As NASA public affairs specialist Stephanie Schierholz took to the stage at Monday's TWTRCON to weigh in on "customer service," animal defenders elsewhere took to their Twitter accounts and took over the #TWTRCON hashtag—specifically weighing in on NASA's plan to fund a misguided, cruel, and wasteful experiment in which dozens of squirrel monkeys would be blasted with harmful space radiation.

Tweets about NASA's radiation experiments started appearing on large projectors flanking the sides of the stage that the conference was using to display tweets about the event. One attendee reported that after the NASA representative responded to the surprise Twitter protest by shrugging her shoulders and rolling her eyes, curious audience members could be heard tapping on their keyboards for more information about NASA's plans to bankroll the torment of monkeys at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and Harvard's McLean Hospital.

Schierholz reportedly muttered, "[M]aybe we're experimenting on monkeys." No, NASA—if caring people have anything to say about it, you won't be. We'll keep tweeting and taking to the streets, the phone lines, and online petitions until your plans for these cruel, senseless experiments are canceled.

Written by Karin Bennett

On Sunday in Mexico City, bullfighter Cristian Hernández left the ring in the middle of a fight. After he was arrested and charged a fine for breach of contract, he announced his retirement from bullfighting, saying, "I didn't have the ability, I didn't have the balls, this is not my thing." Well, we don't think that's exactly right. I mean, any coward can bully an animal. But it takes courage to walk away despite the jeers of spectators. To send a message to those who deride him, PETA is reimbursing the cost of Hernández's fine and sending him a "Real Men Are Kind to Animals" certificate that he can wave in his detractors' faces.

Townspeople may paint Hernández as a coward or imply that he is somehow less of a man for refusing to torment and kill bulls who are physically harmed, driven into an arena with a roaring crowd, run around in dizzying circles, jabbed with knives, and finally stabbed to death at the point of complete exhaustion—but, as we know, bullies are the cowards.

So let's hope Hernández sees that he can have fans when he doesn't hurt animals for a living—and to all the "real men" out there who save animals rather than stab them, please join me in giving a big "Olé!"

Written by Jeff Mackey

Phew! PETA's "BOYCOTT PETCO" brick* survived the 5.7-magnitude earthquake that shook San Diego's PETCO Park on Monday—and here's a photo snapped by an activist last night to prove it:

Don't get me wrong—PETA loves the stadium's tasty, animal-friendly eats but hates the massive suffering that PETCO causes by buying animals from shady dealers and selling them to anyone who walks in, intentions be damned. Animals like the poor fellow below who are bred for and shipped to PETCO and other pet stores get their world shaken to pieces every single day by being mishandled, abused, or even thrown into the trash to die. They are crammed en masse into crowded, filthy containers at animal distributors such as U.S. Global Exotics and Sun Pet, and they're often denied basic necessities, including food, water, adequate air, and veterinary care.

Let's shake things up for PETCO (the store—not the stadium!) by telling it to stop selling animals immediately or we'll shop elsewhere for our dog beds, cat trees, toys, and treats.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

*Line up the first letter of each word to find the brick's hidden message!

The following is a guest post from blogger and former Ringling clown André du Broc

I've spent much of my life in careers centered around making others happy. As an actor, I believed that my first responsibility was to the audience. They needed to be delighted and engaged by everything that I did on stage. This was particularly true of my time as a circus clown. If an audience's joy depended on my dropping my pants, I dropped my pants. If it meant taking a pie in the face three times a day, so be it. Many may have thought that these actions were undignified. I saw it as doing my job well. It brought me great satisfaction to see families sitting together in a crowded stadium and smiling from ear to ear.

Every Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show begins with the ringmaster's announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Children of all ages!"

I love that thought. From the beginning of the show, the audience is told to leave adulthood at the door. Be a kid again. Laugh. Smile. Enjoy!

The veneer of the circus was everything I desired in a career. It was a chance to make masses of people happy, a chance to travel all over, and an opportunity to take my silliness very seriously. What I found backstage, however, was very different. My goal is not to write an exposé of everything that happened backstage at Ringling. My former work as a circus clown has carried me far and opened a lot of doors for me over the years, and for that I am very grateful. But there was a world behind the curtain that I was not equipped to handle.

Audiences come to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth ("Big Bertha" to circus folks) primarily to see two things—clowns and elephants.

I spent most of my time with the elephants. In Tampa, I had a roommate who was an elephant trainer for a local zoo, so I had a deep fondness for these massive animals. If you look into the eyes of an elephant, you can't help but remark at their soulfulness. They are filled with expression. When an elephant is happy, you can tell at a glance. Back in Tampa, when the elephants were allowed to play in the water, their eyes would twinkle, their bodies would waddle, and their trunks would curl up, pulling their large mouths into an unmistakable smile. They looked like they were having fun. They were happy.

I never saw the elephants in the circus make that face. They looked tired, weary, frustrated, angry, and so very sad. I stopped one of the assistant elephant handlers to ask why a particular elephant had tears pouring down the sides of her face. He laughed, "'Cause she's a bitch and the bitch got what was coming to her." He then pointed to the welt on the side of his face from where she had slapped him with her trunk. He then showed me his bullhook, a 2-foot-long stick with a metal hook on the end that is used to train elephants. "I gave her about 10 good whacks across her skull. Bam! Bam! Bam!" he demonstrated. "Bitch'll think twice before she messes with me." This brutal assistant handler had never received any formal training in dealing with elephants. His job was simply to keep them fed, watered, and in line.

I remember that there was always a bullhook in the corner of the apartment back in Tampa. The metal hook had a blunt, rounded tip. My roommate had explained that it was used to hook the inside of where the mouth and trunk met. You give it a slight tug and the elephant will move in that direction. I witnessed many of the Ringling trainers sitting in circles, sharpening their bullhooks to dangerous points. They wanted the elephants to fear them, and the best way to do that was to inflict as much pain as possible.

Each of these great animals were looking at a lifetime of being chained to a wall, beaten, and marched out briefly to perform. Unlike those I left in Tampa, they would never roll in the grass or enjoy playing in the water.

The largest of the elephants, King Tusk, had a particularly sad story. When he first came to Ringling from another circus in 1986, he was the largest traveling land mammal alive. At 42 years old, weighing 14,762 pounds, standing 12 feet 6 inches tall, and sporting a length of 27 feet, King Tusk (Tommy) was a spectacular being. In the wild, elephants are constantly rubbing down their tusks to reduce the weight carried by their head. Tommy, however, had been prohibited from doing so for 42 years, and this had allowed his tusks to grow unacceptably long. In fact, where cracks would form along the tusk, metal bands were installed to keep them from breaking. His tusks were more than 7 feet long and put enormous weight and strain on his back. He had arthritis in his neck and back, and by the time I joined the circus in 1992, he could no longer perform any tricks.

Instead of retiring this great elephant with dignity and shaving down his tusks so that he could live out his remaining years in comfort, Ringling would have him simply stand in the center ring while two acrobats performed on his back.

Tommy was finally transferred to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in 1998 after spending 51 years of his life performing in circuses. According to Two Tails Ranch's records, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium sent him to live out his remaining years at their elephant facility in Florida, where at 57 years of age he was finally euthanized just before Christmas in 2002.

I am grateful for the experiences that I had in the circus. I learned about who I am as a person, an entertainer, and a clown. I learned so much and had amazing, exciting, and terrific experiences. Most importantly, I learned what dignity means. I filled my steamer trunk with plenty of it as I rolled it out of Clown Alley and away from the Big Top forever.

I will not go to a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show or any other Feld Entertainment production ever again.

Tommy would have wanted it that way.

André du Broc graduated from Clown College in the fall of 1992 and went on the road with Ringling's blue unit in late October. He left the circus about a month later because he could no longer bear to witness the horrific treatment and living conditions of the animals. André maintains a blog at toomanycookies.wordpress.com.

Anyone who's ever wondered whether Christianity and compassion for animals are compatible should check out Oliver Thomas' USA Today column "What's the Godly Way to Treat Animals?" Thomas, a Baptist preacher, speaks out against chaining dogs and factory farming abuses, including "packing animals shoulder to shoulder in their own excrement" and "wiring them into cages where their personal space is smaller than a piece of printer paper." I especially like what Thomas has to say about people who dodge their duty to spay and neuter their animal companions: "With free and discounted spay/neuter opportunities galore, that's inexcusable." Amen to that!

Be sure to read the whole column, share it with your Christian friends and family, and leave a comment thanking Thomas and USA Today for this great piece. Then check out IslamicConcern.com and JewishVeg.com for information about how other religions believe that animals should be treated.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Take one look at British reality TV star Chantelle Houghton's new PETA U.K. ad and you'll want to nip meat-induced impotence in the bun:

Men who eat artery-blocking carcasses may have trouble with their love life, but if you go vegan, the only thing that you won't raise is your risk for diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and cancer.

Written by Shawna Flavell

Extended Stay Hotels is facing bankruptcy. Of course, the sag in the economy could be to blame, but I'd like to theorize that the hotel chain is struggling because people aren't spending enough time in bed. PETA has offered to pay Extended Stay to place an ad on hotel pillowcases to educate guests that removing artery-clogging foods such as meat and cheese from your diet can extend more than your next hotel visit.

The hotel chain is still sleeping on our offer, but we're hoping that it'll soon wake up and realize that this a win-win-win arrangement: The hotel chain gets a little help staying afloat, animals are spared nightmarish conditions on factory farms, and guests will finally have a use for those "Do Not Disturb" signs.

Written by Heather Moore

We're not ones to say "I told you so," but …

A new study has confirmed what we've known all along: Vegans and vegetarians have more empathy—for both animals and people—than meat-eaters do.

Researchers in Europe recruited vegan, vegetarian, and meat-eating volunteers and placed them into an MRI machine while showing them a series of random pictures. The MRI scans revealed that when observing animal or human suffering, the "empathy-related" areas of the brain are more active among vegetarians and vegans. The researchers also found that there are certain brain areas that only vegans and vegetarians seem to activate when witnessing suffering.

We've always thought that people who lack empathy may have something wrong with their brains. That's why we urged the NFL to give Michael Vick an MRI scan to look for evidence of clinical psychopathy, and it's why we sent U.S. Vogue editor and fur pusher Anna Wintour a certificate entitling her to a brain scan as well.

So, to sum up: Vegans are smarter, sexier, and healthier than meat-eaters, and they're more empathic too. If you haven't yet made the switch, what are you waiting for?

Written by Paula Moore

PETA Files readers already know that few "retired" racehorses live out the remainder of their days frolicking in rolling green pastures. Now, Washington Post readers know it, too, thanks to a great article that was published over Memorial Day weekend.

The article describes one of the many ugly sides of the horse-racing industry—the fact that with approximately 35,000 thoroughbreds born in the U.S. every year, there are thousands of horses who don't have quite enough speed and stamina to be champions. What becomes of these also-rans? Most are eventually sold at auction, where many are bought by "killer buyers."

While no horse slaughterhouses are currently operating in the U.S., horses are still being shipped to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. Some retired racehorses—even Derby champs like Ferdinand and Charismatic—also wind up in Japan, where they may initially be used for breeding. But when they stop being moneymakers, they, too, may be slaughtered, as a PETA investigation at a Japanese slaughterhouse last year revealed.

You can help by contacting your U.S. representatives and asking them to sponsor the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, which would make it illegal to slaughter horses for consumption in the U.S. or to export them for slaughter.

Written by Alisa Mullins

No-holds-barred comic Sarah Silverman's stand-up may make some of her audience members blush, but compassionate people will cheer as they read about her childhood vegetarian revelations described in her memoir, The Bedwetter. And this week's "Win It" Wednesday prize is sure to make animal defenders do the wave—it's a signed copy of The Bedwetter, in which Sarah scrawled, "Woo-hoo, PETA."

We've got one book to give away, and you can win it by describing the animal-free feast that would make you "Woo-hoo!" right out of your seat. Spicy guacamole with blue corn chips and savory Mexican lasagne would do the trick for me. Try and top mine—the person whose mouthwatering vegan meal makes our bellies rumble the loudest will win the prize.

The contest ends on June 16, 2010, and we'll select a winner on June 18, 2010. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!

Written by Karin Bennett