Mazzola's cruel act for years as he took bears on the road and charged people to "wrestle" them or have their photos taken. His act left injured people and property damage in its wake. Mazzola was fined, and after 20 years of exploiting animals, federal authorities finally revoked his license to display animals. But because there are no laws prohibiting people from keeping wild and dangerous animals as "pets" in Ohio, Mazzola is still allowed to keep bears, tigers, and other animals.

Need I mention the chimpanzee who removed a woman's face and fingers in Connecticut or the woman who was mauled by a bear who escaped from a menagerie in Ashtabula County, Ohio; forced his way into the woman's home; knocked her to the floor; and attacked her? The list is long. The time is overdue for lawmakers to revamp the laws so people can't keep tigers, bears, chimpanzees, and other wild animals in backyard pens and ramshackle cages.

Please join us in calling on Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to quickly sign the pending executive order that would ban the sale, purchase, breeding, and possession of many species of exotic animals in the state.

Written by Jennifer O'Conner

If you make a donation of more than $100 before July 31, not only will your generous gift be matched, you will also receive a signed copy of Ingrid E. Newkirk's book One Can Make a Difference: How Simple Actions Can Change the World. Here are the rules:

The following blog originally appeared on PETA Prime:

There are moments in history when individuals make a choice in concert with others, and that choice reverberates for decades. Groups often form in response to a challenge from one individual. Take Henry Bergh, for example, a man of the early 19th century who led people to band together to bring about anti-cruelty legislation. Or Ingrid E. Newkirk and her decision 30 years ago to found PETA, which has resulted in monumental progress for animals. And now, with the generous help of Bob Barker, PETA is looking for 1,000 people who will step forward for animals by July 31. Will you be among the ranks or otherwise help us meet his challenge?

As you may know, Bob Barker recently gave PETA $2.5 million to create a new nerve center for animal rights in Los Angeles. At the time that the Bob Barker Building was dedicated, Barker issued a challenge: He offered to donate an additional $2 million to match certain gifts to PETA—one of those gifts being new memberships. And that's where you come in, even if you already are a member.

PETA always has more opportunities to help animals than financial resources to carry out the work. The new Bob Barker Building isn't just about bricks and mortar. Just as PETA investigators go wherever change for animals is needed, PETA wants its staff members to be based wherever they can benefit animals the most. By relocating our International Grassroots Campaigns, Youth Outreach Campaigns, and Marketing departments to our new Los Angeles headquarters, PETA will have more space to grow and more power to carry out our mission. You can help us change the world for animals by supporting Bob Barker's challenge.

If you are not yet a member, please step forward now with a contribution of $16 or more and support PETA’s work to end cruelty and promote respect for all animals and Bob Barker will match your gift. We are trying to recruit 1,000 new members by July 31 to kickstart our fundraising goals. You can become a PETA member by clicking here. Your donation will make a great difference because PETA is efficient as well as effective, with almost 81 cents of every dollar going directly to programs that help animals—and in this case, Bob Barker will double your dollar!

If you are already a member, please help us by finding one friend or family member who will step forward now for animals and have their gift matched by Bob Barker. You can help by sharing this blog post via Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail or in any other way that you can think of to help spread the word.

All current members receive a one-year subscription to PETA's colorful and informative magazine Animal Times, which features great new vegan recipes, heart-warming stories about animals, and information on how you can help protect animals.

In the first three decades of PETA's existence, we've seen great progress, but there is still so far to go. Won't you seize this historic opportunity to build PETA's membership so that we can continue to expose cruelty and act to end it? Please help PETA meet Bob Barker's challenge and change the world for animals!

Written by Scott VanValkenburg

Three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas is proof that one man can double-team fur industry cruelty. First, he bared it all in his "Ink, Not Mink" ad, and today he hosted PETA's fur-coat giveaway in Washington, D.C., where donated coats were handed out to the homeless:

Only those who can't afford to buy coats to keep them warm have any excuse to wear fur. Do you have any skins that you'd like to shed from your wardrobe? Donate them to PETA, and your old fashion faux pas could help a person in need or become bedding for an orphaned animal.

Written by Logan Scherer

With the Winter Olympics just a week away and all eyes turning to Vancouver, now is the perfect moment to draw attention to Canada's upcoming slaughter of tens of thousands of young harp seals. These sensitive animals are often less than 2 weeks old when sealers beat them, hook them in the eye, mouth, or cheek, and then drag them across the ice in order to steal their skins. The hope to finally end this bloody massacre and save these seals is literally pinned on the support of compassionate people.

So right now, PETA is giving one of our limited-edition pins to everyone who makes an online donation to help save the skins of seals and other animals (while supplies last).

Wearing your pin is an easy way to remind your friends of the massive slaughter that will begin only days after the world's athletes and TV cameras leave Vancouver. Where will you stick yours?

Written by Logan Scherer

dailymail / CC

2010 is already shaping up to be a clawsome year for lobsters! First, Kalahari Resorts dropped Lobster Zone machines from all its locations, and now Doc Ryan's—a bar in Illinois—has also made the humane choice to remove the "game." After we urged people to take action, it took a mere 24 hours (take that, Jack Bauer!) for Doc Ryan's owner, Brian Sullivan, to decide to abandon the machines altogether. After speaking with a concerned customer, Sullivan learned about the cruelty behind the Lobster Zone game and, as an animal lover, told us he would never want to promote a machine that torments lobsters. For Sullivan's swift act of compassion, we're sending him flowers.

The Lobster Zone is an arcade-like "game" that allows its users to grab at terrified lobsters using a joystick-controlled crane. Once caught, the lobsters are dropped down a chute before they're boiled or cut up alive. Restaurants owners often aren't aware of the cruelty inherent in these machines. Lobsters are naturally very solitary animals. In the wild, they take long-distance seasonal journeys and can cover 100 miles or more each year. They become miserable and sick when they're confined to tiny, filthy tanks. Helping lobsters at bars and restaurants can be as easy as telling a restaurant's manager or owner these compelling facts and asking everyone you know to do the same. (And when that doesn't work, PETA will take the case!)

Written by Logan Scherer

P.S. We've also learned that Doc Ryan's serves a delicious veggie burger (and is open to even more vegan suggestions), so the next time you're near Forest Park, Illinois, be sure to thank Brian Sullivan by stopping in for dinner.

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"When I was trying to work her out, I kept saying to myself, 'She is a punk-rock, vegan pacifist.' So I listened to a lot of Blondie, I watched a lot of Greta Garbo movies, and I looked at a lot of the artwork of Dan Flavin."
—Anne Hathaway on what inspired her character in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

The movie hits theaters on March 5, and that very important date is already in my planner—but I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite character. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter or Anne Hathaway's vegan-inspired White Queen? Oh dear.

Written by Shawna Flavell

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TV psychic John Edward's got nothing on this clairvoyant cat. Oscar, who lives in a Rhode Island nursing home, has supposedly predicted the deaths of about 50 people over five years by curling up next to patients right before they take their final breath. His purdictions are so reliable that the nursing home's employees know it's time to call family members when Oscar, who will scratch at the doors and walls of rooms holding the soon-to-be-deceased, reclines alongside someone. And Dr. David Dosa—a professor at Brown University—has become so intrigued by and attached to the snuggly soothsayer that he has written a book about him called Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat, which will be released this week.

We're totally meowed by Oscar's apparent psychic talent. You?

Written by Logan Scherer

On my list of life's simple pleasures, right below "Cuddling with my cat during our Project Runway marathon": a cold beer, a pair of perfectly worn blue jeans, and a basketful of fried tofu. I'm not alone here: The Grammy Award–winning Zac Brown Band agrees with me—well, at least about the cold beer and blue jeans.

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But I'm optimistic that the band will also be singing the praises of soy after it ponders PETA's proposal. We've asked the band members, who sing about their love of freedom in "Chicken Fried," to consider what life is like for chickens and other animals who are kept in constant confinement on filthy, crowded factory farms before they're cruelly slaughtered. We've also offered to partner with Zac and the band on a vegan "eat and greet" for fans on their upcoming West Coast tour. And to make our offer even more tempting, we've sent the band members a basket of delicious, protein-rich faux meats.

So now we wait to hear back from Zac and the rest of the band. In the meantime, I've started veganizing lyrics to some of my favorite country classics. Darling Dolly's "Jolene" becomes "Gardein," for example. Ante up by listing your favorite veganized honky-tonk tune in the comments section below.

Written by Karin Bennett