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PETA pal Pink recently tweeted that she had "… the BESTest day" with her "amazing sexy hubby," Carey Hart, riding around on beach cruisers and watching the circus. Not to worry, though—our girl Pink would never attend the kind of circus that tears baby elephants away from their mothers and beats them with bullhooks. Pink's tweet continued: "Not the real circus people. No animals, just people. That look and behave like animals. On acid. Tis' a colorful world." We should all take a cue from this compassionate couple and support one of the many circuses that leave animals in peace and feature only amazingly talented—and, most importantly, willing—human performers!

Via Vegetarian Star

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Dr. Mehmet Oz's wife, Lisa, has long been health-conscious. On a recent episode of The View, she mentioned that she's been a vegetarian since she was 15 and that she cooks vegetarian meals for her family. She's obviously having a positive influence: Her husband even convinced a guest on his show—a cowboy, no less—to go vegan. If you haven't already done so, take the doctor's—and his wife's—advice and ditch meat, eggs, and dairy products. For tips, check out Quantum Wellness by best-selling author (and Lisa's good friend) Kathy Freston.

Written by Heather Moore

Yes, it is, according to an audit conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General, which reveals that beef containing dangerous pesticides, antibiotics, heavy metals, and other toxins is showing up on supermarket shelves because the government has neither set limits for the chemicals nor is it routinely testing for them. Perhaps they think that people will just buy the stuff regardless!

Potentially toxic substances that can be found in meat include arsenic; flunixin, an anti-inflammatory drug that can cause stomach ulcers, intestinal bleeding, and kidney necrosis; and antibiotics such as penicillin, which can cause life-threatening reactions in people who are allergic and also contribute to the development of deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

These unregulated chemicals and drugs are just the toxic icing, if you will, on a beefcake that is already loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol and is often contaminated with deadly bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella.

Sounds like a good time to mosey on over to VegCooking.com and check out some savory seitan recipes, doesn't it? For your family's sake?

Thanks to PETA Files reader Laura for sending this story our way

Written by Alisa Mullins

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"Canada, if you cancel the seal hunt, I will dress up like Justin Bieber and sing one of his songs on YouTube."
—Kelly Osbourne on what she's willing to do to stop the seal slaughter. Go, Kelly, go!

Kelly Osbourne really, really wants to convince the Canadian government to end the senseless seal slaughter. We're not really surprised that she chose Justin Bieber, though: The young star is Canadian, überhot, and animal-friendly.

Sign our petition and then leave a comment letting us know which Justin Beiber song you hope Kelly will cover if Canada ends the slaughter.

Written by Paula Moore

A couple celebrating their wedding anniversary in New Bern, North Carolina, got stuck with the memory of a lifetime when the horse-drawn carriage in which they were riding was struck by a car, sending them and the carriage driver to the hospital. (Needless to say: open carriage, no seat belts, no air bags.) The horse, Suzi, was also injured.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cipherswarm/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Horses like Suzi have a bad life, trying to dodge traffic—but traffic doesn't always dodge them. This couple may now have a cautionary tale to tell their grandkids, but for Suzi and other horses who are forced to bear the weight of carriages and tourists in traffic day and night in all weather extremes, carriage rides are a hard trip down memory lane. New Bern needs to join cities around the world that have put these rides out to pasture for good.

Send a polite note to New Bern Mayor Lee Bettis Jr. asking him to ban horse-drawn carriages.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

As if cutting off chickens' beaks and scalding birds alive weren't dirty enough, KFC has broken some pretty foul food-hygiene rules at one of its busiest branches in the U.K. In 2008, health inspectors found mice, flies, and cockroaches during an inspection of the carry-out restaurant. Originally denying this and other violations (including failure to provide hygienic conditions for hand-washing), KFC finally 'fessed up to the charges in a recent hearing.

From mold- and dirt-covered floors, walls and ceilings in food-preparation areas to trays of bread and raw chicken caked with black grease, this KFC let it all hang out. And did I mention the three KFC employees who were photographed having a hot-tub party in another KFC's sink? That image is almost as sickening as the images in this video, which have prompted hundreds of thousands of people to sign our petition.

Written by Amy Elizabeth

As if overfishing, cruelty, and mercury poisoning weren't enough, here's yet another reason to leave fish off your plate: ciguatera poisoning. Apparently, one of the many unforeseen effects of climate change is the spread of ciguatera, a toxin produced by an organism that grows on coral reefs. Common in large, predatory fish such as snapper, grouper, and barracuda, ciguatera was once confined mostly to the Caribbean, but it has now spread to the waters off Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas and has become one of the most common causes of fish-related food poisoning in the U.S.

Along with the usual nasty symptoms of food poisoning—nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, fever, and diarrhea—ciguatera also causes bizarre neurological symptoms worthy of a House episode: numbness, tingling, needle-like pain in the hands and feet, a burning sensation in the mouth and throat, and sometimes an irregular heartbeat. Ciguatera probably won't kill you, but there is no effective treatment and the symptoms can persist for weeks, months, or even years. Call it "barrakarma."

Written by Alisa Mullins

In a bid to stop Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's reign of terror over animals once and for all by getting the circus's exhibitor's license revoked, PETA has submitted more than 700 pages of evidence to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) documenting not only Ringling's long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act but also the circus's attempts to cover up the circumstances surrounding animals' deaths.

Just one of many examples is Riccardo, a baby elephant whose fatal fall off a pedestal during a training session (he was euthanized after breaking both hind legs) Ringling originally tried to characterize as "routine play." Another example is Clyde, a lion who died of heat stroke after being confined to a sweltering boxcar in Ringling's animal train while it crossed the Mojave Desert in 109-degree heat. A former trainer told PETA that Ringling tampered with the evidence by installing a non-working water misting system in the boxcar after Clyde died and warned him to not talk about the the circumstances of Clyde's death.

And then there are the hours of video that PETA amassed last year—which show Ringling handlers as they beat elephants in city after city across the country—as well as the damning photos taken by a former elephant trainer that show baby elephants as they are "broken" with ropes, bullhooks, and electric prods.

We think that all this adds up to several hundred pretty good reasons for the USDA to yank Ringling's license. If you agree, please take a minute to drop the agency a line.

Written by Alisa Mullins

The saturated fat and cholesterol in KFC's Double Down begins clogging arteries and potentially decreasing life expectancies nationwide in just a few days. The sandwich "vilest food product created by man," consists of bacon and cheese sandwiched between two fried chicken breasts, and according to KFC, is only 540 calories—and 32 g of fat, and 1,380 mg of sodium.

With two chicken breasts, cheese, and bacon, the Double Down means quadruple the Kentucky Fried Cruelty for animals, and it could mean quadruple bypasses for consumers since the consumption of animal fats has been linked to heart disease. So as KFC debuts its artery plug on a sans bun, PETA will begin touring the country with our anti-KFC hearse, which will make its first stop in KFC's hometown, Louisville, Kentucky.

Keep your eyes peeled, the hearse could be coming to a Kentucky Fried Cruelty near you!

Written by Logan Scherer

The following is a guest post from peta2's Marta.

I'm pretty excited about the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen tomorrow, since word on the street is that the movie has a positive animal rights message in it. There's even a scene set in a butcher shop, where Megan Fox's and Shia Labeouf's characters learn that every animal you eat had a story. We hear them on that.

In honor of the release of the movie, we're transforming the classic Transformers tagline into "More Than Meats the Eye" for the title of our top-five list that takes a closer look at the meat industry. Most people never take an up-close look at the food they're eating. I mean, seriously, who wants to think about their food actually looking like this (even though it does)?

Click for larger image

Want seconds of this fatty blob of nastiness? *Shudder!* Anyway, here are the top five foods that I think are "More Than Meats the Eye":

1. Jell-O: How does Jell-O stay firm but wiggly? You can thank gelatin (aka the ground-up skin, intestines, and bones of animals) for that jiggle. Who doesn't like bones in their fruity snacks?
2. Hot Dogs: These are made from mechanically recovered meat, which Wikipedia describes as, "a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork, turkey or chicken bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue." If you're in the mood for tails, bones, and anuses topped with relish at a ball game, steer clear of the veggie dogs, since they're mostly just made of plain ol' boring soy protein.
3. Milk: Pus doesn't exactly conjure up the most pleasant of images, but if the idea of a tall frosty glass of pus sounds good to you, by all means, feel free to down a glass of milk. That's right, milk can legally contain a somatic cell count (that's pus, people) of up to 200 million per liter.
4. Twinkies: Where does that fatty flavor come from? Beef fat, of course! Sponge cake + creamy filling + cow fat = the classic truck-stop snack. Yum.
5. Cheese: Rennet, found in many cheeses, comes from the stomach lining of slaughtered calves. I personally try to avoid baby cow stomach on my nachos, but maybe that's just me.

Do some of these sound a bit … unappetizing? Try vegan versions! Grab soy milk the next time you hit the grocery store or give a homemade snack cake a whirl. You can still enjoy all the flavors you love while cutting out the cruelty and crap!

Which foods do you think are "More Than Meats the Eye"?

Written by Marta Holmberg