Buckingham Palace Guardsmen May Get Designer Fur-Free Hats

Earlier this week, beloved British comedian Ricky Gervais (of the original Office and Extras, in case you live under a rock or are severely comedically deprived) made headlines when he wrote to Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to find an alternative to using fur in the Buckingham Palace Guardesmen’s bearskin hats.  After the news got out, some people started joking about having famed PETA ally and vegetarian designer Stella McCartney to design new, cruelty-free hats.  It seems that those jokes might have something to them after all.

From Ecorazzi:

This week, Baroness Taylor, the Minister for Defence procurement (and in charge of acquiring all military equipment), will meet with PETA to discuss synthetic materials or other replacements for the bear fur. PETA has tapped British designer Vivienne Westwood to come up with something “innovative”, while Stella McCartney and the US designer Marc Bouwer have both agreed to produce caps if commissioned by the MoD.

It currently takes one black bear for every hat worn by the Buckingham guard. 50-100 new hats are needed every year. Over the past five years the MoD has spent more than $600,000 on bear skins. If this meeting proves successful — and it looks like there’s a serious chance — then a major step forward in saving the black bear of North America will have been taken.

There are so many humane alternatives out there, and while some may argue that the hats are an important and sentimental link to the past, we’re finally entering an age of consciousness and responsibility.  We can’t wait to see what the designers come up with.  Thanks, Ricky!

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Metro.co.uk

PETA Fail: Runs Ad Comparing Greyhound Horror Killing to Animal Slaughterhouse Killing Horror

PETA has done it again.

In a not-so-surprising-for-PETA show of good taste, the animal rights group attempted to run an ad comparing animal slaughter to the brutal murder of Tim McClean, the 22-year-old who was beheaded by Vince Weiguang Li on a Greyhound bus in Winnipeg bound Canadian bus on July 30.

“His struggles and cries are ignored … the man with the knife shows no emotion … the victim is slaughtered and his head cut off … his flesh is eaten,” reads the ad, which can be seen on the organization’s website.

The ad was intended to run in the Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic. The newspaper refused it. Rightly so.

If PETA was intending to make themselves look like insane, insensitive radicals who write heavy-handed copy more befitting of Emily Bronte novels, they’ve succeeded. They’ve done a bang-up job of alienating pretty much everyone. Well done, guys. This was definitely a classy choice.

Link [Globe & Mail]

Slaughterhouse Worker Injured by Falling Dead Cow; Karma Wins Again

A 30-year-old slaughterhouse worker was doing what he does every day – waiting for big dead cows strung up on hooks to come down the line so he could butcher them. But on Monday, one of those dead cows got the last laugh. In an apparent attempt to posthumously exact revenge from one of the humans that robbed it of its life and desecrated its remains, the cow fell off the hook and right on top of the butcher.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee Fire Department spokeswoman Tiffany Wynn said the cow fell off the hook and onto the man, hitting him on the shoulder and neck at Cargill Inc., 1915 W. Canal St., just before noon. She said it was a whole cow and the victim was about to butcher it. He suffered moderate but not life-threatening injuries and was taken to Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Francis hospital for treatment.

Police are investigating how the cow fell on top of the man and determining whether an investigator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will have to look at the details of the case as an industrial accident.

Revenge of the Undead Cows! There’s this thing called karma.  In all seriousness, this guy’s life must suck. He stands around wielding a big knife, covered in blood and guts all day and then gets taken out by a giant carcass.

Link [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
Photo credit: PETA via Vegan Outreach

KFC to Offer Vegan Chicken in Canada

After years of dramatic protests outside KFC’s all over the world, the Canadian branch of the fast food giant has cut a deal with PETA to improve its chicken slaughter conditions and introduce vegan options on their menu. That’s right – vegan ‘chicken’, at KFC of all places.

From kypost.com:

“It means more choice for people who are vegetarian and more options for people thinking about it,” said David Alexander, director of operations for the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

PETA will now call off its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign in Canada, which was supported by many celebrities including Canadians Pamela Anderson and Ryan Gosling. KFC Canada pledged to buy from suppliers who gas their chickens, what PETA calls “the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed.”

PETA will continue to press KFC in the United States and elsewhere to change its slaughter practices – and sell unchicken, as 461 KFC Canadian chain stores have agreed to do.

“KFC is sort of taking a bit of leadership on the issue,” said Alexander, a vegetarian for two years. “We’ve moved beyond the era of the veggie burger, I think.”

Interesting. Using more humane methods to slaughter their chickens is downright awesome, and a huge victory for PETA, who have practically waged war against KFC for decades. It’s awesome to see a big chain agree to rethink their slaughter practices, because, in case you’re ignorant of the issue (as many people go out of their way to remain), they really are disgusting and cruel in most cases.

It’s very surprising that KFC would be willing to offer vegan ‘chicken’, made mostly of soy, at their restaurants – but hey, it’s a good thing. Maybe some meat eaters will even make the switch, if it tastes good enough, and that would mean fewer animals being raised and slaughtered overall. And of course, vegetarians want fast food, too.

Link [kypost.com]
Photo credit: United Poultry Concerns

’30 Days’ Sends a Hunter to Live with Animal Rights Activists

At first glance, one might equate the FX show ’30 Days’ with similar set-ups on reality television like ‘Wife Swap’. The purpose is clear from the get-go: to help people with radically different ideologies come to an understanding about each other, and even if they don’t ultimately agree, they’re expected to gain some sense of a middle ground. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. What sets this show apart is that it deals with real issues, and keeps the made-for-TV manufactured drama to a minimum.

This episode, entitled ‘Animal Rights’, puts hunter George Snedeker into the home of Melissa Karpel, an events coordinator for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

“A deer, cow, a chicken… their sole purpose is to feed us,” George says before leaving his North Carolina home for Los Angeles. George’s intention going into this wasn’t to gain some cloud-piercing revelation that would change his life, or even to convince the animal rights activists to agree with his views. All he wanted, he said, was to understand why these people can be ‘so extreme’.

Melissa certainly holds views about animals that are opposite those of George. She firmly believes that animals do not belong to humans for food, clothing, experiments or entertainment. Melissa stated early on that all she wanted was to show George what it’s like to live with a family who happen to be vegans and animal rights activists, but it became clear that she was truly hoping to help George see the light.

Forcing George to dress up in a chicken costume as part of a KFC protest probably wasn’t the best way to get started, and indeed, it set the mood for the week that followed, which was full of angry, emotional arguments between George and Melissa.

Once George started working at an animal sanctuary, he also clashed with director Lorri Bauston, but after his day-to-day work with the animals, George did begin to understand the extent to which animals are mistreated on factory farms. This face-to-face interaction with abused animals is far more effective for the skeptical George than taking part in shouting, overly dramatic protests. Lorri’s insensitive comparison of killing chickens to the Holocaust, however, threatened to derail the progress.

Similarly, when George visited the office of Dr. Aysha Akhtar to learn about animal testing, Dr. Akhtar’s rational explanation of the extremely low rates at which animal testing were even helpful for humans and display of alternatives seemed to make more of an impression on George, who was impressed that he “finally got to talk to somebody that had something besides a rant.”

Seeing the treatment of cows at a dairy farm and the plight of many domestic animals in shelters did help George see the animal rights cause from a different angle. By the end of the episode, George was willingly explaining to strangers in a supermarket how calves on factory farms are crammed into tight spaces unable to turn around. George declared his surprise at the fact that, despite being ‘hard-headed’, he felt that he had been truly affected by what he had learned. George probably won’t stop hunting or eating meat, but he’ll likely think twice about how animals were treated before they end up on his plate.

Ultimately, PETA’s black-and-white views and shove-it-down-your-throat delivery of their message didn’t exactly enhance Melissa’s message. If anything, it damages many efforts to improve the lives of animals because it automatically puts people with differing views on the offensive. Putting PETA activists together with an avid hunter makes for good TV, but the message may have been more effective if PETA were left out of it.

Initially, when the episode first started, I thought that perhaps the producers of ’30 Days’ intended for Melissa to learn that she may want to soften the presentation of her views in order to make a bigger impact, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case. I think that what this episode illustrates by the end, however, is that educating people about the reality of the way animals are treated before they’re on our plates, made into our belts and shoes – or after we drop them off at the pound – is far more effective than stunts and scare tactics.

It’s a shame that the idea of more humane processes for meat and dairy weren’t explored further in this episode, because that’s where I think a true middle ground lies. Humans – as natural omnivores and the presiding predators on the planet – will not be likely to forgo using animals for food and clothing any time soon. However, needless suffering could certainly be eliminated.

In our quest for greater convenience, we have allowed millions of animals to be beaten, electrocuted, blinded, skinned alive, chemically manipulated, crammed into tiny spaces, thrown around like inanimate objects and generally treated like they cannot feel at all. Increased sensitivity to the pain and suffering of animals – and their right to be treated in a way that respects their place on the planet – is the only way to compromise, as George the hunter was able to acknowledge for himself after 30 days.

You can view the episode online at Hulu or just watch here:

Link [Hulu] + [FX]

Jessica Simpson Gets PETA Smackdown for ‘Real Girls Eat Meat’ T-Shirt

Jessica Simpson is an easy target: she knowingly marketed herself as a dumbass. Therefore, the gloves are off when she does breathtakingly stupid things like wear a t-shirt that says ‘Real Girls Eat Meat’. With sagging album sales and straight-to-DVD films, Jessica doesn’t have much room to alienate people, and yet she walked out in public like that where she knew paparazzi would be waiting. For the most part, vegetarians aren’t likely to be offended, since she’s hardly worth the publicity it would give her. PETA, however, can never resist an opportunity to bash a celeb that promotes the slaughter of animals.

Ecorazzi has it:

On Saturday Ecorazzi told you that Jessica Simpson was seen at the LAX airport wearing a shirt that read “Real Girls Eat Meat.” In the post I predicted that “you just know PETA’s gonna spit when they see this.” Well PETA is spitting alright…spitting a whole bunch of plant-based venom.

PETA released a statement saying: ”Jessica Simpson’s meaty wardrobe malfunction makes us thankful that no one is looking to her for food advice. Chicken of the sea anyone? The woman who thought that Buffalo ‘Wings’ came from buffalos would benefit from some good veggie brain food.” Ouch!

All the brain food in the world can’t save this slag. She’s hopeless. Maybe the controversy will get her a tiny section of the cover of a tabloid, though, and that’s probably what she wants.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Just Jared

Lab Grown Meat: PETA’s Contest is Lame, Pointless

PETA is at it again, and if you didn’t groan at least internally when you heard that, perhaps they’ve pushed you past your give-a-shit limit. They put out a press release announcing that they’d give a $1 million reward to the first person who can successfully ‘grow’ chicken in a lab without harming animals. From PETA.org:

In vitro meat production would use animal stem cells that would be placed in a medium to grow and reproduce. The result would mimic flesh and could be cooked and eaten. Some promising steps have been made toward this technology, but we’re still several years away from having in vitro meat be available to the general public.

At first when I heard this, I thought it was just another one of PETA’s publicity stunts: putting out something shocking to draw attention to an issue. As a vegetarian since the age of 12 and someone who cares deeply about animal rights, I’ve never been a fan of PETA and this sort of thing is exactly why. PETA frustrates me because they have a noble goal but they’re turning the entire animal rights issue into a freak show replete with naked celebrities, buckets of blood and gross-out tactics that turn off the general public rather than achieving anything real.

Unfortunately, they’re serious. They really want someone to make this work. So, why is this lab-grown chicken contest a bad thing? You may wonder why a vegetarian would be anything less than thrilled about the idea of fewer animals being harmed on a daily basis (and, after all, livestock farms are certainly not good for the planet).

Basically, this contest isn’t going to accomplish anything. First of all, $1 million wouldn’t even cover the expenses required to pull this off. Not only would researchers have to spend literally years working on this project, the contest requires them to do near-impossible sales and marketing tasks beyond the scope of science. Daniel Engber of Slate describes it well:

…they need to move 2,000 pounds of the stuff at supermarkets and chain restaurants spread out across 10 states during a period of three months. And the Franken-meat can’t cost more than regular chicken…

To make matters worse, PETA’s commercial requirements saddle researchers with demands that have nothing to do with science. Any company that wants to sell artificial chicken for public consumption will probably face a lengthy government-review process.

In short, PETA is asking for the impossible. Any researcher who puts a serious amount of thought into this contest will most likely realize that they simply don’t have the time or funds to accomplish the lab-meat feat.

This ‘lab grown meat’ stunt is just another example of PETA making vegetarians look bad, in my opinion. I can’t imagine that ‘Franken-meat’ would be all that appetizing to meat-eaters anyway, but you tell me: would you eat it?

Link [PETA] + [Slate]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Flickr user karindalziel

The Vegan Stripper: Casa Diablo Gentlemens Club Combines Hot Naked Ladies with Animal Free Eatin’

Talk about a mash up made in heaven- The Casa Diablo Gentlemens Club in Portland, Oregon combines veganism with strippers. I was a vegetarian for six years in my early twenties and could never see myself giving up milk, butter, and cheese, but if anything could convince me to make the jump it’d be a hot naked vegan girl dancing in my face.

Naturally, some vegans are pissed that their movement is being used to sell sex (but then again, a lot of vegans are pissed about one thing or another all the time, so what can you do…).

Here’s a bit from the story in the New York Times, it’s hidden behind a registration wall, but you can head over to BugMeNot and grab some logins (I used ‘pleasestopthis0′ for a login and ‘blahblah’ as a pw, try those first).

TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves.

But Portland is also home to a lot of young feminists, and some are not happy with Mr. Diablo’s venture. Since he opened the strip club last month, their complaints have been “all over the Internet,” he said. “One of them came in here once. I could tell she had an attitude right when she came in. She was all hostile.”

Mr. Diablo isn’t concerned with the “feminazis,” as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn’t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals. “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering,” he said.

Casa Diablo is just the latest example of selling veganism with a “Girls Gone Wild” aesthetic to draw the ire of vegans who complain that such tactics may get people to pay attention to animal cruelty, but for the wrong reasons. In Los Angeles, some frown at the scantily clad Vegan Vixens — a kind of animal-loving Pussycat Dolls — who perform songs like “Real Men Don’t Hunt” at fund-raisers for animal welfare groups.

Link [New York Times] via [Boing Boing]

Alyssa Milano Makes a Very Strong Argument for Vegetarianism

Alyssa Milano makes me want to eat more vegetables. A lot more vegetables. Ecorazzi has it:

The ad is part of PETA’s, Let Vegetarianism Grow On You campaign and features the actress turned sportswear designer in what looks to be a gown of collard greens and a corset made from asparagus and cabbage leaves.

Link [Ecorazzi]

PETA to Britney Spear’s Parents: Get That Girl on a Vegan Diet!

I’m with Michael over at Ecorazzi who mildly lays into PETA for sending a letter to the parents Britney Spears encouraging them to put Brit’ on an all vegan diet to solve her crazies.

Michael has it:

The letter then goes on to say that Britney should immediately be placed on a Vegan diet to benefit her mental and physical health. Ingrid even includes a copy of PETA’s free “Vegetarian Starter Kit”. How kind.

We cover PETA consistently on this site and respect the efforts they take to make the world a better place for animals. However, this is one of those actions that only invites ridicule and senselessly exploits the troubles of another individual to push forward an agenda. This is over the top, plain and simple.

Right on. PETA fights the good fight, but sometimes they step over the Stupid Line. This is one of those times.

Link [PETA Blog] via Ecorazzi