We're tickled countless shades of pink to report that NYX Cosmetics has affirmed its commitment to producing 100 percent cruelty-free cosmetics by pledging not to sell its products in China until animal tests are no longer required there for makeup and personal-care items. To applaud the company's commendable choice to stay out of this large consumer market so that not even one animal will be harmed for its products, PETA has given NYX Cosmetics our Courage in Commerce Award.

We hope NYX won't have to wait too long before marketing in China. Thanks to training and outreach partially funded by PETA, China is poised to begin accepting its first-ever in-vitro (non-animal) test for cosmetics ingredients soon. In the meantime, though, the only way into the Chinese cosmetics market is over the dead bodies of animals.

Unlike corporations that sell out animals in hopes of a larger market share (or refuse to say whether they pay for animal testing or not), NYX Cosmetics and other principled cosmetics and personal-care companies, including Paul Mitchell and Urban Decay, are making ethical conduct a top priority, and they deserve our support.

What You Can Do

Ready to change your look? Starting your holiday shopping? Before you hit the stores, make sure you're not buying into cruelty by checking PETA's list of companies that don't test on animals—it's the numero uno resource for up-to-date info on cruelty-free businesses.

We all know that dead bodies should be buried, not eaten. So PETA is making Thanksgiving tables a little more relevant this year. We're offering teens these miniature tombstones to stick into the plucked turkey on the table:

If adults think tombstones are too macabre a sight for Thanksgiving, kids can tell them that what's really disturbing is that the decaying corpse in the middle of the table was once a gentle, smart bird until someone filling an order for a holiday meal shackled the bird upside down and slit his or her throat. 

Thanks to honest young people armed with the facts, maybe next year people will give turkeys something to be thankful for.

Young people can request their free turkey tombstones from peta2. 

It wasn't as if experimenters at New York University (NYU) didn't know for days that Hurricane Sandy was approaching. It wasn't as if they didn't know that federal policy requires them to at least try to protect the animals they torment and kill in experiments from also becoming victims of a natural disaster. But the experimenters either made no evacuation plan for the animals in their "care" or they failed to follow through with it. Instead, they abandoned 10,000 mice and rats in a basement laboratory, who remained trapped in their cages as the floodwaters rose. Many animals—panicked, afraid, and desperate to escape—drowned to death, while others suffocated from the toxic diesel fumes of a leaking fuel tank. NYU was unable to give an exact figure for the number of animals who died—remarking instead that the facility lost 7,660 cages of mice and 22 cages of rats, with each cage holding one to seven animals. 

PETA has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health, the government body that oversees federally funded experiments, calling for an investigation into NYU's irresponsible and unconscionable actions and inaction. In our complaint, we pointed out that the university will likely acquire thousands more animals to replace those who died, multiplying the suffering caused by the experimenter's negligence.

It's not the first time that animals were left trapped in laboratory cages during natural disasters. At the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 35 dogs, 78 monkeys, 300 rabbits, and 4,000 mice and rats drowned during tropical storm Allison in 2001. The storm also killed 30,000 mice and rats who were left in the basement at Baylor College of Medicine. Hurricane Katrina killed 8,000 animals trapped in Louisiana State University's laboratories, and thousands more died at Tulane.

An official with the National Academy of Sciences remarked: "This happens again and again and (research labs) never learn. Anybody with half a brain knows you do a site-specific analysis [to understand the risk of disasters], and it's really stupid to put your animals in the basement if you're in a flood zone."

Stupid, cruel, and inexcusable.

The photograph is shocking. Dead monkeys, piled high in garbage cans. If an ordinary picture is worth a thousand words, this one screams them in horror. Even so, everyone should see it because it deserves to become the image that immediately springs to mind when thinking about primates in laboratories and the airlines responsible for transporting them to their deaths.

A Waste of Lives

The photo comes from a new investigation by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) documenting how Noveprim—a company owned in large part by Covance—has been killing off monkeys simply because they are not the size that experimenters desire. Noveprim abducts wild monkeys from their homes on the tiny island of Mauritius for breeding and sale to laboratories in the U.K. and the U.S.

The sight of the lifeless monkeys discarded like crumpled paper speaks volumes about the experimentation industry's absolute disregard for animals' lives. The monkeys were reportedly healthy, so at a minimum, Noveprim could have had the decency to release them back into the wild—but decency would likely be a hindrance to snatching and trafficking living beings.

Rationalizations Are the Real Rubbish

Air France is reported to be the only airline still shipping primates to laboratories from Mauritius. Earlier this year, PETA was successful in stopping one such shipment, and this new investigation underscores why Air France should ground these flights permanently.

What You Can Do

Please join PETA in urging Air France and other airlines that still ship monkeys who have been ripped from their homes to laboratories where they will be tormented and killed to wash their hands of the whole dirty—and deadly—business.

Like a good scare? If the same old haunted houses and rehashed slasher movies have you rolling your eyes, PETA has 10 scary spots guaranteed to make you scream like Jamie Lee Curtis. Let's start our virtual fright fest:

1.      A factory-farm barn

Anyone who has ever seen a horror flick knows that you never go into the barn. Good things do not happen there, unless you consider being mutilated a good thing. Anyway, didn't we learn anything about eating meat from Contagion? 

 2.      Backstage at Ringling Bros.

I'd sooner spend a year trapped in Rihanna's warped "Disturbia" world than try to dodge the whips and chains in Ringling's house of horrors.

 3.      The University of Wisconsin–Madison 

The bizarre and deadly experiments on cats that are going on behind closed doors at this school are like something out of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. But even Mary Shelley couldn't have dreamed up "science" this twisted.

 4.      A McDonald's chicken supplier's slaughterhouse 

Is there anything creepier than a clown? How about a clown with shackles, an electrified water bath, and a knife aimed at your throat?

 5.      The end of a chain in a backyard 

Remember the iconic opening sequence in Saw in which two men are chained up in a restroom? They didn't last any time at all before one of them sawed off his own leg to get free. Just sayin'.

 6.      An Australian sheep farm 

Jason Voorhees might be a knife-wielding maniac, but he's got nothing on Australian sheep farmers. Apparently, if they call it "mulesing," they can carve up their victims alive. (Shiver!)

© Patty Mark/alv.org.au

 7.      An ice floe in Newfoundland, Canada 

Even with Paramount's money, DreamWorks' special effects, and all the fake blood in Hollywood, Wes Craven couldn't create a gorier scene than the Canadian seal slaughter.

© Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 

 8.      Inside a battery cage 

Do you find that the worst part of haunted houses is the beginning, when your whole group is smashed into that dark, tiny room before you start the tour? If you get claustrophobic just thinking about it, imagine if that dark, tiny room lasted for two years. It's getting hard to breathe …

 9.      A cow slaughterhouse 

People who have seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre probably still shudder when they think about Leatherface. But even at his chainsaw-slinging worst, the skin-wearing psycho isn't as frightening as the slicing and dicing that goes on inside a slaughterhouse where cows are killed for their flesh and skin.

10.  The mean streets of New York City 

For horses made to pull carriages through New York's noisy, congested streets, every car seems like Christine—except Stephen King's horror flicks only last two hours, not nine hours a day, seven days a week.

© Barbara Grove

Getting chills yet?

PETA is urging the public to beware of PETCO's "Turtle Relinquishment Program"—a deceptively named ploy to essentially solicit free turtles from unsuspecting people in order to funnel them back into the pet trade, through a meat farm!

Most states have laws either banning or restricting the sale of turtles, so it is likely that any you see at a pet store were captured illegally or raised in less-than-humane conditions.

Capitalizing on a recent rash of pet turtle–related cases of salmonella poisoning in humans, the shameless pet store chain—which has a terrible record already when it comes to animal welfare—has announced that anyone can bring a turtle of any size to its stores. PETCO then ships those turtles to its own vendor, Concordia Turtle Farm in Louisiana, which has said that it will "treat" the turtles for salmonella.

Well, this might sound like a noble effort to some, but shipping turtles is extremely stressful on them. And to add insult to injury, there really isn't any way to rid reptiles of salmonella—they naturally carry it in their intestinal tract! What's more, what PETCO doesn't tell consumers, and what PETA has learned, is that Concordia Turtle Farm exports 80 percent of its turtles overseas—mostly to China, where they grow larger and are then slaughtered for meat. Although it's unclear whether the relinquished turtles will end up on Chinese plates, this business deal brings up several important questions. Why would PETCO ally itself with a meat-trade supplier? And if it's "concerned" about human health, why is the company selling turtles in the first place?

Living conditions during the trip from the breeder or dealer are typically cramped and unsanitary, and many reptiles do not survive the ordeal.

What You Can Do

Please help keep turtles safe by urging the CEO of PETCO to end this ghastly program and stop selling turtles altogether.

 When a Houston woman found a skinny kitten covered with fleas, she began calling "no-kill" shelters looking for somewhere to take the animal, not knowing that these types of shelters are usually full and offer no help. Frustrated and worried, she called PETA.

We encouraged the caller to bring the kitten indoors right away and set up a temporary home for the animal in the bathroom, where the tabby would be safe and could be given much-needed food and water. The woman agreed. We found a reputable open-admission shelter in the area that would be able to accept the kitten when it opened the next day. The next morning, after just one phone call, the kitten had a welcoming, comfortable place to stay and a chance for a home. Once again, "no-kill" shelters had done nothing to help, while an open-admission shelter had. Open-admission shelters can't place every animal, but they don't turn their backs and leave kittens like this to suffer on the streets or end up giving birth and compounding the homelessness crisis.

So-called "no-kill" shelters sound heroic, but they are often anything but. In reality, they are limited-admission shelters, which turn away the most vulnerable animals and often allow only the youngest, cutest animals admission. And many such places force animals to live for years in a cage, even when the animals are sick or losing their minds from such confinement.

No one wants to have to perform euthanasia, but some of the most caring people in the world have to be brave enough to provide animals with a painless exit from an uncaring world—because no matter what the "no-kill" hucksters and hoarders say, there are too many dogs and cats and too few homes, and leaving them on the streets, selling them to laboratories, or just shunting them along to other states, is not a solution to the animal-homelessness crisis. 

Blame needs to be placed where it belongs—at the hands of breeders, and people who refuse to spay and neuter their animals. In the meantime, open-admission shelters will continue to take in all of society's castoffs, not just the young, healthy, and cute ones—and not just when it's convenient.

If you know anyone who is thinking of buying instead of adopting or who still needs to make that sterilization appointment for a dog or cat, please help us reduce euthanasia by giving them the facts, not by supporting some "no-kill" fantasy facility. 

PETA has asked the Washington State Patrol (WSP) to open a criminal investigation after as many as 70 animals endured prolonged agony and died in the October 6 crash of a cattle transport truck container in Seattle. The request also urges WSP to bring cruelty-to-animals and unsafe-animal-transport charges against the person or people responsible if criminal actions are discovered.

Negligence Can Be Deadly

In a jarring reminder that the trucks used to transport farmed animals are no less cruel and treacherous than the factory farms and slaughterhouses that they travel between, the cattle container came unhinged on Interstate 90 and slid 200 yards along the road when the driver, hauling for J & H Express, Inc., rounded a curve. Video of the gruesome scene shows struggling survivors kicking their limbs and hooves, which were stuck in the container's grated sides. Photos by WSP responders reveal cattle piled on top of one another and covered with feces.

The animals were apparently denied emergency veterinary care. About three hours passed before the cattle—who had already endured many hours of transport from Hawaii—were driven three additional hours to Sunnyside, Washington, where at least 20 of the injured were reportedly discovered to have died. The driver was cited for traveling too fast and failing to secure his load. WSP personnel found that he had "failed to lock down all four corners" of the container given that two of its locking pins "had no damage or marking on them."

Taking Cruelty on the Road

According to Washington law, inflicting needless suffering on an animal through recklessness or criminal negligence or failing to provide one's animals with necessary medical attention constitutes second-degree cruelty to animals if the animal suffers unnecessary or unjustifiable physical pain. State law also makes it clear that causing animals to be transported in a way that jeopardizes their safety or that of the public is a misdemeanor.

Even without the flagrant and possibly illegal actions that lead to truck accidents (which happen frequently) and the misery that they cause, transport is hell on animals, who are often beaten or shocked to get them to cram into the trailer of the 18-wheeler. During the trip, they are often deprived of food and water for the entire journey, which may take days. They suffer from heat exhaustion in the summer and freeze to the sides of the truck in winter, and they're forced to inhale diesel exhaust and ammonia fumes from their own waste—if they can breathe at all. After the trauma of the farm and the truck, many animals are so ill or injured that they're unable to stand and walk on their own, so they're kicked or dragged off the trucks to their deaths.

What You Can Do

From birth to slaughter, the life of every animal used for food is a long procession of indignities and injuries, which are funded with each dollar spent on meat, eggs, or dairy products. Don't buy into animals' misery—go vegan today!

Once upon a time, there was a sweet little girl named Coco. Like Cinderella and Snow White before her, Coco faced true hardship. When Prince Charming PETA's fieldworkers found her, she was chained to a trampoline—which served as her only "shelter"—and her coat was badly matted, as you can see:

The fieldworkers, though, instantly recognized the princess beneath the tangled fur and, with some persistence, persuaded the owner to surrender the little poodle. She was whisked away to be bathed, groomed, spayed, and vaccinated before finding her happy ending: being placed into a wonderful home. She now has more than an acre of kingdom fenced-in area to explore and enjoys watching TV, staring at herself in the mirror, and—most of all—snuggling with her human family. Here she is today, in royal repose:

Here's the moral of Coco's story: You don't have to be a godmother with a magic wand. For abused, neglected, and abandoned animals, a helping hand can turn a potential tragedy into a fairy tale—and adoption provides the "happily ever after."

What You Can Do

PETA is always looking for people who can give animals loving homes. If you are an East Coast resident and are interested in adopting a companion animal from PETA, contact Adopt@peta.org. No matter where you live, please never buy an animal from a pet store or breeder—for a real fairy-tale ending, always adopt from an animal shelter or rescue.

PETA has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after someone in the audience sent us this video showing a handler with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' Red Unit hooking and striking an elephant named Luna—who has a history of leg problems—with a bullhook (a weapon used by the circus that resembles a fireplace poker):

Exotic-animal veterinarian Dr. Mel Richardson, observing that Luna was stiff in one of her legs—a sign of painful arthritis, one of the leading reasons why captive elephants are euthanized—determined that Luna was most likely not feeling well and didn't want to perform the trick, which required her to rear up on her hind legs. But the callous trainer continued to hook her in order to force her to perform—actions that Dr. Richardson described as "abusive."

Luna responds to this abuse by cowering.

And this is just what Ringling trainers do in front of the audience. Behind the scenes, they are fond of what they refer to as "tune-ups": screaming at and beating elephants as soon as the show is over as punishment for the animals' failure to do exactly what they were told to do.

We turned this new video evidence over to the USDA and filed a complaint, citing yet more violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by Ringling, which holds the record for the most complaints. We are urging the USDA to investigate all the Red Unit elephants for bullhook wounds and to examine Luna for signs of illness and injury that would preclude her, by law, from performing. How much longer will these vulnerable elephants be forced to endure this abuse?

This abuse is par for the course for Ringling, which has already paid the largest fine in circus history for dozens of violations of the AWA.

Please contact the USDA and ask the agency, on the heels of yet another video showing that Ringling trainers beat elephants, to revoke Ringling's animal exhibitor license and pursue criminal charges against its trainers.