Meet Feel Ideal. Practically every day that weather permits, he can be found outside his local McDonald's in Honolulu handing out leaflets explaining how chickens killed for the fast-food giant suffer and how the company—as one of the biggest sellers of chicken meat—could reduce this abuse by requiring its suppliers to switch to a more humane slaughter method. 

It wouldn't be a proper protest without a poster, and Feel Ideal gave his a uniquely Hawaiian twist. Yes, it's the world's first McCruelty body board!

There's an important lesson to be learned from Mr. Ideal: You don't have to wait for a large organized demonstration to speak out against McCruelty (or any other kind of cruelty). You can make a huge statement all by yourself. And when you do, you're not really alone—PETA's got your back. Join the PETA Action Team to work together toward a kinder world for everyone. 

It sounds like the plot of a Disney movie, but this video of a pig and dog who are best buds would warm even Walt's cryogenically frozen heart.

"Don't mind me." After committing the most adorable case of breaking and entering ever, a baby seal curled up on a New Zealand woman's couch for a nap.

Can you do a good "fish face"? These people are spot-on. … Or are the fish doing a spot-on "human face"?

Would you like an awkward conversation about the facts of life with that? A 7-year-old girl and her mother allegedly discovered a condom in the child's McDonald's Happy Meal. 

Talk about a return on your investment: Eight years after she went missing, a dog is going home to her family, thanks to a tiny, inexpensive microchip.

And a chicken named Liberty, dubbed Britain's "last battery hen" is headed home too. She will enjoy retirement on a farm with other hens who were formerly confined to battery cages as the U.K.'s ban on the cruel confinement system goes into effect for the new year.

McDonald's has kicked its PR machine into high gear after a terrific undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals at Sparboe Farms, one of McDonald's primary egg suppliers, revealed that workers grabbed hens by the throat and slammed them into cages, that an employee swung a hen by her feet, that male chicks were tossed into plastic bags to suffocate, that rotting corpses of hens were left in cages with live birds, and other horrendous abuses.

In response, McDonald's announced that it will stop buying eggs from Sparboe Farms. Hang on, though—don't let McDonald's PR move lead you to believe that this will make a real difference for animals. We've seen it before. What Mercy for Animals uncovered is business as usual for factory farms, as countless PETA investigations, even of other McDonald's suppliers, have shown.

One example: A 2007 PETA investigation of a Union City, Tennessee, slaughterhouse that supplies McDonald's with much of its chicken flesh revealed that employees yanked birds out of shackles so aggressively that they broke the birds' legs, amused themselves by forcing as many as six chickens into a shackle that was designed for one bird, and forcefully slammed chickens against shackles. The electrified water bath that is supposed to stun chickens before their throats are cut was not working for two days, and slaughterhouse operators knowingly allowed tens of thousands of chickens to have their throats slit while the birds were still conscious.

It isn't good enough for McDonald's to simply switch to buying eggs from another lousy supplier with no stricter standards of "care" than the previous cruel supplier. On filthy, intensive-confinement farms—which describes every one of McDonald's and KFC's suppliers—hens are crammed into feces-filled wire cages with less space than a sheet of paper for each bird, and chicks' beaks are burned off without painkillers.

What consumers must demand are meaningful reforms and an end to the worst abuses suffered by the chickens killed for McDonald's and KFC. Here's one way to help chickens: Encourage the chains to switch to a less-cruel slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK). All the abuses that chickens suffer in slaughterhouses would be eliminated if McDonald's required its suppliers to switch to CAK, because with CAK, the birds are dead before they are shackled, bled, and scalded in defeathering tanks. Yet McDonald's and KFC have dragged their feet for years instead of switching methods, even though CAK is approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and even though McDonald's European suppliers adopted this method years ago.

Buyer beware: If you eat at McDonald's or KFC, you're eating food created via extreme cruelty to animals. Please boycott these companies and click here to tell them that you're not lovin' their chicken abuse.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Tired of going through racks of Halloween costumes and seeing the same old hockey masks and sexy nurse uniforms? Here are six scary DIY costumes guaranteed to make the most fearless revelers do a double-take—and then think twice about eating meat, wearing fur, or going to the circus.

Steal an idea from PETA Vice President Dan Mathews and go as KFC's purveyor of live-chicken scalding, Colonel Sanders. 

Instantly transform into bunny butcher Donna Karan by carrying some plush rabbits drenched in red paint. To complete the ensemble, lie all night about how you don't really use fur even while you're holding the evidence. 

Clowns are scary to a lot of people, and Ronald McDonald is one of the scariest of all. Follow in Andy Dick's footsteps and wave around a bloody knife as you illustrate how a chicken becomes a McNugget. (Hint: It's a lot more cruel than it has to be because McDonald's refuses to implement a less cruel slaughter method for chickens.) 

If you want the theme to your outfit to be "cold as ice," be a Canadian seal clubber. A plush seal, a club, and a red-stained shirt will have anyone with a heartbeat running and screaming for points south of the Great White North.

If splashy is more your style, don a top hat and tails or a tight Lycra jumpsuit and you can be a Ringling Bros. animal trainer abuser. It works best if accessorized with a bullhook and paired with a partner dressed as a helpless baby elephant.

For women who want to show that fur is a bad asset, pair a Sasquatch suit with two strategically placed pillows and a diva attitude to become Jennifer Lopez. Be sure to brag about how you burn through animals like you burn through husbands.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

© StarmaxInc

When pop sensation Ke$ha learned that McDonald's McCruelty is spending more than $1 billion on renovating its restaurants while still refusing to require its suppliers to upgrade to a less cruel method of slaughtering chickens, she fired off a letter to McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner calling out the company for its "Sleazy" behavior. The singer is even putting her money where her mouth is by offering McDonald's cash to help with the transition to a more humane slaughter system: "I may not have the $ that the Golden Arches has to throw around, but I'd be glad to lend a hand in helping bring your suppliers' slaughter practices into the 21st century."

The social, inquisitive chickens killed for McNuggets have their throats cut, many have their legs and wings broken, and many are dunked into the scalding-hot water of defeathering tanks while still conscious.. Meanwhile, Skinner and McDonald's continue to ignore the recommendation of the company's own animal welfare panel, which has endorsed a slaughter method that renders the birds unconscious at the start of the slaughtering process. This method, which has been approved the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is already in use by McDonald's suppliers in Europe, so there's no excuse for allowing American suppliers to continue with such cruelty.

Tell McDonald's to require American suppliers to switch to the less cruel slaughter method. As Ke$ha might say, "TiK ToK," the switch can't come a moment too soon for chickens.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

It was just another evening in Hollywood—the sun was sinking in a gold-and-orange blaze, throngs of tourists were posing for photos on the Walk of Fame, and some of my PETA colleagues and I gathered to spread the message that McDonald's suppliers mutilate conscious chickens.

Although a couple of teenagers who hovered around Ozzy Osbourne's star assured me that they could beat up anyone who gave us any trouble, most of the more than 300 passersby who took our leaflets were sympathetic. In fact, even the bus passengers wanted our leaflets—a convenient bus stop provided the opportunity for a certain enthusiastic (and tall) staffer to hand leaflets through the bus windows. 

You can help by telling McDonald's to require its suppliers to use a less cruel chicken-slaughter method, lest the stretch of sidewalk in front of this Hollywood location give new meaning to "Walk of Shame."

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

Ryan Gosling has certainly earned his cape this month. First, he broke up a street fight in Manhattan. Then, the Academy Award-nominated actor leapt to the defense of chickens and turkeys on factory farms. Gosling wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on PETA's behalf calling on the agency to revoke its approval of a foam-based extermination method that kills birds by submerging them in foam to slowly suffocate them. This process can take up to 15 minutes and is as traumatic and panic-inducing as killing birds by choking them, strangling them, smothering them, or burying them alive.

"If dogs and cats were killed in this way, the person committing these acts would be charged with cruelty to animals," Gosling wrote. He went on to urge the USDA to put its stamp of approval on a less cruel alternative that uses carbon dioxide to painlessly render birds unconscious and that has already been approved by veterinary experts.

This isn't the first time that Gosling has flexed his impressive muscles in birds' behalf. He previously wrote to KFC and McDonald's urging the fast-food chains to adopt PETA's proposed animal welfare reforms.

We just love a guy who has such a drive to stick up for chicks. You can be a hero for animals, too—don't patronize McDonald's or KFC.

Written by Alisa Mullins

PETA wishes a very happy 60th birthday to rock legend Chrissie Hynde, who, when she isn't using her beautiful voice to sing platinum hits, uses it to stop cruelty to animals. From opening her vegan restaurant, VegiTerranean, to having her hit song "I'll Stand by You" featured in a heartbreaking public service announcement, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has spent decades advocating for animals. Chrissie's actions for animals are too numerous to list, but here are our six favorites:  

1. Chrissie was arrested in New York when she, along with PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, "deconstructed" leather clothes, taking them apart to show the hides that were stolen from animals, in the flagship Gap Inc. store in Times Square to protest the company's policy of buying leather from India, where cows are tortured on the way to and during slaughter. The Gap subsequently stopped buying Indian leather.  
2. Chrissie was so disgusted that McDonald's suppliers scald birds to death for McNuggets that she appeared on a McCruelty billboard with the phrase "I'm Hatin' It" and led protests at McDonald's restaurants in Salt Lake City and Philadelphia.
3. During a Pretenders tour stop in Australia, Chrissie used the opportunity to unveil a new PETA ad at the Sydney Opera House showing the bloodied backside of a mulesed sheep.
4. While protesting horse-drawn carriages in New York City, Chrissie told reporters, "I got hitched to Jim Kerr in a horse-drawn carriage in New York. The marriage didn't last and I hope the carriages meet the same fate."
5. When The Pretenders' summer tour organizer made the mistake of scheduling a concert at the Minnesota Zoo, which routinely sells animals from its petting zoo to be slaughtered, Chrissie told the zoo to call off the killing. The zoo retaliated by canceling the show. But the singer didn't care—no brass in her pocket is worth animals' suffering.
6. Chrissie has even made plans to keep helping animals after she passes away. Included in her will is the directive that PETA should make an ad with her image and the caption "Dead Meat Should Be Buried, Not Eaten. Take It From Chrissie Hynde."

We know that animals would agree with us, Chrissie—you rock!

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Never one to shy away from speaking up for animals plainly and forthrightly, Morrissey urged fans who were upset about the tragic bombing and shooting rampage in Norway to consider the animals who face needless, terrifying deaths every day. Before launching into "Meat Is Murder" during a concert in Warsaw on Sunday, Morrissey told the crowd, "We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown, with 97 dead. Though that is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald's and Kentucky Fried sh*t every day."

It's easy to be horrified by someone else's cruelty, but what about the cruelty that we're responsible for? As PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk points out, "Morrissey dared to speak his mind, but if we are honest about it, it makes absolute sense to suggest that instead of crying and waving roses in the air, a more effective way to show repulsion at needless carnage is to go vegetarian and to stop supporting slaughter oneself—even if only for one day a week."

We can't stop all the senseless violence in the world, but everyone can say no to bloodshed and suffering every time we eat simply by choosing plant-based foods. Please help make the world a less murderous place—get started by ordering your free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today.  

You can't keep a good bird down. PETA's crippled-chicken statue was shut out of Louisville and Denver, but it has finally come home to roost in Raleigh. 

PETA unveiled the new anti-McDonald's statue, which was designed by New Yorker cover artist Harry Bliss, to a receptive parade of passersby, who took home more than 400 leaflets explaining how chickens killed for McDonald's continue to suffer broken bones and wings and be scalded to death in defeathering tanks, even though a less cruel slaughter method is available. Many people wanted to talk to the PETA staff about the statue and the McCruelty campaign, and everyone flipped over the McCruelty stickers.

If you haven't already, please join our fine feathered fowl and tell McDonald's that you're hatin' it. 

Written by Michelle Sherrow