i76 / CC

Six Flags had been planning to include a live Madagascar Hissing Cockroach–eating challenge as part of their Halloween "Fright Fest" festivities.

So we wrote and explained that encouraging teenagers (or anyone!) to hurt and kill even the smallest life form "just for fun" can desensitize them to suffering in general. Besides, all insects, like them or not, play a role in our ecosystem. And there's also the small matter of health risks like allergic reactions, nausea, and gastrointestinal distress—humans, you may realize, are not meant to eat giant hissing cockroaches.

Six Flags agreed! Six Flags public relations manager Sue Carpenter said, "We're on to other Fright Fest events that do not include any living creatures!"

Roller coasters, Halloween, and no harm to animals? Sounds great to me!

We're so glad that Six Flags has decided to pursue only animal-friendly events that we're sending a small token of our appreciation to Ms. Carpenter—a box of vegan chocolate roaches—completely cruelty-free, maybe a little bit scary, and 100 percent delicious.

Written by Amanda Schinke

paddleasia / CC

Charles River Laboratories has finally had to own up to killing 32 monkeys under their "care." The monkeys were baked alive when a thermostat malfunctioned; no alarm system was in place to alert staff to save the monkeys. Nobody even knew about the deaths until the following morning.

Charles River's announcement follows a string of contact with PETA from a whistleblower claiming to be a Charles River employee, who was concerned about what appeared to be gross negligence. We immediately followed up with a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the body charged with enforcing the minimal standards of the Animal Welfare Act), which subsequently opened an inquiry into the lab.

"This is a terrible and unfortunate tragedy," the company said in a statement released to the media. The monkeys were slated to be used in preclinical drug experiments, so Charles River's concern is quite curious. The deaths were written off as the result of "several human errors"—unlike the frequent and intentional monkey murders that preclinical testing laboratories voluntarily participate in.

This accident is only one disgusting incident among many for Charles River's abysmal record. They were cited for 22 violations of the ever-so-minimal standards of the pitifully limited Animal Welfare Act in 2005 alone, and they netted 20 violations (as reported to federal officials) in 2006 and 2007.

Stay tuned to this spot. More's afoot on this front.

Written by Sean Conner

No matter what your stance is on the highly controversial U.S.-Mexican border fence project, everyone can agree that those who decide to come to the U.S. should be warned about the downside of our nation's meat and milk consumption habits. PETA is warning immigrants that there's much more to worry about than proper documentation.

We've written a letter to the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection asking to buy space at each of the nine southwest border sectors for our new ad. Those considering entry will then read this message: "If the border patrol doesn't get you, the chicken and burgers will. Go vegan" (or, in Spanish, "Si no te agarra la migra, te atraparan el pollo y las hamburguesas. Sé vegano").

Spanish version

English version

By leaving behind a far healthier staple diet of vegetables and grains—like rice, beans, corn, peppers, and tortillas—Mexicans and other immigrants will likely find themselves fattening up on the fiberless, fatty, cholesterol-laden U.S. diet, which is linked to heart disease, various types of cancer, and strokes (our nation's three biggest killers) as well as impotence (internationally recognized killer of the mood).

PETA's placement of these colorful ads would certainly offset some of the tax dollars that fund the fence. It's a winning solution for the folks at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, immigrants, and farmed animals alike!

Written by Sean Conner

You might remember when we broke the news back in December about our undercover investigation at a pig farm in Garland, North Carolina, owned by Murphy Family Ventures, which supplies pig meat to Smithfield Foods. Murphy Family Ventures workers were documented cutting off piglets' tails and pulling out piglets' testicles without any pain relief, among other abuses. You might also remember that at least one employee at the pig farm was fired in response to our investigation. Well, this story just keeps on progressing in the right direction—and that's the way we like it!

Thanks to PETA's undercover work and follow-up, criminal charges have been filed against one of the workers employed by the farm during the undercover investigation.

That worker faces six misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals for actions documented by PETA's investigator, including dragging pigs by the ear, striking a pig in the face with a handling board, and poking a pig in the eyes with his fingers. If he returns to North Carolina from out-of-state, a second worker will face one count of cruelty to animals for also dragging a pig by the ear. FoxNews.com has a great article with more details on the investigation, and you can view footage from the investigation below.

I have to say, it's great to see that the officials who are presiding over the case are taking this one seriously—as seriously, in fact, as they would a case that involved a sadistically tortured dog or cat. And rightfully so: Just like dogs and cats, pigs have the ability to feel pain. And if someone just happened to say that a pig is smarter than a dog or a three-year-old child, well, he or she would be right.

It's about time that these pigs—whose suffering and misery PETA has caught on film—finally get some justice. This case sends a message loud and clear to factory farms and slaughterhouses that cruelty to farmed animals will not be tolerated and that violations of animal welfare laws will have consequences such as, oh, say—a court date.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

mchenrycountyblog / CC

Seriously, though, not only do we employ James Bond-caliber infiltrators, what they uncover is more sinister—and of far greater value—than any Hollywood glam, pyrotechnic diamond heist too.

So just who are these fearless, selfless souls? Well, allow me to introduce two of PETA's MVPs: spy couple Hannah and Philip Schein. (It's cool. I can out them 'cause they are semi-retired and have already been sued.)

Get a load of this rap sheet:

• They have clandestinely captured video footage of chinchillas killed for their fur.
• Practicing Jews, the Scheins have participated in seven kosher-related investigations, most recently at a slaughterhouse in South America, where they captured footage of horrific "shackle and hoist" cow slaughter.
• They also helped direct an investigation at the world's largest kosher slaughterhouse, where an investigator documented cruelty that was anything but kosher.
• Hannah went to dinner with Beyoncé and took a hidden camera with her to take the singer to task for glamorizing the use of fur for fashion.
• Philip has been on covert missions among monks running an egg factory farm in South Carolina and black-bear hunters in Canada. Bad@$$!

So if watching these videos makes you want to throw things, just imagine being the one that filmed and edited the footage. These courageous folks risk their necks by enduring abysmal circumstances to uncover abuses that are deliberately hidden by powerful industries. And their work saves countless animals' lives. Think about it. How many of you are now veg because of a film with this kind of footage? I see quite a few hands raised. (Of course, there's no shame for those of you lured into the fold by a hot half-nekkid girl preaching the good "pro-veg" news with nothing but a few lettuce leaves covering her naughty bits. By any means necessary, yo.)

"Hannah and I know how important and effective it is to make the abuse of animals behind the scenes public," says Philip. "We are proud of our undercover work for PETA and glad that it is something we've been able to do as a couple." Suffice it to say that these heroes and their team deserve our relentless support for educating the masses while stickin' it to the man.

On behalf of animals everywhere, we the cruelty-free thank you!

From the category of "No Shit, Sherlock" experiments comes this gem from Yerkes National Primate Research Center. A posse of animal-experimenters, led by vivisector Mark Wilson, has concluded that female monkeys who experience psychological stress will eat excessive amounts of fatty foods.

Really? I wouldn't have guessed that from the way I reach for chocolate peanut-butter brownies instead of broccoli salad when I'm stressed from a looming deadline or a crazy busy schedule. But unlike Yerkes' Wilson, I don't receive grants (read: taxpayer dollars) from the National Institutes of Health to come up with the groundbreaking conclusion that stressed females eat and that the foods we eat when stressed aren't the best for us.

Wilson is right at home at Yerkes, where his coworkers also receive tax dollars up the yin-yang to imprison and abuse monkeys for equally revelatory results. Yerkes' Maria Sanchez removes baby monkeys from their mothers and concludes that the babies become extremely depressed, Stuart Zola has shown that baby monkeys who are taken away from their mothers are more likely to become addicted to drugs, and Michael Davis has proved that motherless monkeys are more prone to feeling fear and anxiety. Your tax dollars hard at work.

Three years ago, we went inside AgriProcessors slaughterhouse—the world's largest Kosher slaughterhouse—and uncovered close to 300 instances of inhumane slaughter. Workers at that slaughterhouse were ripping the tracheas out of fully conscious cows and watching them writhe in pools of their own blood. As usual when we uncover this kind of abuse, the company hemmed and hawed and tried to pretend that we were making a big deal out of nothing, but despite their unwillingness to accept responsibility for their actions, we had hoped that the widespread public outrage would convince the company that, even among meat-eaters, the treatment of farmed animals is a matter of serious concern that directly affects the bottom line of organizations which refuse to take it seriously. In 2006, the owners of AgriProcessors opened a new kosher slaughterhouse, Local Pride, in Gordon, Nebraska. Sadly, as this video shows, little has been done to help mitigate the suffering of the animals who pay the price for corporate greed. Click here to learn more. And if you’re unable to get all the way through this video without wincing, you can take a pledge to try out vegetarianism here.

Funny-Cats/Creative Commons

Anyway, the gist of the article was that as brain science becomes more advanced, scientists are discovering more and more evidence of actual physical processes that relate to feelings like empathy, disgust, or joy:

The article centers around the argument that it's simply false reasoning to attempt to distinguish humans from animals based on who has a soul and who doesn't. I'm still trying to wrap my head round the whole concept, honestly, but it's definitely worth a read if you have time—or if, like me you have people giving you weird jive about souls when you try to talk to them about animals. You can read the full article here.

This story by Idaho cruelty investigator Karen Williams is currently making its way around the internet, so you may have already seen it. But I found it to be incredibly moving, so I wanted to post it anyway. I’ll let the story speak for itself, but I will say that Princess Cuteyface got some extra lovin from me after I read this one . . .