Written by PETA
In a case of literal overkill, Sweden is turning more than 6,700 hunters loose on just 20 wolves. In case you don't have a calculator handy, that breaks down to about 335 armed-and-dangerous folks per animal—in a country with only about 200 wolves. And Sweden claims that this is being done to increase the country's wolf population. Wow, if that's how they handle reproductive problems, I'd hate to visit a Swedish fertility clinic!
The European Union (EU) is calling Sweden out on its bull … er, wolf droppings, warning the country that the hunt violates EU directives. EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik has proposed formal proceedings against Sweden for breaching EU regulations. But the action will be too late for the wolves—at least 16 have already died, and during a previous wolf slaughter, hunters went over their quota.
Wolves mate for life and live in close-knit family units that work together to care for their young and hunt. They rarely have internal disputes with other pack members—something we humans could learn from. Hunting can devastate entire communities of these intelligent, social animals.
Not mentioning anyone by name (*cough* Sarah Palin *cough*), but some in the U.S. also have wolf blood on their hands. You can do something about it here.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Believe me, if anyone can appreciate the thrill of the hunt, c'est moi. Seriously, I can spend hours in a Goodwill store, tracking rare vintage vinyl and bagging unique treasures.
But if you want a surefire way to ruffle my feathers, show me a man with a gun setting out with his canine buddy to maim and kill ducks. Now tell me that said dog shot the hunter in his back, sending him to the hospital—which is what happened to one California man this weekend—and I can't help but hope that the hunter, once he recovers, will have a change of heart and find a more constructive way to spend his weekends.
Written by Karin Bennett
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the seal slaughter:
Yeah. We thought that it was awful too.
How can you help end this atrocity? Glad you asked. Click here.
Written by Christine Doré
I'm not quite prepared to kiss and make up with Madonna after December's chinchilla coat debacle, but it does seem like she's beginning to make some efforts to quench her bloodlust a little bit—starting with a commitment to stop shooting at birds. Under the compassionate influence of her good friend Stella McCartney, Madonna has evidently decided to stop renting out her estate in Wilts for hunting parties; she had already given up hunting herself after one of the birds she had shot took a long time to die. As she put it:
"It wasn't dead. Blood was gushing from its mouth and it was struggling up this hill and I thought, 'Oh God, I did that. I haven't shot since."
Anyway, as I said, I'm not exactly ready to hold a parade in her honor yet, but this does seem like a promising start. As many of you probably know, I was recently named a co-winner of Time magazine's 2006 "Person of the Year" award, so I'm hoping that Madonna will pay more attention to me this time and give up the fur for good.
I don’t know why people keep sending me pictures of scantily clad girls, but as long as they do I’ll keep posting them.
Here’s what rock star activist Ashley Fruno has to say about her demo yesterday: “It was REALLY cold (only 32 degrees, but snowing really hard), we cut the demo off after an hour because I thought I might pass out.” Honestly I don’t know what she’s complaining about. I admit that a paperboard sign doesn’t do much to keep the body warm, but look at that warm hat. Doesn’t like 90% of body heat escape from the head!?! She looks toasty to me. She was probably passing out from heat exhaustion.
What’s this? Another e-card!?! What a wonderful time of year.
Actually, I have a question just for you, my loyal blogoreader. Out of all of our holiday e-cards, which did you like the most or forward on (aside from the one I wrote and sang of course)?
The footage isn’t the highest quality in this video of our recent POM Horrible campaign launch, but it interests me because it’s a great example of how the technology helps with the flow of information (and if you watch the full video you'll see it gets better at the end). That’s a no-brainer of course, but my point is that there is added value with doing things like a demo outside of POM’s headquarters. You’re not just doing it for the passersby to take it, you’re not just doing it for the media to cover—anyone could stumble upon the information that POM kills animals just to help market their juice.
This photo was just too good to pass up. The caption, courtesy of The Commercial Appeal reads: “Busted by PETA "fashion police" wearing naughty pleather cop costumes at Adams and Main Wednesday, Dennis Abernathy proclaimed "I'm guilty, arrest me" and miniskirted Monika Meilleur of Durham, N.C., obliged.” The full article, which actually contains info about the demo can be found here.
A coworker sent me the photos below today. I lost the e-mail that included info about what the hell was going on—but I'm pretty sure it involved saving animals' lives with help, of course, from our busty friends down at the precinct. The Fashion Police precinct that is!
So here’s the deal. Even if I remembered where these demos took place I still wouldn’t tell you as we don’t want to give fashion offenders (that’s people who think that wearing stuff like fur and leather isn’t cruelty to animals) a heads up. This way, for all anyone knows, the fashion police are right around the corner. And they’ll citizen’s arrest you if you wear animals. Seriously!
OK, so they won’t seriously arrest you, but don't wear animals anyway. Deal?
PETA honors trooper who saved cows from barn fireAre you a sexy vegetarian?
I just Google Newsed PETA and saw that the demos got some media coverage. So i guess it's not a secret where they took place after all. Check this story out (there's funny video of people being ticketed).
Against the wishes of a number of concerned residents—and probably quite a few bears—a federal judge allowed a bear hunt to go forward this week in a wildlife preserve in Hampton Roads, Virginia, near where PETA is based. Hunters from all over the area converged on Monday to violently kill bears in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. As it turns out, bears are better at surviving in swamps than jackasses, and not a single animal was shot, according to yesterday's Virginian Pilot, though one hunter did get lost within 50 yards of a road and had to call 911. A fleeting victory, perhaps, but a victory nonetheless. Nice work, bears.
Tiger expresses his frustration at being made to performSan Francisco thinks new dairy ad campaign stinksHunting Accident!KFC is, officially, 'filthy'
Follow PETA on Twitter!
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.