Written by Michelle Kretzer
London Fashion Week hasn't even started yet, but already up-and-coming British designer George Nemsadze's dress made of nori (the seaweed paper used in sushi) is getting media attention. Our thoughts? Love it!
Then again, seaweed, schmeaweed—PETA's been making clothes out of lettuce for years:
As well as out of cucumber and kiwi:
© Photo: Ricardo Sanit-Cyr, Stylist/makeup artist: Isabella Scott, Splurge Studios Production
asparagus:
© Photo: www.sebreephoto.com, Hair: Lorenzo Martin for True Beauty, Makeup: Mitzi Spallas for Cloutier, Dress: Mia Gyzander Costumes, Inc.
and beans:
© Le Studio (Paris) Design, Daniel Jasiak, Photography: Martine Houghton
The seaweed dress is a thousand times prettier (and more eco-friendly) than the foul-smelling clothes that designers have made out of milk or meat, and with the increasing demand for animal-friendly clothes, vegan clothing lines are set to knock our succotash socks off.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Maybe being able to see the Hollywood sign from my living room makes everything remind me of a bad horror movie, but seeing the headline "New Strain of 'Mad Cow' Disease" is enough to make anyone (especially meat-eaters) shriek like a celluloid scream queen. That's right—bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has struck again!
Mad cow disease first captured the world's attention when it appeared on the scene in the United Kingdom, and it has since been found in cows in Canada, the U.S., and now Japan—although the latest stricken animals are believed to have come from Australia. One cow who tested positive was only 23 months old, the youngest ever found with BSE, and officials believe that this may be a new strain of the disease that can't always be detected with Japan's current monitoring system.
Since the prions that cause BSE can be found in all parts of an affected animal's flesh, staying away from meat is really the only sure-fire way to avoid mad cow disease.
You know what they say: The key to a man's heart is through his … stomach. Our sexy pilgrims, who are touring New England this week, can attest to that and more. Obviously, they attract a crowd, largely because of the delicious, free Tofurkys they're handing out. In fact, the Tofurkys flew off the table—with men and women gobbling them up—within 20 minutes in Bangor, Maine.
The pilgrims also gave out PETA's free vegetarian/vegan starter kits and told passersby that every year in the U.S., 40 million gentle, inquisitive turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving dinners alone.
In nature, turkeys are protective and loving parents as well as fast, cunning runners who are able to outwit their pursuers. But the turkey industry crams the birds into windowless warehouses and genetically manipulates them to grow so large that their legs are often unable to withstand the birds' weight. Countless birds slowly starve to death within inches of food after they become crippled and are unable to move.
PETA's sexy pilgrims will be docking in New Haven today and Providence tomorrow. Even if you aren't lucky enough to grab a Tofurky from these lovely ladies, you can get tips on serving up a cruelty-free feast at our "Living" page.
Written by PETA
Downed cows—those who are too sick or injured to stand up—are of little use to callous cattle auctioneers. So when a cow collapsed at a Texas livestock auction company, what did the employees do? They simply wrapped a chain around her leg, attached the chain to a truck, dragged the cow into a dirt lot next to the auction area, and left her for dead. With no food or water, she would have eventually died from dehydration or succumbed to her illness or injury.
Someone saw the cow being dragged to the lot and left there, but when he saw that she was still in the same spot three days later, he called PETA. After making several phone calls to the auction company owner, we were able to convince him to euthanize the dying cow and spare her from one moment more of suffering.
Unfortunately, neither "downers" nor this kind of treatment of them is unusual on factory farms, at auctions, or at slaughterhouses. By simply swapping meat-based dishes for their scrumptious, meatless counterparts, we can avoid supporting facilities that treat living beings like broken-down farm equipment.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
As the celebrities on the fight card at Avalon Hollywood were practicing their right hooks and uppercuts, PETA's Lettuce Ladies were there to show them and their fans how to be a knockout by cutting out meat.
Of course, dumping meat and dairy products gives you not only a trim, sexy physique (ahem, Kevin Federline) but also more energy (Octomom), and you can enjoy so many fresh fruits and veggies that you'll think you were eating from the White House kitchen garden (Tareq Salahi).
Get started working on your knockout celebrity figure today by ordering a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit.
More than 10,000 people crowded onto the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Sunday to attend the dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Besides being a leader of the civil rights movement, King also spoke out on other volatile issues of the day, such as the Vietnam War. When asked why he would concern himself with anything other than civil rights, he answered, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In that spirit, PETA volunteers attended the dedication and urged the receptive crowd to further honor his legacy by ending injustice to the billions of animals killed for food every year. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, was a vegan in her later years, as is his son, Dexter Scott King. To truly end all social injustice, please consider following in their compassionate footsteps, and order PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kit today.
If you sometimes have the urge to tape-record yourself answering questions about your animal-friendly diet so you can just hit "Play" the next time someone asks, "What do you eat?", "Where do you get your protein?", or "You must eat a lot of salad, huh?", take a gander at our Daily Show–esque (and very scientific) "What Vegans Eat" pie chart:
After you've had a chuckle (grass? really?), you can post it to Facebook and Twitter so your vegan buds can enjoy a moment of Zen and your meat-eating friends can marvel at the fact that you eat a wider range of foods than they do.
Of course, after we've guffawed, we have to keep in mind that some people often ask us these questions because they are truly curious and that it's a great opportunity to talk about the many wonders of a vegan diet. And granola.
Levi Leipheimer is making his country proud in the Tour de France, holding off more than 140 other competitors. Not surprising, since he already has 40 other victories under his pedals.
Levi's a champ for animals, too, boasting two PETA ads and his own animal foundation. And opponents beware: He's a vegetarian.
We're pulling for you, Levi!
Things got steamy when Nikita star Maggie Q appeared on Conan last week. The famous redhead showed the famous red-hot ads that longtime vegetarian Maggie Q shot for PETA Asia-Pacific promoting a healthy, animal-friendly diet. Maggie's lettuce bikini and chili-pepper romp had Conan and his audience aflutter, and she sweetly said, "For the animals, anything."
If you've been feeling down lately, it may be time for some personal reflection—on what's in your refrigerator. A new study shows that a diet high in the fats found in meat, butter, and fast food contributes to higher rates of depression. These foods, all of which are consumed in most Western diets, also increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, strokes, and obesity. The researchers found that eating primarily polyunsaturated fats—which are found in vegetable oils, olive oil, and nuts—decreases the risk of depression.
No wonder Popeye was always smiling while he vanquished the bad guys. Order PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kit and give yourself—and animals—something to grin about.
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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