Written by Michelle Kretzer
Lady Gaga, a one-time anti-fur advocate and supposed anti-bullying advocate, seems to flip-flop more than a new pair of Havaianas. Now Sharon Osbourne is calling the singer out on it, saying:
[W]hen I saw you wear a dress made out of raw meat, I was sickened. When I see you wearing fur, and using it as a fashion statement, the fact that defenseless animals have been killed so you can get your picture in the press is abhorrent to me. Shouldn't you be teaching your 'little monster' fans to respect animals and life?
Whether the target is people or animals, no one likes a bully. Maybe that's why staunch animal advocates have been scooping up so many awards lately.
At the People's Choice Awards, Glee stars Lea Michele and Chris Colfer claimed Favorite Comedic TV Actress and Actor awards and Jason Mraz was named Favorite Male Artist. Ellen DeGeneres was named Favorite Daytime TV Host, Jared Padalecki's show Supernatural took Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Show honors, and Mayim Bialik's The Big Bang Theory was voted Favorite Network TV Comedy. Presenters Olivia Munn and Ian Somerhalder were a huge hit, and host Kaley Cuoco even took a page out of PETA's book and fought back against dog shaming with a little "people shaming" of her own.
Bones' David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel were named TV Guide's Best Actor and Best Actress. Onscreen, the TV couple focus on investigating deaths, but off-screen David and Emily are all about saving animals' lives.
Animal advocate extraordinaire Russell Simmons is being honored with the Visionary Award from the Producers Guild of America for his philanthropy and ethical approach to business. And several stars snagged our nominations for best animal-friendly tweets of the week:
With all the love for animals and the folks who defend them that's been going around this week, guess who got named among the least popular people in America? That'd be the Kardashian family, who ranked lower than Congress, root canals, and traffic jams.
Unlike some members of the Kardashian clan, Lena Dunham prefers her fur attached to its rightful owner. She happily shared photos of her fluffy new rescued dog, Lamby, on Instagram.
It's also a boy for Miley Cyrus, who just added new rescued puppy Bean to her family. Meanwhile, her sister Noah Cyrus was celebrating another milestone. For her 13th birthday, Noah asked her friends to donate $13 toward getting horse-drawn carriages off New York City's streets.
Vocal horse advocate Kathy Najimy put her money where her mouth is, competing on Food Network's Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off to benefit PETA. Of course Kathy, along with competitor and fellow PETA supporter Cornelia Guest, cooked all vegetarian meals.
Perhaps Kathy and Cornelia could swap recipes with Gwyneth Paltrow, who is releasing a new vegetarian-friendly cookbook. Their expertise may even come in handy on the final frontier. One of America's most respected space entrepreneurs, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, is making plans to establish the first colony on Mars—but no meat-eaters are allowed.
That means that even on Mars we could still enjoy the musical stylings of longtime vegetarian Paul McCartney. And it's a good thing that Elon's shuttles will likely be made without animal skins, because Macca won't ride in a vehicle with leather seats.
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
They say it's Paul McCartney's birthday, and we're gonna have a good time! PETA is sending Paul a card made especially for him:
We let fans in Washington, D.C., sign the card as well as grab some free and deliciously tasty vegan birthday cupcakes from Sticky Fingers and copies of PETA's slaughterhouse exposé, Glass Walls, which Paul narrated.
It's fitting that the milestone 70th birthday of the longtime animal defender falls on a Monday, since his Meat Free Monday is helping people around the globe eat less meat and hopefully transition to a no-meat lifestyle. As Paul says:
If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do. It's staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty.
Thank you for everything that you do for animals, Paul, and happy birthday!
Written by PETA
With a terse dismissal, the State Fair of Texas denied PETA's application to display our own version of a 4-H booth at the upcoming event. Fair officials must not want visitors to know that the cows, sheep, goats, and chickens 4-H participants have spent countless hours bonding with will ultimately make their way to a blood-soaked killing floor, just as most animals raised for food do.
Our four "H's" stand for "hellish for animals," "hazardous to the environment," "heart attack–inducing," and "hypocritical for teaching kids to care about only certain animals and to disregard others." We planned to screen Glass Walls and hand out free copies of our vegetarian/vegan starter kits.
I suppose that, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, the State Fair of Texas can't handle the truth. But we think their patrons can—or at least their hearts can.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
Mahatma Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." What, then, can we surmise about the U.S., where 59 billion animals a year suffer intensive confinement, are deprived of all that is natural to them, have their bodies mutilated by dehorning, castration, ear cropping, and more, all before they are killed for a fleeting taste of flesh? October 2, Gandhi's birthday, marks World Farm Animals Day, a day to honor Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence and vegetarianism and to remember the animals killed for what he called "the satisfaction of our bodily wants."
The plain facts are appalling: Every year in the U.S. alone, more than 7 billion chickens and 275 million turkeys have their legs slammed into shackles and their throats cut before being immersed—often while still conscious—in scalding water to remove their feathers. Many of the 118 million pigs killed annually are improperly stunned and scream in pain as they are scalded to death. More than 39 million cows are hung upside down and left to dangle with all their body weight suspended by one leg before their throats are cut and they are skinned and gutted, some aware of what is happening to them as their bodies are hacked apart.
If humanity is to make real moral progress, we must treat animals as sentient beings whose lives are their own and do not belong to us. This World Farm Animals Day, we're trying to get 10,000 people to visit Meat.org and watch the site's "Glass Walls" video. Please share the page on Facebook, on Twitter, and in any other way you that can imagine to get the word out there!
Written by Michelle Sherrow
They say it’s Sir Paul’s birthday ... and we're gonna have a good time! Happy birthday to Sir Paul McCartney, who turns 69 tomorrow. To celebrate the longtime vegetarian's big day, PETA is asking all Beatles fans to join the Meatless Monday movement in his honor.
Meatless Monday, a campaign close to Sir Paul's heart, is gaining ground with people here, there, and everywhere. Earlier this month, Aspen, Colorado, became the U.S.' first Meatless Monday community, with restaurants, schools, hospitals, and organizations all jumping on the bandwagon. Several other cities—including San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; and, just this week, Durham, North Carolina—have issued Meatless Monday proclamations.
Please encourage any Beatles fans you know to go meat-free on Mondays (or, better yet, eight days a week) as a tribute to one of the world's biggest animal defenders. PETA has hundreds of delicious vegan recipes to get the party started.
Happy birthday to you, Sir Paul.
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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