The video, produced by top UK creative agency Fallon London, shows vegans from across the animal kingdom getting busy to remind us that a vegan diet is free from the artery-clogging cholesterol found in meat, eggs and dairy products and leaves plant-eaters with better blood flow – to ALL the bodies’ organs!

So why not take the Pledge to Be Veg today and see how much fun you can have being vegan?!

Posted by Claire Fryer

Companies that want to market their products in China must currently pay for cruel and antiquated animal tests. In cosmetics testing, rats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and other animals are forced to swallow or inhale massive quantities of test substances or endure the pain of having caustic chemicals applied to their sensitive eyes and skin.

Millions of animals every year around the world are still being abused and killed in these antiquated tests – even though effective, non-animal tests are widely available and many companies now use these humane options.

Chinese officials are in the process of accepting the first-ever non-animal tests for cosmetics, thanks to guidance from scientists funded by PETA US. But in the meantime, please support the hundreds of companies, such as Paul Mitchell Systems, The Body Shop, Dermalogica and Nature’s Gate, that have taken a stand against animal testing. Every time we shop, we can choose to be compassionate by buying only brands that are not tested on animals.

Posted by Claire Fryer

A vegan diet doesn’t just prevent cruelty to animals – it’s better for your health and the environment, too.

Vegan foods are free from cholesterol and tend to be low in saturated fat and high in fibre, complex carbohydrates and vitamins. And it takes around one-third less land and water – and 10 times fewer fossil fuels – to produce plant-based foods than animal-based ones. The United Nations has stated that a global shift towards a vegan diet is necessary to combat against the worst effects of climate change.

Factory farms pack tens of thousands of animals into areas so cramped that they have little room to move and routinely mutilate them without any anaesthetics. Pigs, chickens and turkeys are kept in massive sheds for their whole lives. The first time that they feel sunlight on their backs is when they are loaded onto a truck bound for the slaughterhouse.

Each vegan spares more than 100 animals every year. So order your free copy of the PETA vegetarian/vegan starter kit by e-mailing us (include your full name and address) and find out how to make delicious, nutritious and cruelty-free vegan food today.

Posted by Claire Fryer

Australian live export has maintained government support despite numerous investigations that revealed sickening footage from a range of locations as well as several major incidences of animal welfare issues on the journey itself and a massive public backlash. What will it take for the Australian government to do the right thing by the Australian public and animals and stop bailing out the sinking ship that is the live-export industry?

There is simply no way to transport tens of thousands of animals on cramped, stinking ships on journeys lasting days or even weeks to face a slaughter which would be illegal in Australia. This latest footage from Egypt comes just a few months after PETA revealed that a scientific committee had advised that Australian cattle in Egypt should have their ears cut off prior to slaughter.

Australian live exports to Egypt were previously suspended following a joint investigation by PETA and Animals Australia. History shows that the private companies making money from this animal abuse will re-open the Egyptian trade as soon as they can, regardless of animal welfare or public opinion.

Live export is a blight on Australia’s international reputation. It’s time for the Australian government to take action and end the live export of animals.

Posted by Claire Fryer

Claire’s success in martial arts comes as no surprise to her fellow vegans and PETA staffers. Plant foods provide athletes with all the nutrients that they need to stay healthy, competitive and strong – minus the saturated fat, cholesterol and other contaminants found in meat and dairy products, which could slow them down. And, of course, it probably helps that her coaches have a habit of telling her right before matches that they just saw her opponent “biting the heads off puppies”!

Although her work as a campaign coordinator for PETA Australia has certainly been less violent than her hobby, it can still get pretty physical. Her coordination of eye-catching public demonstrations has included wrangling PETA’s bikini-clad “Lettuce Ladies”, organising a human “barbecue” and rubbing bodypaint on naked male activists, among other things.

Fighting is Claire’s way of challenging herself and staying at a peak level of fitness (although she has been known to dig into a big dish of vegan coconut and cookie-dough ice cream after a weigh-in). When she isn’t in the office, out in the field, training or raising her fists in triumph in the ring, you’ll find Claire at home, offering loving care to her special-needs dog, Muppet, and any number of foster animals.

Claire, or as her teammates call her, “K.O. Bear”, has proved that anything that meat-eaters can do, she can do better. Are you ready to get into fighting shape? Take the Pledge to Go Veg today!

Posted by Ashley Fruno

Animals’ long journey from the farm to the slaughterhouse is one of environmental destruction. Cattle and sheep may be transported thousands of kilometres by truck to ports. They are shipped to the Middle East – a gruelling journey that can take weeks – and the empty ships then journey back to Australia to collect more animals. The entire process racks up CO₂ emissions.

According to PETA Australia’s case study, based on the new carbon tax legislation requirements (at $23 a tonne), the Australian live-export industry should be paying as much as $40 million in environmental taxes every year.

Instead, the private companies running this cruel industry were offered $100 million in taxpayer subsidies to prop up their trade, even though the shocking treatment of Australian animals shown on the Four Corners report “A Bloody Business” led to an all-too-brief suspension of live-cattle exports to Indonesia, the leading importer of cattle from Australia.

So for now, the animals, the Australian taxpayers and the environment are all paying a high price for the continuation of a trade which is damaging to our international reputation as well as to our local processing industries. Please ask Australian officials to ban live export today and stop the death ships once and for all.

Posted by Jason Baker

In her current environment, Mali is denied socialisation, stimulation, room to explore and everything else that is natural and important to her. She endures intense confinement, loneliness, boredom and isolation in an area a tiny fraction of the size of her natural habitat. She has also been denied adequate veterinary care for the entire time that she has been at the Manila Zoo, which has left her with severe and painful foot problems that could prove fatal.

Hot on the heels of the band’s Australian tour, Durham has sent a letter to the Philippines Embassy in Australia, in which she says, “Transferring Mali to the sanctuary which is ready and waiting to look after her, will allow her to receive the essential veterinary care that she so desperately needs, as well as giving her an environment in which she can exercise, bathe and forage in the company of fellow elephants. … [I]f you love and respect animals as I do, please do whatever you can to influence the Government to act swiftly as time is so precious for Mali”.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has issued a directive stating that Mali should be transferred to a sanctuary after an evaluation of her health. In a sanctuary, Mali would have acres of land in which to roam, be able to enjoy the company of other elephants and receive constant access to the best veterinary care.

The Manila Zoo is doing everything that it can to delay Mali’s transfer. But a zoo simply cannot provide Mali with what she needs. Mali needs your help finally to have her chance at a happy life.

Posted by Claire Fryer

Animal agriculture is responsible for more than 30 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse-gas emissions. And livestock animals are the source of more than a third of all global human-attributed emissions of methane, which is 20 times more destructive as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide is.

In today’s meat and dairy industries, chickens and turkeys have their throats cut while they’re still conscious, piglets have their tails and testicles cut off without any painkillers and calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of birth. Billions of farmed animals are killed every year – and they’re raised and killed in ways that are as unsustainable as they are cruel.

The easiest, most effective way to take a bite out of climate change and to improve your health and save animals’ lives at the same time is to cut the cheese – and all animal products – out of your diet and go vegan.

Posted by Claire Fryer

Jumps racing is so cruel that it has already been banned in New South Wales. Horses used in jumps races are forced to clear difficult jumps at breakneck speeds. Former Jumps Racing Association President Rodney Rae has admitted to the dangers associated with jumps racing, stating, “For as long as jumps racing has been around, there have been fatalities”.

Last year, two horses, named Art Success and Virvacity, died as a result of jumps races at Oakbank. The withdrawal of Coopers as a sponsor for the Oakbank carnival follows an ongoing campaign by our friends at the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses and action taken by PETA Australia.

Let’s all raise a glass (of vegan Cooper’s beer!) to Coopers Brewery for its compassionate decision and to the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses for its fight to protect horses used in jumps races.

Posted by Claire Fryer

You don’t have to be a fresh-faced teen or a starry-eyed idealist to make positive changes in your life. People of all ages are making a difference for animals.

In a world where information can be shared instantly, more and more people are becoming aware that animals are in trouble. We’re learning more every day how animals suffer on factory farms and in the fur trade, how many die terrified and alone in laboratories and how millions of healthy dogs and cats die every year for lack of a good home. Even some who have contributed to these cruel industries are turning to a kinder, more compassionate path. Fourth-generation cattle rancher Howard Lyman, for example, went vegan.

It doesn’t matter when one comes to the realisation that animals need help. What matters is that people put their intentions into action. A person may have spent 99 years eating meat, but he or she can still save many animals by going vegetarian.

But don’t wait until you’re 99. Why not make today the day that you start getting active for animals?

Posted by Claire Fryer