If heavy metal music doesn't conjure up visions of playful puppies and fluffy bunnies, maybe it should. These metalheads are proving that nothing rocks like being kind to animals:

• One of the "hottest women in metal"  is also one of the most compassionate. Alissa White-Gluz, who sings in band The Agonist, says that as a vegan and a Canadian, she is "so ashamed to be even be remotely associated with" her country's annual seal slaughter.
• The "Vegan Black Metal Chef" can cube tofu with the same finesse as he can smash a guitar. His fun cooking lessons double as a concert. Are you ready to hear a chef scream that you need "TAMARIND SOOOOOUP"?
• Jackson Galaxy screams to audiences at night, but he whispers to cats all day. The "cat listener" visits homes, shelters, and rescue groups to help people understand cattitudes and how to work with them. Watch for him on the new show My Cat From Hell on Animal Planet.
• In other crazy cat-guy news, when he's not playing death metal, Donald Tardy, the drummer for Tampa Bay band Obituary, spends hours and thousands of dollars caring for stray and feral cats. "To think a cat could be out there, hungry, suffering, it eats you up inside," he said. "I can't live with my mind at peace knowing that."
• Drummer Rikki Rockett knows it's much more fun to rock out with drumsticks than to eat them. He played some sick beats with Poison, but he was sickened by the fact that animals are poisoned in laboratories and tortured on factory farms. Now the Rockett man speaks out about animal abuse and the benefits of a vegan diet everywhere he goes.
   

Written by Michelle Sherrow

BrokenSphere / CC by 1.0

Here's a toxic tidbit from the "Gross Meat Facts" files: Chickens who are raised for their flesh are routinely given feed laced with Roxarsone, an additive that contains—are you ready for this—arsenic. May we suggest a new slogan for the nugget bucket? "Potent poison in every piece!"

The fact is, roughly 70 percent of the chickens who are raised for their flesh in the U.S. are fed arsenic-laced feed. (Like antibiotics, arsenic is believed to speed growth and produce more meat to sell, quicker.) The chicken industry insists that most of the arsenic is eliminated in the chickens' waste (tough luck for fish in nearby waterways), but a recent study conducted by the Utah Department of Health revealed that it is also excreted in chickens' eggs. This was discovered after two children who ate eggs daily from the family's hens (who had been given feed containing Roxarsone) were found to have arsenic levels in their bloodstream that were at least twice the level deemed toxic.

It's also in chickens' flesh, according to a study conducted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), an organization that is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban arsenic feed additives. The IATP found that all the fast-food chicken and more than half of the store-bought chicken tested contained elevated levels of arsenic. High arsenic levels have been linked to certain cancers as well as immune system, endocrine, and neurological problems.

I guess now we know why the Colonel is so anxious to keep his recipe a secret.

Written by Alisa Mullins

You've seen what it's like on Chinese fur farms, but what about Norwegian ones?

Animals on fur farms around the world are often driven to cannibalism because of the extreme stress and frustration caused by intensive confinement.

Yep, the fur industry is heinous wherever you go.

Need more proof? Check out the rest of the images from Network for Animal Freedom of Norway's 2009 investigations.

Written by Shawna Flavell

greece / CC

People often hear about PETA's "big" victories for animals—such as how Donna Karan dropped fur from her collections—but that's just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, as a result of pressure from PETA, government officials in Ohio agreed to cancel plans to poison the pigeons who had made their homes near the county courthouse. The original plan was to serve up feeders full of poisoned birdseed to the unsuspecting pigeons. Messed up, right? Good thing we stepped in, because—thanks to our efforts—they'll be researching more humane methods.

The poison would have sent birds into convulsions, made them disoriented, and caused them to suffer for hours before dying. Poison is indiscriminate—any bird could ingest it. And the dead birds' bodies would also have posed a hazard to other animals, including cats, dogs, and birds of prey, who might consume them.

Not only is poisoning pigeons cruel, it doesn't even accomplish the long-term goal of getting rid of the population. Pigeons naturally maintain their numbers depending on the amount of food and space available. If 100 pigeons were poisoned, the surviving pigeons would breed more quickly to replace the dead members of their flock, which means that the population would actually increase over time. Case in point: These same officials had tried poisoning the flock in the past, only to find themselves with even more feathered friends in the long run.

Nonlethal methods of resolving conflicts with pigeons, such as Bird Barrier, are not only kinder but also more effective. Everybody wins!

Written by Lianne Turner