Written by Jeff Mackey
PETA's gorgeous new ad featuring 2012 Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door winner Zachary Koval offers living proof that you don't need beef to be buff.
Fitness guru David Barton—whose motto, "Look Better Naked," is something we can certainly get behind—hosted Zachary and PETA for the official unveiling of the ad (which has already been featured on the Men's Health website) at his sizzling-hot eponymous gym in New York City's Astor Place, marking PETA's first-ever gym partnership.
Zachary, a David Barton Gym regular, also presented a free talk explaining the advantages of plant-powered fitness, from the best vegan proteins for bodybuilding to why so many of today's most admired figures—from Carrie Underwood and Natalie Portman to pro fighters Jake Shields and Mac Danzig—are enjoying veggie vitality.
A slammin' body can be sexy, but combine it with a humane (and healthy) heart and you get off-the-charts hotness. Ready to turn some heads and open some eyes? Just do like Zachary and the 2013 Sexiest Vegan Next Door winners, Yerika and John—get fit the vegan way!
One of the best things about traveling is getting to try delicious new vegan fare on the go—even if it means going off the beaten path. Take Vegan Planet, for instance—a restaurant that's so good, PETA is recognizing it with an award for Best Vegan Restaurant in Cancún.
Whether you're going to Cancún for spring break, a bit of time off from work, or "just because," be sure to drop in on Vegan Planet—one of the best vegan restaurants anywhere. If you're headed somewhere else (or even enjoying a "staycation" at home), check out PETA's restaurant guide, powered by the great folks at HappyCow.net, to find more great places to eat vegan around the globe. (And if you haven't gone vegan yet, learn how—and why you should—in three easy steps!)
It's time to help PETA select the "Sexiest Vegan Next Door" for 2013. Unlike that other annual sexy competition, the entrants in this contest aren't stars—although they definitely include some heavenly bodies,showing the world the health advantages of a vegan diet in the flesh.
And what's sexier than someone who not only cares about animals and the environment but also takes action to protect both of them?
So be sure to cast your vote today—and then come back on April 15 to help choose your favorites from the finalists! (And if you want to get ready to take part in the 2014 contest, here's how to go vegan in three simple steps.)
PETA will consider three factors in selecting finalists and winners: votes, enthusiasm and attractiveness. Read the contest details for more info.
Musician and songwriter Russ Irwin clearly has talent to spare—in addition to his years as a keyboardist and backing vocalist with Aerosmith (and cowriting the band's 2012 hit, "What Could Have Been Love"), he has performed with many of music's leading acts, including Sting, Cheap Trick, and PETA fave Bryan Adams.
Now, in an exclusive new video for PETA, Russ shows that he has plenty of heart and soul to match his musical skills as he relates how he chose to go vegan out of concern for animals, his health, and the environment:
Russ' new solo album is titled Get Me Home—and you can bring home some of his style of compassion with your own free vegetarian/vegan starter kit from PETA.
Written by Michelle Kretzer
Update: You asked for it—you got it. Because of the overwhelming response to this piece, we are publishing it once more to give our supporters a chance to share it on Twitter and Facebook and spread the message about the cruelty of factory farms far and wide.
The following was originally posted on November 9, 2012:
Paul McCartney famously said, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian." So an intrepid group of animal advocates found a way to bring the slaughterhouse to the sidewalk. Every Saturday night, volunteers Jennifer Mennuti and Boyd Weidman screen PETA's "Factory Farming in 60 Seconds Flat" for passersby on Miami's busy Lincoln Road.
For many people, it's the first time they are staring into the faces of the animals they call "steak," "ham," or "nugget." There in front of them is the irrefutable evidence that their "entrée" was a cow who coughed and choked as the blood spilling from her slit throat ran down her face and covered the floor below, a pig who screamed and cried as he was burned to death in scalding-hot water, a chicken whose desperate squawks went unheeded as her broken legs were slammed into shackles and she stared past the long line of her comrades to the whirring blades that would end her life. A photographer caught some of the people's reactions, and it seems Paul was right.
PETA supporter Andrew Kirschner, who hosts a radio talk show about animal rights, published the photos on his blog, Kirschner's Corner, accompanied by the real-life experiences of slaughterhouse workers, taken from Gail A. Eisnitz's book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry.
© Serg Alexander/Eyeworks Production
"I could tell you horror stories… about cattle getting their heads stuck under the gate guards and the only way you can get it out is to cut their heads off while they're still alive."
"One time I took my knife – it's sharp enough – and I sliced off the end of a hog's nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt in my hand – I was wearing a rubber glove – and I stuck the salt right up the hog's ass. The poor hog didn't know whether to **** or go blind."
"I've seen live animals shackled, hoisted, stuck, and skinned. Too many to count, too many to remember. It's just a process that's continually there. I've seen shackled beef looking around before they've been stuck. I've seen hogs [that are supposed to be lying down] on the bleeding conveyor get up after they've been stuck. I've seen hogs in the scalding tub trying to swim."
"These hogs get up to the scalding tank, hit the water and start screaming and kicking. Sometimes they thrash so much they kick water out of the tank… Sooner or later they drown. There's a rotating arm that pushes them under, no chance for them to get out. I'm not sure if they burn to death before they drown, but it takes them a couple of minutes to stop thrashing."
"Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in a chute that's had the **** prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole [anus]. You're dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen hams – thighs – completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward."
"Sometimes I grab it [a hog] by the ear and stick it right through the eye. I'm not just taking its eye out, I'll go all the way to the hilt, right up through the brain, and wiggle the knife."
"Pigs on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them – beat them to death with a pipe."
"Only you don't just kill it, you go in hard, push hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit. It would just be looking up at me and I'd be sticking, and I would just take my knife and – cut its eye out while it was just standing there. And this hog would just scream."
"I seen guys take broomsticks and stick it up the cow's behind, screwing them with a broom."
"He'll kick them [hogs], fork them, use anything he can get his hands on. He's already broken three pitchforks so far this year, just jabbing them. He doesn't care if he hits its eyes, head, butt. He jabs them so hard he busts the wooden handles. And he clubs them over the back."
"I've drug cows till their bones start breaking, while they were still alive. Bringing them around the corner and they get stuck up in the doorway, just pull them till their hide be ripped, till the blood just drip on the steel and concrete. Breaking their legs… And the cow be crying with its tongue stuck out. They pull him till his neck just pop."
Do people ask why you're vegan? Maybe it's time to share this video with them:
Then perhaps it's time to ask them the real question: "Why aren't you vegan?"
Update: Thanks to all of you who responded to PETA's action alert, New Hampshire House Bill (H.B.) 110 has stalled in committee, meaning that investigators can continue to uncover cruelty on factory farms in the state. H.B. 110 is likely to come up again this fall, so please keep checking back here to learn how you can help PETA continue to defeat this and other attempts to shield abusers from exposure!
Originally posted on January 31st, 2013:
How badly do corporate animal abusers want to keep the public from knowing what happens on factory farms and in slaughterhouses? Bad enough to enlist accomplices in government to try to stop any efforts to document their cruelty. But after a New Hampshire state legislator reportedly made a false allegation about PETA in support of his bill to block undercover investigations, we're more determined than ever to make sure that animal suffering can be documented and the abusers are held accountable.
PETA has written Rep. Robert Haefner, the sponsor of House Bill (H.B.) 110, New Hampshire's "ag gag" bill (which would require evidence of abuse to be turned over to authorities in 24 hours, shutting down long-term undercover investigations), asking him to retract a false statement that he reportedly made about our Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., investigation. PETA turned over evidence of animal abuse from its investigation of Aviagen's West Virginia turkey factory farms two business days after the end of the investigation—not 13 months, as Haefner allegedly claimed at a public hearing on the bill last week. Within three months of receiving the video footage, grand jurors issued the first-ever felony indictments for cruelty to turkeys on factory farms. All three former Aviagen workers were later convicted. At the hearing, Haefner used this false claim to justify to New Hampshire citizens his proposed bill to stop long-term undercover investigations on factory farms, according to witnesses.
Investigations conducted by PETA and other organizations on factory farms have been instrumental in opening people's eyes to the cruelty inherent in intensive animal agriculture and have led to successful prosecutions of the perpetrators, but Haefner's bill would make it practically impossible for whistleblowers and undercover investigators to secure sufficient evidence to show a pattern of cruelty, as preferred by police and prosecutors.
If you've suffered through having your heart broken (and who hasn't?), you know it feels like you want to die. But if your heart actually were to (physically) break, you really could die. So as Valentine's Day nears, PETA is placing this digital billboard in two locations in Montgomery, Alabama—a state with one of the highest rates of heart disease in the nation.
Why do vegetarian hearts have an edge over carnivorous tickers? A recent study found that vegetarians are 32 percent less likely to suffer from heart disease. In fact, staying away from all the saturated fat and cholesterol in meat, dairy products, and eggs gives vegans a significant advantage in avoiding a range of life-threatening diseases, including cancer, strokes, and diabetes.
And when your healthy heart starts beating in rhythm with that special someone's, it's good to remember that vegans also get a boost in their love life because we're less susceptible to sexual dysfunction. So whether your heart needs Cupid or a cardiologist, there's one prescription: Go vegan!
We all love hearing those three little words: "Have some chocolate." I jest, of course (kind of), but on Valentine's Day, love often takes the form of candy in a heart-shaped box. And PETA's box of confections won't just satisfy your loved one's sweet tooth. Since it's cruelty-free and the purchase price helps fund PETA's vital work, it will also satisfy a desire to be sweet to animals.
Because everyone—animals included—enjoys displays of affection.
Cats head-butt the ones they love as a sign that they feel comfortable and secure. And dog guardians know that, as Bill Maher put it, "The reason I love my dog so much is because when I come home, he's the only one in the world who treats me like I'm The Beatles."
© iStockPhoto.com/djgunner
Sheep love to cuddle and nuzzle, male rats sing love songs to females, fish rub against one another, and geese mate for life.
Get your melt-in-your-mouth vegan chocolates before they're gone. Your valentine will likely prefer them to an enthusiastic head-butt.
The carcass-cooking food trucks that signed up for the barbecue competition at D.C.'s Meat Week got thoroughly smoked—by a pig, a cow, and some meat-free meatballs.
PETA members and their costumed counterparts set out to give Meat Week attendees some flesh-free options, but as it turned out, meat-free was the only way to be: The food truck chefs couldn't handle the cold temperatures and retreated inside. The iron-fueled vegans, however, stayed out to greet passersby and share the secret behind their resilience:
The event's organizers might not have been outside handing out meat, but they did have to hand it to our dedicated demonstrators. And in return, the PETA members offered the organizers a taste of compassionate fare that hopefully left them feeling a little warmer toward animals.
It's fitting that Rosa Parks' birthday, February 4, has been designated the Day of Courage. Parks is, of course, famous for her work to end segregation and racism, beginning with her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and continuing with her leadership during the bus boycotts that followed. But Parks soon broadened her base to include others who needed to be freed from the yoke of oppression: animals. She was a vegetarian for more than 40 years.
In fact, many civil rights leaders, past and present, have maintained that as long as one form of prejudice exists, no form of prejudice can be completely eradicated, and thus, civil rights and animal rights are inextricably linked:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right."
codepinkhq | cc by 2.0
Alice Walker: "If I'm eating food I know was a creature in a cage, it brings up memories of segregation and the stories from my ancestors, of being in captivity and denied their personalities, their true beings. Animals were not made for us, or our use. They have their own use, which is just being who they are."
Mangostar | cc by 2.0
Cesar Chavez: "Kindness and compassion towards all living beings is a mark of a civilized society. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are all cut from the same defective fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves."
© StarMaxInc.com
The Rev. Al Sharpton: "So I say if KFC wants to take [African-Americans'] money, and use it to pay for sloppy practices that hurt animals, I say we send them a message that this is not going to happen. I'm calling on people to boycott KFC until they adopt animal welfare systems recommended by PETA."
Russell Simmons: "The more I opened myself up to the idea of the full scope of exactly what non-violence translates to, the less interested I became in consuming the energy associated with the flesh of an animal that only knew suffering in his/her life and pain and terror in its death. "
Rosa Parks did not just refuse to give up her seat on the bus. She refused to give up her humanity. She refused to accept oppression as "how things are." In honor of her, please encourage your friends and family to do away with the last of their personal prejudices by sharing the quotation above that speaks to you the most on your social-networking sites.
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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