The circus is a place of fun, adventure and laughter – when it doesn’t contain performing animals that is. Unsurprisingly the rest of London agrees, and have voted in a Time Out poll to have animal circuses banished to the history books forever.

According to the poll results that landed in my inbox today, 73% of people say performing animals is a cruel practice and just 8% defended it. The other 19% went to ‘Who needs the circus when we’ve got Boris?’ which made me chuckle.

Read a past entry of mine that shows why we shouldn’t allow ringmasters to go anywhere near animals. Scandal certified.

‘Charred’, naked and erm, human – that’s the only kind of meat I want to see on a barbeque. This brave PETA supporter bared all and jumped on a giant BBQ to give new meaning to National Barbeque Week (26 May – 2 June). Humans and animals have the same parts – flesh, bone, blood – and after all, a corpse is a corpse. The protest took place in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and will also happen in Coventry tomorrow. Mmm PETA-licious… Now back to my original question – ketchup?

We all know that Al Gore wants to save the environment – right? Well I’m not so sure actually.

Is he vegetarian? No.

Is he at least thinking about it? It doesn’t seem that way.

One thing we do all know, is that the meat industry is killing this planet. So the best way to do something about is to, you know, not eat meat.

Check out this great comment-piece by PETA US’ Bruce Friedrich in the Huffington Post.

Image: Business Week / CC

Not only is eating animal products a massive waste of food (and lives), but the news that England and Wales are throwing away a ’staggering’ amount of food is disconcerting, to say the least. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 3.6million tonnes of food each year are sent to the rubbish tip, which equals a whole lotta food and mega bucks. £10.2billion to be precise.

What gets me, is that 18 percent of this ‘waste’ is meat and fish, with 5,500 whole chickens disposed of every day. Are you kidding?! That’s 5,500 lives destroyed for no reason (not that there was a reason in the first place of course). Cows enslaved in a life of dairy production also fare poorly, with 1.3million unopened pots of yogurt abandoned every day.

But we can all do better on this front. Yes even vegans, as lovely and virtuous as we are. If we’re honest, I’m sure we’d see just how much we needlessly waste. Now I’m not about to suggest you start digging mouldy potatoes and limp lettuce leaves out of the bin, but I guess we could have a think on this one…

According to a recent news article, a young woman and two friends were seen throwing a cat into the river Thames to meet his death. The three people were caught on CCTV sneaking up on tabby Kilo and throwing him over the side of the HMS Belfast in London Bridge before running away.

Not only is this sad and infuriating, it happened right round the corner from the PETA offices! So we’re offering up to £1,000 as a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever’s responsible. Kilo’s brother Oscar has also been missing since December.

Calling all Corrie fans! If the sound of warbling trumpets and picturesque views of rooftops make you go weak at the knees, you’re in for a treat.

The stars of Coronation Street are helping PETA’s campaign to stop the hunting of Canadian black bears for their skins, used in the Queen’s Guards’ ceremonial caps. Sally, Cilla, Fiz, Maria, Liam, Kevin and co have posed wearing fake-bearskin caps with our “No Fur” logo and holding signs reading, “Save the Bears”.

This is such great news. Not only is Corrie one of the best British soaps going (ironically the show is really popular in Canada too), but it’s been running since 1960, with over 6,800 episodes to date – wow!

You can see the whole set of photos on UnbearableCruelty.com but here are one or two to get you going.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s what we’ve all been waiting for girls – the Sex and the City movie is out in cinemas today!

But will it be a patch on Sex and the Kitty? Watch for yourself and decide.

With the news that Def Leppard are back in the swing of things again and ready to re-take over the world with their musical genius (who doesn’t love Pyromania), I thought I’d post this vegetarian testimonial and interview with guitarist Phil Collen. The UK tour kicks off in just under a month, plus his other band Man-Raze are releasing their debut album Surreal next month, but I bet Phil is coping with the trials and tribulations thanks to his ultra-healthy veggie lifestyle. Even The Times journalist commented on how buff he is looking!

So you think humans are unique? Wrong.

Read the New Scientist article that reveals six ‘uniquely’ human traits found in animals, including culture, mind-reading, tool use, morality, emotions and personality. A must-read.

The European Union is considering making a contribution to the removal of a pig farm from the site of a World War Two internment camp for Romanies. Now I whole-heartedly support any mark of respect for the victims of concentration camps, and a memorial is clearly a wonderful idea. The people that spent time and perished at the Lety Camp in the Czech Republic deserve a lot better than a pig farm. Most of all, I’m elated that the pig farm may be removed.

But I just want to point out a rather large connection here that you may, or may not, have noticed.

Isn’t it just fitting that a human concentration camp was replaced with an animal concentration camp? After all, pig farms are cramped, filthy, miserable prisons for pigs, and at the end of a short and pitiful life they are slaughtered to satisfy humans’ desires. As I pointed out in a recent post, there are many similarities between how we have treated humans in the past and how we treat animals in the present.

Image: AACT / CC