USAToday/Creative Commons

Which, as you might imagine, was all the invitation we needed to pen her another little missive, this time to congratulate her on her (mostly) compassionate diet and to suggest that if she can just bring herself to leave the sea life off her plate, we’d be glad to nominate her for next year’s World’s Sexiest Vegetarian contest (which, incidentally, her cousin Lauren won in 2003). So there you go — with her family’s noted abilities at getting people to vote for them, she’s all but guaranteed the coveted Sexy Veg title in ’08. If she can just swear off the sushi.

You can read Ingrid’s letter to Jenna here.

*Via Washington Whispers.

Oh, and in completely (like, completely) unrelated news, there was a cat vitamin recall this week. If you feed your cats vitamins, you should check this link to see if it affects you.

What’s the best way to draw attention to the suffering that fish are forced to endure when they’re yanked out of their natural environment and impaled on the end of a hook? It’s a very dangerous question to ask at a PETA brainstorming meeting. Because some of us are literalists, here at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

With that having been said, here are some stunning pictures from our latest anti-fishing demonstration in San Diego. There were a lot of media-type folks at the event, and you can read some of the coverage here.

Kidport/Creative Commons

For some reason, fish are often the last animal people cut from their diets when they go vegetarian, so if you're someone who's been thinking about giving up eating fish but never got around to it, this is a great time to take the plunge. PETA has a whole site about the lives of these fascinating animals at FishingHurts.com, and once you've checked that out, if you'd like to celebrate Fish Amnesty Day by giving up fish for good, click here to take PETA's pledge to be veg.

I will be marking this momentous occasion with a meal at my favorite vegetarian sushi restaurant, Kotobuki. Happy Fish Amnesty Day, everyone!

Click here to order a free vegetarian starter kit.

PETA Files reader Nancy Winebarger just sent me her own version of the Mercury Poisoning fish billboard I wrote about last week. Here’s what she said:

I think both concepts do a great job of alerting people to the issue in a way that grabs your attention in a different way. I’ve posted both Nancy’s and PETA’s version below—which one do you like better?

Freshpage/Creative Commons

There are a few old lighthouses on the East Coast being offered up free of charge to a nonprofit or other qualified entity under the Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. So—of course—we’re applying for them. What international animal protection organization doesn’t need a lighthouse or two, right?

The first of the lighthouses we applied for is called the Penfield Reef Lighthouse—it's about a mile off the Connecticut coast, near the small town of Farifield. Here’s a story about it.

In all seriousness, we're applying for the lighthouses to serve as the international headquarters of our Fish Empathy Project, where we would install interactive displays promoting the protection of fish. Plus, it would be the perfect place to house the world’s first Fish Empathy Quilt.

After we submitted our application for the Penfield Reef Lighthouse, we found out that an official with the City of Fairfield—backed by the local Historical Society—is trying to obtain the lighthouse. So we wrote to him offering to bow out of the competition (which, incidentally, is just between us and him right now) if he can ensure that no cruelty to fish (such as angling or fish sticks) takes place on lighthouse grounds. Here’s the letter we sent. I’ll be sure to let you know if we get a response, but I wouldn’t start making vacation plans to visit the PETA Lighthouse just yet . . .

I just got word from our media department that PETA's latest billboard, which shows a patient in a Japanese hospital who suffered brain damage from mercury that was traced to contaminated fish, along with the tagline "Extreme Case of Mercury Poisoning: How Much Is in Your Fish?" was banned in Providence by all three of the city's outdoor advertisers. CBS Outdoor Mall sent PETA the following rejection note: "We won't take anything from PETA that depicts cruelty to animals, blood, disabled children, etc." That certainly rules out a few of our billboards. The purpose of this particular ad was to warn consumers about the tragic consequences of mercury poisoning from eating fish and direct readers to a website where they can learn some of the following disturbing information:

• Government studies show that eating just one can of tuna per week can increase a person's mercury level to 30 percent above levels considered safe.
• Mercury is known to cause severe health problems for humans, including brain damage, memory loss, tremors, and damage to a developing fetus.

Feel free to let me know what you think of this one.

Yup, it's about as dumb as it sounds. Apparently the World Wildlife Fund's German affiliate has accepted 225,000 Euros for its fish conservation campaign that was raised by Unilever through the sale of fish sticks. I'll spare you the letter we wrote them, since it feels like I've been putting a lot of letters on the blog lately, but the gist of it is that the WWF needs to send this blood money right back where it came from. As our letter points out,

That pretty much sums it up. Come on now, WWF. I know you guys can do better than that.

OK, I had to admit that I had my doubts when I heard the first rumblings about a giant “fish quilt” we were making to raise awareness about the fact that fish are intelligent, intriguing animals who feel pain just as all other animals do and that they don’t deserve to be violently killed for food, painfully hooked for “sport,” or cruelly confined in aquariums. But now that I see the finished product, I have to admit that it’s pretty cool.

Lucy of Cuba, Missouri’s square.

Each square was handmade for the quilt by PETA members and supporters across the country. Some people also submitted stories about why they no longer support cruelty to fish, including the following:

• A Girl Scout troop from Austin, Texas, submitted several patches. The troop members were inspired by a discussion with a former commercial fisher, who had since gone vegetarian, about the damage that fishing does to animals and the environment.
• A quilter from Winnipeg, Manitoba, shared a story about how she and her grandfather stopped fishing because of the cruelty involved. They found other ways to spend quality time together instead.
• Several quilters made patches that bear the PETA slogan that Finding Nemo made famous: "Fish Are Friends, Not Food!"

From Amanda in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada.

The giant fish quilt is now on a nationwide tour a la the aids quilt, so keep your eye out for it. Click here to see the full quilt. Here’s a shot from its opening display in Manhattan last week.

Yeah, I know, it's kind of a no-brainer. But the relative cuteness of mermaids versus cavepeople was really hit home to me today when I received images from two different protests conducted by PETA UK yesterday. The first, from a demonstration in Edinburgh to encourage people to cut the fish out of their diets, gets 10 points out of 10 for being just as cute as can be. I frickin’ love those mermaid outfits.

But I don't think this next picture from an anti-Burberry protest (designed to make the point that fur is for cavepeople) would make the cut over at Cute Overload. Still, a pretty striking demonstration, in my opinion.

Anyway, the point of all this is please don't eat fish or wear fur. kthx.