• April Fools' Round-Up: PETA Edition

    Written by PETA

    laughing dragon

    April Fool us once, shame on you. April Fool us twice, shame on us. April Fool us thrice, and, well, we've totally got a list in the works! This year, PETA's been the object of April Fools' pranks galore, and now, in honor of our own rat-rabbit hybrid hoax, we're counting down our five favorite fools-on-us:

    1. PETA joins forces with the WWF to battle tooth lice—hey, it's a "worldwide oral hygiene crisis"!
    2. We don't care whether you call them slankets, snuggies, or snuggles—though our favorite is of course our own snuggle blanket—but if anyone started using fur to make wearable blankets, we'd be campaigning against it faster than Liz Lemon fell in love with her slanket.
    1. Sure, "sexpert" Sue Johanson's claim that "Vegetarians—vegans who only eat fruits and vegetables—their ejaculate is sweet and nut-like, whereas males who eat meat, their ejaculate tastes bitter, like burnt leather," is a few years old, but that didn't stop the folks at SuperVegan from turning the classic clip into an April Fools' joke that had me thinking that the American Meat Institute really was serving Johanson with a lawsuit and that PETA Vice President Dan Mathews was leaping to her defense.
    2. True: Glenn Beck admires PETA for our consistency and steadfastness. False: Glenn Beck has actually joined PETA—though we would totally welcome him with open arms!
    3. Thought rat-rabbit hybrids would've caused an epidemic of cuteness around the country? Well, folks, here's the not-so-cute side of April Fools'-related genetic engineering: cows who bite back! Grass- and blood-fed cattle? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

    Tell us: What was your favorite PETA-themed April Fools' prank?

    Written by Logan Scherer

  • Watching 'Life' at Its Fullest

    Written by PETA

    Have you tuned in to Life yet? Not to be confused with the delicious cereal of the same name or the painfully long bored game, Life is actually a 10-part documentary series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on March 21 and chronicles the complex lives of different species—from komodo dragons to cuttlefish, damselflies to pebble toads. Every episode is narrated by Oprah (could she get any cooler?), and each one has opened my eyes to so many fascinating facts about animals. Last Sunday's installment featured some aerially and aquatically nimble flying fish and resourceful anchovies. The highlight, though, was this unforgettable sequence of mud-wrestling mudskippers:

     

    Mudskippers

     

    The two segments airing this Sunday are "Birds" and "Creatures of the Deep." I'm willing to bet that after you watch this preview about bowerbirds, you too will be tuning in to see which male's interior decorating skills are going to win him a mate. I know I will.

    Written by Logan Scherer

  • Genetically Engineered Rats: 100 Percent Fake!

    Written by PETA

    Happy (belated) April Fool's, folks! If you were to pick out one of our blogs from yesterday and label it a fantasy, which would you pick? Sure, McDonald's basketball seems made up, but it turns out that we do not support genetically engineering rats. But judging from the comments on the first blog about our rabbit-rat hybrid, we were able to pull one over on a few of you with the help of our friends over at Ecorazzi. Got a good laugh out of it all? Well, you're in good company, because it turns out that rats—who are sensitive, clever, and affectionate—love to laugh too! (And, no, we're not kidding this time. That really has been proved.)

    To treat animals better only because they are cute is as insupportable as genetically engineering rats to have powder-puffy tails. No one deserves to be killed with gut-wrenching poisons, force-fed toxic chemicals, or left writhing on a glue trap because they aren't considered important. Tell us what you think:

     

     

    Written by Logan Scherer

REPORT CRUELTY

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. 

PETA Tweets

Follow PETA on Twitter!

Chicken Photo: © Rommel Manuel