Written by PETA
Our neighbors to the south have been busy bees for animals lately. Last Saturday, more than 9,000 people took part in a massive activist-organized march for animal rights in Mexico City. How inspiring are these pics?!
The event raised tons of awareness, got lots of media coverage, and allowed organizers to gather more than 6,500 signatures on a petition asking the government to introduce tougher penalties—including jail time—for people who are convicted of cruelty to animals. Not bad for a day's work.
If you are the mood for a margarita and a march for animals, swing by Mexico City on June 27 to join this stellar group of people for another march in honor of Mexico City's official Animal Rights Day. Or if you are just feeling inspired by all this activism, be an amigo to animals by trying one or two of PETA's easy summer outreach ideas.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Congratulations to white-hot menswear designer John Bartlett, who just received the American Image Award for Designer of the Year from the American Apparel & Footwear Association. This trendsetting designer is as notable for his compassion as he is for his clothing—he recently announced that he has gone vegan and that the collection that he showed in February will be his last to include leather!
As Bartlett explained, "After working in the fashion industry for over 15 years, I have had a recent awakening of sorts and am committed going forward to discontinue all use of leather. I am very alarmed by the recent resurgence of fur on the runways and will be reaching out to my colleagues about the realities of this horrific aspect of our industry. I am presently working to develop a vegan shoe and accessory line and have gone vegan after discovering the devastating state of factory farming."
And if that's not enough to make you a fan, consider this: When asked by an interviewer what he would do if he weren't a designer, he said he thought that he would be working with dogs in animal shelters. Awwww. Way to go, John!
Written by Jeff Mackey
The following is a post that originally appeared on PETA Prime.
Because of your support, PETA is able to work in local communities, helping individual animals in need. Thousands of animals are helped by PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP) each year. This is the second in a series of posts chronicling the work of CAP—this post is from Amanda Kyle, fieldworker for CAP. The first post can be found here.
As a CAP fieldworker, I was out one day delivering doghouses and straw bedding to dogs who are forced to live outdoors when a passerby alerted me to two semi-feral dogs suffering from severe skin infections. When I stopped by to check on the situation, I found these two frightened puppies living on what appeared to be an abandoned property. They wouldn't let me get close enough to touch them. Both dogs had bloody sores and were missing a lot of hair. No one was home, so I left a note, gave the dogs food, and put straw bedding inside a wooden box that seemed to serve as their "house."
I tried for several days to track down these suffering puppies' guardian—I talked to neighbors and stopped by at different times but could find no one who seemed to know anything. The puppies had been surviving off scraps that neighbors and passersby left for them.
Days later, when I stopped by, this time at night, the temperature was 18 degrees, and the note I left the first day was still on the door. I couldn't leave these puppies out there any longer. I can't even imagine how painful the below-freezing temperatures must have felt on their cracked, bleeding skin. I spent hours trying to catch these poor, frightened puppies, and I finally succeeded in coaxing them into carriers.
A vet determined that they both had a severe case of mange covering about 80 percent of their bodies. Their skin was also badly infected from the bleeding wounds, and they were suffering from a severe hookworm infestation. The vet who examined them gave medications to give them a little relief while we continued our search for the puppies' guardian, but the vet recommended euthanasia because of the severity of their condition. By this time, the two puppies seemed to have realized that my team and I were all there to help, and they warmed up to us quite well. They even let us pet them, so we were able to give them the love and attention that they craved—likely the only time they'd ever received any at all.
While I spent several more days trying to track down a guardian for these pups, another one of our fieldworkers brought the puppies home to stay with her and her two dogs. For those few days, these two sweet pups got to experience things that all dogs deserve to have every day, all their lives—shelter, regular meals, veterinary care, companionship, and compassion.
Even though the puppies were so much better off than when I found them, they were still suffering terribly. The medication gave them only a little relief from the infections that had grown so severe during the months with no medical treatment and poor nutrition. Had I left them where I found them—abandoned, freezing, and hungry—their condition would only have gotten worse and caused them even more pain over the days or weeks before they succumbed to their ailments. They likely would have died a miserable death. Because of their terrible suffering, we took the veterinarian's recommendation of euthanasia and gave these angels a peaceful release from their pain and suffering.
Even though this was such a sad case, I'm so thankful that we got the chance to give these dogs some care and much-needed relief. Part of what is so important about CAP's work is that I get to help animals for whom no other help is available. PETA's spay-neuter clinics are lowering the number of homeless animals in this region so that in the future, all pups (and kittens) will be born into loving homes, not on the streets. Until that day, we won't turn away from those who are in need, even though our hearts break while carrying out this work.
Amanda Kyle goes out into the community every day to rescue and improve the lives of animals in PETA’s own neighborhood.
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.
Written by Logan Scherer
After dealing with the pot smugglers who hid almost a ton of marijuana in a banana delivery near the U.S.-Mexico border last month, David Aguilar—the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection—could probably use a boost. So we've got a proposal that's sure to make him smile: Help get rid of another addiction epidemic by hanging our "Say No to Pot (Roast)" signs on the border.
Knowing that meat consumption is linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and many types of cancer, you'd have to be on drugs to willingly eat carcasses. And that makes sense because meat-eaters are on drugs. Animal products are loaded with antibiotics, dioxins, and hormones that have all been linked to myriad health complications. The green godsend that we can't get enough of? Vegan cooking.
The Alps. Chocolate. Here's another reason to love la Suisse: Swiss laws already make it illegal to keep fish or any other naturally social animals isolated from others of their own species (no more lonely fish in bowls); require farmers to let horses and cattle out for exercise in winter; and require citizens to make sure that their companion dogs get exercise. And each year in Zurich, a government-paid "animal lawyer" represents between 150 and 200 animals whose rights have been violated in some way. Cases range from a woman with 149 cats to an incident involving an angler who kept a fish dangling on the line for too long.
So it's no surprise that last weekend, 30 percent of Swiss citizens voted in favor of a referendum to expand Zurich's groundbreaking approach to animal protection to the entire country. Although the referendum didn't pass, the vote brought international attention to the importance of expanding and enforcing legal protections for animals. Swiss Animal Protection—the country's largest animal rights organization—has already taken this opportunity to urge officials to step up their enforcement of the country's stringent animal-welfare laws and new Animal Welfare Act.
If you could pass an animal protection law in your state, what would it be?
As if heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes weren't enough, we've just learned of another shocking health fact that will have you replacing the flesh on your fork. Meat is linked to anaphylactic shock.
Researchers from the University of Virginia, the University of Tennessee, and the John James Medical Centre in Australia recently discovered that meat allergies may be much more common than we once thought. The scientists examined 60 patients who suffered from recurring cases of unexplained anaphylaxis and found that nearly half of those people were actually reacting to a carbohydrate in meat. Symptoms of the meat-induced allergy don't appear until hours after eating, making the dangerous reaction difficult to trace.
A potentially deadly allergic reaction that's almost impossible to trace? Sounds like an easy path to an early grave. But even if you're not allergic to meat, we'd like to let you in on a secret to a longer, healthier life. Give your body a break and start eating a cruelty-free diet.
Another day, another strand unravels from SeaWorld's carefully crafted damage-control campaign in the wake of the tragic death of a trainer at the Orlando park last week. The scandal du jour is that, back in 2007, after a trainer at the San Diego SeaWorld nearly drowned after being dragged underwater by an orca, the California Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) issued a report concluding that a fatal attack on a SeaWorld trainer was "inevitable" and not a matter of "if" but "when."
But the Cal/OSHA backpedaled on its warning after SeaWorld whined and moaned and claimed that the report was "full of inaccuracies and speculation" and described the staffer who wrote it as "uninformed and reckless." Interesting choice of words: Who's looking reckless now, SeaWorld?
But wait—there's more! According to a former SeaWorld trainer quoted in the Los Angeles Times' blog, Unleashed, because Tilly is a male orca being forced to live in unnaturally close quarters with females in a matriarchal society, he is a fish out of water, so to speak—he has no solid position in the pecking order. As a result, he has to be kept separated from the other whales with gates. In a somewhat cryptically worded statement, the former SeaWorld trainer mentioned that "threat-displays" and "less room to maneuver because of his massive size" have resulted in Tilly's teeth being "broken off." In short, "he doesn't have any viable teeth left." Reading between the lines, we can only wonder if Tilly is so frustrated and maddened by his plight that he has systematically broken off all his own teeth by gnawing on and bashing his head against gates. Wow, aside from that little matter of killing three people, he sounds so happy and well-adjusted, doesn't he?
You can read more about SeaWorld's miserable and short-lived orcas in an essaypenned by Debbie Leahy, PETA's director of captive animal rescue and enforcement, that appeared in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and several other newspapers.
Written by Alisa Mullins
When you're friends with Pamela Anderson, it seems like anything is possible … even snagging tickets to one of the hottest events in Canada.
After delivering our petition against the seal slaughter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Dancing With the Stars beauty graciously gave her tickets for Sunday's Olympic closing ceremony to PETA's seal mascot. While Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, and Neil Young performed, our seal was busy educating Olympic fans from across the globe about Canada's upcoming seal slaughter.
I was already stoked about PETA's Marketing Department's upcoming move to Los Angeles, but after watching this exclusive footage of PETA peeps at Cruzer Pizza—the city's all-vegan pizzeria—I'm ready to get on the next flight and finish the construction of our new office myself. Check out the epic culinary journey of Royale, our Twitterer and veganista extraordinaire, and Lauren, our celebrity marketing coordinator, who went behind the scenes to help choose the ingredients in Cruzer's new "PETA" pizza.
Free of cholesterol, trans fat, and cruelty, the vegan pizza at Cruzer has 33 percent less fat than do pizzas made with dairy ingredients. And the only torment involved is that it makes those of us here on the East Coast salivate. So if you're in the area, stop by Cruzer Pizza and make sure to order the PETA (a portion of the proceeds is donated to us)!
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.
Follow PETA on Twitter!