Please join PETA’s Vice President Bruce Friedrich as he presents a free screening of the HBO Documentary film I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA. Bring your friends and family, especially those who are on the fence about animal rights, to see the film and talk to the manDetails magazine named one of the top five “most influential men under 38.” This powerful documentary—a year and a half in the making—takes you behind the scenes at PETA. Great-tasting vegan food and drinks are available for sale, so come early! Don’t forget to bring a fence-sitter!
What: FREE screening of the HBO documentary I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA, followed by a Q&A with PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich
When: Sunday, November 22, 2009, at 8 p.m. sharp
Where: Busboys and Poets, 4251 South Campbell Ave., Arlington, VA 22206
If you eat meat you are NOT an environmentalist. That may be an exaggeration but it is true that becoming vegan is one the simplest and most important things you can do to save the planet. Too bad Al Gore can’t see this Inconvenient Truth.
Thankfully the public is finally seeing the link between our dying planet and the dead flesh they consume. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk explains the issue beautifully at Huffington Post:
“A 2006 United Nations report concluded that the meat industry produces about 40 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems — that’s all the cars, trucks, SUVs, planes and ships in the world combined; Worldwatch estimates that filthy factory farms, transport and all the related parts of putting the nugget into the bucket and the burger into the bun account for 51 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions; and that animal-based agriculture is responsible for deforestation, river contamination and 130 times more manure than the whole human population produces.”
Al Gore refuses to acknowledge these findings because he is a self-described “steakaholic.” He, like many people around the world, care more about what they can eat with A1 than about all the fresh air, clean water, rainforest, and human life on earth. If Al Gore really believes in what he says, he would go vegan.
Rebolg this is you want to be on the FBI’s terrorist watch list.
With 94% of all animal test results being non-transferable to humans it is a wonder why people support animal testing at all. If people knew the whole truth about animal experimentation they would not support it. The SHAC 7 are 7 activists who attempted to deliver that truth to consumers through the encouragement of civil disobedience and were quickly imprisoned.
The appellate court this week upheld the incredibly shortsighted ruling that encouraging civil disobedience is NOT protected speech. Green is the New Red says the decision is “a landmark free speech ruling that lowers the threshold of what types of conduct are protected by the First Amendment, and upholds a law that is so broad that it targets civil disobedience as ‘terrorism.’”
The SHAC 7 were arrested for engaging in an effective (maybe too effective) campaign to expose the notorious animal testing corporation Huntingdon Life Sciences. As part of their campaign, SHAC supporters were emailed about “electronic civil disobedience.” The email and message board posts included instructions on how electronically “sit in” on corporate web sites through emails, faxes and phone calls.
Animal defenders spoke out about the insane experiments taking place at HLS and were put in prison for encouraging others to do the same. I think the only reason it is illegal to encourage civil disobedience is beacsue the target was a major corporation. Should PETA campaigners be arrested for encouraging people not to eat at McDonald’s? A boycott is an act of disobedience and there is nothing more threatening to a corrupt corporation/government than a public that refuses to obey.
Usually people who get this obsessed with devouring the corpses of other animals get on my nerves/sadden me with their ignorance but for some reason this child makes me laugh.
What has always bummed me out about some of the popular feminist blogs online is that they take every opportunity they can to diss on PETA for any number of things-especially the naked ads and demonstrations. I recently read an amazing article that sums up how incorrect people are when they claim that PETA’s tactics are anti-feminist:
“What’s wonderful about these ads is that they present the nude woman as being more virtuous than her clothed audience, and make her naked body symbolic of her virtue. She’s on the right side of the issue, acting as a moral exemplar through her nudity, and guiding us to become more virtuous people. (Typical example, and another.) I think the reason PETA does this is to make vegetarianism and animal welfare in general look less like hair-shirted ascetic doctrines, and more glamorous and fun. Now, you could criticize this by saying that the whole spectacle is so ridiculous the moral point is totally lost. I don’t think this is right, but at least it’s the right question to ask — a question of whether PETA’s tactics are effective, or cost-effective. Criticizing this as some kind of objectification of women is totally wrong. That she’s posing nude for animal welfare doesn’t make her an object, it makes her a better human being than you.”
The truth is, it’s not about women posing nude, it’s about what they are advocating that makes people uncomfortable. People of all types and political ideologies do not like to be told their lifestyle is immoral/unhealty. Get over it. Vegans are hot. If you want to be as hot as a PETA girl, go vegan!
Rob Bigwood doesn’t just defy vegan stereotypes, he destroys them. This 26-year old professional arm-westler from Brooklyn, NY is moving up in the world because he focuses his boundless energy and passion on excelling at his sport and bulks up with a naturally cholesterol-free vegan diet. Rob is a living breathing F&*% You to every person that claims that vegans don’t get enough protein or that eating meat is essential to being a successful athlete. No animals were harmed in the making of this champion.
When did you decide to become a vegan? Why?
I was always an animal lover. It wasn’t until after I watched a group of piglets wrestling around with each other did I realize what I was actually eating. I felt horrible! They were so adorable and reminded me of little puppies. People don’t realize that was is on their plate had feelings and emotions just like we do.
Are you vegan just in your dietary choices or in your whole lifestyle (i.e. no leather, no fur, no products tested on animals)?
I REFUSE to buy leather or any other animal product. I also try to avoid using products that are tested on animals.
What is your biggest life goal?
No matter what I choose to do with my life most importantly I want to be happy. I want to stay healthy, positive and inspire as many people as I can.
How did you get started in arm wrestling?
I good High School friend convinced me to try a tournament in North Carolina back in 2000. I ended up taking fifth place in the right hand novice division and have been hooked ever since. It is an amazing underground sport!
What do you say to people who claim that vegans are weaklings?
Most people don’t believe me when they find out I am vegan. I always get asked “how do you get your protein?” If anyone wants to grip up with me and feel my arms - I can prove that vegans are not weak!!!
What is your favorite food to eat before a match?
Apples, bananas, peanut butter, almonds, oatmeal, and soy milk!
What do girls think when they hear that you’re a vegan? Does it help or hurt your love life?
Haha, I only have one girl in my life. She is a vegetarian but not a vegan. If I had to guess it would help considering how curious people get once they find out. It is a great conversation starter.
What is the best part about being vegan?
Aside from the awesome health benefits, it feels great knowing that I am not contributing to animal cruelty. Also, being vegan is the absolute best thing for our environment!
Thanks Rob for all that you do for animals and for showing the world that compassion makes you stronger not weaker.
Check out Rob’s blog for more info on the man, the myth, the vegan legend.
And check out this amazing video of Rob in action:
Kudos to PETA and their amazingly brave and talented undercover investigators for catching the Ringling Bros. Circus in their own lies. Ringling has claimed for years that it does not use the cruel and unnecessary bullhook (club with a hook on the end) to train or reprimand their elephant entertainers. New video evidence shows trainers beating elephants with bullhooks (and whips) before a performance and during rehearsals.
I can’t wait to see how they try to lie their way out of this one.
I’m always shocked when I hear of how much food is truly wasted in the Western world. That is one of the reasons I first decided to go vegan, a diet free of animal products is much less wasteful.
The Guardian U.K. has recently published an online gallery of some horrific photos of wasted food. One of the most powerful images is an entire field of spinach left to rot because the weeding was too difficult. Makes one want to become a freegan.
Playboy playmate Jayde Nicole was on Capitol Hill handing out veggie hot dogs for National Veggie Dog Day along with PETA. She was wearing lettuce leaves to cover up.
Hey that’s me in the PETA shirt! Learn more by going to GoVeg.org.
This is a great article from PETA Prime written by an author from my old stomping grounds in Spokane WA.
By Kerry Anderlik
We were thrilled when the ban on selling high-phosphate dishwasher detergents went into effect in our county, Spokane County, Washington, last July. We had worked hard to help get this law passed because it is a win-win law: Phosphate-free dishwasher soaps are better for the environment, and the companies that produce them are also frequently cruelty-free! This ban will help stop pollutants from entering our aquifer, lakes, and rivers, and at the same time, it will save animals from the nightmare of animal testing.
The ban began last July and is scheduled to take effect in all of Washington State in the year 2010. And we have already seen a 10 percent drop in phosphate levels in the water flowing into Spokane’s wastewater treatment plant.
So, what’s been the reaction of our residents? You would think that people would be thrilled that a simple thing like using phosphate-free dishwasher detergent was having such a big impact, but there has been an uprising of people wailing about the ban. They are actually smuggling the high-phosphate dishwashing detergent from across the border in Idaho. Why? They’re complaining that the low-phosphate detergents do not get their dishes clean enough!
I can report that the Anderlik family has been using cruelty-free, phosphate-free detergents in our dishwashers for many, many years, and we have never noticed a single problem with our dishes getting clean. Maybe it’s because our dishes are not covered in greasy, cheesy animal fat that sticks to dishes like it sticks to the insides of veins and arteries.
It’s hard to understand how people can be more concerned with their dishes than they are with their health, the safety of our drinking water, or the health of our rivers, lakes, and streams.
Have any of you PETA Primers had experience using phosphate-free detergents in your dishwasher? Have you had any problem getting your vegetarian dishes clean? I would love to hear about your experiences.
A recent article found at The New Foreign Policy argues that, like it or not, the vegetarian revolution is upon us and it is arriving by force. The article centers not on the moral or ethical debate for an animal-free diet but rather supports the logical conclusion to a meat filled world, total environmental destruction. Here’s a sample:
The numbers suggest that we won’t stop eating meat simply because it’s “the right thing to do.” People love it too much. Instead, we’ll be forced to stop. By 2025, we simply won’t have the resources to keep up the habit. According to the FAO report, 33 percent of the world’s arable land is devoted to growing crops for animal feed, and grazing is a major factor in deforestation around the world. It’s also incredibly water-intensive. The average U.S. diet requires twice the daily amount of water as does an equally nutritious vegetarian diet, reports the Worldwatch Institute. Meanwhile, there will be more than 8 billion people on this earth, and two-thirds of the world’s population will live in water-stressed regions.
I agree fully with the author of this article. Many people will never care how brutal or unhealthy meat consumption is but they may someday care to have clean water to drink and fresh air to breathe. The vegetarian/vegan revolution will arrive by force, I can almost guarantee it. If you are not a vegetarian now, you may be one in 16 years.
Artist Andrew Krasnow is using human skin to create his latest works of art, including the map of America pictured above. The artwork is drawing huge criticism and yet many fail to see the connection between human skin and that that of cows and seals that are commonly used for “fashion.”
