PETA ‘Cow’ MOOves to Veganize Voters in Phoenix

“I Want YOU to Go Vegan!” That’s the message a PETA “cow” will take to voters at the Phoenix Convention Center on Election Day, while other PETA supporters will hold signs proclaiming, “There’s No Debate: Vegan’s First-Rate,” and distribute vegan food guides to all interested parties.

When:    Tuesday, November 3, 12 noon

Where:    Phoenix Convention Center, 100 N. Third St. (at the intersection with Monroe Street), Phoenix

PETA’s “cow” is hoping to win “votes” for animal-friendly meals by reminding everyone that live-animal meat markets—like the one in which the current pandemic is believed to have originated—are well-documented breeding grounds for zoonotic pathogens and that slaughterhouses are COVID-19 hotspots, with many cases reported among workers.

“Eating beans, not beings, is the ticket to improving health, avoiding cruelty to animals, and safeguarding our planet,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s ‘cow’ says that all of us will be winners when there’s a soy chicken in every pot.”

Each person who goes vegan spares the lives of nearly 200 animals every year, helps combat animal agriculture–induced climate change, and lowers their risk of suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and provides the public with information on these issues. The group does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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That Color Correcting Cream on TikTok Isn’t Vegan—but These Are!

Color correcting (CC) cream is all the rage among today’s TikTok users, but not all CC creams going around the app are cruelty-free, including the Dr. Jart+ Cicapair Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment, which is made by a company that still pays for tests on animals in China.

In cosmetics tests, experimenters subject rabbits, mice, rats, guinea pigs, and other animals to extreme agony, as they drip chemicals into their eyes, smear products and ingredients onto their shaved skin, or force deadly amounts of substances down their throats before killing them and cutting their bodies apart. However, thanks to PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies database, you can fill your #ForYou page with cruelty-free products from more than 4,800 cosmetics companies. Take the TikTok color-corrector trend to the next level with these vegan CC creams.

For a Daytime Glow: Pacifica Ultra CC Cream

Pacifica Ultra CC Cream is perfect for daytime use. It’s lightweight, easy to blend, and absorbs right into the skin for a natural glow. You can find this 100% vegan brand at Ulta, Target, and CVS.

For Photo-Ready Skin: Thrive Causemetics Buildable Blur CC Cream

If you need to look photo-ready, the totally vegan Thrive Causemetics has you covered with this skin-perfecting CC cream. It’s great for a smooth finish that shows up well in photos, and the coverage is easily buildable.

To Correct and Protect: Supergoop! CC Screen

This color corrector covers imperfections, evens out skin tone, and has SPF 50. You can cop this correcting cream at Sephora.

For Nourishing Benefits: Juice Beauty Stem Cellular CC Cream

Fortified with plant-derived ingredients such as aloe leaf juice and organic coconut oil, the Juice Beauty Stem Cellular CC Cream leaves a radiant finish while nourishing the skin. You can find it at Ulta.

For Noncakey Coverage: Physicians Formula Super CC Cream

With invisible color-correcting pigments, this CC cream smooths out imperfections, such as dark circles, blemishes, redness, and age spots, without looking heavy or cakey.

*****

Before you jump on the CC cream bandwagon, remember that cruelty has no place in beauty trends. Rabbits are sensitive animals who purr when they’re happy, and they don’t deserve to be exploited for cosmetics. If you want to spread the love for vegan cosmetics on your #ForYou page, check out our Beauty Without Bunnies database to see which companies don’t test on animals! Follow us on TikTok @officialpeta for animal-friendly content.

Find Out How Well You Know Which Beauty Brands Test On Animals

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April the Giraffe: The Exploited, Livestreamed Breeding Machine

The premature death of a young giraffe named Azizi at a Texas roadside zoo is a consequence of the rampant exploitation of a tragic viral figure: April the giraffe. April famously gave birth to Azizi—and other calves—over a livestream run by a New York tourist trap called Animal Adventure Park.

Who Is April the Giraffe?

April the giraffe has been exposed to the world during her most vulnerable, intimate moments. You might have seen her giving birth in a live video on Facebook, but have you thought about what happens after you turn the livestream off?

Animal Adventure Park is an unaccredited roadside zoo with a history of violating minimal animal welfare laws, and it has repeatedly used April’s pregnancies and births over the years to drum up word-of-mouth support for its shady operation. Consider the following:

  • Animal Adventure Park claims to be breeding giraffes to help with conservation efforts, but none of April’s babies will be released into the wild. They all live at roadside zoos.
  • While the facility has announced that it will no longer breed April, it has replaced her with another female, Johari, and recently announced that she may be pregnant.
  • The roadside zoo made money by exploiting April and her babies at every turn, and they are now doing the same with Johari. It even charged people money to submit name suggestions for her babies and to receive text messages about her labor.
  • The facility keeps giraffes in barren, sawdust-filled pens. They don’t have the opportunity to engage in natural types of behavior—such as roaming ranges of up to 1,200 square miles, forming complex relationships in large social groups, and browsing for leaves and fruits on tall trees.
  • Animal Adventure Park isn’t an accredited facility. It is governed only by the bare minimum standards of the federal Animal Welfare Act and has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for numerous violations of even those requirements.
  • Captive giraffes are predisposed to a wide variety of health problems because of substandard conditions and improper diets, which are frequently seen at roadside zoos such as Animal Adventure Park.

As if live-streaming a mother’s vulnerable, intimate moments of giving birth weren’t distasteful enough, Animal Adventure Park keeps breeding baby giraffe after baby giraffe—all of whom will endure a lifetime of confinement.

How many giraffes have to suffer so that Animal Adventure Park gets some social media followers? Azizi wasn’t even 2 years old when he died of gastrointestinal disease, like so many other captive giraffes. PETA is calling on the park to stop its greedy breeding cycle and urging everyone who cares about wildlife to avoid exploitative roadside zoos like lives depend on it—because they do.”

—PETA Foundation Supervising Veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally

The Dark Side of Breeding Giraffes Like April for Entertainment

Roadside zoos’ captive-breeding activities do nothing to help conserve giraffe populations in the wild. April’s surviving calves will never be released into their natural habitats, and although female giraffes often naturally stay with their mothers for their entire life, all of April’s offspring were taken from her before reaching 19 months old—some of them at just a few weeks old—and most have been sent to other roadside zoos.

Studies show that allowing humans to come into direct contact with imperiled species—like the interactions that are promoted at Animal Adventure Park—can undermine legitimate conservation efforts by causing the public to believe that the species may not actually be in jeopardy.

Here’s What’s Wrong With Keeping Giraffes in Roadside Zoos

Being confined to a roadside zoo is no life at all for fragile African giraffes, who have prematurely died by the dozens in captivity. Giraffes used for money-making roadside zoo attractions often face the following issues:

  • They experience distressing transportation.
  • They don’t receive adequate veterinary or even basic care.
  • They’re fed an imbalanced diet.
  • They’re predisposed to peracute mortality syndrome, a term describing sudden, mysterious death.
  • They exhibit abnormal behavior, such as pacing.
  • They’re exposed to temperatures that their bodies aren’t suited for.
  • They’re separated from other giraffes they’ve bonded with—all for breeding and other management purposes.

Subjecting animals to a lifetime at a roadside zoo means forcing them to endure a lifetime of misery—and possibly a premature death.

What You Can Do to Help Giraffes Like April and Azizi

The seedy roadside zoo where April is held has a history of live-streaming giraffe births and gives no indication that it will stop anytime soon. Animals are not ours to use for entertainment.

Stay away from venues that exploit animals for profit, and discourage your friends and family members from sharing content online that demeans animals.

Take Action Now!

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Vegan and Eco-Friendly Activewear to Get You Moving

Vegan activewear? That’s right, because animal-derived materials like merino wool just might be lurking in your favorite pair of leggings or workout top. Merino sheep used for their wool are bred to produce more of it than their bodies need. Many of them collapse and even die of heat exhaustion during warm weather. This is only one of the many ways that sheep suffer and die at the hands of humans who only want to make a profit off them. There’s no reason to choose activewear made from merino wool, especially with so many innovative fabrics that don’t harm animals and are also much more eco-friendly, since the wool industry causes greenhouse-gas emissions, land degradation, and water pollution.

Here are some brands offering eco-friendly, vegan activewear:

Girlfriend Collective

Girlfriend Collective offers size-inclusive leggings, sports bras, shorts, skorts, jackets, and more in a variety of colors. Its popular Compressive High-Rise Leggings are made from 25 recycled post-consumer plastic bottles, and other items are made from recycled polyester, nylon, and textile waste from the cotton industry.

Plant Athletic

As a vegan brand dedicated to becoming 100% zero waste, Plant Athletic uses as many recycled materials as possible in its products. It primarily focuses on high-performance clothes made for cycling, running, and triathlons.

Pact

Organic, fair-trade cotton is the secret to Pact’s super-soft leggings, tops, sports bras, and more.

Sage Larock

This luxury brand uses sustainable fabrics such as organic cotton, hemp, and a recycled fabric made from marine plastic to create its swimsuits, leggings, tops, and sports bras.

TALA

This body-positive U.K. brand offers international shipping on its high-quality athletic wear made from upcycled materials.

Elle Evans

Elle Evans’ activewear uses recycled marine plastic, so it helps prevent marine animals from being subjected to yet more of the deadly plastic that litters our oceans.

Miakoda

Organic cotton, bamboo, and soy are a few of the sustainable plant fibers that you’ll see in Miakoda’s athletic wear. The company uses only vegan fabrics, so you can be sure that you’re not supporting the cruel wool industry.

Nube

Los Angeles–based clothing company Nube partners with artists to create gorgeous and bold prints. All its pieces feature sustainable fabrics, such as recycled polyester.

Nimble

Nimble’s leggings, made from recycled plastic bottles, are perfect for running, yoga, or just heading to the gym.

Pistol Lake

Pistol Lake’s proprietary fabric Eudae is made from recycled bottles, eucalyptus pulp, and spandex for a mix that’s moisture wicking, odor resistant, and super-soft.


Keep animal skins off your feet, too—choose leather-free hiking boots instead. For cold-weather workouts outdoors, choose down-free coats and jackets to stay warm and cozy. There’s no need to use an animal’s skin or steal a bird’s feathers to reach your personal fitness goals. Learn more about the ways in which going vegan has helped athletes and bodybuilders:

These Vegan Bodybuilders Will Literally Smash Your Vegan Stereotype

25+ Vegan Pro Athletes Prove That You Don’t Need Meat to Compete

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PETA’s Winter Weather Survival Tips for Animals in Tennessee

Ahead of Winter Weather Awareness Week (November 2 to 6), PETA is sharing tips for keeping animals safe. They are especially vulnerable in cold weather, and there were at least 37 cold weather–related companion animal deaths in 2019. (Those are just the ones that were reported—most aren’t.)

The following steps can go a long way in helping animals survive Tennessee’s fierce winter:

  • Bring Them Indoors

Companion animals should always live indoors. “Backyard dogs” and “outdoor cats”—like those featured in Breaking the Chain, the new documentary produced by Oscar winner Anjelica Huston—often go without adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care. They are no better equipped to survive freezing temperatures or extreme weather conditions than humans are, they suffer terribly from frostbite, and they can die of exposure.

  • Gear Up

Coats will keep dogs comfortable in cold weather, secure harnesses can help prevent them from getting loose on walks, and booties will protect their sensitive paw pads from the frozen ground. Keep walks short in cold weather, especially for shorthaired dogs.

  • Don’t Forget Birds

During extreme winter weather, provide birds and other wild animals with access to an emergency water supply by filling a heavy nonmetal water bowl (tongues can freeze to metal) and breaking the surface ice at least twice a day.

Good Samaritans who see companion animals kept chained or penned outside 24/7 or without adequate shelter from the elements should note the animals’ exact location and alert local law-enforcement authorities immediately. Anyone who leaves animals outside to suffer in severe weather may be prosecuted.

PETA has released a cold-weather public service announcement. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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