rightpundits / CC

Thanks to PETA's investigation and the great job done by Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, officials, Holly Crawford—the woman who disfigured several kittens in hopes of selling them as oddities on eBay—has been convicted of cruelty to animals and may face up to several years in jail!

In December '08, an eBay shopper tipped us off to Crawford's auction of a miserable-looking kitten with a docked tail and heavy jewelry through much of his body. Crawford marketed him as a "gothic kitten." The ad read: "[S]ix weeks old floppy eared pure black gothic kitten.14 gauge ear piercings.14 gauge submission ring on the back of the neck. docked tail with 14 gauge barbell on the end of the nub. comes with 14 gauge surgical steel jewelry and decorative submission lead." Yes, not only had Crawford repeatedly pierced this kitten (which is bad enough), she had also "docked" his tail with a rubber band—and all without any anesthesia. Oh, and she'd done this to his littermates as well!

Posing as interested buyers, PETA learned that one of the kittens had already ripped out a piercing and that Crawford was waiting for the wound to heal before she pierced him again. During conversations with PETA, Crawford stated that the kittens could be walked by an ornamental leash fastened to the "submission rings" in their necks. The woman said she had done it to these tiny animals because she thought it was "neat." In addition to inflicting immense pain and disfiguring these beings, Crawford had effectively impeded their hearing, physical balance, and psychological health, according to court testimony from a veterinarian.

We submitted information to local authorities, Crawford was charged with cruelty to animals, and all the kittens were confiscated. A year later, she went to trial and—thanks to a blistering prosecution that included testimony from PETA investigators—Crawford was found guilty!

As we await Crawford's sentencing, please keep in mind animals who depend on you as their witnesses. Speak up for any animals you know of who are being abused. Remember, they are voiceless. It's up to you!

Written by Logan Scherer

Elizabeth Carlisle—the former Petland employee who drowned two rabbits in the backroom of a store in Akron, Ohio, and then posted a now-infamous photo of the animals on Facebook—recently pleaded guilty to two counts of cruelty to animals.

Carlisle's case caused a media storm and drew attention to the epidemic of animal abuse at pet stores across the country. Time after time, undercover investigations have revealed that Carlisle's shocking behavior is par for the course at places where animals are bred and sold. Although the Akron store has been closed, Petland continues to sell animals at its stores across the country, meaning that many more animals just like Carlisle's victims are at risk. Take action now and urge Petland to stop selling rabbits forever.

Written by Logan Scherer

PETA's headquarters in Hampton Roads, Virginia, is well known to local residents, many of whom volunteer to help animals in their spare time. Thousands in the area have taken advantage of our low-cost animal clinics and the Bea Arthur Dog Park, which is open to the community.

But every once in a while, someone visits PETA headquarters with ill intentions—like the guy who dumped this sweet, starving, nearly-naked bag of bones in our parking lot late one August night and then tried to drive away.

Not realizing that people were watching, the driver shoved an ailing cat, who has since been named Nadia, out of his car, and ignored the terrified and confused animal as she tried to get back into the car, running after it as the man drove away. Fortunately, he was spotted by two PETA Foundation staffers who immediately approached him and saw right through his lame excuses for dumping Nadia on the street.

It took us more than 10 days, during which time the temperature soared to more than 100 degrees, to catch the poor, petrified cat. When we finally did, we rushed her to a veterinarian, who determined that Nadia was 3 pounds (!) underweight—she weighed just 5 pounds—and that she was missing hair on more than half her body, likely because of a severe allergic reaction to fleas. Nadia has been recuperating in foster care ever since and is waiting for her new forever home.

As for the heinous man who attempted to abandon her, he had his moment in court on Friday. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of abandonment and received a suspended sentence of a $1,000 fine and five days in jail. He was also sentenced to two years of probation, during which time he cannot own or keep any animals, and he had to pay restitution to PETA. Most importantly, he learned that abandoning an animal is never an option, no matter the circumstances.

Written by Karin Bennett

… but first, here’s a comic from the wonderful Dan Piraro that I think just about sums it up:

One of Michael Vick’s codefendants, Tony Taylor, changed his plea to guilty today. Taylor admitted to the court that he helped buy pit bulls and puppies and executed animals who didn’t do well in performance tests by shooting and electrocution.

PETA is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone suspected of dogfighting.

PETA demonstrators outside Taylor’s hearing today

I know I just blogged about this on Friday, but I just couldn’t resist another entry . . . OK, so maybe it has a little something to do with the fact that I grew up with The Lost Boys and The Goonies, but I absolutely loved the premiere of the new A&E reality show The Two Coreys last night. Of course, it could also have a little something to do with the fact that the plot centered around a dinner meeting with KFC Campaigner Nicole Matthews.

Here’s the description from the producers:

After a long hiatus, the "Two Coreys" are finally reunited when Corey Haim comes to stay with his best friend, Corey Feldman, and his wife, Susie. But a lot has changed in the years they have been apart—Feldman is married, a devout vegetarian, animal activist, and a non-smoker. Haim, still single and a committed carnivore, finds himself at odds with Feldman's new lifestyle and struggles to adjust to the rules of the house. The tension peaks when Haim disrupts an important dinner meeting between the Feldmans and a PETA representative.

You can check out the re-run Friday (August 3) at 11pm, Saturday (August 4) at 3am and 1pm, Sunday (August 5) at 5pm and Sunday (August 12) at 2pm. All times are Eastern Standard Time.

Here’s a clip to whet your appetite, and you can click here to read our interview with Corey Feldman and his wife Susie.

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.

I just love Bea Arthur. She has been speaking up for animals for years, most recently narrating this moving KFC video and helping with our Petsmart campaign. Now she is turning up the heat on Beverly Hills restaurant Matsuhisa—where she has been a loyal customer since it opened in 1987—for serving cruel foie gras. Check out her letter below.

Following PETA protests outside Niketown stores and countless calls and emails to the company asking that they cut ties with Michael Vick in light of horrific allegations of his involvement with dogfighting rings, Nike has released the following statement:

As a result, we have called off our planned protests outside Nike stores around the country. Thanks to everyone who wrote to the company about this issue or attended the demonstrations, and thanks to Nike for doing the right thing by ending its association with someone accused of torture.

Reebok has also made the decision to stop sales of Michael Vick apparel, stating:

This is great news for anyone who is concerned about cruelty to animals, and we hope that it sends a strong message to the NFL that they need to do the same thing and suspend Michael Vick immediately, pending the outcome of this case. To send a message to the NFL asking them to get on with that, please click here.

The new reality show, “The Two Coreys,” premieres this Sunday at 10pm EST on A&E, and PETA Campaigner Nicole Matthews is on the show. There’s been a lot of office chatter about it and it sounds like it’s going to be off the hook. In more good news, we’ve got a sneak peek for you here. Check out the video below, and read on for our interview with Corey Feldman and his lovely wife Susie.

Oh, and here are the details of the show, from the producers:

So how did you first get involved with PETA?

Corey: I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years now; I’ve been doing animal rights activist type stuff for that length of time. But the first project I did with PETA was about 6 years ago when I was doing The Surreal Life when I married Susie and did the Meet Your Meat Campaign.

What was it like working on that project?

Corey: It was cool—for me it’s really hard because as a major animal lover it’s hard for me to actually sit through that stuff. I believe those videos are made for people who don’t get it at all and need a wake up call. And if you’re already there, it's kind of disturbing and kind of superfluous. I couldn’t actually watch the video—I had to basically narrate it with my eyes closed.

What was it exactly that first made you go vegetarian?

Corey: When I was 8 years old, my parents wouldn’t let me do it, and I think I was about 12 or 13 when I made the final decision like, “I know what I’m doing and if you don’t like it, too bad.” And that actually came though the influence at the time of Michael Jackson and Stephen Spielberg, because I was working on the film The Goonies. I was eating a steak one day and he sat down next to me and was mooing and saying, “You realize you’re eating a cow right? Why are you doing that?” And then I became friends with Michael and he was vegetarian at the time but no longer is an advocate—but at the time he was very influential in that world. But he brought me to his house and had his chef prepare me my first vegetarian dinner which basically helped sell it. So between the two of them I was like, “OK that’s it forget it, all bets are off.”

And then you didn’t look back?

Corey: Never once.

So what would you say to someone who thinks it’s just too hard to be vegetarian?

Corey: Well it’s a list of cop outs for everybody. Everyone’s number one argument, especially people who are hardcore carnivores; their number one reason is always “Well if you go back to the Bible, the Bible said that animals were put on this Earth to eat and that’s what they’re there for.” And I’m like, “Look guys, the Bible was written 2,000 years ago. We didn’t have science, we didn’t have technology, we didn’t have education, we didn’t have supplements; we didn’t have all these things. You were either eating raw corn stalk or cook an animal, so I get it. But we’ve evolved and the world, the Earth, the human race, it's an evolutionary process and we must evolve as human beings. But I guess the big answer is there are so many options with meat substitutes where you can live a happy and healthy life and still get the taste requirements met.

In the episode that's about to air with Nicole Matthews from PETA, how does the whole dinner go over?

Corey: It’s kind of a train wreck but that’s kind of what makes the whole episode work so well and kind of what made the point go across so well. Because what happens in the episode is Nicole comes over and we’re having this great dinner and it’s really informative and the point of it is we’re trying to figure out a new campaign to do with PETA. What happened was Corey found her very attractive, so he starts like hitting on her. We had sort of set up a blind date and he was gonna go off with her as we did our business, but he ended up sending that girl home so that he could focus on Nicole. Nicole does as any great PETA representative would do, she sees that as a great open door to use that as a sales pitch. So she goes in of course and finds some videos and they’re talking about it and he acts really interested. And it ends up that he takes her to the Jacuzzi and tries to talk her into getting in the Jacuzzi with him. We’re not going to say how it was resolved because that would give away the first episode…

It’s great that you use your platform to get that message out there when so many people just don’t think about that kind of thing.

Corey: We feel it’s the only reason we’re given these opportunities. I don’t think that I would have the following that I do unless there’s a reason. It’s very important to me that I reach all these people, and it works. Because I feel that you can be an actor or a musician or a celebrity and it can all be about “bling” and it can all be about you. It can be all about this self indulgent morality that people walk around with these days. Or you can care on a higher level about what’s happening with the rest of the universe and the world and the people in it, and the animals in it.

You mentioned environmentalism a bit, do you see a tie in between being a vegetarian and helping the environment?

Susie: All of our cleaning products, lotions, shampoos, and toothpaste are organic and non-chemical, non-animal tested. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to be against animal testing, but it goes hand in hand. You know the rainforest that’s cut down or the land that’s cleared for cattle and factory farm animals, the destruction of the rain forest specifically for beef cattle is mind boggling to the both of us that they would destroy a very precious eco system just so cows have a place to eat grass. The people in South America don’t even really get to eat that beef but the land is being destroyed for it, and definitely the methane that’s produced from the cows and pigs. It’s definitely contributing to global warming. It’s hard for people to wrap their minds around the fact that their cheeseburger is making global warming worse. I think it’s an important message for people to get, but it’s hard for people to put the two together and make the connection.

If you have any advice for someone who wants to get involved with helping animals in any way possible, what would it be?

Corey: Anything and everything. You can do the smallest little thing by donating your time by working at an animal shelter. You can work with adopt a pet. There are so many things in any city and any state and most parts of the world that can be done. Going back to the problem in Australia with the sheep…it’s such a universal problem. You look at companies like Uggs, which is one that we’re targeting because they don’t tell you that they use sheep skin for the parts. They just say, “Look at these cool boots, we’re just using wool.” You don’t really find out that they’re actually killing the sheep to get the wool. PETA has a really informative list of the companies that are using animal free products and ones that aren’t. Although it seems minuscule, making that one little change of not buying those products and not supporting those companies will force their hand. So just keeping in touch with PETA, checking the website, getting put on the email list makes a difference.

Well great, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us!

Corey: Oh, one last thing. If you could also send people a link to my website which is www.coreyfeldman.net, I got The Positive Fame award from the Wildlife Way Station last year. Events like that, which is kind of subliminal advertisement for all things positive. The first step is about PETA and as soon as the stories come out we’ll automatically link to the PETA website. So there are always positive things to do where people can make a difference.