It was unseasonably hot on Capitol Hill when PETA's Lettuce Ladies arrived for the annual Congressional Veggie Dog Giveaway. The leafy lovelies were greeted by a long line of people anxiously awaiting their arrival, ready for food and photo ops.
 

Can you imagine your representative in one of these?

Joining the Lettuce Ladies in the wearing of the green were Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door winner Kate Veltkamp and runner-up Udara Perera. Kate's costume, made of real lettuce leaves, was a huge hit.

Patriots would have been proud to see so many members of Congress and their staff lining up for healthy veggie dogs and faux-chili dogs. While the crowd was waiting, they chatted with PETA staff, learning about how pigs suffer on factory farms and that flesh-based hot dogs contain noses, toes, anuses, and other "undesirable" body parts, while veggie dogs are made of healthy (and tasty) plant protein.

Everyone agreed that the food was delicious, and some told us that they were ready to go vegetarian or vegan.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

You probably read how third-ranked competitive eater Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi was forcibly removed from this year's Coney Island Fourth of July hot dog–eating contest after crashing the stage at the close of the event. Kobayashi didn't compete in the contest, having refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating (I'm not making this up) because "he wanted to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups."

Well, then, Tsunami-san, why not take the Veggie Dog Hall of Fame Challenge at Corner Bar in Rockford, Michigan? You'd not only prove your independence, you'd also save yourself from the potential health problems associated with eating gluttonous amounts of meat. Not that we advocate overeating, but given how other contests mean that herds of cows are killed and eaten just so that they can be thrown up later, Corner Bar's contest has earned the restaurant PETA's first-ever "Animal-Friendly Eating Competition Award."

Maybe we'll see the start of a whole new veggie-eating circuit! You don't even have to stuff yourself silly—ready to sign up?

Written by Jeff Mackey

It's National Veggie Dog Day! This means that vegetarians across our great nation are pulling out the charcoal and gathering their friends for a summer feast that they won't soon forget. In honor of this year's "holiday," we assembled several of our nation's finest ladies, including Playboy Playmate of the Year—and stunning vegetarian—Jayde Nicole, on Capitol Hill.

Wearing only a lettuce bikini and her 1,000-watt smile, Jayde helped us get our healthy, humane, and tasty veggie dogs to our nation's finest congressmembers. While serving up the "dogs" to politicians and passersby, Jayde reminded each person that "the best way to safeguard your health, reduce your carbon footprint, save animals' lives, and look your very best is to go vegetarian."

For those of you who can't get enough of Jayde, there are more photos of her after the jump.

Written by Christine Doré

PETA's bikinied beauties are on a mission to help residents of the fattest cities in America shed some weight. First stop: San Jose.

What better way to encourage locals to adopt a vegetarian diet than to give them a sampling of delicious, nutritious vegetarian cuisine? Though our beauties may be decked out in nothing but lettuce leaves, vegetarian means more than just salad. So, behold! The veggie hot dog:

Phew, talk about putting the "hot" in hot dog.

One veggie-dog virgin was so impressed with the taste that he double-checked with our Lettuce Ladies to make sure that his meal was meat-free.

Whether they were served up plain or with all the fixin's, our veggie hot dogs proved irresistible to passersby. San Jose locals scarfed down more than 400 of them!

Meat consumption has been directly linked to obesity, but adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters. If that isn't enough to make even the most die-hard carnivore go vegetarian, maybe knowing that ditching meat will also help fight heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and certain types of cancer will.

Written by Liz Graffeo

You know what I like best about the summer—besides grilling veggie dogs until they turn black?

Summer concerts!

I'm especially excited this year because The Pretenders are going on tour and PETA has first dibs on their upcoming tour dates.

To find out where you'll have a chance to see PETA pal Chrissie Hynde live and in-person this summer, keep reading—but first:

Check out the awesome, one-of-a-kind PETA T-shirt that Chrissie designed for her summer tour wardrobe.

Here's that sneak peek at a few of The Pretenders' summer dates. Enjoy! And, hey, maybe I'll see you in Central Park this August.

8/10, New York, New York
8/14, Washington, D.C.
8/18, Chicago, Illinois
8/22, Denver, Colorado
8/26, Vancouver, British Columbia
9/3, Los Angeles, California

Written by Amanda Schinke

David Gozal
louisville / CC

It's time once again for my favorite PETA Files feature: our Vivisector of the Month contest. Each and every month, I read up on two of our nation's most vile vivisectors and let you, our dear readers, decide who is the worst by voting.

Let me begin by recognizing Marina Picciotto, whose primate addiction studies and mouse torture won her the undesirable title of Most Vile Vivisector last month. Her competitor was much-derided Allyson Bennett. Congrats, Marina—I'm certain Yale and all of New Haven are glad to have you!

This month, we have another two truly bizarre candidates … just see for yourself.

David Gozal of the Kosair Children's Hospital Research Institute in Louisville has a bit of a problem. He is fascinated by erections—mouse erections, to be exact. He passes his days in the lab getting up close and very personal with little boy-mice, studying their erections and even severing their spinal cords so that they cannot move while experimenters observe their penises.

In his most recent study, "Erectile Dysfunction in a Murine [Mouse] Model of Sleep Apnea," which was funded in part by the federal government, Gozal measured the number of erections and ejaculations in dozens of mice after placing them in a chamber to deprive them of oxygen. Some mice were also given tadalafil, an erectile dysfunction drug. They were then killed by puncturing their hearts with a needle, and their testicles and penises were cut out of their bodies for examination. Gozal concluded that oxygen deprivation makes it more difficult to get an erection and that tadalafil, which is already prescribed (as “Cialis”) for humans with erectile dysfunction, works in mice.

Experiments on pigs

Daniel Traber of the University of Texas Medical Branch Department of Anesthesiology has made a living for almost three decades by burning animals' skin off. In a recent experiment, he either torched mice with a Bunsen burner until more than 40 percent of their bodies was charred or forced them to inhale smoke. A few select mice got the full treatment—they were both burned and forced to inhale smoke. Some died during the experiment, and survivors were subsequently killed.

In another study, Traber heated an aluminum bar to nearly 400 degrees with a Bunsen burner and roasted the skin of live pigs on it for 30 seconds, creating a series of deep burns that covered 15 percent of their bodies. In order to repair the deliberately injured animals, Traber and colleagues then removed skin from the pigs' legs to graft over the areas that had been burned off. After living through all this torture, the pigs were killed. Again, this is only his most recent work—Traber has been burning, mutilating, and killing sheep for years.

Who should win? The Children's Hospital Vivisector or the Bunsen Burninator? As always, let me help you decide by posing a question: Would you rather be molested, stabbed in the heart, and have your genitals torn out, or would you rather be roasted alive over a Bunsen burner, forced to inhale the smell of your burning flesh, and then killed?

It's a burning question, isn't it?

Written by Sean Conner

Like you, dear reader, PETA is concerned about the sad state of affairs in Washington. Never content to just sit around, though, we're doing our part to get the pork out of politics. And although congressional staffers are used to hearing from folks who have a beef, we arrived without any at all! OK, I'll stop with the puns ...

As those of you who frequent The PETA Files surely remember, every year, PETA heads to Capitol Hill to celebrate National Veggie Dog Day by giving away those meatless treats—along with copies of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit." And if that's not enough to get the attention of those who stalk the corridors of power, there was Playboy Playmate—and PETA member—Lauren Anderson in a lettuce-leaf bikini.

As one might expect, this attracted some attention. Not only did the line stretch around the block, the media showed up in full force as well. (In case anyone wonders why we use tactics like lettuce-leaf bikinis, that's why.)

It wasn't all just food and frivolity, though. We used the occasion to make these Beltway insiders aware of the connection between meat-eating and global warming. As Ms. Anderson put it, "If people thought about the environmental destruction, cruelty to animals, and unsavory-sounding body parts that go into meat hot dogs, they'd be switching to veggie hot dogs faster than you can say 'inconvenient truth.'" Amen! And pass the mustard.

And, yes, we have pictures:

Photo Credit: Stephanie Borrell

Photo Credit: Stephanie Borrell

Burberry representatives denied entry to Bruce Friedrich this morning, an action that we believe clearly violates the rules that govern publicly traded companies. Bruce, appearing as a proxy, had registered in time, confirmed his registration, and showed proper identification and a copy of his proxy voucher card to officials—but to no avail.

One might suspect that the problem here is that Friedrich is an outspoken opponent of the use of fur in Burberry’s clothing, and they don't want their shareholders to hear what he has to say.

Bruce was slated to speak and urge shareholders to end the company's use of fur, as stated in the shareholder statement that PETA Europe had sent directly to Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts as well as their chair and chief designer. Included with the statement was video footage showing fur-bearing animals caught in traps, animals chewing off their own limbs to escape, and animals on fur farms crammed in tiny, filthy cages until they were killed by gassing, anal or vaginal electrocution, or having their necks broken.

Since Burberry is based in the United Kingdom, where cruel fur farms are illegal, they have resorted to importing animal pelts from Finland. Says Friedrich, "Burberry might not want its shareholders to hear about the company's support for cruelty to animals so extreme that if the practices it supports were conducted in the United Kingdom, they would be illegal, but it has no right to shut out debate".

Posted by Sean Conner

Greetings, true believers! If you're like me, your batarang is all up in a bunch this summer with all the amazing comic-book movies coming out. Between Iron Man, The Hulk, and now The Dark Knight (which opens today), it's like we've died and gone to nerd heaven. So in the spirit of the superhero season, check out PETA's official list of the Top 10 Animal-Friendly Superheroes of all time!

sfgate / CC

9. Black Panther—As the leader of the African nation of Wakanda, the Black Panther has banned the evil White Gorilla Cult from his country. Members of the cult seek to gain power by killing one of Wakanda's rare white gorillas, bathing in their blood, and eating their flesh (um, gross). The villain known as Man-Ape gained his superpowers by doing exactly that—incurring the wrath of the Black Panther and becoming one of his greatest foes.

8. Superman—In a one-shot "PSA comic" entitled "Superman: For the Animals," Supes rescues a kitten from being thrown off a bridge by a group of kids named (seriously) Ballser, Charlie, Donuts, and Eightball and, in the process, teaches everyone a valuable lesson about not picking on anyone weaker than you—including animals.

comicbookradioshow / CC

6. Thor—In the Ultimate Avengers animated movie, we find Thor out at sea with a group of activists protesting whale slaughter. If only his fellow Norwegians in the real world got the picture that whaling is a thing of the past!

5. Batman—Think of the Caped Crusader, and the first thing that comes to mind is his cape, of course. Animal lovers reveled when they learned that Batman's cape was made of cruelty-free pleather—not leather. This superhero batvocate made pleather cool again, and PETA loves him for it.

4. Beast Boy—Everyone's favorite Teen Titan also happens to be vegan (and not just because he's been hanging out on peta2.com like pretty much every other teenager). You would be, too, if you had the metamorphic ability to turn into any animal and therefore had a little compassion for the ones that get eaten.

marveldirectory / CC

2. Wolverine and Jean Grey—In X-Men Unlimited #44, Wolverine catches three neighborhood boys in the act of torturing and killing animals for kicks—and offers to return the favor on behalf of his furry friends. Using her psychic powers, Jean Grey instead makes the boys experience in their minds the pain and suffering that they caused to their innocent victims. In the next issue … Colonel Sanders!

1. Wonder Man—In Civil War: Frontline #5, part of Marvel's epic Civil War story arc, Wonder Man is interrupted on his way to an important function by two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents looking for answers about a mysterious aquarium store bombing (read the book). The important function? A PETA banquet. 'Nuff said.

Excelsior!

Posted by Dan Shannon

Chances are that if you live in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, or Mississippi, you've shopped at a Winn-Dixie. Well, you'll be glad to know that this top grocery chain, which operates 520 stores in the South, has just made some improvements in how some of the chickens and pigs killed for its products are treated.

Now before anyone jumps all over us, yes, we are vegans; yes, we spend buckets of money trying to get other people to go vegan; and yes, as long as one chicken is going to be killed because we aren't able to prevent people from buying and cooking birds, we want that death to be as painless as possible.

Following about five months of discussions with PETA (and there was that matter of the shareholder resolution we submitted to the company), Winn-Dixie has adopted an animal welfare plan. The company has agreed to do the following:

• Give purchasing preference to suppliers that use or switch to controlled-atmosphere killing (the least cruel method of bird slaughter) and begin purchasing 5 percent of its turkeys from suppliers that use this method by the end of 2010.
• Give purchasing preference to suppliers that don't use gestation crates—restrictive metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs—and increase the total amount of pig meat that it purchases from crate-free facilities by 5 percent over each of the next three years (to reach a total of 15 percent).
• Give purchasing preference to producers of cage-free eggs, increase the amount of cage-free eggs that it sells to 4 percent by the end of 2009 and 5 percent by the end of 2010, and work toward increasing that amount to 10 percent within the next five years.

Winn-Dixie is following in the footsteps of other major grocery and restaurant companies that have recently made animal welfare improvements after working with PETA. Those companies include Safeway, Harris Teeter (another large Southern grocery chain), Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Hardee's.

While this certainly doesn't mean that the eggs and meat at Winn-Dixie (or any other chain) are produced without causing animals to suffer (check out Meat.org to see what I mean), it does mean that the worst abuses have been eliminated for some of the animals. And we welcome any improvements in animals' living and dying conditions!

If you'd like to thank Winn-Dixie, drop them a line through their online customer service form.

Posted by Christine Doré