Hey everyone! Jack's now out of the office for a few days attending a conference in Texas. As I'm sure you dedicated readers know, when Jack takes off then usually the marketing manager Joel hops in to write about something clever. However, Joel is basking in the warm sun of Jamaica as we speak on a well-deserved vacation.

So, you may think another logical person to help write the blog in Jack and Joel's absence would be Amy from the VegCooking blog or Mylie who helps out with KP's Dog Blog … but hey, they're all at that same darn conference with Jack! So, there you have it. Time to pull out all the stops! I may be 5th in line to do this job (just call me PETA Marketing's Secretary of State), but hey, I rock just as hard as those 4 fancy "experienced" blog writers.

When I'm not covering for my 7 co-workers who are out of the office (yes, you read that right), my typical job is PETA's E-Mail Marketing Assistant. Therefore, it's time for some shameless plugs ...

Are you signed up for PETA's E-News?? If you dig animals enough to read this blog, then you absolutely must be sure to sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter coordinated by yours truly. Click here to sign up if you haven't already.

Another big part of my job is coordinating PETA's Action Alerts. Be sure to check out this page frequently to get the latest updates and most current action alerts where your voice can be heard and you can take action. We've got everything from speaking out against the ridiculous game of donkey basketball , all the way up to speaking out against horrors witnessed by our undercover investigators at slaughterhouses and other places.

I’m at South by Southwest in Austin this week with some other folks from PETA’s Marketing Department, for the Interactive Media portion of their little festival. ‘Cuz I like to nerd out like that. The idea is that I’ll return an even more cutting-edge and, like, connected blogger than ever before. It’s my intention to learn how to use obnoxious Internet-speak more effectively and maybe spend more time dropping references to XHTML or whatever’s going on with my Twitter page—so you all have that to look forward to if I’m able to make the most of SXSW this week.

Anyway, the point is that my friend Christine will be running the PETA Files in my absence. Unlike some of the other folks who have been filling in for me in recent weeks, Christine is smarter, cooler, and generally more fabulous than I am. She’s like Jack 2.0. So, um, don’t get too attached. I’ll be back Wednesday.

Alistair Currie, the Senior Research and Campaigns Coordinator for PETA UK has an amazing piece in The New Statesman this week about the ethics of animal experimentation. If you’ve got a few minutes, you should definitely check that bad boy out. For some reason, there’s also a poll on the page asking whether “24-hour drinking is bad for society,” but I don’t recommend voting on it. It’s not particularly fulfilling.

Anyway, you can read Alistair’s great piece here. Lemme know what you think.

Huge thumbs up to Wyoming and Idaho! It’s wonderful to have legislators in all 50 states recognize that forcing dogs to tear each other to shreds in a bloody pit is a felony level crime that must be taken seriously. Sometimes a high-profile scandal like the Vick case shocks people in high places into officially recognizing that we simply can’t keep turning a blind eye to atrocities that are going on around us. Whatever the catalyst, a result like this one is something to celebrate.

As of this week, when Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal signed legislation to make dogfighting a felony in his state (following Idaho’s similar decision last week), every state in the U.S. considers participating in dogfighting to be a felony offense. A huge thank you to the governors of both of these states for taking this compassionate step forward.

I’m looking forward to the day when I can announce that foie gras is illegal in all 50 states as well. We’ll get there.

The Knocked Up star, who was all over the celeb blogs a couple of weeks ago in our new “Have a PETA Day” T-shirt, was spotted today rocking the “Crow and Roach” tee made for PETA by Spiders & Caviar. Thank you, Katherine—you look stunning. TMZ has the story here.

Deflocked, baby. Deflocked.

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

Here we go again.

Every so often, someone sets up a hoax website like Bonsai Kitten, which purported to be changing the shapes of cats by putting them in jars, Save Toby (that guy who claimed he was gonna kill his pet rabbit unless people sent him cash), and Kitty Beef (my personal favorite—the title kind of speaks for itself), and a lot of people get (understandably) very upset about the whole thing. Well, there’s a new kid on the block now, and this one may be the most interesting of them all, because it draws attention to a little-known aspect of the animal-experimentation business that really reveals a lot about the whole sick industry.

IBuyStrays.com is a hoax. Just to be clear on this, it’s not a real site. The person who set it up doesn’t really buy stray cats and dogs to sell to animal experimenters. So there’s no need for alarm on that front. But sadly, the situation it describes is very real. As many as 115 million animals are experimented on and killed in laboratories in the U.S. every year. Not that it makes any difference, ethically speaking, but a large number of these animals are cats and dogs, and a great many of those cats and dogs come from the streets, from animal shelters, and from people’s back yards.

Class B animal dealers, or “Bunchers,” are licensed by the USDA to obtain dogs and cats from “random sources,” which are defined as “animal pounds or shelters, auction sales, or from any person who did not breed and raise them on his or her premises.” And many states allow “pound seizure,” which means that the shelters are required by law to turn over certain animals to experimenters on demand.

So my point here is that anyone who’s shocked or upset by IBuyStrays.com should direct their attention towards the animal experimentation industry itself. Although it may be a bit tactless, the site isn’t doing any actual harm—in fact, if you ask me, it’s doing a good thing by making people aware of the fact that the horrific circumstances which it ironically depicts are a daily occurrence. And there is something we can do about it. To learn more about how you can help animals suffering in labs, check out StopAnimalTests.com, and if you haven’t already, you can click here to pledge to boycott products that are tested on animals.

Some Other Helpful Links

IBuyStrays.com Is a Hoax
What Is Pound Seizure?
More on Bunchers
List of Cruelty-Free Products
Testing … One, Two, Three
Moshe Solomonow’s Experiments on Cats from a Class B Dealer

According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, 20 different Petsmart stores in 11 Seattle counties may have sold birds with avian chlamydiosis, which can pose a serious health risk to people who are exposed to the animals.

The threat of a nasty disease is a pretty great reason not to buy a bird from Petsmart, but it’s not the main reason. People shouldn’t buy birds from Petsmart because birds don’t belong in cages. All caged birds were either captured or captive-bred. In the wild, they spend their entire lives with their flockmates, and many species mate for life and share parenting tasks. Considering that some parrots fly 30 miles a day in the wild, it’s no surprise that these animals often develop severe behavioral problems when they’re stuck in a cage for life.

Click here to tell PetSmart to just stop it already.

Someone should probably tell this pig and cow that they’re not going to win any elections if their only platform is raising taxes, but the argument is a solid one: In addition to being a leading cause of global warming, meat causes cancer and heart disease—driving health-care costs through the roof. Alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline are subject to a “sin” tax, so meat should be too. We’re asking congress to tax meat at 10 cents per pound to offset its staggering costs, and these two have been following the presidential candidates all around the campaign trail to make that point. In a Mustang Convertible, which gives the whole thing a bit of flair. This pic’s from one of the Iowa stops:

A little while back, longtime PETA member and superstar intern Mark Wiesenfeld discovered that Target was selling foie gras online, along with a book about the barbaric product written by one of the owners of Hudson Valley Foie Gras—the folks responsible for many of the nightmarish scenes caught on tape in this investigation.

As soon as we contacted the company to let them know about the cruelty behind this product (produced by force feeding ducks until their livers become diseased and engorged) they immediately pulled both items from their site. As you may be aware, there are quite a few corporations that kick up a great big fuss when it comes to making ethical changes in their business (I’m looking at you, KFC), so Target’s prompt action in this case is commendable, and we’re extremely grateful for it.

People tend to hear a whole lot about some of the edgier stuff PETA does (the naked demonstrations, the provocative ads, the quirky videos), but—although it may not make the news—we spend a lot of our time working behind the scenes with big companies to encourage them to make changes that will help animals, so it’s great to have this opportunity to talk about that important aspect of our work. Target’s decision is part of a growing trend among institutions that are taking steps to distance themselves from hideously cruel products like foie gras, and with more and more companies adopting this progressive attitude, we’re getting very close to a time when it will be banned outright in this country.

For more information about the cruelty involved in making foie gras, and to take a pledge never to eat the stuff, please click here.