Nearly Naked Anti-Fur Protesters Brave The Cold

Two nearly naked demonstrators from animal rights group PETA braved chilly temperatures to demonstrate in front of a Copenhagen fur store.

“We want to bring attention to the fashion industry … Fox and other animals are kept in cramped and filthy cages in fur farms before they are gassed, poisoned, suffocated or even electrocuted,” one of the activists, Virginia Fort of the United States, told AFP.

Fort and a colleague distributed tracts in the five-degree-Celsius (41 degree-Fahrenheit) weather, wearing just underpants and body paint to make them look like foxes without fur.

“Only animals should wear fur,” they shouted to passers-by, waving placards with the same message.

Denmark is the world’s leading producer and exporter of furs, holding about 40-45 percent of the global mink market, 60 percent of the chinchilla market and 10 percent of the fox market.

Bullfighting Protesters Get Naked

About 30 people have stripped naked to protest a move to declare bullfighting part of the world’s cultural heritage.

The nude protestors lay down in a Madrid square to form the acronym SOS, with some holding traditional bullfighting weapons; ‘banderillas’.

Other activists poured fake blood over their bodies.

The premier of Madrid’s regional government recently declared bullfighting an ‘art’.

He wants UNESCO to declare it part of the world’s cultural heritage.

PETA Offers Parks Anti-Meat Trash Cans

The animal rights group PETA is offering to help the cash-strapped city of Colorado Springs by paying to put trash cans back in parks — on one condition.

The cans have to carry an anti-meat slogan and a picture of a woman in a lettuce bikini.

The city stopped picking up trash in parks to save money, and all the trash cans have been removed.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals told city officials Wednesday they’d pay for new trash cans saying “Meat Trashes the Planet” and “Go Vegan.” The cans also have PETA’s logo and the lettuce-clad model.

Mayor Lionel Rivera says he’ll consider the offer if it PETA also pays to have the trash picked up and hauled to the dump.

But he joked that the Colorado Beef Council might demand equal time.

Porn Star Sasha Grey Poses For PETA Ad

Animal right group PETA has stepped up its advertising campaigns by getting Sasha Grey to pose nude for their new poster.

The porn star, who recently acted in the mainstream film The Girlfriend Experience, shed her clothes to promote the animal rights group’s campaign to have pet cats and dogs desexed.

PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – usually uses actresses like Eva Mendes, Christina Applegate and Pamela Anderson for its campaigns.

In the poster, a naked Grey is barely concealed by a white sheet under the words: “Too Much Sex Can Be a Bad Thing: Have your cats and dogs spayed or neutered.”

Grey said she was a big fan of the animal rights group and wanted to support their desexing campaign.

“I think it’s something very simple that pet owners can do … If you want to have a pet you need to take the time to look after that pet.”

Fur Flies Over Michelle Obama PETA Ad

Animal rights group PETA has used the image of Michelle Obama without her consent on a new poster that praises the U.S. first lady for not wearing fur, the White House said.

The poster, which PETA says was put up at just two metro rail stations in the U.S. capital, features Michelle Obama, talk-show hosts Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks and country singer Carrie Underwood under the headline “Fur-free and Fabulous.”

“We did not consent to it,” said Semonti Stephens, a spokeswoman for the first lady.

Stephens confirmed that Michelle Obama did not wear fur, but was unaware whether she had seen the poster.

A White House official said the White House had contacted PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, about the poster.

But PETA, known for its attention-grabbing campaigns, did not appear to be backing down.

Its president, Ingrid Newkirk, said in a statement her U.S.-based organization had not asked the White House to fund or promote the campaign, “as they can’t do such things.”

But she said that Michelle Obama has issued a statement indicating that she doesn’t wear fur, “and the world should know that in PETA’s eyes, that makes her pretty fabulous,” she said.

A PETA poster promoting vegetarianism was banned in Britain last year for wrongly implying that eating meat caused swine flu.

Karina Smirnoff Goes Naked In New PETA Ad

 Karina Smirnoff bares all in a new PETA ad.

USA Today reports that the Dancing With The Stars stunner, 31 – who just called off her engagement to Maksim Chmerkovskiy — appears in the “I’d Rather Dance Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign. The ad was shot by celebrity photographer Robert Sebree.

“I did wear fur, especially when I was growing up in the Ukraine,” she says.

She says stopped wearing it after seeing video footage of baby seals who were killed for their skins.

It’s cruel “when we take advantage of an innocent animal that cannot defend herself,” she says.

Adds Smirnoff,  ”There are ways of being warm and being fashionable without being cruel.” 

Kids Vote To Send Marcus The Lamb To Slaughter

A group of British schoolchildren who reared a lamb from birth and named it Marcus has overridden objections by parents and rights activists and voted to send the animal to slaughter.

Marcus the six-month-old lamb has now been culled, the head teacher of the primary school in Kent confirmed, after the school’s council — a 14-member group of children aged 6 to 11 — voted 13-1 to have him killed.

The decision has provoked fury among animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some of the children, and led to threats against Lydd primary school and its teachers.

Around 250 children at the school take part in a program designed to teach them about rearing and breeding animals.

The educational farm was started this year, with Marcus being hand-fed by the children. The children also look after ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.

The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised from slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put on hold following the furor created by the lamb’s culling. The school said the program may now have to be stopped.

“It’s all up in the air,” said a member of staff. “There’s been so much pressure on us as a result of all this.”

Despite that, the school said there had been overwhelming support among the children, the staff and most of the parents to have Marcus — a castrated male who could not have been used for breeding — sent to the slaughterhouse.

But opponents branded it heartless and cruel, with animal rights campaigners asking why Marcus could not have been used to teach the children about wool, and human rights campaigners worried about the emotional impact of Marcus’s death on the children.

The school defended the children’s decision, calling it educational.

“When we started the farm in spring 2009, the aim was to educate the children in all aspects of farming life and everything that implies,” the school said in a statement.

PETA Wants To Turn Prison Into Chicken Museum

An animal rights group wants to rent a prison building Virginia plans to close and turn it into the nation’s first chicken empathy museum.

A PETA official sent a letter to Gov. Tim Kaine asking to rent the Botetourt Correctional Center building in Troutville.

Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran said the state doesn’t lease to private entities except for cases grandfathered in when it purchases buildings.

PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne said the Norfolk-based group thinks a former prison is the ideal setting for exhibits on what it contends is mistreatment of chickens raised for slaughter.

Reiman said the museum also would have displays detailing chickens’ habits and intelligence.

PETA Weighs-In On Obama’s Run-In With A Pesky Fly

In the wake of the presidential housefly smack-down that was broadcast on CNBC, PETA has sent President Obama a humane fly swatter.

PETA had a bit of fun with the event, and stopped short of condemning the president’s agility.

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”

One can only wonder what PETA’s reaction would have been if Sarah Palin had been involved in a similar altercation.

The device that the organization sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is called the Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher.

The organization describes the gadget thusly:

Are you the kind of person who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Is your motto “live and let live,” even when it comes to tiny, six-legged, uninvited house guests? Then the Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher is for you!

Simply place Katcha Bug over the bug and slowly slide its plastic trapdoor shut. The bug will step onto the trapdoor as it closes, and you can carry Katcha Bug outside, where all you need to do is slide the trap door open, allowing the bug to walk away.

The device retails for $8 on PETA’s website.