• Touchdown! Vegetarian-Friendly NFL Stadiums

    Written by PETA

    If "fantasy football" for you means a stadium where healthy foods are more abundant than foam fingers, check out this year's ranking of the top five most vegetarian-friendly stadiums in the NFL.

    1. Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia Eagles)
      Defending last year's title, Lincoln Financial claims top honors again with a "dream team" of tasty, healthy vegetarian options for Eagles fans. Their taste buds get some Philadelphia freedom from boring burgers and dogs, with faux-steak and "chicken-steak" sandwiches, a brand-new seitan brisket, veggie dogs, black-bean and garden burgers, and vegetable wraps. In premium dining areas, fans can also choose a grilled vegetable hoagie, fresh roasted vegetables, hummus with pita chips, fruit, or a vegetable platter. 
    2. O.co Coliseum (Oakland Raiders)
      With the Raiders showing signs this season of turning things around, it's the perfect time for fans to turn around their health by enjoying low-fat, protein-packed, delicious vegetarian meals. The team already has one "super bowl" this year: the delicious veggie burrito bowl. The stadium also offers the classic veggie burrito, veggie dog, and veggie burger in concessions and a chipotle black-bean burger, grilled portobello sandwich, grilled vegetables, hummus, crudités, and fruit in premium areas.
    3. Lambeau Field (Green Bay Packers)
      Packers fans might be inspired to do the Aaron Rodgers championship belt touchdown dance after sinking their teeth into a mouthwatering, meat-free bratwurst or veggie burger. They can also stay lean and green with such choices as the grilled vegetable pasta salad, peanutty dan dan noodles, spicy orange chili glass noodles, vegetables with hummus, quinoa, warm black-eyed pea salad, baked potato, and the classic PB&J.  
    4. Gillette Stadium (New England Patriots)
      Gillette Stadium has more delicious vegetarian options than the Pats have weapons on offense. This is the stadium's first time on our list, but we're betting that with foods like these, it won't be the last. Choices include a veggie burger and veggie dog, hummus with vegetables, and fruit cups, and in premium areas, a vegetable gyro and a fresh fruit plate.
    5. Georgia Dome (Atlanta Falcons)
      Between sampling the delicious vegetarian options and watching Tony Gonzalez climb the all-time receptions list, Georgia Dome is the place to be for animal-friendly football fans. Birds of a feather are flocking to the concessions stands for veggie burgers, veggie dogs, PB&J, vegetables with hummus, salads, and fruit cups. In premium areas, fans can order grilled vegetable pasta salad, peanutty dan dan noodles, spicy orange chili glass noodles, quinoa, warm black-eyed pea salad, or an Eden Organic berry mix.

    Scoring honorable mentions are the San Diego Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium, the Seattle Seahawks' CenturyLink Field, the San Francisco 49ers' Candlestick Park, and the Detroit Lions' Ford Field.

    Football fans don't have to leave their health to a last-minute Hail Mary. They can start and finish strong with foods that don't cause unnecessary roughness to their bodies or to animals and that taste so good that fans won't care if they get fined for excessive celebration.

     

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Would You Eat a Dog Disguised as a Chicken?

    Written by PETA

    Washington, D.C.'s Woof Walk dog event turned into a squawk stroll when a little dog named Mongo dressed as a chicken challenged dog lovers to ask themselves why they call one animal "family" and another animal "dinner."

    While Mongo's assistants explained to Woof Walkers that chickens are as smart and social as dogs, one former chicken farmer backed them up, saying, "I know they are. I used to have thousands of them."

    As that farmer can attest, some chickens are outgoing and fearless, while others are more reserved. Chickens can complete complex mental tasks, and they hand down knowledge from one generation to the next. Like all animals, chickens love their families, value their lives, and don't want to suffer and die.

    If you wouldn't eat your dog, give chickens the same respect. Become a former chicken-eater—it's easy with tasty, you'd-never-know-it's-faux chicken, like Gardein Chick'n Filets, Boca Chik'N Patties, and MorningStar Farms Meal Starters Chik'n Strips

     

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • A Little Bird Told Us … Hollywood Gossip

    Written by PETA

    TMZ founder Harvey Levin is the breaking celebrity news—he's newly vegetarian and no longer wears leather. It's likely that Levin's love of animals caused him to make the switch. He's "deeply into animal rescue" and says that the last time he cried was when his beloved dog, Floyd, passed away.

    All aboard! Ozzy Osbourne is riding the vegan train after watching the documentary Forks Over Knives. When Russell Brand watched it, the reigning Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity opted to become the Sexiest Vegan.


    You wouldn't expect anything less than healthy and delicious when Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi partner with Chrissie Hynde for a new vegan restaurant, and that's just what you'll get with vegan celeb chef Tal Ronnen preparing the menus. He's a busy guy—he's also bringing his vegan flair to LYFE Kitchen restaurant as co-executive chef, alongside Oprah's former chef, Art Smith.  

    Vegetarian singer Kate Bush wanted to let her fans know in advance of her forthcoming album, 50 Words for Snow, that she wears 50 kinds of faux in the snowy photo shoot because she's sure her fans "feel the same way as I do about wearing real fur."

    Fellow musician Helen Marnie of Ladytron made no bones (or pelts) about the group's refusal to wear fur in an interview with Rolling Stone. "[F]ur—be it rabbit, fox, mink, whatever—is totally out of the question," she says.

    To see what else celebs have been saying about PETA, check out our Twitter feed.

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Kisses & Hisses to Animal Friends & Foes

    Written by PETA

    It's almost time for Halloween, and while some folks are being sweeter than candy to animals, some are making us wish that we were only watching a scary movie.

    Kisses to Los Angeles' Ghost Ship. The country's only haunted sailing vessel promises its victims a 75-minute voyage of horror, but only if they aren't wearing the victims of the horrifying fur industry. Even ax-wielding maniacs know that fur is cruel.

    Kisses to The Office for showing the very real danger of leaving a dog in a hot car in very memorable Office style.

    Hisses to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for talking out of both sides of its mouth about the foods that people put into theirs—pushing people to eat vegetables but granting huge subsidies to the meat industry.

    Kisses to women's clothing store Dress Barn for proudly displaying "Fab Faux Fur" in its windows.

    Hisses to the U.S. Air Force for considering turning animals into fuel for planes. With all the biofuel options available, even Fred Flintstone would think that this cruel fuel is archaic.

    Kisses to Tom Wargo of Lilburn, Georgia, and to 13-year-old Victoria O'Connell of Rapid City, South Dakota, for realizing that companion animals also suffer in a recession and starting animal food banks. Wargo gets an extra smooch for requiring owners to obtain low-cost spay-and-neuter services.

     

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Photo of the Month: Hot Ride in the City

    Written by PETA

    A PETA member found a fun way for her little car to send a big message in the Big Apple.

    New York resident Emily McCoy wants NYC to go v-e-g to save animals and the planet. Switching to a vegan diet is easier than navigating bridge-and-tunnel traffic and more effective in preventing climate change than switching to a hybrid car. So we can have our vegan cake and our classic cars too.

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Will Lady Gaga Put on Her Okra Face?

    Written by PETA

    © StarmaxInc

    As Lady Gaga heads to India to perform at the Formula One closing party, PETA India has an idea for her next statement outfit: a dress made of lettuce leaves.

    Considering meat's monstrous impact on our health and the environment as well as the plight of animals who are dismembered for food while still conscious, PETA India asked Mother Monster to show her fans that even just reducing the amount of meat they eat (or wear) can help.

    Will Lady Gaga step into the leaf dress and discover that she was born the herbivore way? We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can use these free recipes to cook up some meatless dishes that you'll go gaga for.

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Eating Tofu: The Original Patriot Act?

    Written by PETA

    © Joe Cicak | iStockphoto.com

    Here's the skinny: Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the Constitution, but it has yet to ratify an official state food. Well, PETA has a suggestion that the "Keystone State" can really sink its teeth into: tofu. Why bean curd? Because it was first promoted in the U.S. by Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania's most famous Founding Father.

    We wrote to Gov. Tom Corbett and suggested that he could help to quell the state's obesity epidemic and honor his predecessor in the governor's seat by getting Pennsylvanians to eat more tofu and less meat. And in this tough economy, because legislative decisions have to be all about the Benjamins, tofu is the perfect choice: Not only is it cheaper than meat and therefore easier on constituents' wallets, making the switch can also lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, saving the state money on healthcare.  

    You don't need bifocals to see that patriotic tofu should be first in the second state—and in the rest of the country.

     

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Undead Descend on Steakhouse

    Written by PETA

    In a move that would have made horror film legend Vincent Price proud, PETA's "zombies" haunted patrons at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse in Cincinnati yesterday, just in time for Halloween.

    Our enlightened undead let everyone know that flesh is for zombies and advised them to "eat grains, not brains." Many flesh-eaters used their brrrrraaaaaiiiiins and got information about going vegetarian or vegan.

    If even zombies are urging people to bury their meat habit, you know that the stuff is gross. For meals that will bring your taste buds back to life, check out our hundreds of tasty meatless recipes.

    And for more Halloween enjoyment, text "spooky" to 73822 to guide PETA's feathered friend Nugget safely through a zombie-filled haunted house. Text message and data rates may apply (see full texting terms and conditions here).

     

    Written by Michelle Sherrow

  • Smithfield Slaughter-Bound Pigs Killed in Crash

    Written by PETA

    About 195 live pigs were hurled to the ground—killing or leaving at least 47 so badly injured that even industry workers knew that they had to be killed—after a slaughterhouse-bound transport truck ran off the road, flipped onto its side, and crashed into a pole in Suffolk, Virginia, early this morning. This crash, which happened on a clear day on a relatively straight road, is at least the ninth accident involving pigs who were being transported to a Smithfield Foods slaughterhouse in southeastern Virginia since 2004.

    The pork industry's shameful history of hiring reckless drivers has left the mangled remains of countless pigs on Virginia highways and jeopardized the safety of other motorists. The driver cited for reckless driving in this crash, William Orville Barnett, allegedly violated federal transportation safety laws twice last year. Also last year, a driver hauling 80 pigs for Smithfield Foods subsidiary Murphy-Brown, LLC, crashed in Chesterfield County, Virginia, killing more than 45 of the pigs. The driver—who was charged with reckless driving and failure to maintain control—had three months earlier crashed a truck in North Carolina while hauling 46 cows. Virginia court records indicate that the driver had been previously cited for failure to obey a traffic signal and speeding. In spite of all this, Murphy-Brown put him behind the wheel to drive pigs hundreds of miles across the country.

     

    Despite the pork industry's attempts to hide the aftermath of these horrific crashes by putting up tarps and even asking police officers to make PETA investigators in public areas put away their cameras, PETA has captured extensive video footage of workers as they abuse, cruelly kill, and leave injured pigs to suffer after wrecks. Only three years ago—on the very road on which today's crash occurred—workers pulled terrified 270-pound animals by their sensitive ears and slapped and hit them in the face with tools that even the pork industry says should never be used to hit animals. PETA has also documented that workers at crash sites reloaded debilitated and severely injured pigs—including those whose internal organs were protruding from their anuses—for transport and left immobile pigs to suffer and be trampled for hours before repeatedly driving steel bolts into their skulls in botched attempts to kill them.

    The pork industry desperately needs to enact and enforce a zero-tolerance safe-driver policy—for everyone's sake—but the best way to protect pigs and other animals from suffering in accidents as well as on factory farms and in slaughterhouses is by leaving them off our plates.

  • Motorcycles, Country Music, and Vegan Jerky

    Written by PETA

    Motorcycle engines roaring, 2,000 bikers gathered to show off their rides, listen to country music … and chow down on some vegan "beef" jerky at the annual Love Ride in California on Sunday. PETA's two sexy Lettuce Ladies could barely keep up with the demand as they handed out pieces of Primal Strips jerky and PETA's vegetarian/vegan starter kits.

    In addition to coming back for second helpings of delicious vegan jerky, Love Ride attendees were hungry for information about improving their own health and preventing cruelty to animals by adopting a plant-based diet. Don't be left in the dust: Check out our free guide to adopting a vegan diet today!

     

    Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

REPORT CRUELTY

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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Chicken Photo: © Rommel Manuel