Written by PETA
Heeeeey, yoooou guuuys! I'm starting a new segment of The PETA Files, aptly called "Corey, How We Love Thee," where entries will be dedicated to the wonderfulness that is Corey Feldman. OK, so it isn't really going to be titled "Corey, How We Love Thee," and there isn't even going to be a section devoted entirely to the master actor, musician, and activist. I may have slightly exaggerated.
But it is true that here at PETA, we love the actor known for his smart-mouthed roles in the 1980s and, better yet, his huge heart for animals! Not only did he star in classics like The Goonies, Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, and The 'burbs, now he and gorgeous wife and Playboy model Susie are also starring in PETA's new "Give Peas a Chance" ad, encouraging everyone to go vegetarian.
Quite the stunner, isn't it? If you're thinking the ad looks familiar, you'd be right. It's based on the iconic "Give Peace a Chance" image of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. You can't get more rock 'n' roll than that.
Here's what Corey had to say:
Susie and I choose the vegetarian way of life because for us, there really is no other choice. We must evolve as a race and as a planet, and evolution includes learning and changing from our mistakes. We will never truly grow until we as a whole come to the realization that all beings on this Earth should be treated with love and respect.
The Feldmans have been doing good stuff for animals for a long time. Ask KFC campaigner Nicole Matthews, who has been to their home for some chitchat of the animal activist kind. The whole thing unfolded in an episode of last season's The Two Coreys—a reality show that is actually devoted to him. It was quite the riveting hour of television.
Still, though, I have to say that my favorite Corey Feldman masterpiece (and possibly the greatest movie of all time) is hands down The Goonies! What's yours? Comment below to let us know!
And while his treasure-chasing, vampire-hunting, neighborhood-spying days are over, there are lots of animals to be saved, and we love working with Corey on our side!
Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky
Quick, what happens when you throw a stone in a pond of water? That's right, ripples form. Don't worry, we're not revisiting Physics 101, but that metaphor describes how phenomenal it is to see our actions generate positive consequences.
Check out this stone-skipping scenario: Last fall, an Israeli group videotaped hideously cruel experiments on monkeys and cats that were taking place at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, in which the animals were kept hungry and thirsty so that they would "work" in exchange for a few drops of water. Vivisectors drilled holes in the animals' skulls, inserted electrodes in their brains, and then strapped animals into restraint chairs, where they were kept entirely immobile for hours at a time while data were recorded. These experiments have been going on for more than 20 years, and get this: Our tax dollars—right here in the United States—have been paying for them, courtesy of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
When PETA received the video footage, we sprang into action, writing to the NIH, identifying influential friends who could nudge the Weizmann Institute, and setting up a petition so that concerned people everywhere could tell the Weizmann Institute what they thought.
And now, thanks to the massive outpouring of concern, Israeli academics opposed to cruelty to animals have started organizing and speaking out. Operating under the banner "Academics for the Protection of Animals in Labs," three hundred professors at Israeli universities have signed a petition calling for greater accountability and transparency for animal experimentation. In the words of one organizer, "What I am proposing is that there should be more transparency and supervision, and yes, also fewer experiments ...."
They're not monkeying around, and those are some serious stones!
Posted by Grace Friedan
Readers of Dog Fancy magazine opened the recent issue to see an ad that read, "Just bought a brand-new purebred puppy? Welcome him or her into your home with a free gift bag! Call us today at 1-866-834-6061 to claim your bag and hear about our products." The ad's offer sounds good enough, right?
Well, for people who actually called the number, the offer may have lost some of its appeal when they learned that the "gift" bags are actually body bags! If readers knew the ad was placed by PETA, they may have expected the shocking twist, but why would we want to give away a little detail like that?
The ad and the body bags were created to serve as a strong reminder to all dog lovers that for every dog you buy, another one will die, because every dog purchased from a breeder takes a spot in a home that a homeless dog is dying to fill. With the millions of homeless animals in this country, it's insane to buy rather than adopt.
Our video "Buy One, Get One Killed" drives home that point nicely.
Ah, shucks! Why be subtle, really? Especially when you're creative and stand for something! This time, some of our PETA punsters have come up with an ad that is sure to cause a stir—and rightfully so. When millions of unwanted animals are destroyed for lack of homes because less than responsible people still fail to spay or neuter their cats and dogs, perhaps a mildly indecent outcry is in order. You think? Check out the awesome ad here:
And if you want to get people to learn more about this epidemic, we've created the fantastic Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign. Not only do we have ourselves a stylish Web site, the campaign also tackles seriously distorted ideas about buying from breeders, puppy mills (if you're one of the 10 people who don't watch Oprah, you can learn all about them here), and pet stores while offering simple steps for what you can do to help. We also provide more printable factsheets and literature than you can shake a stick at!
Posted by Missy Lane
During our KFC Naked Truth demo tour, PETA campaigners encountered one bossy spectator—and he was a cop! Let me start by saying that our campaigners are trained, professional, and passionate (plus they know how to rock an eye-catching demo), and they always check local laws before every demo to make sure we abide by the city's regs. Colorado Springs was no different, yet a serious party pooper might be lurking behind every corner—a person who perhaps didn’t appreciate being forced to think about his or her meat consumption.
As the demo started, the ladies stripped down to bikinis and held a sign around their bodies (to create the illusion of nudity—I mean, what's hotter than a little mystery?) stating, "The Naked Truth: KFC Tortures Chickens." All was going well as the passersby received important literature and information about KFC (not to mention a visual that could get them through the rest of their day), but then the party got officially crashed when a particular police officer showed up.
Mr. Officious, the man with his back to the camera, threatened the girls with citations for public indecency and demanded that they drop their sign (excuse me?) so that he could see what they were wearing behind it. The girls assured him that all their naughty bits were covered, but the officer wouldn't take "No!" for an answer. He demanded that they follow him and get dressed behind a blanket, snickering all the while (he was snickering, that is!). The girls were polite and complied.
After the girls got dressed, they had their information taken down by the police and the whole shebang ended with the other officers telling the first officer that it wasn't a violation. Right—they knew that! The "bad cop" left, but one "good cop" stuck around a bit, took a leaflet, and said he would check out our Web site to see what this demo was all about. The demo still affected him ... score! Not to mention, the police action drew a large crowd of inquisitive folks (including a local KFC employee) who took our literature and became super interested in challenging their KFC ways.
Currently, PETA's legal eagles are reviewing the details and photos and deliberating about taking action on our First Amendment rights, so we'll let you know if anything more comes of this. But for now, I'd just like to say thanks to the Colorado Springs police—a lot of folks now know the naked truth behind KFC.
Posted by Christine Doré
This is all just a tad too ironic. I bet losing that fingertip hurt—perhaps even as much as it hurts piglets to have their tails cut off, baby chickens to have their sensitive beaks cut off, or calves to be burned with a hot iron and have their horns cut off—all without any painkillers. Yeah, I bet that feels like a day at the spa.
Let's work for the day when a news story is about sparing a thought for the real victims who suffered greatly for the meat behind that counter.
Just when we thought all the fur-clad skeletons had been pulled from Sharon Stone's closet, yet another story about animal abuse surfaces. In his new autobiography, actor Ernest Borgnine talks about working with Sharon Stone in her early, looking-less-like-a-scarecrow years. He writes that in Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing, Stone refused to do a scene with a spider unless the spider's pincers were ripped off—which the crew apparently did for her.
"It's not shocking to us that she displayed evil tendencies even when she was very young. It was her first starring role, and she chose to make a tiny insect an amputee. Perhaps she should change her name legally to Heart of Stone," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
I, for one, am appalled at the hypocrisy on Stone's part. She was willing to ask that this spider have his pincers ripped off his body, yet she exposed the surely terrified and disgusted crew on the set of Basic Instinct to bits of her that might give you the shivers. Shame on you, Heart of Stone.
And just for funsies, check out this fantastic picture that our friend Connie Talk created in response to Ingrid's letter asking Stone to get her brain scanned to see if Stone might be missing the empathy gene:
Beachgoers in Fort Myers and Pensacola today got the envious privilege of being able to see planes hired by PETA flying up and down the shoreline towing signs reading "8 REASONS TO BOYCOTT KFC," and featuring a demonic, blood-soaked "Colonel Sanders" in the act of stabbing a chicken. So without further ado:
I never got to see anything that fun when I lived in Pensacola, though there were a lot of orange people....
Posted by Sarah King
Let me recap for the irony-impaired: People who came to look at animals stuck in cages ended up stuck cages themselves.
For perhaps the first time since their capture (or births in captivity), the residents of the pens below the tram tracks had reason to feel grateful for their enclosures' sizes—they at least had walking room (albeit it nothing like freedom), while the human animals were confined to 4-by-5-foot boxes. On the other hand, the human animals had liberty and exercise of free will to look forward to, which was not the case for the Bronx Zoo's permanent "residents."
Some stranded patrons saw the connection, according to The New York Times, which ran the story.
One such visitor walked away with a better understanding of how the animals must feel: "You have no say in what happens to you. You lose all control," she told the Times. Another man said, "It's a good lesson to humanity. They're now afraid, they're now vulnerable. Humanity needs to learn humility. They're not masters of the universe. They're part of the natural world."
What bizarre role reversal will come next? Will meat kill people? Oh, wait ....
Posted by Sean Conner
Let's face it, China may be on top of its game in terms of technological innovations, but when it comes to animal protection, the country is dead last at the bottom of the dog pile.
China severely lacks any form of animal welfare. Our investigations into Chinese fur farms and live markets have shown some of the most horrendous acts of cruelty and conditions for animals raised for human use.
We're pleased that Beijing has opted out of the dog-slaughtering business—at least for a few weeks and if only for Olympic restaurants. But I have a suspicion it's not because someone up top realized that dogs feel pain.
A better idea would be to ban all meat from the restaurants. Cows, chickens, pigs, and fish value their lives and don't want to suffer, and they certainly die as wretchedly as dogs do, even if most people never get to know one in the way that they get to know a dog. Kind of a double standard, don't you think?
Besides, the Olympic athletes certainly don't need all the fat and cholesterol loaded in each bite of meat. It would suck to be one lap away from winning gold and suffer a heart attack. Take a bit of advice from Carl Lewis, a legendary Olympian, a vegetarian, and the man who's broken more records than humanly possible.
The only real breakfast of champions is one that's meat-free. And you can take that to the winner's podium.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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