Animal Welfare, Animal Cruelty, Yummy...Cat and Dog Meat, Serena Williams’ New Clothing Line, Donkeys Used as Taxis, Extreme Heat on Egg Farm, Driftnets Are Dead & A Message from Ingrid Newkirk at Sustainable Action Network (SAN)

With the help of kind PETA supporters, we're persuading more retailers than ever to ditch the skin, feathers, and fur of abused animals and inspiring new generations of consumers to make their closets cruelty-free.

Helsinki Fashion Week made headlines around the world for its emphasis on sustainable fashion—but by still allowing leather on the runway, its organizers were falling short. However, after PETA U.K. informed them that millions of intelligent, defenseless animals are imprisoned, mutilated, and sometimes even skinned alive for leather—and that the leather industry is one of the biggest polluters on Earth—they agreed to ban leather starting next July. It's a precedent-setting victory for cows, pigs, dogs, and other animals that follows numerous PETA exposés of the cruel leather trade.

Closer to home, we're rallying thousands of supporters to demand that Chinese retailer Meters/bonwe stop using real fur on its jackets. For every kind person who signs our action alert, the company gets a new reminder that animals on fur farms are held in intense confinement and beaten, drowned, electrocuted, gassed, and sometimes skinned alive—even for "just a bit of trim"—and that the only way to end this cruelty is to stop selling fur. With help from caring people like you, we'll keep pushing more brands to join the many fashion giants that are now fur-free. Click to learn more.
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Driftnets Are Dead!
On the heels of multiple undercover investigations by Mercy For Animals, the California legislature passed a bill that would ban cruel driftnets throughout the state. Learn more.
Back in August, animal activists everywhere rejoiced when the government of Indonesia announced its intention to ban the country’s infamously cruel dog and cat meat trade at a “National Coordination of Animal Welfare” meeting in Jakarta. Unfortunately, as we are finding out one short month later, it seems as if Indonesia isn’t quite following through on its promise to end the highly controversial practice of torturing and brutally killing animals for their meat.
As disturbing photos and videos recently captured by animal protection coalition Dog Meat-Free Indonesia (DMFI) have revealed, countless dogs and cats are still being subjected to unimaginable cruelty at an “extreme” market in Tomohon, a city in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province.
DMFI investigator Lola Webber described the sickening scene in a press release, “Every single dog and cat we saw at Tomohon extreme market was blow-torched whilst clearly still alive. It was the most horrific cruelty we have witnessed so far in our campaign to shut down this hideous trade, and it was all done in full view of very young children.”

She went on, “By the end of our filming we were all spattered with blood and brain matter from the bludgeoning, showing how easy it would be for customers and tourists to become infected with diseases such as rabies, and in fact, two of our team were extremely sick following the market visit.”
Indeed, the deeply troubling practice of beating dogs and cats to death and then putting their meat on sale in markets is problematic not only because of the pain and suffering it causes for innocent animals; it’s also a major hazard to human health.

As the World Health Organization has explicitly warned, the dog and cat meat trade is a leading contributor to the spread of rabies and other dangerous zoonotic diseases in Indonesia. Makes the idea of vacationing there seem a little less appealing, huh?

Unfortunately, the continuation of this barbaric “tradition” hasn’t stopped international tourists from visiting the island nation. Each year, an estimated 12 million tourists take a trip to Indonesia, including around 330,000 U.S. citizens. The scary part is, many have no idea that they are putting themselves at a high risk of contracting rabies or another deadly disease, not to mention supporting the horrific torture of sentient animals we know and love as pets.

To help raise awareness about this brutal practice and why it’s bad news for both animals and humans, please share this article with everyone in your network. In addition, we encourage you to consider donating to Dog Meat-Free Indonesia and joining their social media campaign to help spread the truth about the urgent issue at hand. All Image Source: Dog Meat-Free Indonesia
Serena Williams is known for her athleticism and expertise in tennis, having earned four Olympic gold medals and holding the record for the most Grand Slam titles. More recently, she has been in the spotlight as a new mother balancing family life with her career, and now the plant-based superstar has added another accomplishment to her repertoire — a cruelty-free clothing line that aims to empower women.

The clothing line, called “Serena,” has an array of athletic gear as one might expect, but it also includes casual day-to-day denim and tees, dresses for nights out, and loungewear for lazy Sundays.
What many people do not know about Williams is that in addition to being a world-class athlete, she also has a creative side, having studied fashion for two years at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and collaborating with companies like Nike and Home Shopping Network before.
The clothing line also aims to empower women, featuring styles to suit a wide array of body types as well as encouraging females to be independent and strong in every sense of the word.
Williams described her brand to WWD as such: “My designs are inspired by strong, sexy, sophisticated, sassy, sure, smart, stylish, silly, and spontaneous women who are living their best lives, or making it up as they go — kinda like me … The customer is a girl or a woman who believes in herself, or wants to believe in herself; maybe she’s feeling unconfident that day … And someone that is unapologetically themselves, and that maybe they stand out; maybe they stand out because they are strong or they’re beautiful or they want to not be the norm. Our woman is someone who looks at fashion as a compass to show who they are, to show what they are.”

However, as with most things, there is still room for improvement. Although the clothing line is cruelty-free, containing no leather, fur, wool, silk, etc., a great deal of the collection is made up of synthetic materials like polyester, spandex, and nylon, which are ultimately not great for the environment. Several studies have shown that when synthetic materials are washed, bits of it enter our waterways and add to the immense microplastic epidemic plaguing our planet, especially in the oceans where marine life ingest the plastic … and yes, microplastics enter our drinking water too. We hope to see more sustainable and natural materials used in the clothing line in the future so it can truly live up to the Earth-friendly vegan concept.

To learn more about the Serena brand, visit the website here.

Looking to re-vamp your wardrobe with more fashion-forward cruelty-free pieces? Then check this out to discover more animal-friendly apparel brands!

And remember to share this cool news with your friends and family! All Image Source: serena/Instagram


Abused Donkeys Used as Taxis on Santorini
Abused Donkeys Used as Taxis on Santorini
peta2TV  
Donkeys on Santorini Abused and Used as Taxis
Donkeys on Santorini Abused and Used as Taxis
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) 
Chickens Panted Like Dogs Because of Extreme Heat on Egg Farm
Chickens Panted Like Dogs Because of Extreme Heat on Egg Farm
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)