Written by Alisa Mullins
Motorists cruising down L.A.'s Beverly Boulevard might get a little distracted when they spot Olivia Munn's sexy new "I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur" billboard, which The Daily Show correspondent unveiled in person today in Los Angeles.
"When you think about even that little tiny trim of fur on your gloves or on your collar, that is still coming from an animal that had to endure so much pain just for you," says Munn. "There's nothing good about pretending like you don't know."
Munn, who is currently shooting the new HBO series The Newsroom and the Steven Soderbergh movie Magic Mike, sat down with PETA for an exclusive video interview, which you can watch here.
Munn is also the host of PETA's brand-new video exposé of fur farms in China, the world's leading fur exporter. "As a proud person of Chinese descent, it broke my heart to learn just how terribly animals suffer and die on Chinese fur farms and that there are no penalties for this abuse," explains Munn in the video, which reveals conscious raccoon dogs writhing in pain as workers rip the skin off their bodies. Rabbits scream as workers slit their throats and cut off their heads. Dogs and cats—some of whom still wear collars—are crammed into tiny cages and thrown off trucks.
Please "like" and tweet Olivia's new video so that all your friends can learn why they should leave fur on its original owners' backs.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Megan Park, the star of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, has great fashion sense both on- and off-screen. So, of course, she never wears fur, as she makes crystal clear in a new anti-fur ad for PETA.
Before she was an American teenager, Megan was growing up in Canada and was appalled by the Canadian seal slaughter. With her beau, musician Tyler Hilton, by her side, she chose to reveal her stunning new ad in her native country so that she could encourage fans on both sides of the border to keep fur where it belongs—on animals.
"These animals are skinned alive and kept in small little cages. It's just awful, awful treatment, and there's no reason for it," she says.
Megan and an adorable rescued pup named Tyson remind people that Chinese fur farms often sell dog and cat fur labeled as something else, so if you buy fur, there's no way to know whose skin you're really wearing.
Click here to see the behind-the-scenes video from Megan's photo shoot and join her in getting the secret out: If you wouldn't wear your dog, you shouldn't wear any fur.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Unless you live in a sensory deprivation chamber, you probably get queasy at the mere mention of Kim Kardashian. But wait! PETA's new billboard should give the reality TV star a much-needed reality check—at least when it comes to her furry wardrobe, which often features the pelts of animals as dead as her brief marriage.
Kim © StarmaxInc | Foxes © Patricia Kullberg/ Dreamstime.com
We've contacted Kim several times about the notorious cruelty of the fur industry, in which animals on factory fur farms are kept in tiny wire cages in all weather extremes and are genitally electrocuted and even skinned alive. In fact, Kim's compassionate sister, Khloe Kardashian, posed naked for a PETA anti-fur ad and kindly showed fur-farm video footage on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But the hardest thing to keep up with is the number of carcasses that Kim wears.
Hopefully, our arresting billboard on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood will inspire the entire Kardashian klan and other shoppers to follow Khloe's example and leave fur off their holiday lists.
When Kim is ready to put an end to her much-publicized relationship with fur, PETA will be happy to take her discards and donate them to the homeless. She can even help us pass them out! I'm sure there's an E! special in there somewhere.
You can get in on the action, too—donate your furs to PETA today.
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.
Pamela Anderson was as perplexed as we were to learn that despite Denmark's recent ban on cruel fox-fur farms, some in the country's royal family still wear fur. Perhaps the Queen is harking back to her girlhood, when fur was integral to the royal robes, but since she enjoys all the other trappings of a modern life, it’s time to lay cruel stodgy fashions to rest. Pam penned a letter to Queen Margrethe II explaining that all fur means animal suffering:
Undercover investigations into fur farms have shown cruelty to animals across the board, from Denmark to the United States. Most fur comes from China, where animals—including dogs and cats—are bludgeoned and even skinned alive for their fur, as seen in this short video. Minister Eva Kjer Hansen of Denmark stated, 'Mink breeders break animal welfare rules. And that is unacceptable.' Animals trapped in the wild are no better off: Many suffer for hours and even chew off their own limbs to escape.
Hopefully, Queen Margrethe II will join the scores of leading ladies, including Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, who refuse to wear fur. Until she does, we have a feeling she hasn't heard the last from Pam.
PETA welcomed the sultry start of summer Tuesday with a reminder that summer is no vacation for animals who are bludgeoned to death, anally electrocuted, or drowned on fur farms year round.
Ready to take a vacation from cruelty? Sign PETA's Pledge to Be Fur-Free today!
Written by Jared Misner
Pamela Anderson finds so many new and creative ways to help animals every day that we're starting to think she should be called Saint Pam. When she was invited to launch a swanky new club in Los Angeles owned by a Danish entrepreneur, Pam used the opportunity to talk to the Scandinavian media covering the event about the cruelty of Danish fur farms.
Denmark is not far behind China in mink production, and Saga, an international organization that pushes designers to use fur, is based there. Danish animal advocacy group Anima published the findings from 26 Danish fur farms that found injured, sick, and dead animals on all of them. Minks were missing legs, tails, and ears and had oozing wounds covering their faces. Dead minks were cannibalized or left infested with maggots and rotting in cages with live minks. One of the farms, owned by the chairperson of the European Fur Breeders Association, is often shown to designers as an example of how well animals on fur farms are treated. Even at a farm where conditions are said to be the "best in the world," animals were suffering horribly.
Pam's L.A. event was packed with media representatives for whom she detailed the cruelties of the Danish fur industry, and she also called on Scandinavians to ditch fur. Quite the saintly act, if you ask us.
Approximately 50,000 minks got a taste of freedom after someone apparently broke into two fur farms in Greece last weekend and released the animals from their hideous, cramped, filthy little cages. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for freeing the minks, but you only need to watch a few seconds of this undercover footage, which was shot on a mink farm in Sweden, to understand why minks are best left in the wild.
Horror revealed on Swedish fur farms from Djurrättsalliansen on Vimeo.
We can all emancipate minks and other animals who are imprisoned, trapped, electrocuted, gassed, stomped on, and skinned alive for their fur. All we have to do is pledge never to buy or wear even a tuft of real fur and urge everyone we know to do the same.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
With Sweden poised to consider whether it should ban all fur factory farms (the country has already banned fox fur farms), the Stockholm-based Animal Rights Alliance has just released a new video showing the horrors that it found during its undercover investigation of 17 mink farms across the country. To help ensure that the footage is seen by decisionmakers, CSI star Jorja Fox sent the video to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt along with a letter describing the nightmarish conditions on Swedish fur farms—conditions that clearly violate Sweden's Animal Welfare Act. You only have to watch the first 30 seconds of this undercover footage to understand exactly why fur farming must end, but please show it to people who might need a bit of a push.
Written by Jeff Mackey
This is my confession, Usher. When I read that you'd fallen victim to a robbery over the holiday season, I felt bad for you. Someone ripped off your unreleased music and you lost more than $1 million in jewelry! Tough blow. But I hope you realize that you weren't the only victim. Considering that the original owners of the fur coats stolen from your car—the animals—were probably skinned alive, I'd say you got off lucky.
Instead of stealing other animals' skins, I'd love to see you make a donation we can all benefit from. It's been three months since Glee's "Confessions"-"It's My Life" mash-up, and we're dying for more.
So, to sum: Glee donations = good, fur = bad. Robbery = hassle, being skinned alive = horrific. I hope that you will listen when we urge you not to replace the fur coats and to take our pledge to be fur-free.
After all, they call you U-S-H-E-R R-A-Y-M-O-N-D—it would be great if we could call you C-O-M-P-A-S-S-I-O-N-A-T-E.
Written by Logan Scherer
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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.