Green Options

PETA already has a website dedicated to pressuring Al Gore to drop the meat from his diet, but when they caught wind of his proposed new .ECO domain, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to take another stab at him.

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president and founder, sent a letter to the CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announcing PETA’s support for the new domain and their intention to register www.OffsetAlGore.eco if the application for the domain suceeds.

The Canadian seal hunt comes around once a year, and along with the hunt comes the international day of action against it: March 15th.

This year is looking more promising than ever. The European Union is considering a complete ban on seal products, a bill to ban the hunt has been introduced in the Canadian senate for the first time since the ’70s, and the general demand for seal products is shrinking worldwide.

An end to the hunt seems inevitable, but it won’t happen without continued pressure. Here are 5 simple ways you can help stop the hunt next Saturday:

The US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected an attempt by trophy hunters to re-allow shipments of polar bear parts from countries where it is legal to kill the embattled species.

The Humane Society of the United States lobbied the agency hard against the proposed reopening of the trade. The animals are listed as a threatened species in the United States, but other countries still allow the bears to be hunted.

Oregon State Representative Ben Cannon has proposed a 1900% increase in state beer tax, leading PETA to issue a letter asking him to instead consider a small meat tax in the state.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently re-launched the ‘McCruelty’ campaign against the fast food giant McDonald’s, saying of their treatment of animals, “I’m hatin’ it.”

The original campaign against McDonald’s was launched in 2000, and after the company worked with PETA to make some basic animal welfare changes, the campaign was withdrawn. Now, PETA says, there are more humane methods of killing animals such as chickens, but McDonald’s won’t use them. Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK) would allow chickens in McDonald’s suppliers’ slaughterhouses to die relatively painlessly, but they have refused to consider asking their suppliers to switch to CAK—a move that would cost McDonald’s nothing—and so PETA has unleashed their wrath at McCruelty.com. PETA says:

The 120-year-old lobster was out the door and heading towards freedom, but then an obstinate UPS driver wouldn’t agree to give the lobster’s box careful handling on its way back to the Atlantic.

Craig the 20-pound lobster made headlines after PETA asked Brooklyn restaurant owner Gina Ng to allow the animal to be released back into the wild. But yesterday, when PETA volunteers and a UPS driver arrived to take Craig away, the plan fell apart.

The longstanding and notoriously outspoken punk outfit Propagandhi has released their new two-track single as a high-quality download for fans who donate $1 to $10 to Sea Shepherd, PETA2, or Partners in Health.

The two songs, “Supporting Caste” on the A-side and “Human(e) Meat” on the B-side, come from their upcoming new record. The downloads are available through G7 Welcoming Committee, a record label collective that became download-only for environmental reasons in 2007.

Shackled, Beaten, Abused is the tagline of a new PETA ad designed to raise awareness about the mistreatment of captive elephants.

It features Celina Jaitley, who is a popular actress in India. Last year she also participated in an elephant conservation fundraiser in Switzerland that raised one million francs.

Many zoos are having a tough time surviving in this economy, but PETA has an idea that could help save them, and improve the lives of the animals inside.

The soon-to-be approved stimulus plan includes the (slightly altered) Coburn Amendment which essentially tries to guarantee that no one is allowed to have fun during the recession, at least not on the government’s check. While parks and museums have been spared from the chopping block, zoos have been denied any extra assistance in the economic downturn.

PETA has offered a solution to zoos facing budget woes: they’ll pay them $1,000 per animal if the zoo agrees to end its breeding programs and change their focus to being a sanctuary “for exotic animals rescued from circuses, abusive owners, and roadside attractions.”

Conservationists are aghast at a plan to kill thousands of grey squirrels across Scotland in order to allow the red squirrel population room to grow.

“There are alternatives to a cull,” said Ross Minett of the UK’s Advocates for Animals. “There needs to be more research into immunocontraception for greys and there could be a focus on improving the red squirrel habitat.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d congratulate Utah republicans for at least being consistent in their ultra-conservative, anti-choice beliefs by spreading it to all species. But alas, that was not the intention of this new law.

They’ve preemptively passed a law to stop animal rights activists from distributing birth control to deer populations in order to bring their population down below the legal level for hunting to be allowed. While this has never happened before, it’s a common fear that activists will someday destroy hunters’ “way of life.”