There are countless things that we can do that endanger our lives, but there's one thing we can do that can not only help us live longer but also save many more lives at the same time: adopting a vegan diet.

Around 16 billion (that's "billion" with a "b") animals are slaughtered each year to feed Americans, which works out to more than 100 animals per meat-eater in the U.S. But you're smart—you do the math. And then do the smart thing: Go vegan.

The year 2011 was a great one for animals, and 2012 is bound to be even better. Tell us what you plan to do for animals in the coming year, and you could win a gift basket to help you start the year off right! The basket contains a selection of fabulous health, beauty, and whole-food products—including Bija certified organic teas, Green Beaver hair-care products, olive oils, and nutritional supplements—from PETA Business Friend Flora, Inc.

Not sure how to get active for animals in 2012? Here are some ideas:

• Lose excess pounds and improve your health with a low-fat vegan diet.
• Send a PETA video to 10 of your friends, along with New Year's wishes.
• Politely share what you know with people you see wearing fur coats or carrying crocodile purses.
• Set up change jars or swear jars and donate the proceeds to PETA.
• Pledge to take extra-good care of your dogs and cats and the other dependent little beings in your home.

Let us know in the comments section what you have up your sleeve for the new year, and you'll be entered in the drawing for a chance to win the Flora gift basket.

A winner will be chosen at random from the animal-friendly comments that are submitted. The contest will end on January 13, 2012, and we'll contact the winner by January 31, 2012. Make sure that you read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. No purchase necessary, void where prohibited by law. Good luck!

North Carolina law-enforcement officials raided a Butterball turkey factory farm after viewing disturbing video footage of workers who abused turkeys. The video, shot during an undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals, shows workers who kick and stomp on birds, smash them into the ground, and bash in their heads with metal rods.

Mercy For Animals' findings mirror those uncovered during PETA's 2006 undercover investigation of a Butterball slaughterhouse in Arkansas. We documented that one employee stomped on a bird's head until it exploded, that another smashed a turkey into a metal handrail so hard that her spine burst through her skin, and that another worker sexually assaulted a female turkey. One worker told the investigator, "If you jump on their stomachs right, they'll pop ... or their insides will come out of their [rectums]." The findings are also strikingly similar to the horrific abuses documented by PETA's 2008 investigation of Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., which led to the first-ever indictments for felony cruelty to animals for the abuse of birds and the first-ever cruelty convictions of turkey factory-farm workers.

The abuse documented is apparently business as usual for Butterball and the turkey industry. Click here to urge the company to adopt "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK), in which birds are killed by inert gas while still in their transport crates, eliminating much of the opportunity for abuse at the slaughterhouse. And to help end the abuse that these intelligent, sensitive animals suffer before they make it to slaughter, refuse to eat turkeys and choose fowl-friendly faux turkey instead.

We've all seen the ribbons tied around trees on the side of the road, crosses stuck in the ground, and signs asking us to drive carefully—all reminders of lives that were lost in traffic accidents. Certainly, humans aren't the only casualties of reckless driving, so should they be the only ones honored? PETA doesn't think so.

We're applying to Illinois' Fatal Accident Memorial Sign Program to post two road signs as a tribute to cows who were severely injured and killed on the state's roadways.

PETA has chosen the sites of two horrific accidents as the locations for our signs. In May, a tractor trailer tipped over on an overpass, spilling cows onto the road below. Cows who didn't die on impact or from being struck by cars languished in agony until they were finally euthanized. Another truck overturned in October after the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Six cows were killed by oncoming vehicles—again, many were left to suffer for hours from their injuries.

If humans are going to continue to sentence these animals to die in slaughterhouses, isn't erecting a small remembrance of a few of the millions who lose their lives every year the least that we can do, given that they die for no better reason than because someone craves the fleeting taste of their flesh?

Some Santa Monica citizens are outraged after a group of atheists flooded a city lottery with applications, took over the space where more than a dozen of the city's Nativity displays would normally be set up, and then simply left much of  the space vacant. PETA is reaching out to the atheists to ask permission to set up our own "Give Peas a Chance" billboard in one of the empty areas.

Plate Photo: © iStockphoto.com/Paterne

In our letter to the atheists' spokesperson, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk points out: "From factory farms to holy wars, so many lives have been lost because of an inability to relate to others who are different from us in unimportant ways. Whether we believe in Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, we can promote peace on Earth by adopting a cruelty-free vegan diet."

Don't just pray for good health—help yourself by clicking here  to request a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit.

Since, as the holiday classic explains, "the weather outside is frightful," you have to admire the dedication of PETA's "Mistletoe Misses," who have been braving Arctic breezes wearing nothing but mistletoe-covered bikinis to share "kisses"—along with the word about the many advantages of a vegan diet.

The delightful duo has been giving away vegan chocolates with tags saying, "Be Sweet to Animals," along with PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kits.

The turdoggie hybrid we rolled out on billboards just in time for Thanksgiving proved so popular that we decided to return to the laboratory and craft a new creation for Christmas—the puplet:

Dog: © iStockphoto.com/Angelika Schwarz • Pig: © iStockphoto.com/Clint Scholz

Pigs are a lot more like dogs than you might think. Piglets and puppies both love to play and have their ears scratched, and they can easily master skills like sit, fetch, and jump. When in their natural surroundings—not on factory farms—pigs are social, playful, protective animals who bond with each other, make nests, relax in the sun, and cool off in the mud. Pigs are known to dream and recognize their own names, and they are thought to be more intelligent than 3-year-old human children. And just like kids—and dogs—pigs don't want to be eaten.

To celebrate a compassionate Christmas, keep the ham off the table and whip up a pig-friendly feast with the holiday recipes available on our "Living" page.

Not everyone can afford to buy an electric vehicle (EV), but there is one thing that we all can do to help the environment, even in a down economy: go vegan. That's the message that PETA's lovely—and apparently frostbite-proof—Lettuce Ladies took to the streets of Seattle, where the delicious vegan jerky they handed out in front of an EV charging station went like hotcakes in the 33-degree weather.

Raising animals for food wastes land, water, and other resources, and it takes more than 11 times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie from animal protein as it does to make one calorie from plant protein. A recent United Nations report concluded that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.

Even if you wouldn't wear a bikini in freezing weather to spread the word about the benefits of a vegan diet, you can pick up copies of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit to hand out to friends and family or passersby.

A family is suing American Airlines after their loved one died on a flight, reportedly after consuming chicken contaminated with bacteria.

Fluke? Not so much. The Food and Drug Administration reports that there are 48 million cases of foodborne illness in the U.S. every year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Consumer Reports found the leading bacterial causes of foodborne illness—salmonella and campylobacter—in two-thirds of the chickens that it purchased nationwide.

If you don't enjoy your meals served with a side of vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps, not to mention cruelty, maybe it's time to jettison chicken from your diet. Check out a wide variety of chicken-free recipes at our Living page.

When PETA's herd of "cows" stampeded down the sidewalk in front of the Vancouver Convention Center, where the British Columbia Dairy Conference was taking place, the cow abusers inside nervously looked out the windows.

They sent the convention center manager outside to ask their worried questions: What were the cows planning to do? Come inside the building? The conference-goers had seen the Facebook page for the demonstration, and they were terrified!

Even though the bovines didn't infiltrate the conference, the dairy farmers should have been scared of what they were doing outside. As throngs of passersby stopped to talk, they learned about how cows on dairy factory farms are repeatedly impregnated to keep producing milk, that calves are traumatically torn away from their mothers within days or even hours of birth, and that many male calves are imprisoned in tiny, filthy crates until they are slaughtered for veal.

When many of the passersby then expressed a preference for soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk, the cows were over the moon.