Written by Michelle Kretzer
PETA created its Movers and Shakers Award especially for people who have earned a position of influence in the world and have chosen to use that influence to create positive changes for animals. HLN anchor Jane Velez-Mitchell is a shining example of just that type of person and received her award at a special ceremony this weekend in Washington, D.C.
Photo by Leigh Vogel
Jane has helped bring about some monumental victories for animals, including exposing to her TV audience how PETA was working to stop the U.S. Army from using monkeys in crude nerve-gas exercises, PETA's campaign to halt construction of a massive monkey-breeding facility in Puerto Rico, the suffering of dogs killed for their fur in China, PETA's undercover video of how pigs and chickens are abused on factory farms, and the cruelty to marine mammals at SeaWorld. While presenting Jane with her Movers and Shakers Award, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk called her "a master broadcaster with a major heart who is 100 percent committed to telling the public what is going on that shouldn't be; 100 percent committed to protecting animals from needless harm."
Jane graciously accepted the award, saying:
This award means a lot to me. I love working with PETA. We have a synergy that's exciting to be part of. . . . There's no better feeling in the world than knowing that my show played a role in stopping animal abuse or alleviating animal suffering.
Catch Jane in action for animals weeknights at 7 p.m. ET on HLN.
Written by Jeff Mackey
The 20th-anniversary edition of PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Free the Animals has been released—get yours from the PETA Catalog—and the brilliant host of HBO's Real Time (and PETA honorary board member) Bill Maher has given it a rave review on the Huffington Post.
Bill gives an overview of some of the amazing victories PETA has won for animals in the two decades since Free the Animals was first published—and some of the things that still haven't changed enough—while touting it as "the riveting, real-life story of the people who put on disguises, use fake IDs or jimmy their way into laboratories in order to carry out the daring rescues of animals used in experiments and of the insiders, the whistleblowers, who risk their jobs to help them."
If you don't believe Bill, though, take it from Penny (the canine companion of peta2 Manager Ryan Huling), who is clearly spellbound by Free the Animals.
A lot has been happening this week at PETA: victories, anniversaries, and celebrations! We're after CareerBuilder, we stopped shipments of monkeys to laboratories, and we've done much more! Check out the latest news and victories:
What a busy week it's been in the PETAsphere! Just in case you missed any of the big news, we've got you covered. Follow us on Tumblr for future news about animal rights, vegan living, and where in the world the PETA campaigners are now.
Written by PETA
Update: Thanks to an anonymous supporter, PETA is now offering $5,000 for information leading to the identification of the men responsible for this beating. The U.S. Army has now determined that the uniforms worn in the video belong to the U.S. Air Force, and the Air Force has launched its own investigation.
The following was originally posted on January 18, 2012:
Update: After much public outcry, Army investigators are looking into the video that depict soldiers beating a sheep with a baseball bat. “We are aware of a Live Leak video depicting the killing of a sheep,” an Army spokesman said. “The actions of those involved are not condoned or supported in any way. We are currently assessing the situation to determine more information.”
The following was originally posted January 13, 2012:
Last year, a scandalous video emerged of a U.S. marine throwing a puppy off a cliff. Now there is this video of a soldier repeatedly beating a sheep with a baseball bat to the whoops and laughter of other soldiers who are looking on. I would say "beating to death" because that is probably what happened, but we do not know the upshot. We only know, from watching the video and seeing the mood of the soldiers -- and what appears to be a local lad who arrived with the animal -- that the sheep could only have come to a very nasty end. He or she tries to rise several times but the soldier continues to thwack away amid the laughter.
PETA did what it always does when someone blows the whistle on these incidents of gratuitous cruelty: We wrote to Secretary of the Army John McHugh and then, when no answer was forthcoming, to other high-ranking officers, including Chief of Public Affairs General Stephen Lanza and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command David E. Quantock. No one -- not PETA and not the thousands of people who have seen this video and are rightly disturbed by it -- has received any acknowledgment, not even a single comforting word, that an investigation has been started.
Click here to read the full article at Huffington Post
Written by Ingrid E. Newkirk
While out for a run, teen bride Courtney Stodden proves there's no wrong way to show off your vegetarian pride.
NASCAR driver Andy Lally keeps his motor running with healthy vegan foods.
When Denise Richards tweeted to PETA asking for vegan cookbook recommendations, we not only told her about some but also sent 'em to her, and she tweeted her thanks.
Liam Hemsworth might be in puppy love—he got a rescued dog from girlfriend Miley Cyrus for his birthday. She asked her Twitter followers always to adopt, never buy, joining the roster of celebrity sweet tweeters:
Maybe James Franco was inspired by Rise of the Planet of the Apes to join Kevin Nealon and a host of other celebrities in support of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which aims to get great apes out of laboratories.
One of the great apes' staunchest supporters, Dr. Jane Goodall, is featured on Beliefnet.com's picks for the Top 10 Animal Rights Activists. Click here to see the full list, which includes heavy hitters such as Bob Barker, Ric O'Barry, and Russell Simmons.
Another heavy hitter, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk is making headlines for not mincing words. Asked what she thought about Real Housewives of New York star Cindy Barshop's real-fur merkins, she responded, "It's outright sleazy, and it's downright cruel to kill an animal to decorate your privates." We'll leave you with that.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
The goats at the Heifer International farm that I went to as a kid were particularly feisty; I remember the struggle that my mother had to get them into the milking pens, always wary of being kicked. Luckily, my mom's milking gig was only once a week, but now that I've learned more about animal-donation programs, I can only imagine how women in the drought-prone areas that Heifer shipped the goats to must have tussled daily with the animals, in addition to the headache of trying to provide them with enough food and water.
Animal-donation programs like those run by Heifer International and Oxfam do not provide a sustainable solution for global hunger. Grazing animals often cause topsoil runoff and land degradation, which can contribute to drought, leading the environmental group World Land Trust to call these programs "environmentally unsound and economically disastrous."
An exposé about a program in India that gave cows to impoverished farmers noted that the "beneficiaries" have a difficult time providing even the most basic care to the animals who have been forced upon them. Having another mouth to feed often adds to a family's burden, and the animals often suffer from horrible neglect, including malnutrition, dehydration, lack of veterinary care, and lack of shelter from the burning midday sun or freezing nighttime temperatures. On a recent trip to India, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk saw the distinctive black-and-white Holsteins and Holstein-crosses from America roaming the streets and eating plastic bags out of trash cans, which will clog their intestines and kill them. Many donated animals will end up in filthy, unregulated slaughterhouses and have their throats cut with a dull knife.
Tell your friends and family to avoid animal-donation programs and instead consider supporting sustainable, animal-friendly organizations that work to end hunger, such as The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Food for Life Global, VEGFAM, and Feed My Starving Children. Another way to aid poor families is to donate to the PETA-supported program Animal Rahat, which provides free veterinary care to working animals in India who are lame, sick, or injured.
Sunday is World Kindness Day, and even if you don't need a reason to be kind, consider doing something extra-nice for animals. It doesn't take much effort to make a world of difference for animals, and animals who need help could be right in front of you. Take a look around your neighborhood and see if there's a chained dog who needs fresh water, or take this opportunity to clear your closet of leather and your refrigerator of eggs, cheese, and other animal products.
To recognize World Kindness Day, we're giving away a signed copy of PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's book Making Kind Choices, which includes an introduction by Sir Paul McCartney and is chock-full of simple suggestions to help animals every day, including how to deal kindly with mice in your home, how to help birds get through the winter, advice on caring for your animal companions, cruelty-free shopping tips, and more. To enter, post a comment below telling us how you are kind to animals, and the winner will be chosen at random from comments submitted that are animal-friendly.
Can't wait that long? Pick up a copy of Making Kind Choices today by visiting the PETA Catalog.
Winner will be chosen at random from animal-friendly comments submitted on this blog. The contest ends on November 21, 2011, and we'll contact the winner on November 22, 2011. Make sure that you read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting.
It's Cat Week, and as much as I want to post cute photos of my newly adopted cat, here instead are seven items adapted from "The Alwayses and the Never-Evers Checklist," from PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's insightful book 250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You. Following the complete list will help you make every single week of your cat's life the best it can be.
© Digital Vision | Cats and Dogs | Getty Images
To read the entire checklist, pick up a copy of 250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You or click here to read a longer excerpt. There's no time like Cat Week to promise your cat that you will do everything you can to make him or her adore you.
(And if you would like to see photos of my cat, please let my boss know in the comments section.)
The latest issue of PETA's Animal Times magazine just rolled off the presses, and the PETA Files is offering you a sneak peak inside. In addition to campaign news and updates, investigative reports, and tasty recipes, this issue includes an exclusive excerpt from PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's latest book, The PETA Practical Guide to Animal Rights. In this excerpt, Ingrid talks about a personable rooster named Lucie, who changed the lives of the family that had the good fortune to adopt him:
A man selling chicks under a bridge sold Lucie for a dollar to a little girl. … She put him … in the basement in a shoe box with air holes and a tissue for a blanket …. The next day, the girl's mother Barbara Munroe, realized that the chick was freezing. She made a bed in her night table drawer .... Finally, Lucie went to sleep.
Barbara took to carrying Lucie around in her hand. He always wanted to be with people. "The most amazing thing to me," says Barbara, "was the way Lucie adapted to suburban life, sitting in a car like a perfect gentleman or on the sofa while the family read or watched television."
. . .
When Barbara would come home from work, she often saw Lucie sitting on the back of a chair in an upstairs window, watching for her. By the time that she got in, he was down in the kitchen, jumping up and down, greeting her.
If people in the house raised their voices, Lucie chimed in loudly. It was almost impossible to shout over him, and usually everyone ended up laughing.
Barbara's daughter kept her bedroom door closed. Lucie hated that …. Every once in awhile, the girl forgot to close the door. Lucie would run in and jump on her bed but remain very quiet, so as not to alert her.
All chickens have the potential of Lucie or more, if allowed to live a natural life—by which I mean, not confined to a tiny wire cage or to a filthy, ammonia-filled shed crammed in with thousands of other birds. The same is true of all animals we think of as "food." It is just that we never get to know them.
Want more? An annual subscription to Animal Times can be yours for just $16. What a bargain! Written by Alisa Mullins
PETA Senior Vice President of Communications Lisa Lange reflects on the monumental achievements for animals that she's seen in her nearly 20 years at PETA and the events—intentional and serendipitous—that led her to devote her life to protecting animals.
How did you first become involved in animal rights?
I got a PETA magazine in the mail and read about all the atrocious things happening to animals and started to change my lifestyle. A couple of years later, I was helping to protest the largest pigeon slaughter in the country in Hegins, Pennsylvania, with hundreds of other activists. It was like a clay shoot but with real animals. The birds were stuffed into wooden boxes and were sprung into the air a few at a time. Drunk men would shoot the birds from sunup to sundown. They would twist the heads off injured birds or bash their bodies into trash cans. I was arrested for running across the field and creating a distraction while other people freed the birds from the boxes. I was put in a cell with PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. Rather than pay bail money to the city that sponsored the hunt, we spent 12 days in jail. That's where she hired me—in our jail block. Eventually, we got the pigeon shoot stopped.
What was the most unforgettable PETA protest you ever participated in?
There have been a lot of them, but I loved the Wendy's demonstration with James Cromwell where he and some of us staffers did a sit-in at a Wendy's restaurant. We won that campaign and got Wendy's to improve animal welfare and have been pushing them to build on those improvements ever since.
Is there one PETA victory you are most proud of?
The Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc. victory is pretty major. We got that awful animal testing facility shut down and got four workers indicted on felony cruelty-to-animals charges. There are so many, though—back in the day, bringing GM to its knees was pretty fantastic. They were the last company to stop doing crash tests on animals, and when they fell, those horrid tests were history. I love all the victories these days where the mere threat of PETA protests does the trick, like with Lipton tea. I love that our reputation as being smart and strong precedes us and that people just don't want to tangle with us.
*****
Are you the next Lisa Lange? Get involved now by e-mailing the Action Team.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
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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