The View has been in the news a lot lately, with the addition of Whoopi Goldberg to the show. But yesterday, the show was in the news for a different reason. One of the hosts, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, revealed what she thought was the “funny” news that she has decapitated a chicken. She even demonstrated with hand motions how to do it “correctly,” horrifying the audience and co-hosts Joy Behar and Barbara Walters even more than she usually does.

Here’s a video of the incident.

And here’s what a PETA rep told TMZ about it:

"PETA has two words for Hasselbeck, 'Cluck you!' Next to Barbara and Joy, who expressed compassion, Elisabeth sat there chirping about the joys of killing defenseless birds. Conservatives love animals too, and she ruffled a lot of feathers today. Now that Whoopi has joined the show, maybe it's time for Hasslebeck's head to go on the chopping block."

Yesterday in Los Angeles, Paris and Britney look-a-likes took to the streets to lead a hilarious protest against pet stores and breeders at the site of our new ABC (Animal Birth Control) billboard. Obviously, this protest was meant to be lighthearted and fun, but the issue is deadly serious for the animals involved. For every dog or cat purchased from a breeder or a pet store, another dog or cat on death row at an animal shelter must be killed. Here’s what PETA’s Director of Domestic Animal Issues had to say about it all, “Forget jail or rehab; these selfish stars should do a stint in an animal shelter, where they would witness the plight of dogs who end up there after being bought on an impulse."

Sooooooo, a lot of blogs have been talking about this weird new concept of "Vegansexuals". Some psychologist in New Zealand coined the word after conducting a study which found that some vegans just don't really like to do it with meat-eaters. A high percentage of respondents evidently reported that meat-eaters smell funky. Tucker Carlson reported on the story last week, and made the claim out of left field that being a vegan kills your sex drive. I have no idea where Tucker pulled this myth from (maybe a bad experience with a lethargic hippie in college?), but I can guarantee that if he just finds the right vegan girl, he'll change his mind quicker than it takes him to put on that dapper new tie of his in the morning.

Tucker did follow up the story the next day with a nice piece in which he read our statement on the topic—he claims he hasn’t changed his opinion yet, but he’ll come around. … Anyway, onto PETA's position: We're pro inter-dietary dating for about a million reasons; for one thing, if you're ever going to persuade someone that they need to stop eating animals, you need to be around them, talk to them, listen to their point of view, and, hell, sometimes even sleep with them. Being vegan isn't about being in a club, and while there's nothing wrong with having a preference for someone who shares your views, I wouldn't want anyone to think that giving up meat means you have to drain the ol’ dating pool at the same time. As Tucker pointed out, going vegetarian is supposed to get you girls, not cut off your options.

Finally, on a more personal note, sometimes it’s difficult enough as it is. I'll take it where I can damn well get it.

P.S. Eating meat causes impotence.

Jerry Ringlien, who created the disturbing “My bologna has a first name” campaign for Oscar Mayer in the ‘70s, died yesterday of a heart attack in North Carolina. As someone who works in a Marketing Department, I certainly have a lot of respect for people who can craft the kind of iconic ad campaign that Ringlien created, but it’s so tragic to me when such obvious talents are used in the service of promoting something like the pig industry—which crams animals into metal crates and kills hundreds of millions of them a year in the most gruesome ways imaginable—rather than something less hateful, or (God forbid) even helpful.

If you’re someone who can make a product that’s made from stomach, snout, intestines, spleen, and lips and that is known to increase the risk of cancer and (yes) heart attacks seem like a fun lunchbox item for kids across America, you can clearly sell any idea to anyone. I only wish that Mr. Ringlien had used his creativity to help animals instead of hurting them.

PETA’s pig gives her side of the story outside the infamous “Weinermobile,” which Ringlien helped to revive

Today in London, acclaimed novelist, playwright, actor and social justice leader Benjamin Zephaniah helped PETA Europe launch its new “Animal Liberation Project,” which points out some pretty shocking parallels between injustices of the past and the treatment of animals today.

The exhibit forces people to think about whether or not it is appropriate to compare perpetually chained performing bears to shackled human slaves. Or battery-caged hens to child sweatshop workers. Or painful procedures performed on unwilling human subjects to the experiments that torture and kill millions of animals in laboratories. But really at its core, the exhibit is all about challenging the “might makes right” mentality that was the very foundation of human slavery, child labor and the denial of women’s equality and which is also responsible for factory farming, animal experimentation and other abuses to animals—and people—today. The launch of the project was timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the British Parliament’s ban on the human slave trade and took place in London along the Thames, where more than 750,000 captured Africans were once traded. Powerful stuff, for sure.

Check out what Benjamin had to say about the exhibit here, in an op-ed he wrote for The Guardian. And click here to see the full Animal Liberation Project and judge it for yourself.

We've been working on a new-and-improved PETA.org for quite awhile. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you might want to have a look. It's beautiful. Like, Grand Canyon beautiful. The Great Redwood Forest. Frickin’ Niagara Falls. Seriously, have a look. Don't be a stranger!

Not too many years ago, the only way PETA VP Dan Mathews could get a designer's attention was by storming their office and painting slogans on the wall, or disrupting a runway show or two in his underwear (hey, I'm pulling this stuff straight from his memoirs). But now Dan seems to have a foot firmly in the door. After reading his new book, Liz Claiborne big wigs Tim Gunn (of Project Runway fame) and Anne Cashill invited Dan to be the featured speaker at the company's monthly designer roundtable last week, which was attended by several of the company’s designers—many of whom work with leather, wool and even fur—as well as the company’s CEO, William McComb.

In honor of PETA’s visit, the company treated attendees to delicious homemade cookies in the shapes of foxes, beavers, and bunnies, with the words “Save Me” written in icing across the bottom. The fashionistas also received a copy of Committed and were aghast at the cruelty involved in creating animal-based “fabrics” as they watched PETA's fur industry exposé hosted by former fur wearer Martha Stewart, our undercover Indian leather investigation hosted by Pam Anderson, and our Australian wool exposé narrated by Pink. One handbag designer at the event promised never to use leather again! He's quite a charmer, our Dan.

GorillaHaven/Creative Commons

Here are links to the stories.

Cry of the Wild

Gorilla Warfare

Hugely Vulnerable- Q&A with Richard Leakey

A lot of people have been writing in to ask who won the Second Life anti-fur slogan contest I was talking up a few weeks ago. Well, the virtual ballots have been cast, and the winners have been announced. Here are the winning slogans, and the awesome Stella McCartney display stand that will memorialize their work in Second Life forever. “All we are saying is give fleece a chance.” Love it.

Click for a larger image

Freshpage/Creative Commons

There are a few old lighthouses on the East Coast being offered up free of charge to a nonprofit or other qualified entity under the Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. So—of course—we’re applying for them. What international animal protection organization doesn’t need a lighthouse or two, right?

The first of the lighthouses we applied for is called the Penfield Reef Lighthouse—it's about a mile off the Connecticut coast, near the small town of Farifield. Here’s a story about it.

In all seriousness, we're applying for the lighthouses to serve as the international headquarters of our Fish Empathy Project, where we would install interactive displays promoting the protection of fish. Plus, it would be the perfect place to house the world’s first Fish Empathy Quilt.

After we submitted our application for the Penfield Reef Lighthouse, we found out that an official with the City of Fairfield—backed by the local Historical Society—is trying to obtain the lighthouse. So we wrote to him offering to bow out of the competition (which, incidentally, is just between us and him right now) if he can ensure that no cruelty to fish (such as angling or fish sticks) takes place on lighthouse grounds. Here’s the letter we sent. I’ll be sure to let you know if we get a response, but I wouldn’t start making vacation plans to visit the PETA Lighthouse just yet . . .