Well, hot damn. For a month now, our crack team of cuteness consultants in PETA's Fabulousness Department have been poring over this year's sizzling-hot batch of entries for our Sexiest Vegetarian competition, and they've finally emerged, exhausted from all the attractiveness, with an eye-popping line-up of spectacular, jaw-droppingly gorgeous finalists for you to feast your eager eyes on. OK, even if I hadn't run out of synonyms for "sexy" a while back, there's just no way I can sustain this kind of rhetoric for an entire entry, but hopefully you get the point. The finalists have been announced, and you can vote for the sexiest here. This year's winners get a trip to Hawaii.

Click the ridiculously sexy vegetarian below to check out this year's top twenty. And don't forget to vote.

Other than me, of course. The reason I ask is that PETA is holding a competition to find the hottest vegetarian "boys and girls next door," and this year, we’re sending the winners to Hawaii. We already have some pretty damn good-looking entrants, but there's still time (just 4 more days) to submit yourself or one of your vegetarian friends for consideration. On January 30, we'll narrow the pool down to 10 male and 10 female finalists, and open up the site for voting in February. PETA's International Sexiness Manager Christopher Holbein—whose finely honed hotness detector is legendary in animal rights circles—will be coordinating the judging committee, which means that you can be assured of a fair and accurate assessment. As a PETA employee, I'm excluded from consideration—so dudes, don't be shy about entering yourself or your friends, as there's actually a chance you might win.

Click here to learn more and enter.

Today has been kind of massive as far as animals are concerned. In addition to winning the POM Campaign, we just got news that Smithfield Foods (the largest pork processor in the world) will begin phasing out the use of gestation crates in all of its farms. Gestation crates are among the most hideous torture devices employed by the meat industry, and while we'd love to see them banned, like, yesterday, this commitment on Smithfield's part is still a great step forward on an issue that we've put years of hard work into—pushing McDonald's, Safeway, Albertson's, WalMart, and others to oppose gestation crates, and speaking at Smithfield's annual meeting to raise awareness among shareholders. The Wall Street Journal covered the story today, and MSNBC ran a great piece as well, with an accompanying photograph that says more than I ever could about exactly why so many animal advocates have dedicated their lives to getting this practice outlawed:

PETA is calling off our campaign against POM Wonderful after the company announced that it will permanently end all animal tests. There follows a brief synopsis of our campaign against the juice company in dramatic form. For a longer, less dramatic synopsis of the campaign, click here.

To tell the truth, the campaign was a little more hard-fought than that, but that's the general idea. This is a major victory, and a huge thank you is also due to everyone who participated in demonstrations, handed out information, contacted POM about this issue, and boycotted POM products. When we win a major campaign at PETA, that often means free vegan pizza for everyone, so fingers crossed that upper management doesn't forget about that small, but important detail in all the excitement.

Our undercover investigator just got back from almost six months inside two separate PetSmart stores, and what she brought back is pretty disturbing. Every time I've been inside a PetSmart, I always feel bad for the birds they keep in cages there, not to mention the rats, lizards, and other animals in cages. But it turns out that being stuck in a cage and harassed by customers is only the beginning of the nightmare for these animals: What goes on in PetSmart's back rooms is just one horror after another. As of this week, PETA has launched a full campaign against PetSmart until it stops selling all animals. Have a look at the video, and if you want to help out, you can e-mail PetSmart your thoughts by clicking here.

When American Idol's Ruben Studdard played PETA's hometown of Norfolk a little while back, he stopped to chat with our very own Dan Mathews after the show. Before I go on, I should note that while Dan's job (hanging out with celebrities at shows) may seem more glamorous and exciting than mine (writing about it), appearances can be deceiving: For instance, while Dan is working long nights attending awards ceremonies and movie premieres and so forth, I get to spend my evenings relaxing and watching Prison Break with Princess Cuteyface. So take that, Dan Mathews. Anyway, Ruben lost 100 lbs this year after adopting a vegetarian diet, and he and Dan talked about everything from Ruben's favorite vegetarian foods to the band's reaction to his new diet. There was a great piece about the story in Us Magazine's blog today, and we're hoping we'll be hearing more from Ruben in the near future. Here's some of what Ruben told Dan about why he went veg:

Somebody liberated the stereo from my car last week, which meant spending half my Saturday trying to get through to someone at my insurance company. To help forestall any suicidal impulses created by the smooth jazz that State Farm has selected for its hold music, I spent some time coming up with “Onion” style headlines for fake articles I want to write. Let me know which one you like best and I’ll write an article to accompany it and post it tomorrow: KFC Execs Pleased With New Animal Welfare CommitteeOld one just too “ornery and contrarian” claims CEO. Ugly People in Fur Coats Still Ugly, New Report FindsDraping yourself in a dead animal does not make you prettier, according to a recent study by the Department of Urban Haberdashery (DUH). Area Jerk Belittles Vegetarian“I like animals, too … to eat!” local meathead Alan Brown told a vegetarian acquaintance Friday. Brown admits that he did not “think of the joke [himself].”That’s all I’ve been able to come up with so far: If you can think of some of your own, let me know, and I’ll post the best ones throughout the week.