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.

Country music sensation Laura Bell Bundy braved the Nashville heat today to record PETA's latest "Hot Dog" TV spot. The public service announcement won't be released until next summer, but for now, you can check out the photos that we grabbed of Laura at the shoot.

Written by Shawna Flavell

PETA's Ellie the Elephant can melt hearts of all ages. Need proof? Yesterday, during Ellie's tour around the country to educate people about Ringling's abuse of baby elephants, the kids in Nashville, Tennessee, rushed to hug Ellie when she visited their elementary school. When one student asked Ellie why she was wearing a bandage, Ellie pointed to her "Circuses Are No Fun for Animals" sign, and the boy said, "I'm sorry that they did that to you."

Even adult onlookers couldn't resist waving at Ellie.

Ellie handed out comics educating the children and their parents about Ringling's rampant abuse and exploitation of animals. Our recent exposé reveals how Ringling trainers tear baby elephants away from their devastated mothers and use electric shock prods to force the animals into performing humiliating and unnatural tricks. Help save baby elephants by urging the USDA to revoke Ringling's license and sharing this information with everyone you know.

Written by Logan Scherer

In our tireless quest to remind the world that all animals have the same parts, and that getting killed and cooked is just as unpleasant for cows, pigs, and chickens as it sounds (actually, more so—for more info on that, click here), PETA held a colorful "human barbeque" demonstration in downtown Nashville yesterday, which seems to have gone over fairly well with Tennesseans.

The part of the barbequed babe—naked, spray-painted red and orange, and displayed on a mock grill in front of countless astonished Nashville citizens and members of the press—was played by PETA's lovely intern Joanne. Applications for our Internship program can be filled out here.

I just heard that Mickey Rourke is holding a protest in Miami this afternoon. Apparently, he bought a puppy from a pet store around Christmas and the puppy died a couple of weeks later. Once Mickey learned from PETA’s Dan Mathews how pet shops sell all sorts of sick and inbred animals all the time, he fired off a letter to the store immediately. And today he’ll be in front of the store letting the public know what he’s learned.

Did you see the guy in Domino or Sin City? Total badass. My suggestion to the store: Do what the man says. For real.

Like most people, one of my favorite things about the pre-game Super Bowl hype is hearing about the commercials that will run during the game. This is particularly true this time around, since (due to a calculating error by the NFL) the Redskins didn't make it into the playoffs this year. But is it me or is the hype around this year’s field of ads virtually non-existent? Granted, nothing will ever come close to that Mean Joe Green Coke spot—or even the GoDaddy ad, but come on ad folks, what’s the deal—are you waiting for PETA to submit its spot to be rejected to get the pre-game ad media frenzy started?

Sorry to disappoint, but, this year we decided to take a different approach. Rather than create yet another brilliant spot that is summarily rejected, we decided just to dig into the vault and re-release some of our past Super Bowl classics.

Take a look and let us know what your favorite is. My money is on the pillow fighting co-eds arguing over whether dolphins or unicorns are cuter. The one about the young ladies with udders is kind of amazing too, if a little disturbing. I seriously can't understand why they rejected these masterpieces. Anyway, with PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian 2006—Prince himself—performing at the halftime show, maybe we don't even need an ad this year ...