Jess and Lisa Origliasso of The Veronicas at a public event unveiling their new PETA ad. (Photo: Brendon Thorne/Getty)

Pop-rockers the Veronicas have sung out against fur in a new campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The ad features twins Jess and Lisa Origliasso each holding a shockingly realistic skinned “rabbit” with a caption reading: “Here’s the rest of your fur coat.”

“Here’s the rest of your fur coat” - The Veronicas for PETA

The twins launched the ad campaign outside Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building today, both wearing PETA T-shirts branded with the slogan “Mean People Wear Fur”.

They condemned Australia’s continued fur imports, most of which come from China, saying they are unnecessary.

Jess explained the campaign was to “discourage people from buying fur and educating them from where it came from”.

PETA says the campaign is aimed at the world’s leading fur exporter, China, where animals on fur farms are often skinned alive.

It says dogs and cats are killed in China for the international fur trade but with Chinese fur often processed and relabelled in other countries, it’s difficult to identify where the fur has come from.

“For us, fur is barbaric and unnecessary,” Jess said. “There is no need for fur.”

The Origliassio sisters have always liked PETA’s strong visual campaigns and are very proud to be part of their campaign against fur.

Because of their involvement in fashion design they felt it was the right campaign for them.

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Newborn (by Yannis Charatsidis)

“The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?'”
– Jeremy Bentham

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. Many of us bought our beloved “pets” at pet shops. We had guinea pigs and kept beautiful birds in cages. We wore wool and silk, ate McDonald’s burgers, and even fished. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question “Why should animals have rights?”

In his book Animal Liberation, Peter Singer states that the basic principle of equality does not require equal or identical treatment; it requires equal consideration. This is an important distinction when talking about animal rights. People often ask if animals should have rights, and quite simply, the answer is “Yes!” Animals surely deserve to live their lives free from suffering and exploitation. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the reforming utilitarian school of moral philosophy, stated that when deciding on a being’s rights, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?'” In that passage, Bentham points to the capacity for suffering as the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration. The capacity for suffering is not just another characteristic, like the capacity for language or higher mathematics. All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and love. Whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take those needs into account.

Supporters of animal rights believe that all animals have an inherent worth—a value completely separate from their usefulness to humans. We believe that every creature with a will to live has a right to live free from pain and suffering. Animal rights is not just a philosophy—it is a social movement that challenges society’s traditional view that all nonhuman animals exist solely for human use. As PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said, “When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Each one values his or her life and fights the knife.”

Only prejudice allows us to deny others the rights that we expect to have for ourselves. Whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or species, prejudice is morally unacceptable. If you wouldn’t eat a dog, why eat a pig? Dogs and pigs have the same capacity to feel pain, but it is prejudice based on species that allows us to think of one animal as a companion and the other as dinner.

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2010 anti-bullfighting demonstration in Pamplona (photograph by Matt Goldsmith)

Before the drunken partiers filled Pamplona’s streets today (6th July 2010) to kick off the annual Running of the Bulls tormenting of bulls, scores of animal defenders from PETA U.K. and the Spanish animal rights group AnimaNaturalis creatively banded together to put the bulls’ perspective in the picture.

During this annual celebration of torture, bulls are jabbed with prods and sharp sticks to whip them into a frenzy. Then the panicking animals are stampeded through crowds of people, slipping and stumbling on the wine-soaked cobblestone streets. The exhausted bulls are later prodded into the bullring, where they are stabbed to death.

The majority of the Spanish population no longer supports this cruelty. In 2004, the Barcelona City Council declared Barcelona an anti-bullfighting city, and 40 other Spanish towns have followed suit. State-run Spanish television has also stopped televising the violence.

Let’s call the Running of the Bulls what it really is—sickening cruelty to animals—and call on Pamplona’s mayor to ban it.

Posted by Karin Bennett
[source: http://blog.peta.org/archives/2010/07/picturesque_protest.php]

cruel facts of ‘running of the bulls’ (by Matt Goldsmith):

Bulls are not accustomed to the noise of the crowd or being surrounded by people. Prior to the event, they are kept in crowded, dark enclosures, and when they are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks, they are momentarily blinded by the sunlight. During the run, participants hit the terrified bulls with rolled up newspapers. Because the corners of the route are quite sharp, many animals lose their footing and slide into walls, breaking bones and injuring themselves. All the bulls who slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona are running towards a bloody and horrific death in the bullring.

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Vegetarians Make Chicks Happy!

What do you get when you cross a chick, a pig, and “the Queen of Beauty”? Four fabulous new ads featuring Taiwanese actor Barbie Hsu. The latest celebrity to pose for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia-Pacific’s vegetarian campaign, it’s easy to see why Barbie was recently crowned Asia’s Sexiest Vegetarian. And even though she has played opposite a menagerie of hot actors in numerous films and dramas, from Meteor Garden to Corner With Love to the upcoming Summer of Bubbles, Barbie’s PETA co-stars are her cutest yet.

Why does Barbie feel so “connected” to her cuddly co-stars? Unique and fascinating animals, chickens are not that different from humans. Like us, they experience fear and pain.

And from the moment they are born to the time of their death, pigs, chickens and other animals raised for food are subjected to fear, pain and suffering on factory farms. Confined to dark, filthy warehouses, animals are deprived of everything that is natural and important to them. They routinely undergo debeaking, tail-docking, and castration—all without any pain relief. At slaughter, many are scalded or dismembered while they are still alive.

“Animals are like my family, brothers, sisters and friends,” says Barbie. “We’re all equal. I love them all, that’s why I won’t eat them.”

I Love Animals, So I Don't Eat Them

Compassion Is Beautiful. Go Vegetarian! 爱素食

I AM BARBIE HSU, AND I AM A VEGETARIAN

What You Can Do: Take the Pledge to Go Veg!

Want to be like Barbie? Give us 30 days. Sign the pledge to ditch meat for a month, and we’ll send you an e-mail with our top tips on the best places to eat out, our favorite recipes, the tastiest animal-friendly snacks, and so much more.

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Amber Chia's hot PETA Asia-Pacific ad

Chinese-Malaysian cover model and actor Amber Chia (The 3rd Generation, Trio & a Bed) earned her stripes as a friend to animals who are imprisoned in zoos by starring in an eye-catching PETA anti-captivity ad in which the fresh-faced beauty—who has graced the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, FHM, Playboy, and NuYou—poses wearing only painted tiger stripes to bring in the Year of the Tiger. “Tigers, elephants, and chimpanzees aren’t meant to live fenced in any more than I am,” Chia explains. “The born free should stay free.”

Amber Chia for PETA Asia-Pacific

Animals in zoos are sentenced to a lifetime of boredom, loneliness, and abuse. Even the biggest zoos cannot provide the space, exercise, privacy, or mental stimulation that the animals they imprison need, much less fulfill animals’ other complex needs. As a result of their confinement, animals in zoos frequently exhibit neurotic behavior such as constant pacing, head-swaying, and circling. In response to their never-ending frustration, some even resort to self-mutilation and other abnormal and self-destructive behavior.

Make It a Good Year for Tigers! Help Animals in Zoos

Stay away from zoos and animal displays, and encourage other people to do the same. Take our pledge to boycott zoos, and promise never to support any business that profits from the confinement of animals.

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