Ray is a beautiful white-and-gray fantail pigeon who was seized along with dozens of other pigeons by animal control officers because of neglect. He had an infected eye and was in poor health, but the woman who had alerted authorities to the birds' plight convinced them to let her adopt him. Unfortunately, she was ill-equipped to care for Ray (she didn't know what sex he was and called him "Rachel") and put him in a dog crate in her basement, where he stayed for the next four years. He was prevented from flying and never received any treatment for his eye infection.

Finally, the woman grew tired of him and contacted PETA. We arranged for Ray to be driven from Virginia to the Wild Bird Fund, a wonderful wildlife rehabilitation facility in New York City, where he immediately began receiving treatment for his eye and other medical conditions. He now lives in a spacious aviary in upstate New York, where he can fly and be friends with other birds for the first time in years.

Ray quickly attracted the attention of another rescued pigeon, which is no surprise, considering how handsome he is. His new family writes, "From the moment Ray arrived, Bently had her eye on him. After Ray chose a nest box, Bently picked a nest box right above him and then would sneak into Ray's box when he was out and about. At first, Ray did not want anything to do with Bently: He would peck and wing-slap her to get her out of his box. This did not deter Bently at all—she pecked right back, and after a few days, it was love!"

What You Can Do

Pigeon racers use the devotion of birds like Ray and Bently against them and force birds to fly hundreds of miles to return to their mates. More than 60 percent of birds die or are lost in such races. Thousands of dollars may be bet on races, generating millions annually in illegal gambling proceeds. You can help by contacting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and urging him to take action to stop cruel and unlawful pigeon races.

You unplug my game, you die. That appears to have been the mentality of a 21-year-old man in Staunton, Virginia, who, according to reports, has been accused of killing his girlfriend's kitten by hurling the tiny animal against a wall after the kitten disconnected the video game he was playing. This allegedly happened while his girlfriend's children watched.

People who hurt animals are bullies and cowards, because they vent their rage, insecurity, and idiocy on the smallest and most defenseless beings available. What's more, numerous studies show that animal abusers often turn their violence against human victims.

Please write a polite letter to Commonwealth Attorney Douglas L. Guynn asking him to vigorously prosecute the case:

The Honorable Raymond C. Robertson
Staunton Commonwealth Attorney’s Office
21 N. New St.
Staunton, VA 24402
540-332-3976

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Heads up, Pittsburgh: A menagerie of costumed wolves, rabbits, foxes, and other fake fauna are about to converge on your city.

And no, it has nothing to do with PETA.

Actually, it's all about Anthrocon—the world's largest "Furry" convention. OK, so if you don't know what a Furry is, I know you're dying to ask. In a nutshell, a Furry is a person who is totally into animal anthropomorphism (assigning animals human traits). I mean totally into it. We're talking loving fictional animal characters so much that they often wear mascot-like costumes of their fave animals (think Crayola-colored cheetahs in cargo pants).

Which is where PETA came into the picture. Don't get me wrong, we weren't trying to harsh their mellow. We just wanted to make sure that convention-going "Fursuiters"—as they like to be called—weren't parading around in the pelts of real animals. Here's the letter we sent to them:

Their response?

Written by Amy Elizabeth

The following blog is a guest post from peta2's Ryan.

The fight against the Canadian seal slaughter has gone digital!

That's right, gamers, get ready: This Saturday, World of Warcraft (WoW) players will have the opportunity to combat a team of four Horde seal killers. We need your help to stop them from bashing in the heads of any more seals!

Thrall refused to ban the slaughter of seals, despite multiple requests from the Alliance to do so, because Orgrimmar stands to make a large profit from the fur.

Activists from across the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are banding together to put a stop to the atrocious seal slaughter. Anyone who slaughters baby seals for their fur must surely be in service to the evil Lich King.

Here's what you need to know in order to battle:

• You must be in the WhisperWind realm in order to fight. Visit WorldofWarcraft.com if you need information about how to switch into this realm.
• Once in the WhisperWind realm, go to Northrend, where you will find a zone called Howling Fjord, where the baby seals live on glaciers and boats float in the fjords. This will be the battleground to stop the slaughter. (Note: You must be at least a Level 70 player in order to enter Howling Fjord.)
• The battle will take place on Saturday, April 11, at 1 p.m. EST.

Make sure to check out videos about the upcoming battle here, and use our Facebook event to get all your friends to join you in the fight. Be sure to check back for the battle coordinates.

Think you can stop the seal killers?

UPDATE: The battle will be taking place at coordinates 79, 73 on the southeastern coast of Howling Fjord, due south of the Explorers League Outpost.

Written by Ryan Huling

(Did all this WoW talk go right over your head? Don't be embarrassed—maybe you should just sit this round out and stick to helping seals on Facebook!)

Not since we were pitted against Nazi attack dogs when we first escaped from Castle Wolfenstein 17 years ago have we seen such barbaric treatment of dogs in video games as we did in Call of Duty, World at War. During the course of the game, you are forced to shoot attack dogs and you can actually unlock a "reward" that allows you to unleash a pack of attack dogs on enemies. In a post–Michael Vick world, you'd think that Activision Blizzard, which publishes the popular game, would take abusing dogs for entertainment purposes more seriously.

Fortunately, some students at a Massachusetts high school are not keeping quiet about their disgust with Activision. Breanna Lucci serves as president of the Animal Rights Club at the Academy of Notre Dame (NDA) in Tyngsborough. The following is from the Lowell Sun's interview with her (via GamePolitics.com):

To help the folks at Activision Blizzard learn about the ethical treatment of animals (something we're sorta experts on) we're offering to let them take PETA's "Developing Empathy for Animals" seminar free of charge, and we're sending a package of dog-friendly Nintendogs games to their office.

With a little Nintendogs influence, perhaps the next Call of Duty game will have you unlock achievements for petting the dogs you encounter and going on walks or playing Frisbee with them.

Source: GamePolitics.com

Written by Joel Bartlett