Good news people! PepsiCo has ceased all animal testing!! Write "thank yous" to the following address:

PepsiCo
Indra K. Nooyi, Chair and CEO
PepsiCo, Inc.
700 Anderson Hill Rd.
Purchase, NY 10577-1444

Now that we're all up to date with my life, on with the weekly informative blogs. Seeing as nothing all that exciting happened this week, on with an entry brought to you by Peta.
Cirque du Soleil is one of the most beautiful circuses around. With their music and acrobats, costumes and lighting, they've pushed the industry's limits, all this without harming one animal. Cirque du Soleil's shows such as "O", Love, Algeria, and many more have wowed audiences of all ages, proving that there is no need to cage and harm animals to entertain the public. The following is from Peta's website, it's information on circuses mistreatment of animals and why ALL circuses should be boycotted. Wild animals aren't meant to be caged.

Two former Ringling employees have contacted PETA independently with allegations of routine abuse in the circus, including bloody beatings and a culture in which employees who object to animals’ cruel treatment are either ignored or punished. Still haunted by what she witnessed, Archele Hundley quit Ringling’s red unit in June 2006 after just two months, and Bob Tom, who worked on the same unit for two years, was fired in August 2006, allegedly for complaining about the beatings.

Elephants Live in Fear of Beatings
Both Hundley and Tom worked on the animal crew and tell PETA that they witnessed a violent beating of an elephant that lasted at least 30 minutes when Ringling had a layover at the fairgrounds in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When an elephant refused a command to lie down, Ringling’s head elephant trainer, Sacha Houcke, allegedly beat the elephant with a bullhook, hooking her behind the ear, on the leg, and on the back. At one point, he reportedly inserted the hook inside the elephant’s ear canal and pulled on the handle using both hands and the full force of his body weight. The elephant cried out in agony and was left bleeding profusely from severe wounds.

The following were among the whistleblowers’ declarations to PETA:

• Elephants are so terrified of the trainers that they begin urinating, defecating, and trumpeting in fear at the sound of their voices.
• Elephants are aggressively hooked on a daily basis, and handlers rub dirt into bloody bullhook wounds to conceal them from the public.
• Elephants suffering from arthritis are kept on the road.
• Elephants are only unchained when the public is around.
• Some employees were outraged at Sacha Houcke’s recklessness when he brought Luna and another elephant perilously close to a PETA staffer and assaulted him in Oklahoma City. Luna is extremely dangerous and unpredictable. She has attacked handlers and frequently shows aggression toward people, and employees are regularly warned not to go near her.
• The circus knows in advance when U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors are coming for what are supposed to be unannounced inspections.

Horses Beaten and Whipped
Horses are one of the most commonly used animals in circuses, but they receive the least protection, as they are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Hundley and Tom reported severe alleged abuse of horses, including the following:

• Horses are grabbed by the throat and shoved, jabbed with pitchforks, and given “lip twists,” a sadistic way to inflict pain on one of the most sensitive areas of a horse’s body.
• Most of Ringling’s horses are head-shy from being punched in the face so many times. If you try to pet them, they jerk their heads away because they fear being hit.
• A handler allegedly tethered a horse named Sonny and whipped the horse with the metal snap of the lead for 10 minutes. The horse was later found to have a broken tooth.
• A miniature horse got loose and was repeatedly punched on the back and sides when he was recaptured.
• Sacha Houcke allegedly slugged a shrieking miniature horse named Gunther in the face twice with such force that it would have knocked down a full-grown person. The sound of his fist, which could be heard 20 feet away, knocked the horse senseless.
• A horse named Mizean had cuts across his sides and back from being viciously whipped.

Miserable Transport Conditions
The former circus employees further report that during transit, elephants are packed inside boxcars so tightly that they are unable to turn around or lie down. On three- and four-day trips, animals are let off the train for exercise only once. Most of the time, they are forced to stand in mountains of foul-smelling feces and urine that fill up to two Dumpsters. Hundley says that the stench inside the boxcars is so bad that it causes people’s eyes to water and their noses to burn.

Some elephants scrape their backs when they are loaded and unloaded from the trains because the openings in the boxcars are not large enough.

Tom described an incident in Fairfax, Virginia, where two horses suffered heatstroke after they were left in stifling boxcars for almost 12 hours in near 100°F heat.

Whistleblowers Threatened While Abusers Go Unpunished
The whistleblowers contend that Ringling falsifies personnel performance reports for employees who quit in disgust or are fired after complaining about the systematic abuse of animals so that the phony records can be used to discredit anyone who goes public with what he or she witnessed.

Employees are warned not to show affection toward animals. And Ringling management tells employees who complain about the beatings, “If you don’t like it, pack your bags,” and even threatens them with legal action if they report abuse to advocacy groups.

Instead of firing employees who mistreat animals, circus management simply cautions handlers not to discipline animals in view of the public.

You Can Help Change This

click here for campaign updates and more info on what to do to stop this.

Winter is finally here in Montreal! It's cold, people are getting sick, roads are icey and you stay in bed a few minutes longer just to enjoy the warmth of your cozy blankets. Unfortunately, not every living being gets to stay warm during long winter days. You may notice them while driving around in your car, dogs chained up outside with no shelter. PETA has started a program where you can donate money towards buying an outdoor shelter for these poor creatures.
You can find more info and success stories by clicking here
The shelters may be a little pricey for one person to donate alone, so get a group of friends or coworkers to donate together! 

Chickens are known to be as smart as dogs and cats. They are not threatening or aggressive animals. They form friendships with other birds, they nest, lay eggs, chill in the sun, and lead a quiet life in open spaces.
KFC gathers thousands of chickens and stores them in a small space where these small defenseless animals are forced to walk on top of eachother and are left with no room to peck for food. Even if there was room to peck, their beaks have been removed while they were just a few weeks old, the pain comparable to having part of your finger chopped off. The chickens are then left to either die from the pain, bleed to death, prone to infection. those that survive starve due to the inability to peck for food. KFC solved the starvation problem by injecting the chickens with chemicals to fatten them up. Their bodies grow so quickly and they gain so much weight that their legs and heart can't keep up and support them. Those that haven't been stomped on, or thrown against a wall by employees, become deformed due to the cramped spaces and broken legs caused by their enormous weight.
Leaving the "farm" is even more painful for these chickens. Employees grab them by the handfull and throw them into crates, most suffering numerous broken bones. They are then transported to the slaughter house where they are dumped (the same way a dump truck unloads dirt) into a sort of basin. Slaughter house employees then forcefully grab the chickens and hang them upside down to a tie rack contraption. they are then shocked at such a low voltage that ALL are still concious when their throats are slit and dumped into boiling water for de-feathering.
I'm not asking you to become vegeterian, i've never forced that on anybody. I am however asking you all to not support this kind of behaviour. Please send the message out to as many people as possible. Let KFC know that we are not accepting this. That we aren't going to feed our children or ourselves with chickens that have died of infection.
For more information click here
Thank you and remember buy free range/organic foods!