In the '80s, people sang "We Are the World," but for Earth Day 2013, PETA gave that idea a very literal spin: Instead of wearing their hearts on their sleeves, these good folks took off their sleeves (and everything else) in favor of blue and green bodypaint for a demonstration in Vancouver. They reminded everyone who saw them that we can help the planet simply by choosing healthy and humane vegan foods.

So remember: If you want to save the world and its inhabitants (or just look your best without clothes), going vegan is the best way to start!

As crowds rallied outside the Supreme Court while the justices heard arguments on landmark cases regarding California's Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), members of PETA were there to make the point that as Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Like other victims of oppression, animals shouldn't be mistreated because they are different from those in power. We can all stand up to corporate bullies by refusing to buy anything that comes from cruelty. PETA will be outside the Supreme Court again tomorrow as arguments are heard against DOMA.  

Because of the throngs of people who had gathered outside to protest, it was hard to spot those who were trickling into Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Ringling Bros. circus's opening night. More than 200 animal advocates came together to make sure that Ringling's reception was chillier than a New York winter.

While half the group circled the block, hoisting signs and chanting, the other half flanked the crosswalks and handed leaflets and educational coloring books to parents and children.

If any of the attendees weren't aware of how Ringling abuses animals, they certainly were after they saw the behind-the-scenes photos of trainers slamming baby elephants to the ground, gouging them with steel-tipped bullhooks, and shocking them with electric prods. And if that didn't do the trick, the screening of PETA's video exposé narrated by Alec Baldwin, which showed trainers beating and tormenting elephants, moments before a performance likely did.

Many of the advocates plan to return to the Barclays Center every night that the circus is in town to make sure that everyone in the Big Apple gets the message about cruelty under the big top.

Last week marked the end of legal public nudity in San Francisco—and you wouldn't expect PETA to sit it out, would you? Several all-star volunteers gathered full-monty style at City Hall to protest the theft of animals' skins by declaring that they are comfortable in their own skin. 

Unlike humans, who can (or at least used to legally be able to) choose how much skin to expose in public, animals raised and killed for their skins often have their flesh unwillingly ripped off their bodies while they're still alive. Please don't ever buy leather, fur, or other items made from animals' skins and fur—choose garments and accessories made from pleather, faux fur, and other cruelty-free materials instead!

Every year, people who exploit chickens and reduce them to bits in a bucket gather at the International Poultry Expo to congratulate each other on making money at it. So this year, PETA sent a flock of "birds" to suggest that attendees give a cluck about chickens:

Banging on pots and pans and shouting, "We are not nuggets!" the chickens got everyone's attention. A surprisingly large number of attendees accepted the demonstrators' leaflets and listened to explanations of how chickens suffer on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, including being mutilated and drugged, having their throats slit while still alive, and often being scalded to death. 

It was an educational expo indeed.

When you mess with bears, sometimes you get hurt. Of course, PETA's "bear" didn't actually harm a hair on the heads of the animal abusers at Chief Saunooke Bear Park (CSBP) during a protest last weekend, but he and about two dozen of his friends did bite back against the cruelty at the vile roadside zoo.

PETA's protest comes less than a week after the release of the findings of our undercover investigation of CSBP that unearthed evidence of systemic neglect and abuse of bears (including shooting and eating one of them), threats of violence, illegal drug use, sexual harassment, and racism by the park's staff. We are calling for the closure of the hellish bear pits and the seizure of the surviving animals.

What You Can Do

If you didn't make it to the demonstration, don't worry—you can still help the bears suffering at CSBP by asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to confiscate all animals from the shabby roadside zoo immediately and place them in a suitable sanctuary.

In India, kids celebrate the winter solstice, called Makar Sankranti, by flying kites. Sounds like a fun, harmless tradition, right? The trouble is that, as anybody who has seen The Kite Runner knows, kite-flying in the East can be extremely competitive—cutthroat, if you will. Many kite-flyers use glass-coated string called manja to sever their competitors' kite strings. But the string has severed lots of other things, too, including birds' wings and breasts and even human throats. So PETA India held an eye-catching protest during Makar Sankranti to urge kids to use cotton string instead: 

Every year, bird sanctuaries are called to assist thousands of pigeons, crows, owls, hawks, and other birds who have been badly maimed. Thousands are killed after becoming helplessly entangled in razor-sharp manja. Pedestrians and people riding by kite competitions on bicycles or scooters have also been injured and even killed. Five people, including two children, were killed and nearly 250 people injured in one state alone during a previous Makar Sankranti.

PETA India is lobbying to get manja outlawed throughout India. 

If director Peter Jackson were hoping people would forget about the controversy surrounding The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at the film's New York City premiere, he was in for a disappointment. Amidst the crowd that gathered to watch the cast and crew waltz into the Ziegfeld Theater were PETA members wearing horse masks and holding up signs that bore unmistakable reminders of the horses, chickens, goats, and sheep who reportedly lost their lives during production of The Hobbit.

© Jeffery Harmon

© Jeffery Harmon

In an age of strikingly realistic computer-generated imagery (CGI), there is no reason for animals even to be present on a movie set, and the deaths of animals during the making of a film is inexcusable. It isn't as if Jackson didn't know how to make a riveting blockbuster without using animals: He won a PETA Proggy Award (for progress) for the breathtaking CGI in King Kong.

PETA has asked New Zealand authorities to investigate the deaths that occurred during the making of The Hobbit. Meanwhile, you can help by e-mailing ActionTeam@peta.org to get leaflets and posters of your own, and hit your local theater to make sure that the film's animal victims are not forgotten.

An 8-foot-tall goose on a busy sidewalk is enough to make people do a double-take. But an 8-foot-tall goose who has had his feathers ripped out is enough to make people stop in their tracks.

PETA's goose made feathers fly in order to ask holiday shoppers to save geese's skin.

PETA's goose is touring the country asking people to be benevolent to birds.

As the hurried shoppers stopped to gape at the goose, they readily accepted information about the cruel down industry. People were horrified to learn that geese are often held down while workers yank out their feathers by the fistful. The birds are often left with gaping wounds, which the workers hastily sew closed without any painkillers.

As shoppers learned, it couldn't be easier to be a friend to fowl. Many companies, including Martha Stewart, The Company Store, and Lands' End, offer bedding or coats made with high-tech synthetic materials like PrimaLoft® and Thinsulate™ that are as warm as down but, unlike bird feathers, don't lose the ability to insulate when they get wet.

Join compassionate shoppers in taking PETA's pledge to be down-free and make a goose's day.

Many of you have joined PETA and PETA India (as well as Paul McCartney) in calling for the release of Sunder, the horribly abused baby elephant who was held captive in spiked chains in a dark shed at the Jyotiba Temple in Maharashtra, India. Despite assurances from the government that Sunder would be taken into protective custody, the authorities fear retaliation from the temple trustees if they seize him, and now the little elephant has been moved not to a sanctuary but into a heavily guarded factory compound where no one can see him. PETA India has stepped up pressure for Sunder's release, including holding this demonstration outside the office of the principal chief conservator of forests, sending a message that he could hardly have missed:

Our friends in Mumbai report that they've been fielding calls from people who are exasperated with the government's inaction and eager to see as much attention as possible brought to Sunder's predicament until he is released. Stay tuned …

What You Can Do

In the Americas, many elephants are also held captive and abused by circuses—please help set them free.