Written by PETA
Here's what Jeff says about this week's masterpiece: "The strip is based on the sad measures that officials have to take in order to protect rhinos from poachers. And a little depravity thrown in for good measure."
He also let me know that, in honor of Earth Week, he sprayed this strip with 50 percent less pesticides. Which was very noble of him, I thought. Anyway, this one's a zinger—enjoy!
To check out the archives of past strips, click here.
As Scandinavian countries go, Finland is actually pretty awesome. They've got some kickass modernist architecture, the world's finest sauna technology, and—if you're into bands that play Metallica covers on the cello (which, honestly, who isn’t?)—an unbeatable music scene. Unfortunately, Finland also kills more foxes for their fur than almost any other nation, and we'd really, really like for them to go ahead and just stop doing that. Enter the wonderful Pamela Anderson, who's going to be visiting the country for the annual Rauma festival this year (Pam's ancestry is Finnish), and who took the opportunity to raise the issue with Finland's president, Tarja Halonen. You can read Pam's letter here, and I'll keep you posted on Tarja's response. Thank you, Pamela, for everything that you do. Don't forget to bring me back a souvenir.
Yeah, that's right. We got a giant bird costume.
For a little bit of context, you should check out our undercover investigation of two PetSmart locations which revealed appalling conditions for the animals sold by the stores. There's also a handy little factsheet here, which explains (for anyone who hasn't figured it out by themselves) why big birds don't belong in small cages. This picture's from a demonstration outside yesterday's PetSmart shareholder meeting in Chicago.
In a fantastic victory for animals, Schumacher Furs suffered quite a blow last year when the downtown Portland store decided to close after years of protests by concerned Portland residents. But, much as I'd love to take credit for the great protests, PETA really didn't have an awful lot to do with them—a fact which had our lawyers more baffled than concerned when ol' Gregg and Linda filed suit against us for more than $2 million in damages. Fortunately for everyone (and as Mr. and Mrs. Schumacher learned the hard way this week), being really sad and grumpy because your unethical business got shut down isn't enough by itself to convince a court of law that someone owes you over $2 million. The claims against PETA were thrown out as being frivolous earlier this week, and Schumacher Furs will, more than likely, be paying PETA's legal fees. As PETA Counsel Bonnie Robson puts it:
“The court's decision is a victory for the First Amendment—and for animals, who must rely on human voices to protest their torture and slaughter for fur. The court did not give in to the fur industry's desire to keep the public in the dark about how animals are turned into fur coats and collars."
Well guys, now that you've failed at making your living through hurting animals and suing charities, what's next on the agenda? I'm not sure I even really want to know.
OK, so a few days ago, I posted this little entry about a video for a song called Mommy Kills Animals. I thought that was going to be the end of it, until I started hearing from my colleagues about a certain “lack of enthusiasm” they had detected in that particular post. Apparently, the music video has made an impression so deep on the employees of this Virginia office that they are willing to turn on their humble blog-writing coworker with an almost insane fury when he fails to recognize its full brilliance. Truth be told, this thing kind of freaked me out, but I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a blogger if I didn’t give the people what they want—so here it is again. Brace yourselves.
And in other completely (and I mean completely) unrelated news, there’s this federal bill up for a vote right now that is about to seriously jeopardize some turtles. If you could take a moment to help by clicking here, I would be very grateful.
Here at PETA, it’s not uncommon for us to get ideas for ads sent to us. In fact, it’s a rare day that we don’t get more good ideas than we can ever use sent our way. But this one really struck me. It’s from Scottish member Kfir Bolotin, and I think it sums up the fur issue pretty well, especially with so many dogs and cats being killed for their fur in places like China . . .
Gianfranco Ferré, one of Italy's most well-known designers, died this weekend of a brain hemorrhage in a Milan hospital at the age of 62. When I heard the news this morning, I knew that PETA VP Dan Mathews—who famously crashed a Ferré fashion show wearing a priest costume and holding a "Thou Shalt Not Kill" sign a few years ago—would have something to say about it. And so he did. This is from the letter of condolence that Dan sent to the company:
“I hope Mr. Ferré’s death is the last death at the company, and that the new design chief eliminates all the dead skin from upcoming collections. I hope that during this sad time of reflection they’ll see more clearly how the fashion house can be creative without being destructive.”
I think that sums things up rather nicely. Sad as it is, I hope the designers at GF Ferré will see this as an opportunity for a fresh start. I’m sure Gianfranco Ferré wasn’t a bad person, despite his inability to see how much suffering he was causing, but that doesn’t mean that his bad habits shouldn’t be buried with him.
One thing I forgot to mention about Ingrid and Pam’s birthday party at Sublime last week was that the real star of the show for everyone setting up the event was “Charlie the Tooth.” Charlie is the boss of Jenny Brown of J. Brown signs, who deserves props for the awesome backdrop, but more importantly, for giving Charlie such a loving home.
If you agree that Charlie is the cutest dog ever, you can join his fan club by sending an email here.
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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