Grossed out by the mystery meat your cafeteria serves up every day? Do what awesome activist Neil Ragsdale of Indianapolis did. Neil met twice with his school’s director of food services about the lack of food for vegetarians and vegans in the school lunch line, then rounded up 30 students to sign a letter suggesting some simple vegan meals. Four months later, Neil’s persistence paid off when his school began offering a daily veg option! Says Neil, “Even students and teachers who aren’t veg are buying the vegan lunches!”

If French fries are the only veg option in your lunch line, it’s time to veganize YOUR cafeteria. Take a gander at Neil’s oh-so-easy tips:

Know your facts. Science is on your side. Eating meat is linked to cancer, heart disease, hypoglycemia, kidney disease, obesity, asthma, and lots o’ other diseases. One study showed that 50 percent of teens showed signs of heart disease by the age of 19, so the time is right to delete the meat!

Make it easy by offering up recipe suggestions.

Stay positive. Pitch it as a great step forward that will benefit the WHOLE school.

So you’ve got your school cafeteria serving up delish veggie meals ... now what about camp? Don’t be stuck eating peanut butter and jelly all summer! Ask your camp director to join the growing number of camps that offer mouth-watering vegetarian fare like vegetable fajitas, spicy black-bean burgers, and tofu-spinach lasagna. For a copy of “Colleges and Camps Serving Vegetarian Options,” send five first-class stamps to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.

You’ll get more than yummy vegetarian food at YES! Action Camps–you’ll also get a crash course in activism. These activist training camps, held throughout the U.S., teach organizing skills and other practical tools for making the world a better place. For more info, visit Youth for Environmental Sanity at www.yesworld.org or call toll-free: 877-293-7226.

When a 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla pen at the Brookfield Zoo, a gentle ape named Binti Jua picked him up and–with her own baby clinging to her back–carried him over to a door where paramedics were waiting.

The world was amazed at her kindness, but we weren’t. PETA has heard many, many stories about animals’ kindness to each other and to humans. But we’ve also heard many stories about humans’ cruelty to animals. So we were worried that the zoo would take Binti’s own baby away from her, since zoos often sell “surplus” babies or trade them for animals from other zoos.

So far, the zoo has allowed Binti to keep her baby. We want to keep it that way.

Let’s Make Sure They Really Mean It

Please write to the Brookfield Zoo and ask them to repay Binti’s good deed by never taking her own baby away from her.

Write to:
Brookfield Zoo, 3300 S. Golf Rd., Brookfield, IL 60513.

Help educate your school or community by making a table display! Get permission from your school, pick a topic like factory farming or product testing, then mount photos and text on a large board. Display your creation at school or in the library.

Send us a picture and you could win a hip PETA T-shirt of your choice.

A catnip bouquet to Kristen (Third Rock From the Sun) Johnston–who plays a Russian model/spy in the hit movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me–for saying “nyet” to fur. PETA pal Kristen refused to wear real fur during her scenes, so the costume designers whipped up some psychedelic fakes. Yeah, baby! Send thank-yous to: Kristen Johnston, c/o Becca Kovacick, BWR, 9100 Wilshire Blvd., 6th Fl., West Tower, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

A boob-tube-sized hairball to TBS for its show The Chimp Channel, a “comedy” series in which orangutan and chimpanzee babies are dressed up like humans and forced to perform stupid skits.

Please tell TBS to stop exploiting animals for this degrading program–and let the network know that you won’t be watching any TBS shows until The Chimp Channel is off the air! Write: Richard D. Parsons, President, Time Warner, Inc., 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.

A catnip halo to 7th Heaven cutie David Gallagher for writing to Monaco’s Prince Rainier, asking him to stop using animals in the annual Monte Carlo International Circus Festival. You can help by sending letters to His Royal Highness, Prince Rainier, The Palace of Monaco, B.P. 518, Monaco-Ville, Monaco 98015. And please send thank-yous to David Gallagher, P.O. Box 6279, Burbank, CA 91510-6279.