It could almost be a story out of The Onion, but it's completely true. Shoemaker PMK designed a pair of sneakers for Beyoncé, called "King Beys," made of calf hair and crocodile, anaconda, stingray, and ostrich skins. The company started marketing the shoes on its website, and, incredibly, told consumers that "[n]o animals were beaten, harmed, or killed" for the shoes. I think the five different species of animals who were most certainly beaten, harmed, and killed for the shoes would beg to differ.

In response, PETA's legal counsel has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Andre Scott, the CEO of PMK, demanding that the company immediately stop issuing false and misleading statements to customers or face legal action.

If Scott and other executives are in doubt, PETA invited them to watch our video exposé "Cold-Blooded Horrors," narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, which shows how many of the exotic animals they used are beaten, stabbed, and flayed alive.

PMK isn't exactly known for being a by-the-book company. On January 23, Ohio's attorney general filed a lawsuit against it and Scott for violating customer protection laws. The suit alleges that consumers paid for but did not receive products nor did they receive refunds from the company. PMK also received an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau.

We're giving PMK an "F," too—for "false," "fraudulent," and "facing a lawsuit."

Los Angeles' STAPLES Center will become the city's vegetarian center when Morrissey plays there March 1. The music legend has asked that no "flesh as food" be served at his shows, but fans will have plenty of festive fare, including vegan sloppy Joes, vegan sushi, and grilled veggie sandwiches, to munch on while they rock out to "Meat Is Murder." And as an extra nod to animals, Moz also required that McCruelty shutter its doors for the day.

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Beyoncé took a page out of Morrissey's songbook when she wanted to drop her baby weight. Bey started eating one vegan meal a day, and she's kept it up. Maybe since she's eating fewer animals, she'll consider wearing fewer animals, too?

That's what PETA is asking the Buffalo Sabres to do. When the hockey team started awarding the "player of the game" with a fur coat, we wrote to the Sabres' owner, Terry Pegula, urging him to do away with these vile gifts as the team scrambles to reinvent itself as winners after the highly publicized firing of head coach Lindy Ruff.

Usually it's Canadian sealers that seals have to worry about, but recently two young women were caught on camera hitting and kicking seals who were resting on a California beach. People were outraged, and Ian Somerhalder, along with many others, took to Twitter to defend the seals as well as other animals:

Miley Cyrus is always full of sweet tweets, so of course, she and dad Billy Ray Cyrus were on board to compete in the Twitter for the Critters Celebrity Challenge, a Twitter competition that is raising money for several animal shelters and sanctuaries.

Soon Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith's household may rival Miley's in number of rescued dogs. The couple adopted two Labrador-shepherd mixes, a brother and sister. PETA helped welcome the pups to their new home with toys, treats, and a copy of Let's Have a Dog Party! 

Fellow screen legend James Cromwell has also had an exciting month. He was arrested while helping PETA disrupt a meeting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to protest the school's painful and deadly experiments on cats. Then he joined awesome animal advocate Jane Velez-Mitchell on her show to publicize the school's crimes against cats even more.

To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter. 

When one of Ricky Gervais' young fans tweeted the star with the message "my parents agreed if you retweet this they will buy my sister a dog & let you name it," Ricky agreed but with one important stipulation. "A rescue dog tho," he mandated. We would expect nothing less from the man who is a constant voice for homeless animals, urging people to adopt, never buy, and bashing greedy breeders and puppy mills. And like many compassionate celebrities, Ricky consistently uses his Twitter account to reach millions of people with animal-friendly messages.

We can always count on Ricky to get an animal rights point across while he's making people laugh. And Jon Stewart did, too, with The Daily Show's humorous coverage of Iran's launching a monkey into space: "Iran, you think the CIA is tough? You just got PETA on your ass, and those guys don't f**k around." We'd love to hear Jon's take on Funny or Die's spot-on spoof of Dodge Ram's pandering "God Made a Farmer" Super Bowl ad, "God Made a Factory Farmer." 

And Waka Flocka Flame's hilarious Instagram photo had us laughing at how ridiculous people look in fur:

Happily, Beyoncé went fur-free at the Super Bowl, but she draped herself in python skin, iguana skin, and leather instead. PETA is urging the singer to take a cue from other beautiful, talented performers such as Carrie Underwood, who puts on a dynamic show in cruelty-free fashions. 

And it was the epitome of a dynamic cruelty-free show when Vaute Couture designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart presented the first completely vegan runway show at New York Fashion Week. Celebrities are flocking to the line, which is named after "haute couture" but spelled with a "v" for vegan.

New York isn't the only city celebrating cruelty-free fashion. Across the pond, our affiliate PETA U.K. presented the first-ever Vegan Fashion Awards, with celeb judges Sadie Frost and Meg Mathews honoring animal-friendly fashion from top designers and retailers such as Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Topshop. 

To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter. 

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When we got calls about rumors that Beyoncé supposedly abandoned her dog Munchie at the offices of her record company, we suspected that the rumor mill wasn't quite getting the story straight. So, we contacted Beyoncé's people.

We've had an up and down relationship with the Dreamgirl over her past fur-wearing, but lately it's been on the ups, as she hasn't been seen in fur the past two winters. Today, we were happy to learn from Beyoncé's rep that—as we expected—the Munchie tale is far from the truth and that the dog hasn't even been to the record company's offices in months.

The rep calls Munchie a pampered pooch whom everyone adores and says that Beyoncé and her cousin (the pup's main caretaker) are still crazy in love with him. Because they travel quite a bit, Munchie is usually left with family or friends—never at the record company.

We are glad to hear that Beyoncé isn't leaving her "baby boy" behind, and we're certainly happy to hear that Munchie is "irreplaceable" to his guardians.

Written by Lianne Turner

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We have folks in the office who comb through every celebrity magazine and watch every “Inside Hollywood”-type entertainment show to see (among other things) who’s wearing fur and where they got it from during a given season. And may God bless them for making this noble sacrifice. But the latest report on Beyoncé—who’s been getting an earful from us for years now, including a face-to-face ambush at a restaurant in 2007—is that she’s clean. Not a single sighting of Beyoncé in a fur coat all winter.

So we’re calling a ceasefire. As a goodwill gesture, PETA Senior VP Lisa Lange just sent newlyweds Beyoncé and Jay-Z a luxurious throw from top faux fur maker Fabulous Furs accompanied by the following note:

Or, as she told the media, “Celebrities know that the easiest way to keep PETA off their backs is by keeping fur off their backs. Time will tell if Beyoncé is truly committed to being fur-free, but all indications are that she’s become a real ‘dreamgirl’ for fur-bearing animals.” We’re all pretty interested to see how this one pans out. Let’s hope for the best.

One of our most popular anti-fur slogans here at PETA is “Fur is worn by beautiful animals and ugly people”. And we’ve got some great ads to back it up. But the pictures that have been circulating of Aretha Franklin at the Grammy awards last week don’t even really need the tagline to drive that point home. She looks like a walrus in a cat costume. Except, like, nowhere near as cute as that sounds.

Here’s the note that PETA VP Dan Mathews sent to Aretha, who got all in a tizzy yesterday about the fact that Beyonce called Tina Turner “the Queen” and not her.

Pink, being awesome

Pop singer Pink, who is currently my favorite person on the planet, went public with the information in a recent interview with the UK newspaper News of the World. Pink was understandably pissed off about the fact that Beyonce has animals violently killed so she can wear them around town. Here are some choice tidbits:

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the video of our own recent attempt to reason with Beyonce on the subject. By an odd coincidence, we won a contest to have dinner with Beyonce and her mom, so we took the opportunity to have a little chat with them.