Today is a monumental day. Starting today, any cosmetics product or ingredient that is tested on animals anywhere in the world cannot be sold in the European Union. So every one of the 500 million EU consumers will be purchasing only cruelty-free cosmetics.

The European Parliament had already banned cosmetics companies from tormenting animals in cruel tests on EU soil. But now that the deadline for the last step of this historic phased-in ban on animal testing has arrived, companies eyeing the lucrative EU market will have to abandon all animal tests anywhere in the world for both their finished products and their ingredients. The ban has already led many companies to invest in advanced non-animal testing methods, sparing countless rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, and other animals from having chemicals dumped into their eyes, poured down their throats, and ground into their skin.  

The EU ban reflects the public's conviction that cosmetics should not be valued over animals' lives. People on this side of the pond can let our voices be heard, too—by purchasing only cruelty-free products. Please order PETA's free Beauty Without Bunnies Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide today, and PETA's online database of companies that don't test on animals—anywhere in the world—makes it as easy as point, click, and save lives. 

Tired of giving your family and friends neckties, candles, and pairs of gloves every year? Most of us already have overstuffed closets, and really, how much cinnamon aroma can one take? This year, think outside the tie box and give a PETA Present. 

Make your friends and family all warm inside by letting them "deliver" comfort to a cold, lonely "outdoor dog" this winter, help save a rabbit from losing his or her fur for a collar, or help get an animal released from a laboratory. Or make personalized gifts—just choose the campaign that you are most passionate about and specify what you would like your donation to be used for.

Your gift recipients will receive an e-card on the date that you choose to let them know that they have helped an animal in need, and if you need to make use of all those tie boxes, you can print out the description of the gift to put under the tree.

It's the season for tidings of comfort and joy—and we can help make it a little bit more comfortable and joyous for animals, too. Thank you!

I didn't think much about how much power toys came with until I started shopping for my nephew this holiday season. And I'm not talking about the 18 AAs you'll have to buy to make the new gadgets go. As I perused catalogs and toy sites, I realized that the messages toys send to children are powerful. So here's a list of some cool finds that will help you beget the best gift of all: kindness.

For the Outdoor Explorer: Instead of giving JCPenny's Hunting Set, give Family Pastimes Walk in the Woods Cooperative Game from KidBean.com: Can a kid ever have too many friends? Friendly fauna abound in the Walk in the Woods Cooperative Game. Lions and tigers and bears—oh yes!

For the Aquatic Adventurer: Instead of giving Wonderworld's Wooden Fishing Puzzle, give PETA's Sammy the Sea Kitten plush: Pieces of cold, stiff wood that simulate the suffering of fish or the cuddly soft fins of PETA's Sammy the Sea Kitten plush toy? Um, do we even need to ask?

For the All-Star MVP: Instead of giving Nokona's kangaroo-leather baseball glove, give Carpenter Trade Co.'s custom-synthetic baseball glove: Synthetic and sympathetic gear—always a perfect catch.

For the Fledgling Foodie: Instead of giving McDonald's Food Cart by Creative Designs, give Majesco's Gardening Mama video game. What's cuter than the one-and-only Gardening Mama herself? A kid with a green thumb. (And for the cost-conscious, play our super-new, super-free New Super Chick Sisters video game.)

For the Wildlife of the Party: Instead of giving Brookstone's Frog-O-Sphere, give the LED Jellyfish Mood Lamp from ThinkGeek.com: a party on your kid's desk—every day of the year? Just turn on the psychedelic-chic brilliance of an LED Jellyfish Mood Lamp.

For the Showbiz Superstar: Instead of giving Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for Nintendo Wii by 2K Play, give Cynthia King Dance's vegan ballet slippers: Classy, elegant, and cruelty-free—they're a budding ballerina's dream come true!

Happy holiday shopping!

Written by Logan Scherer

As we reported last week, now is the time of year when we on the anti-cruelty side of things need to step up our fight against ugly, ugly fur. It's cold outside and we're at the height of the shopping season—and what goes along with cold, conspicuous consumption, and callowness? Fur buyers, natch!

So we've been stepping up our protests—as you may have noticed—and one of the latest demos featured a caged PETA member in downtown St. Louis. Her presence reminded shoppers that fur does not come from the Fur-Coat-Tree Forest in Magical Ignorance Land.* Fur comes from caged-'til-they're-insane animals on farms and trapped-'til-they're- stomped-on animals in the wild—and we're not going to let consumers forget it.

You can check out photos of the demo below—and don't forget our tips on how to be the best fur fighter you can be.

*Not to be confused with Imaginationland, where those who skin animals alive would surely live on the bad side of the barrier. Too bad furriers are real.

Written by Amanda Schinke

wired / CC

President-elect Barack Obama has promised Americans a "21st century government"—one that we at PETA feel needs to address animal welfare. The growing concern for how we as a nation treat our animals is evidenced by last month's majority support for California's Proposition 2, which will require animals on factory farms to be provided more space in their cages.

Now, PETA's brilliant minds are asking the Presidential Transition Team to consider the creation of two national councils—a National Food Policy Council and a National Toxicity Council—to work toward improving the government's pitiful record on food and toxicology policy.

Point One
PETA's recommends that the government put human health before the agriculture industry. Both the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program are currently in the hands of the USDA—an agency that appears to be more concerned with improving factory-farming profits though animal exploitation than it is with improving human health. Both of these programs offer an overwhelming amount of meat and dairy products, but little to no vegetables or fruits.

For the sake of human health, it is vital that the NSLP be transferred into the Department of Education, and the WIC program become a part of Health & Human Services—recommendations that we are sure our suggested National Food Policy Council would agree on.

Point Two
PETA wants the government to form a National Toxicity Council to improve the way our nation deals with risks from toxic chemicals. As we know from the number of drugs that are approved after they are tested on animals only to be determined later to be harmful to humans, it is clear that tests conducted on animals do not provide sufficient results.

The National Research Council Report states, "the vision takes full advantage of current and expected scientific advances to enhance our understanding of how environmental agents can affect human health. It has the potential to greatly reduce the cost and time of testing and to lead to much broader coverage of the universe of environmental agents. Moreover, the vision will lead to a marked reduction in animal use and focus on doses that are more relevant to those experienced by human populations." Our suggested National Toxicity Council would focus on attaining the National Research Council's vision within a reasonable amount of time.

We hope that President-elect Obama will take these issues to heart and implement our suggested interagency food and toxicity groups. By doing so, he will be able to achieve his goal to "leave our children with a better world," and his actions will reduce waste, protect human health and the environment, reduce animal suffering, and save money. Couldn't ask for much better, really … and you can help! Click here to find out how.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky

It’s always great news when a major retailer emerges from the dark ages and realizes that it’s not in its best interests to support the barbaric fur industry. And the bottom line here is that after extensive negotiations between PETA and bebe, the company has agreed to stop buying fur to sell in its stores—which means that no more animals will suffer for bebe’s clothing lines. So, hooray for that.

The bad news is that the company has refused to pull the fur from its racks until after the Holiday season, which means they get one more round of profits from promoting an industry that electrocutes animals and skins them alive. Which is why we’re asking consumers to refuse to shop at bebe this season in favor of compassionate retailers that either never sold fur or have already pulled it from their shelves (like, for instance, Ann Taylor, Charlotte Russe, Donna Karen, Express, Gap, H&M, J. Crew, Jones Apparel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger, Urban Outfitters, Wet Seal, or Zara).

So there you have it—it’s a bit lousy of bebe to continue to profit from fur sales over the next three months, but their decision to stop buying the stuff does make a big difference to the animals used by the fur industry, which now has one less major company to fuel their profits. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us out by contacting bebe about this issue during our negotiations!

…Speaking of which—if you haven’t contacted the folks at Burberry yet about their refusal to even acknowledge the horrors they’re funding by selling fur, please take a few moments to let Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts know what you think.

As the air date for I Am An Animal, the HBO documentary about PETA, approaches, there is one important question in the minds of PETA staff members such as myself: “Am I in it?” Well, that’s what I’m wondering, anyway. From everything I’ve heard about this film, it’s an extremely compelling look at animal rights issues, PETA’s role in the movement, and more specifically, what makes PETA President Ingrid Newkirk tick. Evidently, it’s also very even-handed—it gives equal time to PETA’s detractors, and it explores opposing viewpoints and the various controversies that exist within the movement from an impartial perspective. Which is all well and good, but as we know, the real question here is, are there any scenes that have me in them? Like, even a shot where I’m standing around in the background will be fine.

Unfortunately, most of the world will have to wait for the answer to this burning question until Monday at 8 p.m. If you don’t have HBO, see if you can get yourself invited over to a friend’s house to watch it—it really does look like it’s going to be a winner. In the meantime, you can enter to win a copy of the DVD here, and by way of a teaser, here’s what Ingrid had to say about the documentary: