Some kind-hearted people asked me what they can do to help animals.  Below are examples of suffering animals that you can read more about. Thought I’d share with you some key animal news of the week from the People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals. Please follow the links to the original articles which will show you how you can help these animals suffering around the world :

FDA = Federal Dog Abuse
In a full-page Washington Post ad, PETA slams Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach for requiring crude and unreliable animal tests, including tests on dogs. You can help stop this cruel testing!
What You Won’t See in the Upcoming Olympic Coverage
There’s a lot to celebrate about the Summer Olympics in China. But there’s an ugly side for animals living in the Olympic host country: the Chinese fur industry’s horrific abuse of animals. You can help us expose the horrible abuse of animals.    Read more and take action today!

Introducing PETA Living Introducing PETA Living
Welcome to PETA Living, the new section dedicated to bringing you helpful advice for your cruelty-free lifestyle. From animal-friendly fashion tips to the latest on wildlife-friendly landscaping, PETA Living is a treasure chest of insider tips waiting to be discovered!
U.S. Government Sends Tigers to a War Zone! U.S. Government Sends Tigers to a War Zone!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a permit for a roadside zoo in North Carolina to send two tigers to the Baghdad Zoo in Iraq. It is cruel and irresponsible to put tigers in harm’s way in a country where most people don’t even have access to basic necessities. Take action today!
U.S. Army Shooting Live Pigs in Trauma Training
A brave whistleblower in the U.S. military has come forward to expose cruel medical training practices— pigs are being shot while still alive. We need your help! Check out PETA’s action alert and take action on this important issue today.
PETA Names Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks of 2008
Ballparks across the continent have stepped up to the plate when it comes to serving delicious vegetarian food. Find out which ones made PETA’s annual list of vegetarian-friendly ballparks for 2008, and read more about their mouthwatering menu options.

PETA to Obama: Melting Pot Deserves National Mutt
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has sent a letter to Sen. Barack Obama and his family urging them to adopt a “pound pup,” or Great American Mutt, rather than buy a dog from a breeder or a pet store. Read the full letter exclusively on The PETA Files.

Action Alerts Link

Please click on the link “Action Alerts” on the right panel of this website to speak out on various critical animal issues . Defence-less animals are counting on YOUR voice.

Help stop the suffering of the dancing bears of India

Donate specifically to this vital project
to save these bears

Click here to watch Movie of “The Last Dance” with introduction by Jane Goodall, which chronicles the efforts of Wildlife SOS to rescue the Dancing Bears of India

Source: Humane Society International

PETA is seizing the international spotlight of the Summer Olympics to help animals by exposing the nightmarish conditions for dogs, cats, and other animals who are unlucky enough to be on Chinese fur farms.

China is one of the world’s largest suppliers of animal fur. More than 95 percent of China’s finished fur garments are exported for sale overseas, and much of it is sold in North America.

The video footage from PETA’s undercover investigations on Chinese fur farms have revealed that dogs—including German shepherds and golden retrievers—and defenseless tabby and Siamese cats were strung up by their legs or tails and skinned alive. Their fur is often labeled as “Asian jackal,” “rabbit,” or “raccoon” fur and sold to unwitting consumers around the world.

If someone feels uncomfortable wearing the skin of a kitten or a puppy, they should certainly be uncomfortable wearing the skins of rabbits, raccoons, and other animals.

As our undercover video footage reveals, the suffering of dogs, cats, and other animals in China’s fur industry is extreme. After spending their lives crammed together in filthy, homemade wire-mesh cages, they are thrown onto trucks and bludgeoned, poisoned, electrocuted, or even boiled alive before their skin is ripped off their bodies. Some animals in the video footage are still conscious and look up at the camera while they are skinned.

I hope that you will make a donation to PETA to help our work for animals who are caught up in China’s wretched fur industry. Please help us push harder with our global campaign to stop the torture of animals for their fur. The support of caring individuals like you is the best hope for ending this horrific industry.

As you know, there is absolutely no acceptable use of animal fur in our society: not for jackets, hats, boots, purses, glove linings, trinkets, cat toys, consumer vanity, or corporate greed. Killing animals for their skin is repugnant, intolerable, and cruel.

Yet the slaughter of innocent animals continues.

But working together, we can save millions of individual animals in China and around the world from suffering. Please make your special gift to help animals today.

Because of supporters like you, PETA has been able to reduce the suffering of so many animals already. We’ve convinced some of the world’s leading designers and retailers—including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Ann Taylor—to adopt permanent no-fur policies, and countless people have agreed to stop wearing and buying fur. But we have much, much more to do before all animal suffering for the sake of fashion ends.

Please help us devastate this industry, which thrives on animal misery. Your donation to PETA today will turn up the heat on the Chinese government to close these cruel fur farms and auctions, and it will help convince more people all over the world to say “No” to fur forever.

Thank you for standing up for animals’ rights.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals

P.S. PETA’s anti-fur campaign is truly global: We target companies everywhere that supply and sell fur, from Chinese fur farms to North American retailers, like the Burlington Coat Factory, that continue to sell fur. But we need your support to get our investigators inside these operations, mobilize our grassroots activists, and conduct our hard-hitting media campaigns. Your online donation to PETA today can help us save animals who are in danger of being tortured and killed for their skin.

Senator Obama and his family have said that, win or lose, they’re going to add a dog to their family after the election this November.

That’s a great idea. But I hope they decide to adopt one from their local shelter. Why? Because as long as people still buy their pets from pet stores and commercial breeders, millions of abandoned pets are killed in shelters across the country every year.

So here’s one issue that’s truly bi-partisan – one that we can all agree on. Let’s ask our national leaders always to adopt their pets from shelters, rather than buying them from pet stores.

Members of Best Friends Animal Society have started a petition to invite the Obama family to do just that. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, left-wing, right-wing or any other wing, you can make a bipartisan difference by signing our petition at ObamaFamilyDog.com, and encouraging all your friends and family to sign it, too.

Thanks for thinking about the nation’s homeless pets!

Help stop the Philippines’ illegal dog meat trade

Despite being banned in the Philippines since 1998, the illegal dog meat trade continues to flourish in certain regions.

Humane Society International recently worked with local police and animal groups to rescue nearly 100 dogs bound for the dog meat trade. Watch our video and then take action today!

What You Can Do
Please ask the President of the Philippines to stop the illegal dog meat trade for good—by enforcing new, stronger penalties against those engaged in the trade—penalties she helped put in place.

Source : Humane Society International

Another step closer to stopping cruel seal hunts

Today the European Commission announced that it was moving forward with its proposal to ban trade in seal products in the European Union. Next it’s off to the European Parliament, where Humane Society International will lobby to make the proposal even stronger. Read more…

Learn how you can take action today to protect seals.

There’s a lot to celebrate about the Summer Olympics in China: The many nations of the world put politics aside and come together in peace so that the greatest human athletes on Earth can compete.

But there’s an ugly side for animals living in the Olympic host country, a side that you won’t see in this week’s nonstop coverage: the Chinese fur industry’s horrific abuse of animals.

By making an urgent donation today to support our work, you can help us draw the world’s attention to the cruelty of the Chinese fur industry and keep people from unwittingly supporting it.

An estimated 2 million cats and hundreds of thousands of dogs are tortured and slaughtered for their fur in China every year. PETA’s undercover video footage shows terrified animals crouched in tiny cages that are crammed so full of animals—both dead and alive—that the animals are unable to move. Some of the dogs and cats shown in the footage were still wearing the collars that their former families put on them. Animals are often hung upside-down by their legs or tails, and their skin is ripped off their bodies as they writhe and struggle.

China’s fur industry unrepentantly continues to torture and kill animals for their skins.

China is one of the world’s largest suppliers of animal fur. More than 95 percent of China’s finished fur garments are exported for sale overseas, and many of them go to North America. Dog and cat fur is often intentionally mislabeled as “Asian jackal” or “rabbit” fur.

With so much attention focused on China right now, this is the time to demand an end to the Chinese fur industry’s terrible torture of animals. Please help us stand in the way of the fur industry by making a generous donation online to support PETA’s worldwide anti-fur campaign. Your gift will allow us to keep working hard to end the horrors of the fur industry in China and around the world. Please help us stop the slaughter of animals for fashion!

We know that the fight against the fur trade is one that we can win for animals if we push hard enough, long enough, and vigorously enough. PETA’s efforts to expose the true cost of every piece of fur has already helped convince some of the world’s leading designers and retailers—including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Ann Taylor—to adopt permanent fur-free policies. With your help, we can work to ensure that animals, including dogs and cats who are treated like trash by the Chinese fur industry, don’t suffer for their fur.

Don’t let this important moment pass without doing all that you can to help cats and dogs and other tortured animals in China. Make your gift now.

Thank you for supporting our work to end senseless cruelty.

Kind regards,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

FurIsDead.com

We need you to eat a sandwich—or a lot of sandwiches—for animals! If you’re like me, you’re probably still bubbling with excitement over PETA’s recent KFC Canada victory. The addition of a faux-chicken sandwich at the majority of the chain’s restaurants is extremely important. A lot hinges on the success of that sandwich, and not just for Canada: The rest of the KFC world is watching. We need every compassionate person to buy one of these sandwiches—or a bag full!

For a limited time only, KFC Canada is offering a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for the new Classic Vegetarian Sandwich, which makes getting your hands on a couple sandwiches even easier to do. The sandwich can easily be made vegan by ordering it in a wrap without mayonnaise.

It might seem strange to order a meal from a restaurant that we were all boycotting just a few months ago, but skyrocketing sales will ensure that the faux-chicken sandwich stays on the menu. This menu item gives everyone who visits a KFC restaurant a cruelty-free option that they might not have known about before, and you can help save chickens by ordering this sandwich. This is a truly groundbreaking development for farmed animals, so please order five, 10, or even 15 Classic Vegetarian Sandwiches. Treat people at work or school, or donate them to homeless shelters. Eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: whatever it takes to make sure this meatless meal stays on the menu. Would you please help? This could be the only time that I’ll ever make such a request!

Visit PETA.org to print your coupon, and please remember to forward this e-mail to everyone you know in Canada.

Sincerely,

Nicole Matthews
Campaigner
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
269-908-0050

Easy and Effective New Ways to Speak Out Against PetSmart

> What’s wrong with PetSmart

As you might know, PetSmart has been assuring PETA and concerned customers for years that sick and injured animals in its stores are provided with veterinary care when they need it. However, during PETA’s undercover investigation at a PetSmart store in Manchester, Connecticut, we documented that more than 100 small animals were deprived of adequate veterinary care and slowly died.

Watch behind-the-scenes footage from PETA’s undercover investigation into cruelty to animals at a PetSmart store here . Other viewing options

One way that activists are making a statement against PetSmart’s cruelty is by sending PETA pictures of themselves and their companion animals with signs that read, “We Won’t Shop at PetSmart.” The pictures are being uploaded to PETA’s Flickr page. Check out the sample below, and download a PDF copy of our sign!

Source: People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Outspoken rocker Pink appears on a billboard in Times Square to support New York City Council Member Tony Avella’s groundbreaking legislation that would ban horse-drawn carriages in the city!

If you’re not already familiar with the cruelty and danger of the horse-drawn carriage industry, please watch this short clip from the new documentary Blinders, and we know that you’ll want to take action to ensure that this abusive industry is finally abolished.

Every year, the list of accidents involving horse-drawn carriages grows longer. Horses are often forced to labor in freezing and sweltering temperatures while walking on hard pavement, dodging cars, and inhaling exhaust fumes. After decades of controversy, it has become clear that additional rules and monitoring make no difference in the lives of these at-risk and dispirited animals. The only humane solution is a permanent ban on horse-drawn carriages.

Please sign the petition below here to support the ban on horse-drawn carriages in New York City. We will send the petition to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council to show that residents and tourists alike support the compassionate ban on horse-drawn carriages.

“Every time I see a horse-drawn carriage in a concrete jungle, I point and yell ‘animal cruelty’ at the top of my lungs to try to make the driver and occupants as uncomfortable as possible,” says Pink. “It honestly hurts my heart when I think of what those horses must be feeling, as far as anxiety and fear, and how unnatural and wrong it is for these animals to have blinders on, trotting up and down on concrete, while taxis blare and people scream. It’s absolutely unnatural and ignorant of us to continue this outdated tradition. What about this is romantic?”

> More that you can do for animals

Source: People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals