Matt Goldsmith -
the Voice of PETA UK’s Website
Matt joined PETA in 2005, and through hard work and determination, he quickly rose through the ranks to become the voice of PETA UK's website. It is a role that – with his love for animals, his desire to tell the world about the abuse that countless animals suffer every day and his background of "tech geekery" – fits him like a glove. As our resident computer geek, he's also our IT boy.
On New Year's Eve 2001, Matt decided that his impact on the Earth and its habitants through his consumption of meat and dairy products and wearing of animal-derived products was a burden that he didn't want to bear. As the new year began, so did a new life for Matt as he made the decision to go vegan.
By networking with other vegans, vegetarians and animal rights activists, Matt soon learnt that there was a growing core of compassionate people all over the world who wanted to make changes. No sooner had PETA advertised that it was looking for a passionate and dedicated person than Matt applied. He hasn't looked back since.
Not only does Matt keep PETA's website looking fresh, he also, as a budding photographer, takes photos at PETA's exciting and visually striking demonstrations. So keep an eye out and let us know if you see any shaky camera work!
Matt will only be content when all the world's cages are opened to release the animals they hold captive and when the world wakes up to the needs of animals everywhere. Oh, and when people know where the "On" switch is on their computer – only then will he take a lie-in.
Charlie is missing! He was torn away from his mother by strangers with evil intentions. Can you help save him? Please read on.
This coming week marks National Dairy Week (3 to 9 February), during which milk-touting companies try to portray as idyllic the life of a cow used for her milk. What they won’t be telling you, of course, is that calves like Charlie are torn away from their mothers within one to two days of being born – a separation so traumatic that the mother cow and her calf whimper… Read more.
Last Thursday, eco-friendly online magazine Neoplanete and international multimedia platform OneHeartChannel, with the support of PETA France, helped present a brand-new event aimed at showing chic and ethical alternatives to fur at the Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière. “Paris Without Fur” (Paris sans fourrure) took place on the last day of Paris Couture Fashion Week and aimed to show the public the fabulous alternatives to the real fur produced by the fur industry.
Photo © Maï-wen Wauthy
Spirit Hoods, PLICH, C&A, Etam, Frank Sorbier, VJ Couture and others showed… Read more.
Defying chilly January temperatures by stripping down to nothing but panties and paint markings that mimic a butcher’s diagram of body parts, our Sexiest Vegetarian winner, Sophie Barrett, marked World Week for the Abolition of Meat by standing behind a poster that read, “All Animals Have the Same Parts: Abolish Meat”.
Animals are more than walking entrées. They are made of flesh, blood and bone, just as humans are. They have the same bodily organs, the same five senses and the same emotions, ranging from joy and contentment to depression and… Read more.
Led by a costumed “bull” in a wheelchair, PETA activists took to the Embassy of India today with signs that read, “Save India’s Reputation: End Jallikattu”, in English, Tamil and Hindi. They were urging the Indian government not to exempt the state of Tamil Nadu from the national ban against using bulls as performing animals. Tamil Nadu currently has permission to continue jallikattu, a cruel and dangerous “sport” in which terrified bulls are kicked, punched, jumped on and dragged to the ground – and in which human participants are often injured and… Read more.
A man who attended a festival in Navajas, Spain, has been gored to death.
During these flaming-bull festivals, bulls are restrained while contraptions that look to be straight out of a medieval torture chamber are fixed to their heads. These sadistic devices have two balls of pitch (a flammable tar-like substance) that are lit on fire before the bulls are released, ablaze, onto the streets, where they desperately try to escape the fire while crowds jeer and torment… Read more.
The town of Molins de Rei has joined more than 60 other Spanish cities that have enacted bans against circuses that use animals.
Our colleagues at Asociación Animalista Libera received overwhelming support from city officials after pointing out that animals in circuses live in cramped cages and are beaten with bullhooks and whips in order to force them to obey. The ban includes all exhibitors that use wild animals.
Join PETA’s Action Team and start a campaign to ban animal acts underway in your own town.
What do you get the man or woman who has everything? Joanna Collins, the owner of A Touch of Beauty Spa, gave the gift of a lifetime of happiness to one lucky donkey filly in India – and at the same time, she found a great way to honour her friend Jock Zonfrillo, an executive head chef at an award-winning restaurant in Australia.
Late last year, veterinary staff with the Animal Rahat sanctuary for working animals in Maharashtra, India, spotted a donkey who was in severe distress and limping through busy traffic. The… Read more.
It’s fair to say that Antony Worrall Thompson is having a pretty bad week! Following the deluge of bad press he’s been getting for reportedly stealing from a supermarket in his hometown, The Daily Mail has just reported that prior to filming an episode of Ready Steady Cook (or Ready Steady Crook?), Worrall Thompson was forced to eat some humble pie after criticising PETA friend and Rastafarian vegan poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
According to The Daily Mail, Zephaniah said, “I told [Worrall Thompson] I was a vegan, and he looked at me and… Read more.
If your dogs’ tails are wagging a little more today, maybe they’ve heard the news that Ireland has banned puppy mills!
The new Irish laws took effect on New Year’s Day, outlawing the horrific conditions – including cramped enclosures, filth, malnutrition, exposure, disease, and a lack of socialisation and veterinary care – common to those nasty intensive dog-breeding operations. All puppies must be microchipped so that the breeder can be identified, and authorities can inspect and shut down any… Read more.
Owain's PETA Ad
In Owain Yeoman’s opinion, it doesn’t take a mentalist to see that factory farming is a recipe for disaster. That’s why the Welsh-born star of the hit American television programme The Mentalist has just fired off a letter to Powys County Council urging councilmembers not to allow a new industrial-size dairy – a factory farm where 1,000 cows would be artificially impregnated, drugged and used as milk machines – to be built at Leighton near Welshpool. In the letter, Yeoman explains that densely crowded,… Read more.
