The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) held its annual convention in Seattle this weekend and—despite public outcry—allowed attendees to participate in a dead-fish toss.

I don't know about y'all, but when I'm looking for an "outrageously fun" time, I go dancing. I don't throw around corpses. So to remind the AVMA that sea kittens feel pain just as dogs and cats do—and to provide a memorable image of the suffering that the AVMA willingly supports—we held a stunning demonstration in front of the conference for all attendees and Seattleites to see:

Our eye-catching display reminded people that the AVMA was responsible for suffocating sea kittens.

Is it just me, or did the guy in the middle kind of luck out with the seating arrangement?

Weekend shoppers and media personnel spent much of their time admiring these "dead fish."

In the words of PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, "The AVMA is a trade group that often sides with animal abusers, not with animals. People expect more from the very people who are charged with helping and protecting animals."

Hopefully the attention-grabbing demonstration armed people with some future lifesaving knowledge.

Written by Christine Doré

The G8 Summit has been all over the news this weekend. And one of the top stories to emerge from this gathering of great minds? Sarah Brown, wife of British prime minister Gordon Brown, shunned veal—not once but twice! She even tweeted about it:

img.thesun.co / CC

This isn't the first time Mrs. Brown has refused to support the cruel veal industry. At the NATO Summit in Strasbourg earlier this year, she refused to eat veal or foie gras!

Mrs. Brown apparently realizes that in the veal industry, calves are ripped from their mothers' care immediately after they are born. They are then tethered in small, dark pens—unable to move more than a single step in any direction—and fed a diet lacking in necessary nutrients. All this is done in order to keep their flesh "tender" for when these babies are killed for someone's dinner.

Kudos to Mrs. Brown for taking a stand against animal abuse. You can follow her lead by ordering a free copy of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit" today.

Written by Shawna Flavell

flickr / CC

The folks who scoffed at our proposal to buy SeaWorld and convert its facilities into non-animal theme parks might reconsider their stance after reading about the real cost of having these parks continue with business as usual.

Last week, we received word from a whistleblower that a dolphin named Dixie, who is exploited in SeaWorld's Discovery Cove "swim with dolphins" attraction in Orlando, gave birth to a stillborn infant. What's more, even though SeaWorld knew that Dixie was due to give birth, the park apparently did not have a veterinarian available for Dixie at any point during or after her labor. She was forced to endure this traumatic experience—and its aftermath—without proper care.

This information came to us just a few short weeks after another dolphin, Scarlet, and her unborn fetus died at Discovery Cove. In that case, we were told that the necropsy revealed that Scarlet's uterus had ruptured while she was pregnant, causing the calf to be released into her body cavity.

These disgraceful incidents clearly show that SeaWorld and other aquariums don't really care about the well-being of the animals they incarcerate, so we have filed a complaint with the USDA calling for investigations into Scarlet's death and the lack of care provided to Dixie.

We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you're going to Florida this summer (or any other time), there are lots of great places to visit where your money won't go toward hurting smart, sensitive animals.

Written by Jeff Mackey

Animals—from horses to birds as well as those killed for their fur, skin, and flesh—have a friend in Dan Piraro, creator of the wonderfully offbeat internationally syndicated cartoon Bizarro.

Now Dan has stepped up for cats used in excruciating (and scientifically inferior) pediatric intubation training at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Trainees who are enrolled in the Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course at the facility repeatedly force plastic tubes down cats' windpipes. This painful procedure often causes bleeding and swelling in the tissues of the cats' throats and can also lead to scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death! Manikins and advanced simulators have proved superior to the use of animals for intubation training, and the sponsor of the PALS course, the American Heart Association (AHA), exclusively recommends the use of these humane methods—not animals—for this training. The AHA has also distanced itself from the few facilities such as St. Louis Children's Hospital that continue to use animals in PALS.

Dan, a former student at Washington University in St. Louis (which offers the PALS course in conjunction with St. Louis Children's Hospital), has fired off a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, writing, "It doesn't take a medical degree to recognize that practicing intubation on a limp cat is nothing like doing the same procedure on a larger, crying, squirming and/or coughing human child." And to make that point even clearer, he included this cartoon:

Click for a larger version

Definitely worth a thousand words! But you don't have to be an artist to tell St. Louis Children's Hospital that "first, do no harm" should include our feline friends—all you have to do is click here.

Written by Jeff Mackey