peta2 Daily Blog

Free Stuff Friday: Marshmallow Gift Basket From Sweet & Sara!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:33:21 -0500

Going camping anytime soon? Or are you just in the mood for some yummy deliciousness? Then you don't want to miss out on this week's giveaway. We're giving you the chance to win a Marshmallow Gift Basket from our friends at Sweet & Sara—the birthplace of the vegan marshmallow (most marshmallows are made with gelatin, which is crushed up animal bones ... GROSS!).

Sweet & Sara has put together a gift basket filled with vegan vanilla marshmallows, toasted coconut marshmallows, original smores, peanut butter smores, and rocky road bark. Melt the marshmallows for a heavenly topping to a soy ice cream sundae or make some vegan Rice Krispie treats to share with your friends. Better yet, just eat everything straight outta the pack!

For your chance to win this Marshmallow Gift Basket from Sweet & Sara, comment below with your plans for these delicious marshmallows. Entries must be received by July 10th. The person with the yummiest comment will be chosen as our winner and notified by July 13th.

Just so you know ... by commenting here, you're acknowledging that you've read and agreed to our privacy policy.

Also by commenting, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions.

GOOD LUCK!

- Tiffany

Vote for Your Favorite Dumb Comment

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:31:39 -0500

I like how people actually take time out of their lives to write and send us lame poems. Their lives must be filled with excitement ...

You know the deal: Names removed to protect the idiotic parties, and I've thrown some asterisks in the expletives. Enjoy!

1) wow....yal are seroius? its a food place ....for gods sake....how else are we going to get meat? god invented cows and chicken for meat not pets that are adored and just wow this is hiliarous
- Mc wow ur gay

2) PETA is the biggest joke in the world. ha u suck. MEAT FOR LIFE!. if god wanted us to be vegetarians animals wouldn't be made out of meat. plus it says in the bible that were are supposed to have dominion over animals. f**k peta. im about to go eat some McDonalds. don't get me wrong they way animals are killed and treated is wrong. but hey i luv meat. but i wont wear fur. :) and that thing were obama killed a fly u guys overreacated. its a f'm FLY. let it live so it can spread disease or poop on ur food. im sure all of u have swatted and killed a fly. U are the biggest lames and f**kers in the whole world I H8 PETA! if u go on twitter and look at the peta discussion on the most talked about threads. ha the whole world hate PETA. f**kin hypocrites. screw u. and MEAT FOREVER!

3) I could never be Vegan. Meat is too delicious, especially Sushi made from Sea Kittens and KFC. Damn I love KFC.

4) The bible states THOU SHALL NOT MURDER but GOD gave US animals to EAT not SAVE! If we all we vegitarians the earth would be runned by cows or something so stop wasting your f**king time and start chomping on meat you carrot huggers. Yes testing is Bad but what is worse is YOU ALL!!!! What r those sharp teeth in the back of you mouth? It is your k9 teeth and ur molers! What is the prupose of thouse teeth? to CHEW MEAT!!!!! So get on with your lives and STOP wasting you time with this bull crap you carrot huggers! You should ALL be WAY more conserned with RECYCLING or some bull. Become tree huggers NOT carrot huggers! You all are gay a** wight wades!!!!!!! F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2 F**K PETA2

5) PETA is so f**king lame
f**king lame
f**king lame
PETA is so f**king lame
That they want to have sex with animals.

They try to destroy the world for everyone
everyone
everyone
They try to destroy the world for everyone
because they are incompetient.

They lack the ability to grow some balls
grow some balls
grow some balls
They lack the ability to grow some balls
And eat animals.

Let me know your favorite by commenting below!

♥ Marta

P.S. As always, you can check out past installments of dumb comments here.

News!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:21 -0500

Happy July! I like this month because it's an opportunity to reuse your peta2 flags for the 4th, plus my birthday is this month!

There have been some interesting news stories this week worth sharing, so here you go ...

First off (and no surprise to any of us, really), the American Dietetic Association (ADA) recently updated and re-released its position paper on vegetarian diets. Among the ADA's findings are that, "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes." Furthermore, it points out that vegetarians "tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates. Vegetarian diets tend to be lower in saturated fat and cholesterol and have higher levels of dietary fiber, magnesium and potassium, vitamins C and E, folate, carotenoids, flavonoids and other phytochemicals." You might want to show that to your parents, teachers, or anyone else who may be trying to give you a hard time about your decision to not eat animals! There's a copy of the press release here.

In other news, did you hear about the pig who escaped during a crash on the way to slaughter, then turned up lounging around in someone's backyard pool?! Seems like the pig's life is being spared, too! Way to go, piggy!

This is a quick feature with campaigner Jena Hunt.

There's this story about a former worker at a turkey slaughterhouse who was caught stomping on a bird's head and slamming another to the ground during a PETA investigation.

And if course, there's a lot more which you can keep up to date on by reading our blog all day, every day! That's where you're going to hear the news most directly from us instead of having your eyes and ears bombarded by ridiculous, overhyped stories about flies and other nonsense.

Thanks! Oh. And I went camping in the Redwoods recently. It was awesome, and I saw lots of animals in addition to trees that are thousands of years old! Here's a picture of a wild elk from my trip!!!

-Pulin

Breaking Hearts and Taking Names

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:59:07 -0500

Hey buddies!

Warped Tour has officially started and so has our Animal Testing Breaks Hearts campaign! To start this off right, part of the peta2 Road Crew has been plowing through cities telling people how animal testing is a true heartbreaker and to sign our petition to help end these pointless acts of brutality. We're asking cosmetics companies to stop doing cruel, painful and pointless tests on bunnies, rats, and other animals in labs nationwide. We've been hitting the crowds hard to let them know about all the great companies that are kind enough not to torture animals for no reason other than selfish profit. For a whole list of companies that refuse to do tests on animals, check this out!

During the show in Ventura, CA, we took the bunny out into the crowd during 3OH!3's set. The crowd had a great time dancing with the bunny, signing the petition, and hearing great music. It was a win-win for everyone! Stay tuned for more from us on this year's Warped Tour. I'm going to let Paige take it from here to give you some updates on what she's been up to recently ...

Thanks, Joey! We also kicked off Rock the Bells in Chicago and Detroit. This Hip Hop crowd jumped right on board with speaking out against McDonald's cruel practices. Chickens are slaughtered by McDonald's suppliers using outdated methods like slitting their throats while fully conscious. Now the biggest seller of chicken meat in the U.S., McDonald's has the responsibility—and the ability—to reduce this abuse by demanding that its U.S. suppliers use a less cruel method of slaughter.

Featured in our pictures are our AMAZING volunteers, Peter and Ian, that we met doing College Outreach on their campus! Want to make changes at your school? Or do you want to become an intern? There are so many ways to help animals—find some here.

That's all for now from the Road Warriors. Check back in next week for more updates and more tour pics!

Joey & Paige

Happy Canada Day (Unless You're a Seal!)

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:09:16 -0500

There are many things to love about Canada (not least of which is the vegan faux chicken available at many KFC's across the country). Unfortunately, the Great White North's reputation has been stained red by their continued support for slaughtering seals.

As Canadians and their international admirers are celebrating Canada Day today, PETA and its affiliates made sure that nobody forgot those "citizens" who won't be celebrating—because they've been clubbed to death.

To draw attention to the issue, activists held demonstrations at Canadian consulates and embassies around the world. Check out this one, all the way from London, England!

There were also some brave "seals" crashing Canada Day parades all across the country. What can we say? Seals like to party too.

Make sure to leave your comment below, encouraging the Canadian government to give seals something to celebrate!

—Ryan!

Caption This Photo

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:57:54 -0500

I love this photo so much. It sends such a strong message! What would you caption it?

Let me know what you think! And for more information, check this out.

♥ Marta

Fear

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:59:55 -0500

We've all heard occasional, dumb comments from people who haven't yet realized the importance of being kind to animals. While we can all agree that the dogs and cats in our homes feel pain, joy, and even get scared, there are still some people who just don't make the connection to other animals they eat! In fact, just like you and I, all animals do feel fear when faced with terrifying situations. After a lifetime of suffering, does anyone really think that animals are unaware of what awaits them at the slaughterhouse?

Well, if anyone you know has any doubts about the fear which animals feel, please take a few minutes to watch this video all the way through. It's not very graphic, honestly, it's just very powerful.

They may not be in our homes, but cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals deserve our consideration. Please don't pay for their lives to be taken and their corpses turned into "food." There are plenty of other things to eat.

-Pulin

Smithfield, You Make My Skin Crawl

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:14:22 -0500

animalwritings / CC

The gestation crate has got to be one of the cruelest tools of the exploitation trade. It is a metal box used to warehouse mother pigs for almost their entire lives before being slaughtered and sold for profit. The crates are so small that mother pigs can never be with their babies, never lie down comfortably and can never even turn around.

At any given moment, more than one million mother pigs are confined to these crates.

The industry likes to tell consumers that these crates are to protect the baby piglets (before they have their testicles and teeth ripped out, their ears clipped and are slaughtered, of course), because their over-sized (aka drugged to the point of a profitable obesity) mothers might roll over and kill them. We all know the truth of the matter is that the factory farming industry doesn't care one bit about animals, only about making money off of their corpses.

In 2007, after over ten years of talks with PETA, Smithfield (yes, that Smithfield), agreed to phase out the crates, but just last week, Smithfield backed out of this agreement, citing financial woes and losses. We're hoping this basically means less people wanted to buy their vile product, but either way, Smithfield is still the the world's largest flesh producer, and we think they owe it to pigs not to treat them this way. Especially considering that just three years' compensation for the company's highly-paid directors would more than cover the cost of a complete crate phase-out over the next eight years.

All we're asking, again, is that this large company do the right thing for the animals they kill to profit from. For the millions of pigs that can't move this very second—please write to Smithfield now and urge them to keep their promise to phase out cruel gestation crates.

Stay loud!
-Rachel

What Will You Be Grilling This 4th of July?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:11:42 -0500

I dream about BBQs. Seriously—there is absolutely no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon with friends and family! From chilling out on my parents' deck back in Cali with teriyaki-marinated veggie skewers on the grill to lounging in my friends' backyard here in VA with the delicious scent of veggie dogs and faux chicken burgers wafting at me from the grill, life just doesn't get any better.

Of course, things can sometimes get a tad uncomfortable with people scarfing down animals left and right around you—which is why I'm bringing you peta2's tips for surviving (and loving) 4th of July:

Be prepared. Don't just sit around complaining that there's not going to be anything you can eat at your family's BBQ. Get off your butt and go to the store to get all your fave fixins.
Sharing is caring. People love vegan food—most people just don't know how much they love it yet, so be sure to make enough of your deliciousness for others to devour too.
Don't bring your fightin' face to the party. You may feel defensive and people might try to give you a hard time, but you are so much stronger than that. Show them that just because you don't eat meat doesn't mean you're an angry person who is going to snap at any minute.
Eat until your heart's content. If you've got more sway with the menu, the possibilities are endless: grilled potatoes, veggie dogs & burgers, potato salad, vegan coleslaw, baked beans, huge chunks of watermelon, lots of chips and dip, black bean and corn salad, grilled garlic bread, and one of my personal favorites: grilled corn on the cob.

Corn on the cob and veggie burgers!

And if you're in the mood for something new, here are a few tasty recipes to try out:

Now lately, I've been thinking more and more about the best topping for veggie burgers. Some faves of mine include sautéed spinach and onions or BBQ sauce with onion rings. What's your preference? Let me know, so I can try it out!

♥ Marta

Rob Dyrdek Takes on Hollywood

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:37:46 -0500

I started getting really into skateboarding when I was in 8th grade. I love everything that is part of that culture. Skateboarding to me is all about hanging with your friends, pushing yourself to succeed, and maybe getting into a little bit of trouble!

Rob Dyrdek for peta2

If there's one thing I hate, it's the way skaters are portrayed on T.V. and in movies. Hollywood classifies skaters one of two ways: the So-Cal stoner (a.k.a. Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) or the punk rock hoodlum who's up to no good. This time around Rob Dyrdek set out to do it right! Dyrdek teamed up with fellow skaters Paul Rodriguez, Terry Kennedy, Ryan Sheckler, and others to make a movie for and about skaters. Dyrdek produced and co-wrote the movie, that features genuine street skating, and perhaps even a never-before-seen trick by P Rod himself!

Street Dreams is in select theaters now. Check the site for local listings, grab your board, your friends, and beat the heat indoors for an afternoon!

xo
Megan

Are You a Heartbreaker?

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:36:24 -0500

So you're not a heartbreaker, right? You check all of your products to make sure they're on our list or have our cruelty free bunny logo, and you've told everyone you know about our Animal Testing Breaks Hearts campaign—so what else can you do to help the hundreds of thousands of animals killed every year in useless product experiments?

The sad fact is, a lot of people have no idea that countless (literally—mice and rats, the most commonly used animals in product testing aren't even counted) animals are killed for deodorant, makeup, hairspray, lipstick and more, or that they have an easy alternative. Every time you open your purse or wallet at the counter, you make a choice to either support animal testing, or shop cruelty free. Your friends could be breaking hearts without even knowing it!

All the power to end these experiments is in your hands! Show the world that you have a heart for animals by posting your photos (see examples above, don't actually go breaking any hearts!) on our Facebook wall or by making it your default photo on MySpace! If you post a photo, e-mail us the link to earn 500 Street Team points.

Stay loud!
-Rachel

Turkey Abusers Convicted: One Jailed!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:06:32 -0500

We're starting this week off with another historic victory for animals! Check out this blog from PETA's Karin Bennet!

Late last year, some factory-farm employees were fired from Aviagen Turkeys, Inc. in response to PETA's undercover investigation, which documented that workers were breaking turkeys' necks, stomping on their heads, and shoving feces and feed into turkeys' mouths.

Then, in February, a grand jury handed down 19 indictments, including 11 felony charges, against three former Aviagen workers, marking the first time in U.S. history that factory-farm employees have faced felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds.

Fast forward: Two of the three ex-employees, Scott Alvin White and Edward Eric Gwinn, recently pleaded guilty to cruelty charges. On June 8, White was sentenced to serve one year in jail—the maximum period permitted by law! Today, Gwinn was sentenced to serve six months' home confinement—the maximum period permitted by law—on each count, concurrently, and is banned from living with, owning, and working with animals for five years. The case against the third ex-employee, Walter Lee Hambrick, is pending.

These historic victories by no means even the score for the turkeys who were punched and thrown or the many other birds who suffered when they were forced to watch as other turkeys were abused at Aviagen. After watching our undercover video, animal behavior expert Dr. Lesley J. Rogers stated, "It is now known that when social animals, like turkeys, see and hear other members of their species under stress or suffering physical injury, their levels of stress become elevated. Hence, the behavioural stress is widespread in the birds in the vicinity of those that have been injured and/or handled roughly."

Still, these convictions will remind workers on other factory farms that if they don't clean up their acts, PETA investigators (and the whistleblowers who tip us off) will have their eyes on them.

Stay loud!
-Rachel

peta2 On Your Phone!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:39:31 -0500

Today is a big day for peta2. We've just launched our amazing summer campaign, Animal Testing Breaks Hearts, and we've taken over the homepage of Myxer. Myxer features the most ringtones, wallpapers, and videos for your phone, and we've teamed up to offer you great peta2 content for your cell!

Best part? It's all free! Click on the widget below or text "PETA2" to 69937 to peta2-ify your phone!

Free Stuff Friday: Dirty Shirty Tee!

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:57:48 -0500

We've just launched our Animal Testing Breaks Hearts campaign and what better way to kick it off than with an awesome giveaway! This week, you've got the chance to win this 'I Am Not a Test' tee from our friends at Dirty Shirty.

Over 200 animals are killed every minute in labs across the country. These animals die alone, after undergoing excruciating experiments. We all know testing on animals is bad science, but thousands of companies and universities continue to conduct animal experiments. You'll love rocking this tee because it lets everyone know that we should be loving animals, not testing on them.

For your chance to win the 'I Am Not a Test' tee from Dirty Shirty, comment below with a phrase or slogan you'd most like to see on a Dirty Shirty tee. Entries must be received by July 3rd. The three people with the most original comments will be chosen and notified by July 6th.

Just so you know ... by commenting here, you're acknowledging that you've read and agreed to our privacy policy.

Also by commenting, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions.

GOOD LUCK!

- Tiffany

What Breaks Your Heart?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:25:29 -0500

We all likely know at least one heartbreaker—someone who flashes a smile that makes you melt and then is on to the next victim in the blink of an eye. However, many people don't realize that they're breaking hearts left and right on a daily basis. How's that? I have two words for you: Animal testing.

Animal testing breaks hearts, plain and simple, so we decided to launch a campaign with the same name! This summer, we want every single one of you to make sure that everyone in your life (and everyone you happen to meet!) knows that animal testing breaks hearts. Did you know that countless mice, rats, rabbits, and other animals suffer and die in cruel and pointless product-testing experiments every year?

It's so ridiculously easy to buy cruelty-free shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, and makeup these days that I honestly believe that the only reason people still buy products that are tested on animals is because they just don't realize that animals had chemicals rubbed into their eyes and skin just so someone could look a little more attractive. And if you can look just as attractive (and smell just as good!) without the cruelty, then why wouldn't you make the kinder choice?

Say it with me: Animal Testing Breaks Hearts! We have a brand-new video, a "Be Nice to Bunnies" iPhone app, banners, and of course lots of other things to keep you busy. Be sure to show your support for animals by adding a heart to our pledge!

So, tell me—will you be breaking animals' hearts this summer? I'm pretty sure that animals hope you won't be ...

♥ Marta

P.S. Not sure if your fave products are cruelty-free or not? Add the "Be Nice to Bunnies" iPhone app or check out our database here.