Written by Michelle Sherrow
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day. To celebrate, PETA presents the top 10 surprising ways that helping save the planet saves animals, too:
Most of the puppies that pet stores sell are trucked or flown hundreds of miles from puppy mills, creating a Great Dane–sized carbon pawprint. But animal shelters in every city are full of locally grown companion animals you can tuck into your Smart car before taking the short drive home.
SeaWorld isn't just hard on orcas—it's also hard on the environment. The marine park was in a fine mess after it got hit with a fine for messing up San Diego's Mission Bay after violating effluent limitations numerous times.
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Ecosystems are being decimated by biological supply houses that catch huge numbers of frogs to be dissected. If you're a student or parent, urge your local school district to switch to a virtual dissection program instead.
Ringling logs more than 25,000 miles every year dragging animals across the country chained in boxcars and trucks. Don't give the "cruelest show on Earth" your green until it goes green and retires its animals to sanctuaries.
Primates are torn away from their jungle homes and flown to the U.S. from as far away as China, Cambodia, and Indonesia to be used in experiments. Ask the few airlines that still transport primates to laboratories to stop—for animals and the planet.
We know that only mean people wear fur, and only ungreen people wear the toxic soup of chemicals that it takes to keep the fur from rotting off their backs—chemicals such as ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and chromates.
There are so many luscious body-care product lines out now that are made without harsh chemicals and without harsh animal tests that it's easier than ever to be a green goddess. Check out PETA's shopping guide for a list of cruelty-free companies.
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Neither are the other chemicals you'll find en masse at leather tanneries, such as formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and cyanide-based finishes. Wearing dried-up animal skin is all dried up.
Meat production requires so much water that you save more water by not eating one 16-ounce steak than you do by not showering for six months. So by going vegan, you can help save the Earth and keep it a pleasant-smelling place.
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Now that you've saved the Earth and animals, relax with a beer. If you recall PETA's notorious "Got Beer?" campaign, you know this beverage choice won't contribute to the massive climate change, exploitation of resources, and water and air pollution that the dairy industry is responsible for.
Spread the green! Share this post on social-networking sites and help other aspiring environmentalists go green for animals' sake.
Google goes gaga for vegan food, learn how to show bunnies some love this Valentine's Day, and help us ask Florida not to change its slogan to "The Hoarder State." Here's everything in PETA's world that you might have missed this week.
Don't miss any breaking animal rights stories. Hop on over to PETA's Tumblr page for the latest:
Mooove away from leather, baby. Cows don't wear our babies, so why should we wear theirs?
During New York Fashion Week, thousands of style editors from around the world scurry between runway shows in cabs—that's why PETA planned to run Stella McCartney's new leather exposé on the city's unavoidable video screens in taxis. We're no strangers to having our ads banned, so we've kind of grown thick skin about it, but we weren't prepared for the lightning-quick rejection that VeriFone Media gave us. It seems the company only wants to run consumer promotions, not cautions.
"As a designer, I like to work with fabrics that don't bleed; that's why I avoid all animal skins," Stella says in the video, which spotlights animal suffering and the human health risk and environmental impact of leather tanneries. "Please join me in exploring the huge variety of fashionable shoes, belts, purses, and wallets that aren't the product of a cow's violent death."
We're disappointed that the advertising company told us to take a hike, but we're launching the video for Fashion Week anyway. Check it out below:
Explore some überhip cruelty-free fashions with PETA's style guide.
PETA "cops" were out in force at the Sundance Film Festival, making arrests for fashion felonies. Anyone wearing wool, leather, exotic skins, or fur saw the light. A flashing blue one, that is.
The crime: Ripping off an animal
The punishment: A public scolding
The penance: Buying a coat that didn't claim a life
The best show in Vegas last week wasn't in a casino—it was on the sidewalk on Las Vegas Boulevard. Luck was a lady leopard (and a cow and a snake) when PETA's "showgirls" stripped down on The Strip to reveal their animalistic bodypaint.
Crowds flocked to the ladies like they were the hottest blackjack table, posing for pictures and scooping up information about how animals raised or trapped for their skin suffer.
With the flurry of flashbulbs now over and loads of leaflets distributed, it's a safe bet that any animal skins the passersby will be flaunting from now on will be as fake as an Elvis impersonator.
You and animals both win when you choose animal prints, not animal skins.
If you were gliding around an ice rink and spotted two leopards, your first response would probably be to jump out of your skin. And that's exactly the response that PETA's sultry "leopards" are hoping to get from people who are wearing skins stolen from animals.
The cool cats were at an ice rink in Washington, D.C., this week to ask skaters to shun fur, leather, and wool. Since we're well past the Ice Age, it's high time to don cruelty-free fashions and leave animal skins on their original owners.
Elvis Presley has left the building—to help PETA's hound dog "fox" and "rabbit" ask Nashville shoppers to leave animal skins off their holiday gift lists.
One shopper who stopped to talk had to fight back tears—and not because she touched the King of Rock and Roll. She was appalled when the demonstrators explained how sheep used for wool have chunks of skin and flesh cut off their backsides with little to no pain relief.
There's nothing "tender" about the way animals killed for fur are beaten, electrocuted, and skinned alive or the way animals killed for leather have their throats cut and are skinned and dismembered, often while still conscious.
Even if you don't live in Music City, you can still make your holiday shopping list music to animals' ears by choosing gifts that are free of animal skins. And if you receive a dead animal's skin as a present, you can gently "return to sender" and explain why. We think the King would approve.
Call it life imitating art. Fans who caught the latest episode of HBO's Enlightened on Monday got a little more enlightened when PETA's message popped up on the show. Executive producer, star, and PETA friend Mike White stuck it to cruelty when he stuck PETA stickers on the desk of character Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern). Here's what the stickers, which were clearly visible throughout the scene, read:
In need of some illumination of your own? Read more about the leather industry and dissection on PETA's website, and see the stickers' appearance in the new episode of Enlightened on HBO Go.
Written by PETA
Ever wonder what stops animal skins used for leather shoes and handbags from decomposing into a stinky, slimy mess? The answer is chromium tanning, which creates quite a mess of its own—including toxic wastewater and contaminated soil. According to a new report that ranks tannery operations fifth on a list of the world's worst toxic-pollution problems, chromium tanning also puts millions of people at risk for serious health problems.
In addition to the toxic tannery sludge, raising animals for food and leather requires huge amounts of feed, land, water, and fossil fuels. Because leather is a coproduct of the meat industry, if you wear it, you're also supporting an industry that routinely crams animals together in filthy conditions and sends them to slaughterhouses, where their throats are cut while they're still conscious.
Many tanneries are concentrated in South Asia, where cows are subjected to horrendous abuse. PETA's investigation into the Indian leather trade revealed that cows are forced to walk for days without food or water on the way to slaughter. If they collapse, drivers rub chili peppers into their eyes and break their tails to get them up again.
To avoid contributing to the cruelty and pollution of leather, clean the skeletons out of your closet and check out PETA's shopping guide to cruelty-free clothing.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
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.
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