Written by PETA
And here's our favorite caption for this weeks' "10% Wool" comic contest! We're in process of contacting the winner, so be sure to check your inbox!
Don't forget to check out past 10% Wool comic strips and get more information on the series and the writer here, and learn how to get Jeff's other comic, DeFlocked, into your local paper here.
It's every teenager's worst nightmare: when your parents rummage through your drawers.Time for another "Tag and Release" contest! Here's how it works: You submit the caption for this week's comic in the comment section below. The person whose caption best complements the strip will receive a prize. This week's winner will walk away with PETA's Lightweight Leaping Bunny Zip Hoodie.
The contest ends at 12 noon on October 12, 2010, and we'll announce the winner and showcase the winning comment in a blog post on October 14, 2010. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!
Don't forget to check out the archive of past 10% Wool comic strips and get more information on the series and the writer here. Plus, learn how to get Jeff's other comic, DeFlocked, into your local paper here.
For any of you who caught the Miss Universe pageant last night, you'll be relieved to know that it was faux sheepskin that Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell was wearing. After PETA Australia alerted Campbell to the cruelty of mulesing—a crude mutilation that involves cutting large chunks of flesh from the backsides of Australian lambs with instruments resembling gardening shears—Campbell decided to wear faux sheepskin instead of the real thing as part of her national costume.
"I am confirming that Jesinta Campbell Miss Universe Australia will be wearing only synthetic sheepskin on her national costume," Deborah Miller, national director of Miss Universe Australia, told PETA Australia.
As thanks, PETA sent Campbell a box of vegan chocolate sheep. Her kindness was rewarded again when she placed second runner-up and won the pageant's "Miss Congeniality" award. Who says nice girls finish last?
Written by Alisa Mullins
And, this week's 10% Wool "Tag and Release" winner is ... Beth Ann! Congratulations.
Don't forget to check out the archive of past 10% Wool comic strips here. Get more information on the series and the writer here, and learn how to get Jeff's other comic, DeFlocked, into your local paper here.
You've seen Hollywood's fugliest. Now, take a look at the Uggliest from Down Under: The proposed national costume for Miss Universe contestant Jesinta Campbell, aka Miss Australia, is making people wince.
PETA Australia has asked Campbell to abandon her plans to wear a ghastly get-up that includes a sheepskin shrug and last year's Ugg boots during the upcoming Miss Universe Pageant in Las Vegas. Unless she's lived in a cave, she has to know that most lambs in Australia are subjected to "mulesing"—a mutilation in which huge chunks of flesh are cut from lambs' backsides. And to help her out in case she sticks to her decision to wear this itchy, woolly outfit, PETA Australia is sending her what it believes is the perfect accessory for her costume: a pair of mulesing shears.
Personally, I'm optimistic that Campbell will come around to compassion. When I was her age, my most prized possession was a black leather motorcycle jacket—until I learned about how cows suffer in meat and milk factories. Just as I abandoned my leather vice to become pleather nice, Campbell can go from abominable to fauxnomenal.
Written by Karin Bennett
As if Wednesday's historic vote by the Catalan parliament in Spain to ban bullfighting wasn't enough to make you scream "Olé," we've just heard that oh-so-iconic Spanish design house Adolfo Dominguez S.A. has not only signed on to shun fur, it has also agreed not to purchase or sell exotic skins, clothing made from down plucked from live birds, or wool from Australian sheep who have endured the painful mulesing mutilation—meaning that they've have chunks of flesh cut off their backsides.
Adolfo Dominguez's aggressive animal welfare policy places the company waaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of the ethical fashion curve. For our friends in Spain, this news might warrant a spending spree. For everyone else, why not treat yourself to some fashion-forward outfits from other helpful retailers such as Gap Inc., Timberland, H&M, Liz Claiborne, HUGO BOSS, and Perry Ellis International, who have all taken action by banning fur, exotic skins, and/or wool from mulesed sheep.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
"Ethically handsome" blogger Joshua Katcher, a multitalented artist, a writer, a producer, and an eco-style guru, has created an epically handsome ad that shares some baaad (sorry) news about one of climate change's lesser-known black sheep (sorry)—the wool industry:
Did you know that sheep outnumber people by more than four to one in Australia, one of the world's largest wool-marketing nations? Not only do all those poor sheep create an awful lot of climate-cooking methane gas as a result of, ahem, "enteric fermentation," they also produce an enormous amount of waste, which contributes to both air and water pollution. Sheep farmers also love to douse animals with toxic "sheep dip" and advocate killing off all manner of wildlife (kangaroos, dingoes, and rabbits in Australia and coyotes in the U.S.) in cruel ways (poisoning, trapping, etc.) because they compete with sheep for land and, in some cases, harass and kill sheep before the farmers can do that themselves. And don't even get me started on the mulesing mulitation, which is definitely in the running for the world's cruelest "standard agricultural practice."
So, if a fleecy three-piece is out, what shall Cinderfella wear to the boardroom? Try this on for size, you handsome devil angel, you.
Via The Discerning Brute
If you haven't been keeping up with world events, you may be surprised to learn that change has come to the land down under. Julia Gillard recently made history by becoming Australia's first female prime minister. Now PETA is asking this precedent-setting PM to implement another big change: Help end the barbaric mulesing mutilation that's needlessly inflicted on millions of lambs every year.
PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk has dashed off a letter to Gillard asking her to spearhead government action on this issue.
Says Ingrid: "Carving hunks of flesh from lambs' rumps is a crude way to attempt (often unsuccessfully) to prevent flystrike. I have seen dead mulesed sheep with my own eyes, and everyone knows that there are humane options that should replace this barbaric act."
Experts estimate that mulesing could be phased out in just two years if Australian wool farmers would simply stop breeding overly woolly merino sheep—whose wrinkly skin makes them more susceptible to flystrike—and switch to "bare-breech" sheep (i.e., ones with smooth bottoms) instead. So far, greedy sheep farmers have refused to make the switch, so it's up to us to push hard—and we are doing just that with our campaign to get retailers and consumers around the world to reject merino wool.
If you've contacted decision-makers about this issue before, please do so again. If you haven't, now's the time. We'd like everyone to please take a minute to congratulate Prime Minister Gillard and ask her to fast-track the transition away from mulesing.
Written by Paula Moore
Well, he's not a real prince, but animals might disagree! While we're sure that nothing can top winning PETA's coveted Sexiest Vegetarian Alive title (which he nabbed in 2006), pop royalty Prince is set to add yet another statuette to his mantelpiece: a lifetime achievement award from BET.
In our opinion, Prince deserves a lifetime achievement award based on his empathy for animals alone. Refusing to eat "anything with parents," this cover boy for compassion recently served a sumptuous four-course vegan dinner to Ebony magazine staffers who were visiting his home to do a cover story on him.
He also refuses to wear animals—and he's not shy about it. In the liner notes to his 1999 CD Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, Prince explained why the jacket he's wearing in one of the album-cover photos is faux wool:
"If this jacket were real wool, it would have taken 7 lambs whose lives would have begun like this … Within weeks of their birth, their ears would have been hole-punched, their tails chopped off and the males would have been castrated while fully conscious. Xtremely high rates of mortality r considered normal: 20 2 40% of lambs die b4 the age of 8 weeks: 8 million mature sheep die every year from disease, xposure or neglect. Many people believe shearing helps animals who would otherwise b 2 hot. But in order 2 avoid losing any wool, ranchers shear sheep b4 they would naturally shed their winter coats, resulting in millions of sheep deaths from xposure 2 the cold."
Years later, when a fan tried to give Prince a leather coat during a concert in Washington, D.C., he demurred, "Please do not kill a cow so I can wear a coat!"
Prince also once famously declared: "We need an Animal Rights Day when all slaughterhouses shut down." His response to people who ask why he worries about animals in the face of widespread human suffering? "Compassion is an action word with no boundaries."
Prince, congratulations on your richly deserved award.
PETA's presence was felt by Australian wool producers who are attending a weeklong international trade meeting in San Francisco. Yesterday, 120 protesters made a striking appearance as they gathered outside the conference building and denounced industry executives for allowing wool producers to abandon their commitment to ending the bloody and painful practice of mulesing this year.
Leading designers and retailers around the world—including Gap Inc., Timberland, Abercrombie & Fitch, Limited Brands, Liz Claiborne, HUGO BOSS, and Perry Ellis—have pledged to move away from wool that comes from mulesed sheep or have instituted an outright ban on it.
Shoppers can make a difference by turning their backs on wool altogether.
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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