Written by PETA
Animal activist Michelle Doers was reading Animal Times when she first learned about actor James Cromwell's arrest at the University of Wisconsin (UW) for protesting its heinous experiments on cats. That's when she remembered reading about something else in the PETA publication: a woman who wrapped her car in an ad to raise awareness about animal issues. So Michelle decided to turn her own car into a moving billboard for animals.
For the next two months, Michelle will be using her car to speak up for animals in laboratories and encouraging others to buy only cruelty-free home and beauty products. After that, she plans to change the wrap on her car seasonally. Her next message will encourage people to boycott Ringling Bros. for its abuse of elephants.
Another stellar activist and PETA supporter, Anne Feingold, helped coordinate a joint letter through her cat rescue organization that was signed by more than 150 cat advocacy and rescue organizations from nearly all 50 states. The letter, which unequivocally condemns UW's cruel experiments on cats, was sent to the leadership of the university as well as to the federal funding agency that enables this abuse. Anne also showed impressive initiative and dedication by contacting local media in Madison, Wisconsin, to alert them to her efforts.
Are you inspired by Michelle and Anne? Want to help animals from your computer and in your community? Join our Action Team! And if you're an activist younger than 21, check out peta2's Street Team!
Written by Michelle Kretzer
After he heard about the deadly experiments that the University of Wisconsin–Madison is performing on cats, Randall made a video against it that is so convincing that it could make even the honey badger care.
Randall's buddy Bret Lockett of the New York Jets gave animals an awesome shout-out, too, during an interview with Integral Yoga Magazine:
I don't believe in torturing animals. I've been doing a lot of research and found out about a lot I didn't know, so I joined PETA's 'Ink, Not Mink' ad series urging others to show off their unique tattoos rather than wearing fur. Having played football in New England, where winters are harsh, I knew firsthand that there was no excuse—not even weather extremes—for wearing fur and that there are plenty of other fashionable, warm materials to wear that weren't made by harming animals. I challenged my fans to watch PETA's undercover video footage of fur farms, just like I did. I wanted everyone to know that, for every fur coat, collar or piece of trim, millions of foxes, minks, coyotes, rabbits and even cats and dogs were violently killed with wire nooses. Many of these animals are even skinned alive. The only way to combat this cruelty is by never buying or wearing fur or fur trim.
Bret would likely be pleased with Glamour UK's pick for the best-dressed celebrity: Fervently fur-free Kristen Stewart tops the magazine's list for the second year in a row.
And Perez Hilton graced us with a gallery of the best-undressed celebs: 30 of PETA's hottest nude anti-fur ads.
In the same spirit, here's our gallery of the best celebrity tweets of the week:
Pamela Anderson probably gets asked out via Twitter and other means every day. But she's offering to take a certain fellow out to dinner. Who's the lucky guy? Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Pam wants to talk to the bachelor president about helping to get Mali, the 39-year-old ailing elephant who is alone in the Manila Zoo, transferred to a sanctuary in Thailand.
Fellow screen icon and animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot is making another man an offer he shouldn't refuse. Brigitte joined PETA UK's campaign to get British retailer Fortnum & Mason to stop selling vile foie gras, with a letter to the store's managing director, Ewan Venters, that said, in part, "Tradition is never an excuse for animal cruelty."
You would probably never catch Vanessa Hudgens eating foie gras, but you would catch her grabbing lunch at North Hollywood's Lotus Vegan restaurant.
Where else can you catch your favorite celebs? Tweeting with PETA.
Bill Gates has always been an innovator, so it's no surprise that one of the brightest minds of our time is tackling our most pressing environmental problems. "We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources," he wrote on his blog. His solution? Vegan food. Bill is getting behind faux meats and eggs, which taste like the real thing but don't require vast amounts of natural resources for production. "Companies like Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek Foods are experimenting with new ways to use heat and pressure to turn plants into foods that look and taste just like meat and eggs," Bill wrote. "I tasted Beyond Meat's chicken alternative and was impressed. I couldn't tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken."
Bill has been using Twitter to spread the word about faux meats, and plenty of other brainy people joined in to illustrate how smart it is to care about animals:
Greta Van Susteren shares with Bill the honor of being one of Forbes' Most Powerful People—and she also agrees that caring about animals just makes sense. She took to her blog to protest the cruel and deadly cat experiments at her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Bill Gates and Steve-O might seem like an interesting pair, but they are certainly in agreement on meat. Steve-O explained his feelings in his Huffington Post article "Crazy for Veggies: "I'm convinced that of all the changes I've made to my lifestyle, it's the adoption of a vegan diet that has been best for me—physically, mentally, and certainly spiritually. It's benefited every area of my life."
The computer whiz and the comedian are in good company with Jessica Chastain, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell, and Kristen Wiig, all of whom Celebuzz featured in an article about how "meat is so passé." And celebrity Mayim Bialik is helping New York Times readers make their Passover Seder vegan.
An anonymous person is helping animal advocate extraordinaire Sam Simon, who has been diagnosed with stage-four cancer, see how much everyone appreciates him, with a "Thank You Sam Simon" page on Facebook. Sam posted: "Well, Thank You to Whoever started this page. This is Sam. I'm overwhelmed by your kind thoughts. I want you all to know I have a great team of docs, traditional and alternative, and I plan on beating the cancer. If you'd really like to thank me, please vow to never buy a ticket to Sea World or Ringling Bros again! xo"
Please help show your appreciation for Sam's awesomeness by "liking" the "Thank You Sam Simon" page.
Update: Good news! We love James Cromwell even more than we already did because of his willingness to face arrest to help bring attention to cruel brain experiments on cats at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and now we love that local prosecutors have declined to bring criminal disorderly conduct charges against him—as well as against the PETA staff member who was arrested with him—for pointing out that the experiments are unethical and must be stopped. The pair have instead been cited for noncriminal county ordinance violations—similar to a traffic ticket.
The USDA's documentation confirms that pain was inflicted on cats—including Double Trouble—who suffered from chronic life-threatening infections after having holes drilled into their skulls and metal coils implanted in their eyes and being constantly starved to force them to obey commands. Please join James Cromwell today in urging the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to stop these cruel and deadly experiments.
The following was originally posted on February 7, 2013:
Members of the University of Wisconsin (UW) System Board of Regents sat stunned as actor James Cromwell entered their meeting to challenge them over experiments on cats. Likely the last thing the board expected today was to have an Academy Award nominee rush in, holding a grisly picture of a cat with a large metal post protruding from her head, and exclaim, "This is not science! This is torture! Shame on you!" But James, a longtime PETA supporter, felt that it was high time the board got personally called out for UW-Madison's abuse of cats. Campus police arrested him and a PETA staff member but not before the board had to stare into the face of just one of the many cats who had been tormented and killed in UW-Madison's disturbing brain and ear experiments.
The orange tabby cat whose image has become synonymous with the cruel cat laboratories is Double Trouble. Experimenters screwed a steel post to her skull so that they could immobilize her head and planted electrical devices deep inside her ears. They allowed her massive, bloody head wound to become severely infected, and they then starved her for days at a time so that she would cooperate with them in exchange for a morsel of food to eat. Finally, calling the experiment a failure, they killed and decapitated her.
PETA has repeatedly asked UW-Madison to end its abusive experiments on cats but has received no response. Please e-mail UW's Board of Regents and urge the members to listen to James and the hundreds of thousands of other compassionate people who want the school to end these cruel cat laboratories and switch to modern, superior, non-animal research methods.
Written by Jeff Mackey
Following a complaint filed by PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed PETA's allegations of rampant abuse of cats in a taxpayer-funded brain experiment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW), where actor James Cromwell was arrested during a protest last month. The USDA also cited UW for violating federal animal protection laws by burning a cat named Broc so badly with a heating pad that she required surgery.
In a scathing report just obtained by PETA, a federal inspector found "a pattern of recurring infections" and that all the cats whom PETA profiled in its complaint had been "diagnosed with chronic infections" after having steel posts screwed into open wounds on their heads and metal coils implanted into their eyes.
The USDA noted that some cats, including Slinky, have died because of these infections and that one cat named NJ even had to have her eye removed after the metal coil became the site of frequent serious infections.
The government report includes never-before-seen heartbreaking photographs of NJ, Broc, and the five other mutilated cats who are still alive in the laboratory. We now know the faces of the other victims of this laboratory besides Double Trouble.
All these new revelations confirm what PETA has been saying for months: UW tortures animals and doesn't mind twisting the truth about it. Even though it knew it wasn't true, in interviews and statements UW has shamelessly claimed that the government had not substantiated any of PETA's allegations and that it wasn't cited for its abuse of cats. In fact, during the same period it was claiming it had been cleared, UW was trying in vain to appeal the government's citation.
What You Can Do
The cats in UW's labs are suffering miserably, and they don't have time for more evasions and excuses—now exposed as deceptive spin. Please urge the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to put an immediate halt to these cruel experiments.
Los Angeles' STAPLES Center will become the city's vegetarian center when Morrissey plays there March 1. The music legend has asked that no "flesh as food" be served at his shows, but fans will have plenty of festive fare, including vegan sloppy Joes, vegan sushi, and grilled veggie sandwiches, to munch on while they rock out to "Meat Is Murder." And as an extra nod to animals, Moz also required that McCruelty shutter its doors for the day.
© StarMaxInc.com
Beyoncé took a page out of Morrissey's songbook when she wanted to drop her baby weight. Bey started eating one vegan meal a day, and she's kept it up. Maybe since she's eating fewer animals, she'll consider wearing fewer animals, too?
That's what PETA is asking the Buffalo Sabres to do. When the hockey team started awarding the "player of the game" with a fur coat, we wrote to the Sabres' owner, Terry Pegula, urging him to do away with these vile gifts as the team scrambles to reinvent itself as winners after the highly publicized firing of head coach Lindy Ruff.
Usually it's Canadian sealers that seals have to worry about, but recently two young women were caught on camera hitting and kicking seals who were resting on a California beach. People were outraged, and Ian Somerhalder, along with many others, took to Twitter to defend the seals as well as other animals:
Miley Cyrus is always full of sweet tweets, so of course, she and dad Billy Ray Cyrus were on board to compete in the Twitter for the Critters Celebrity Challenge, a Twitter competition that is raising money for several animal shelters and sanctuaries.
Soon Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith's household may rival Miley's in number of rescued dogs. The couple adopted two Labrador-shepherd mixes, a brother and sister. PETA helped welcome the pups to their new home with toys, treats, and a copy of Let's Have a Dog Party!
Fellow screen legend James Cromwell has also had an exciting month. He was arrested while helping PETA disrupt a meeting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to protest the school's painful and deadly experiments on cats. Then he joined awesome animal advocate Jane Velez-Mitchell on her show to publicize the school's crimes against cats even more.
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
With the approach of holiday travel, drivers nationwide are anticipating pain at the pump—but it will sting a bit more for some motorists in Madison, Wisconsin, where gas stations in high-traffic areas are now displaying PETA ads with a shocking photo taken inside a University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) laboratory in which dozens of cats were abused and killed as part of a continuing taxpayer-funded experiment.
Truth Will Out
The ads show a gentle tabby named Double Trouble restrained in a bag with a steel post screwed into her skull. It's just one of the photos that PETA obtained following a three-year legal battle against UW. They were taken by the experimenters as part of an appalling project in which cats also have steel coils implanted in their eyes and electrodes inserted into their brains, are starved for days at a time, and are intentionally deafened.
Following complaints by PETA and a former UW veterinarian, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating apparent violations of federal animal welfare regulations and misuse of federal funding related to these horrible experiments. After UW officials fought for years to keep the photographic evidence of Double Trouble's wretched life and protracted death secret, PETA's ads are showing their friends and neighbors exactly how cats are tormented and killed behind the school's laboratory doors.
Learn more about UW's shameful secrets, and please urge the federal government to stop funding this primitive and lethal experiment.
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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