Putting Virtual Seal Slaughterers in Their Place April 14, 2009

Posted by Ryan at April 14, 2009 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 ) | TrackBack

This past Saturday, we joined many others in World of Warcraft to battle four Horde seal killers to bring light to the current slaughter that's going on in Canada. Many joined our fight, including the mother seals who killed a bunch of Horde to stop them from bashing their seal babies' heads in. It makes you wonder how many baby seals would be killed in Canada if the mother seals were an equal match for the seal murderers

Though many additional Horde members came to slaughter seals and at times the Alliance were outnumbered, the battle was overall successful. Because of this battle, there are so many more people who know about the seal slaughter and exactly what happens to baby seals.



So thank you to all of those who came out to try to stop the seal slaughter. To learn more about how you can help IRL (that's "in real life", n00bs), please click here.

Students Protest "Call of Duty" Promotion of Cruelty March 24, 2009

Posted by Ryan at March 24, 2009 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 12 ) | TrackBack

Nobody likes video games more than us at peta2. So as you can imagine, we—along with gamers worldwide—were thrilled to see the release of the latest installment in the Call of Duty series last winter.

That is, until we actually sat down to play the game, which requires players to shoot dogs, and even offers the opportunity to unlock the "reward" of releasing a pack of attack dogs on enemies. I don't know about you, but in a world that already has so much cruelty to dogs and other animals, this is not exactly the way I'd prefer to spend my evenings.

Thankfully, we aren't alone. As the Lowell Sun is reporting, students at the Academy of Notre Dame high school are so outraged by the promotion of cruelty to animals in the game that they launched a petition to the Call of Duty publishers, Activision, which already has more than 100 signatures on it.

When asked why she wanted to make this issue public, the student animal rights group president, Breanna, told the paper (via GamePolitics.com):

"Killing dogs as a form of entertainment ... over and over again. That's one of the objects of the game," says Lucci, 19, a senior at NDA. "Parents need to know what they are buying their kids. Killing animals should not be a form of entertainment."

...

"My little 12-pound Pomeranian, Winnie the Pooh, is sitting next to [Lucci's brother as he plays the game], and I'm thinking, 'This looks horrible!'" Lucci says.

Lucci then adds, "My brother is a sweetheart. He won't be killing dogs after playing. But some people might."

We couldn't agree more.

What do you think? Post your comments below!

Happy World Vegetarian Week! May 21, 2008

Posted by Ryan at May 21, 2008 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 ) | TrackBack

The world looks so much happier during World Vegetarian Week, doesn't it? So in keeping with the theme of going vegetarian, here's my story:

I'm a huge fan of traveling. During college, I went on a road trip across the country by myself (one of those "find yourself" kinds of trips). Notice how I set the timer on my camera for this "soul-searching" photo of me at the Grand Canyon:

What I didn't expect to find though, was a stretch of the highway in northern Texas nicknamed "Slaughterhouse Row". I was unfortunate enough to have a convertible at the time, so all of the sights and smells of the meat industry hit me... hard.




The rest is history. I made the connection that the animals I was eating were violently killed in bleak surroundings like this one, and I stopped supporting it. I went vegetarian, and a few months later, I went vegan.

NOW FOR THE FUN PART. Here's my favorite vegetarian meal (can be consumed for breakfast, lunch, or dinner):

Blueberry Pancakes

These fluffy pancakes are packed full of delicious blueberries, and are the perfect start (or end) to your day.

2 cups flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups vanilla soy milk
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

• Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift together. Add the soy milk and oil and mix until the batter is smooth.
• Ladle the batter onto a hot pancake griddle. Add frozen blueberries. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
• Serve with fresh blueberries.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

If done properly, they should look like this:



Mmmm mmmm good.

- Ryan!

P.S. - A final word of advice to those who want to venture across the country on a road trip: Don't camp next to the Grand Canyon. The wind coming out of the canyon will knock you (and your tent) over in the middle of the night. Don't be a fool; sleeping upside-down isn't cool.