Firefighters in Hammonton, New Jersey, have been fighting fires in the Wharton State Forest since last Tuesday, saving not only the trees but also the animals who make the forest their home. We at PETA wanted to thank the brave men and women who are keeping the forest fire under control, so we sent them a refreshing treat—boxes of Tofutti Cuties (soy "ice cream" sandwiches), brought by friendly PETA beauties (ladies who … deliver "ice cream" sandwiches)!The smoke was too much of a hazard for our beauties to get too close, so the Tofutti Cuties were handed off to park officers to deliver to the firefighters (which I guess makes the park officers deputy PETA beauties!). The men who were directing traffic away from the fires also got to sample some delicious, cholesterol-free Tofutti Cuties. Judging by the pictures, it looks like the ladies brought the mint and chocolate varieties! (The chocolate just happens to be my favorite, so I'm trying to quell the feelings of jealousy here.)Check out photos of the ladies saying, "Thank you 'soy' much!" to the firefighters below. To learn how choosing dairy-free "ice cream" over the gross-out alternative saves your health and animals, visit MilkSucks.com

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Written by Amanda Schinke

According to Google Insights, searches for "human breast milk" skyrocketed in the last month. Searches for "breast milk recipes" have also more than doubled. (See the graphs below for more details.)

Never to miss an opportunity—especially during these tough economic times—PETA has decided to create a human-breast-milk cookbook, with all profits going directly to PETA's "Dump Dairy" campaign. In between recipes, you'll be able to read about how cow's milk has been linked to zits, mucus build-up, and flatulence. We'll also include full-color pictures of veal calves who miss their mommies. All we need now are the recipes!

Please share your human-breast-milk recipes by commenting below. (Note: Aside from the breast milk, all recipes must be strictly vegan.) We're looking for desserts, snacks, main courses, etc! Let us know how you'd like us to credit you if your recipe makes the cut.

We're planning to launch the book guerilla-marketing style. Click here if you'd like more information about our Cookbook Street Team.

Exhibit A: Graph of Searches for 'Breast Milk Recipes'

Exhibit B: Graph of Searches for 'Human Breast Milk'

Written by Joel Bartlett

P.S. This entire post is a joke, but given our history, it's understandable if you didn't get that.

From the ever popular Milk Gone Wild 2

So, last month we sent off a letter to Ben & Jerry's to urge the ice cream giant to drop cow's milk from its menu and start churning out recipes that use the only milk intended for human consumption—breast milk. It's a pretty simple concept to grasp. I mean, you don't see doctors taking newborn babes from their mothers' arms and suckling them up to a cow in a "drinking room" next to the infants ward. C'mon! That's absurd. Really.

Our letter to the company has garnered so much attention—and by that I mean impossible-to-walk-down-the-street-without-someone-asking-questions sort of attention—that stories about breast milk have been popping up everywhere! Not that we like to brag—OK, we love it!—but I do think our buxom beaut of an idea got the ball rolling.

Whether it's Angelina Jolie breast-feeding for a W magazine cover, the illegal duplication of breastfeeding pictures of Jamie Lynn Spears (which has prompted a federal pornography investigation), or—my personal favorite—the guy-next-door who sells his wife's breast milk for money (these are hard times, folks), stories about breast milk are spreading through the newspapers like a wildfire!

Of course, one of our favorite writings about breast milk appears in PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's newest book, One Can Make a Difference. Check it out: An entire chapter in the book focuses on how human breast milk is better for babies than cow's milk is: A pediatrician in India in the 80s found that if she urged people to switch from formula and animal's milk to human breast milk (she even started a human-breast-milk bank!), she could reduce incidences of diarrhea—which were leading to deaths! Deadly diarrhea—do you really think that does a body good? Neither do we.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Say it ain't so! Last week, we told you about our brand-new 'Got Autism?' billboard, which was intended to give the drivers of Newark, New Jersey, a little food for thought. The billboard drew a connection between milk consumption and autism in children. This week, the advertising company that was hosting our billboard has pulled the plug and the billboard has been removed.

It's pretty safe to assume that the ad is not being removed due to a lack of attention! Just the opposite—our message has garnered tons of feedback, including support from parents of autistic children who have seen noticeable improvements after removing dairy from their child's diet.

We wanted to share the thoughts of a few individuals regarding this campaign:

Thanks for the continued support of the campaign! Even though the billboard has come down, the message is still loud and clear.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

OK, so we’re not exactly rushing to sign this guy up as the next PETA spokesperson, but he’s certainly got it right about zoos. Joe Francis — the intellectual force behind the Girls Gone Wild series — just got done serving time in prison after a contempt of court citation that occurred during a civil lawsuit brought against him by seven women who were underage when they were filmed for his videos. Apparently, being behind bars has given him a new perspective on the stress and misery of enforced confinement: In an interview with The Sports Junkies (an inexplicably popular DC radio show devoted to professional sports and bathroom humor), Joe said that he will never look at zoos in the same way again, pointing out that “the animals don’t want to be there … it’s unnatural.”

Well, I guess we’ve got something in common, Joe. Actually, two things.

ThisNext/Creative Commons

This little piece of good news comes to you courtesy of my friend (and occasional PETA Files blogger) Joel Bartlett, who spends more time in our local Starbucks than some of the people who work there. (Incidentally, Joel, who is PETA’s Marketing Manager, actually seems to have something of an obsession with coffee-marketing news).

Soy lattes will always be cooler, more fancy, and less pus-filled than the dairy version, but now they’re just as affordable.

And, for those of you still hankering for more good news on the soy latte front, here’s an update on the Dunkin’ situation. I’ll keep you posted.

By this point, the entire world knows that Eliot Spitzer’s call girl was on Girls Gone Wild, but I bet she never did anything quite like this. While I focus my full attention on resisting the urge to make a joke featuring the word “udderly,” please take a moment to enjoy these pictures of Cassandra—star of PETA’s Milk Gone Wild 2: at the Carwash—baring it all for the Spring Break crowd at Miami Beach. She reeled them in with the free soy ice cream and the prosthetic udders (who could possibly resist that combination?), then hit ‘em with the “Milk Sucks” information. According to Cassandra, one photographer was so moved by the Meet Your Milk video that he stuck around to help her pass out leaflets. Well played, young lady. Well played.

PETA’s original Milk Gone Wild video was one of the most successful things we’ve ever done online, reaching a completely new audience with a message about why milk is cruel and unnatural, and totally grossing out literally hundreds of thousands of people in the process.

Soooooooooo, here’s a DIY sequel that we made in the parking lot outside the office one day. It stars my friends Allie, Sarah, Cassandra, Erin, Ryan, Peggy, Joel, Tanner, Caleb, Bob, Chris, and Pulin, whom I will never look at the same way again. Please watch at your own risk.

This Christmas, please, please, please remember to leave soy milk out for Santa Claus instead of cow's milk. With that in mind, here is PETA’s world-famous “Santa’s Not Coming” PSA. Warning: It’s a little bit controversial (by which I mean “hilarious”). As usual, please direct all complaints or concerns about this ad to OMGWTF@peta.org, with the subject line “Please, think of the children!”

Because milk doesn't actually help you lose weight, which makes the ads ("Milk your diet. Lose weight!) just a teensy bit misleading. Here's how it went down, according to The New York Times: The ads, which were overseen by our old friends the USDA (whom you may remember from such hijinx as failing to enforce their animal welfare regulations and having lousy, inadequate regulations in the first place) made claims such as that three servings of dairy products a day can help people stay thin, and featured celebrities such as Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez to help promote those claims. But, two years after the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine petitioned the F.T.C. to argue that the ads were misleading (on the grounds that there's just no substantial scientific evidence for the claim), the Dairy Council has decided to withdraw the ads "until further research provides stronger, more conclusive evidence of an association between dairy consumption and weight loss." Here's what PCRM's president, Dr. Neal Barnard had to say:

This isn't the first case of misleading ads from the Dairy Industry. You may remember the "Happy Cows" ads from the California Milk Board, which had the tagline "Great cheese comes from happy cows" and the insidious implication that the living conditions for California's dairy cows made them happy—which is like saying that Abu Ghraib was a five star hotel. Though PETA sued the Milk Board in that case, it was eventually decided that the state is exempt from its own false-advertising laws, so the ads were allowed to stand. I’m not even kidding. As you can imagine, watching the Dairy Industry finally being held accountable for its misleading advertising is immensely satisfying. Let's hope this trend continues.