Or maybe it’s fox. Either way, a whole lot of them had to die so that the aging Stone could wear her desperation on her sleeve on the red carpet yesterday. I hate to give this photo any ink at all, as I’m sure the only reason Stone wore the hideous wrap was because she’s having trouble getting any meaningful attention these days. And because she’s total trash.

And fyi, it’s not just that Stone is uneducated on this issue. She knows that animals suffer horribly when they are killed for their fur. We’ve written, called, sent videos, you name it. She just doesn’t care. She is, as my friend Joel puts it, just a horrible human being.

MSNBC/Creative Commons

Oh, so about the fur thing. Westwood came to her compassionate decision after meeting with members of PETA Europe and learning about the suffering of animals raised and trapped for fur. The last of Westwood's furry items were eight rabbit-fur handbags, which the company allowed PETA Europe to donate to a wildlife sanctuary. Apparently, the bags will be used to comfort orphaned baby animals.*

The list of progressive fur-free designers is getting longer every day. Westwood joins Ralph Lauren, Betsey Johnson, Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Comme des Garçons, Marc Bouwer, and others who have banned fur from their designs. It’s high time for Michael Kors and other furry designers to get their heads out of the sand and evolve. Seriously, it’s 2007 already. Get over it.

*Wow. I never thought I’d use the words “orphaned baby animals” and “Sex Pistols” in the same blog entry. Wonders never cease, I guess.

Since the Halloween season is upon us and all that, I wanted to share this bit of Halloween trivia with you. Zombies hate KFC. Seriously, they hate it. In fact, they hate it so much that they held a protest at a KFC in Moscow, ID, with signs reading “I’d Rather Be Dead Than Eat at KFC”. Unfortunately for this group of zombies, their photographer only got shots of their signs reading “Aurgh Graun Uargh”. But you get the idea. If you’d like to do your own zombie-themed KFC demo, click here.

And since you asked . . . No, I am not dressing up for Halloween. In fact, I’d rather go naked than dress up for Halloween.

Much as it hurts my pride to get scooped by The Dog Blog on a topic, I’m man enough to admit when I’ve been beaten to the punch. PETA’s resident dog blogger, KP, just posted a great entry about a series of ads put out by the Southern Hope Humane Society in Georgia. The campaign, called “Don’t Get a Dog,” has the simple message that if you can’t take care of an animal, you shouldn’t frickin’ have one. It’s nothing short of tragic that this point isn’t immediately obvious to some people, but I’ve seen enough dogs chained in backyards or crated inside someone’s house that I’m very aware of just how important these ads are. Good stuff, Southern Hope.

You may remember that a couple of years ago, we went after Cindy Crawford for agreeing to appear in ads wearing fur. Doing furry ads is bad enough, but Crawford had actually once posed for PETA’s Fur Campaign and even signed a statement declaring that she would speak up for animals by refusing to wear fur. Shortly after we raised a stink, Crawford crawled back under her rock and we hadn’t heard from her since. Actually, nobody had heard from her; it’s not like there’s much decent work for morally bankrupt washed-up former models out there.

Well it looks like Crawford finally scored another gig. She just showed up on the cover of the November issue of Russian Vogue wearing what appears to be an entire family of dead animals on her back. Since Crawford is so desperate for her mole-ridden face to be seen, maybe it’s time to bring back the poster we used last time . . .

Oklahoma ranks close to the top nationally in the number of breeders currently doing their dirty work in the state, and The Tulsa World recently featured a fascinating investigation into Oklahoma’s culture of breeding, from the hideous puppy millers to the other vile breeders, who parade their sickly “pedigree” animals around and worry about their posture, while they completely ignore the fact that the miserable animals are languishing in hutches and cages not fit for a rock, let alone a living, breathing animal. Much like the shelter animals down the road from them, who will die because these people have chosen to make their living bringing more dogs into a country that has millions more than it can handle.

It’s all a little depressing, but definitely worth checking out—particularly this video, which shows the legal conditions that licensed breeders keep their animals in, because the USDA has told them it’s “acceptable.”

On a much more positive note, The Chicago Tribune is holding a contest to pick Chicago’s most beautiful dog. If you’re a dog lover, a Chicagoan, or just someone with an interest in canine aesthetics, you can go check it out here, but be sure to vote for a mutt. Because everybody loves a mutt.

As I mentioned before, we're pretty effing displeased with Denny's restaurants at the moment, since the company has jumped into bed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, who, in addition to being documented animal abusers, are seriously among the sleaziest bunch of people anyone could ever hope to do business with (for a little background on that claim, check out this recent article from the Huffington Post).

But yeah. The point is that Denny's needs to find themselves another corporate partnership ASAP, and until they do, we'll be letting them know about it on the daily. Here's a pic from a recent demonstration in New York. Thanks to all the activists who came out!

Remember Dan Mathews’ trip to Australia for the launch of his book Committed: A Rabble Rouser’s Memoir there? Well, here’s a great profile that came out yesterday from a huge Australian gay and lesbian website called Same Same. There's a kickass video at the end too.

The folks at the Hamptons International Film Festival just announced that "I Am an Animal," the forthcoming documentary about PETA and Ingrid Newkirk, has been named Best Documentary! It's not actually coming out on HBO until next month — and I haven't seen it, so I can't tell you all that much about it — but I can definitely recommend checking out this interview with Ingrid and the film's director, Matthew Galkin. It looks like it's going to be a hell of a film. The HIFF people certainly seemed to think so anyway.

UCHSC/Creative Commons

• Failing to provide veterinary care or euthanasia in emergencies
• Failing to properly train animal care employees
• Improperly reviewing experimental procedures
• Skimping on anaesthesia during painful surgeries
• Leaving a monkey with a prolapsed colon to suffer for hours
• Killing a conscious rabbit with a heart puncture

And the list goes on—to the tune of a 30-page complaint that we just submitted to the NIH, gently suggesting that they have a look into the way these people are spending their money.

Rabbit with skin lesions