Written by PETA
For all of us who get googly-eyed just thinking about a basket full of chocolate that's all ours, Easter is a great time of year. And when we fill our baskets with delicious vegan chocolates, we get all that melt-in-our-mouths goodness without any animal having to die for it. (Chocolate bunnies, of course, are fair game.)
Why should you leave the milk out of your chocolate bunny? Cows used in the dairy industry are often forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally. Their babies are generally taken away from them shortly after birth, and the males are raised for veal. Worn out cows are sent to slaughter.
With the bounty of yummy vegan chocolates available from companies like Rose City Chocolatier, Allison's Gourmet Vegan Bakery, and Chocolate Inspirations, there's no need to steal milk from a calf. Harbor Candy Shop has created a delicious assortment just for PETA, available in a pre-assembled Easter basket.
So we can go ahead and get our hands messy devouring all our treats (mine don’t last very long), and still have our consciences clear. Happy Eater, I mean Easter!
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Three … two … one … happy New Year! Today marks the beginning of the traditional Chinese New Year, and 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. There are a lot of great ways to make a difference for rabbits this year. You can e-mail the bunny butcher herself, Donna Karan, and urge her to switch to faux fur. You can make a donation in any amount to PETA's anti-fur campaign to help us put an end to rabbits being killed for their fur. You can also encourage friends and family members not to buy rabbits on a whim (for the Chinese New Year, Easter, or anytime).
To celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, many people often purchase rabbits from breeders or pet shops. Sadly, most of these rabbits end up neglected, dumped at an animal shelter, or turned loose in the wild, where they have little chance to survive. According to the House Rabbit Society, rabbits have fragile skeletons that are prone to fractures, and they do not like to be carried or cuddled. Rabbits also need considerable exercise, not confinement, and they do not like noise. Educate yourself on the needs of rabbits before adopting one and please do not give them as gifts or give to a child. Anyone considering welcoming a rabbit into his or her home as a companion should adopt one from an animal shelter or rescue group—rather than supporting greedy breeders—and plan on making a 10-year commitment.
Last Thursday, four rabbits in a Warwick Mall photo studio reportedly drowned in the floods that have been ravaging Rhode Island. Although the mall had been evacuated two days earlier, the bunnies—whom Portrait Simple studios was using as props for in-store Easter photos—were left behind in their cage on a "high shelf" in the studio. When employees returned to the studio two days later, they discovered that the cage had apparently fallen from its perch and that all the rabbits had drowned.
When PETA first heard about Portrait Simple's use of live rabbits for photos a few weeks ago, we contacted the studio and the store's director of operations told us that the rabbits were "well cared for, played with, coddled, and loved by our team members." Now, in the aftermath of these preventable deaths, we're asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate and if appropriate revoke Portrait Simple's exhibitor license in order to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens at the studio again. You can help by contacting Portrait Simple and asking it to implement a "no animals" policy at its stores.
Vegan marshmallow peepers! That's right, the sugary (but pig skin–laden) treats have taken the vegan leap thanks to Sweet and Sara's Easter Chick & Bunny. They are the cruelty-free, must-have edible couple of the season:
Want to call these confectionary cuties yours? Just tell us what excites you most about the upcoming arrival of spring—from extra-long walks with your animal companions to Easter-inspired month-long candy binges. We're giving a bag of these peepers to the reader with the vision that most makes us crave March's out-like-a-lamb end.
Enter by sharing your springtime hopes in the comments section. The contest ends on March 24, 2010, and we'll pick the winner on March 26, 2010. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!
Written by Logan Scherer
In an effort to rebuild his image, Mike Tyson has a new Animal Planet series in the works, tentatively titled Taking on Tyson and slated to premiere in 2011. The former heavyweight fighter will use the program to showcase his passion for pigeons via his exploits in the pigeon-racing industry.
While we would never knock someone's love for these intelligent birds, Tyson's claim to care about pigeons is rather incredulous given that he chooses to tout using them in a "sport" that—like horseracing—exposes them to danger and death. In a typical race, the birds are taken great distances—sometimes as many as 500 miles—away from their homes and then released to see if they can find their way back. It can only be a traumatic experience, as evidenced by the fallen pigeons who succumb to storms, shotgun pellets, and collisions with high-tension wires and who are often found starving, exhausted, and a long way from home. Pigeons mate for life, and the likelihood that both partners will find each other again or that the bird who is released will be reunited with the one left in the coop is a crapshoot. For those banded birds who are found by concerned citizens or turned in to humane societies and have their bands traced, the voice on the other end of the phone is likely to say what we have been told directly, i.e., "Wring their necks, that's what we do with losers."
Mike Tyson likes to tell the story of the first time that he beat someone up, saying it was over someone wanting to hurt one of "his" pigeons. Well, in pigeon racing, he'll meet a lot of people he can beat up if that's the criteria, but if he really wants to rehabilitate his image, then the seedy underbelly of the pigeon-racing world isn't the ideal stage for him. If you'd like to contact Animal Planet to state your opinion on whether this show should air or if the network should stick to Whale Wars and Animal Cops, please send a polite message to Discovery Communications' viewer relations department.
Men who can't get it up down there, beware: A new study suggests that those who suffer from erectile dysfunction "are twice as likely to succumb to cardiovascular disease or heart attacks as those who do not have the problem." German researchers say that since penile blood vessels are smaller than those in the heart, atherosclerosis appears in the penis a few years before it reaches your ticker.
Finally, someone's listening. Guys, we've told you that the saturated fat and cholesterol in meat, dairy products, and eggs clogs your arteries and slows the blood flow to all your organs, making you a Sally in the sack and increasing your risk of dying young from a heart attack. Not only does going vegan save the lives of more than 100 animals a year, it also gets your blood flowing and your love life going.
Watch out, Waldo—you've got some cute and cuddly competition when it comes to getting lost in a crowd. My new favorite game: Where's PETA's seal?
Yesterday, the Canadian government announced that it is increasing the quota for this year's seal slaughter and projecting a death toll of 388,200 (that's 50,000 more shattered seal skulls than last year). At almost the exact same time, this throng of PETA supporters and friends to seals gathered in Montréal for the International Day of Action for Seals. Bullhorns in hand, they made sure that the Canadian government heard their demand: The massacre of baby seals must end!
Add this compassionate crowd to the more than half a million people who have signed our save-the-seals petition and the result is clear: As long as blood is spilled on the ice floes, the protests will grow.
With Easter just a few days away, I have two things on my mind. Vegan Peeps candy … can it be done? And wittle baby aminals.
Lucky for me, the peeps (Ha! Get it?) over at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary have my baby-animal fix covered with their live, streaming video of baby chicks.
Let me know if you figure out the vegan Peeps candy thing.
Written by Shawna Flavell
First of all, Happy Easter from everyone at PETA!
Now, as a little food for thought for the Easter holidays, here's the transcript of the 2007 Easter Message by the Slovenian President (and my new personal hero) Dr. Janez Drnovsek. President Bush, I really hope you're paying attention:
"The Easter Holidays are near. Let’s spend them in peace and good company. You can also renounce the ham, chocolate-eggs should be sufficient for an Easter atmosphere. Would it not be more harmonious if we did not associate religious celebrations directly with ham and other non-spiritual symbols? Do really so many animals have to die when we celebrate higher consciousness and try to develop spiritually? The answer is clear: of course not. Feasts don’t have much to do with spirituality, just the opposite. Even considering that we can try to understand that in some eras, in which food was scarce, religious events were celebrated with banquets, we can now leave such material remnants behind us. True spirituality does not need them, just the opposite, because they show us that religions demanding such identifications got stuck at a relatively low level of consciousness. That’s why we’ll try to celebrate the occasion differently this time. We use the opportunity for a walk in nature, for a cleansing of the spirit, for the search for internal peace. We are friendly to our family, our neighbours and all those suffering in this world. Also to animals. We spare them this time from our lust for meat and we try to overcome historical behavior patterns. We will do something good for our spirit and our body."
Follow PETA on Twitter!
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.