In the wake of last week’s news about Spain banning bullfights from national TV comes this story from The Guardian about a man being gored to death while participating in a bull run. 30-year-old Jose Antonio Vaquero was tossed around on a bull’s horns while other runners tried to distract the animal, but apparently it was too little too late.

Sadly, this kind of thing is par for the course when it comes to bull runs and bullfighting, and is another reason for Spain to step into the 21st century and ban the cruel bloodsport once and for all.

About seven years ago, PetSmart CEO Phillip Francis made a commitment not to sell rabbits in PetSmart stores because of the high numbers of bunnies who are dumped in shelters after the novelty of an impulse purchase wears off. "Our brand name stands for ethics, quality, health and good care for animals and we're always willing to forego the short run marginal sale because our standards are higher and our ethics are little bit better," he said. Well, either that was an empty promise or else PetSmart Corporate decided it was a good business decision to lower their ethical standards in the intervening years, since the company has announced that it will start selling rabbits in its stores, despite the thousands of rabbits who are abandoned to die in shelters every year.

As you probably know, we're pretty unhappy with the company as it is, based on their lousy record of animal care and their refusal to stop selling animals in the first place. So we sent our own bunny to sort them out. Check out the pics below, and an article about the protest here. And you can write to PetSmart about this issue at http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/petsmart_rabbit_cruelty.

N.B. Please note that I was able to avoid using the phrase "hopping mad" throughout this entire post. I feel like I deserve some credit for showing such considerable restraint.

If you’re even kind of into fashion, then you know that Nicole Miller is a pretty big deal. So, we were beyond excited to see this story about Miller’s recent announcement that she is going totally fur-free.

FashionEncyclopedia/Creative Commons

The grassroots group NYC Animal Rights had their sites set on Miller for protests during the upcoming fashion week, but it looks like they are shifting their focus to Michael Kors instead. Good luck NYC Animal Rights!

Did you happen to see The Tonight Show on Tuesday night? Leno unveiled his new set, which includes—drum roll please—a spiffy new set of pleather couches. Yes, pleather. Leno even made the comment that no animals were used to make them.

Maybe 2007’s Sexiest Vegetarian contest winner Kevin Eubanks had a little something to do with the switch to synthetic sofas . . .

As lawyers go, Ringling Bros. has some pretty fancy, expensive ones, but despite their best efforts last week, they couldn't keep the circus from being dragged into the courtroom once again, this time on charges of (surprise, surprise) elephant abuse. Judge Emmet Sullivan announced Thursday that a last ditch attempt by Ringling's attorneys to hold up the proceedings was a "waste of a considerable amount of [the court's] time and resources," and that the case, which was brought by a consortium of animal protection groups and a former Ringling Employee, will go forward. The circus stands accused of violating the Endangered Species Act by "abusively training and disciplining elephants with sharp implements such as bullhooks, by intensively confining and chaining the multi-ton animals for prolonged periods, and by forcibly separating baby elephants from their mothers." Given that the ol' Endangered Species Act doesn't look too kindly on those training practices, it sounds like Ringling's going to be in a world of trouble. 'Cuz that's pretty much all they do.