Ringling Trainer's Photos Fuel Abuse Charges

Animal rights group ends campaign featuring Michelle Obama

(NEWSER) - PETA has decided to pull the “Fur-Free and Fabulous” campaign that featured Michelle Obama—without her permission. PETA’s president last week confirmed the organization didn’t seek Obama’s consent because she can’t make such an endorsement, but insisted that because the first lady has called herself fur-free, “the world should know that in PETA’s eyes, that makes her pretty fabulous," Us reports. More»

(NEWSER) - PETA has released video it says shows cruelty to circus elephants, the Orange County Register reports. The tape shows Ringling Bros. handlers swatting elephants with “bull hooks,” and one pachyderm exhibiting signs of “severe psychological distress.” “This video again shows what we have been saying for years,” PETA charges. “These animals are routinely abused to perform in ways that they don’t naturally perform.” More»

Yes, it's real, spokesperson confirms

(NEWSER) - Buried in a Reuters article from last week is this priceless little nugget: PETA is planning a porn site. In advance of launching the .xxx Internet domain in December, ICM Registry is accepting applications from brand owners who want to protect their brands from being used in a .xxx URL (for example: Barbie.xxx). Turns out PETA is signing up—but not to protect itself; rather, to launch its own site: peta.xxx. A spokesperson told Reuters it will, in fact, be a porn site bringing attention to animal issues; more recently, PETA confirmed the plan to the Huffington Post , and said the site will focus on vegan awareness. Click for more than you probably wanted to know about what will be contained on the site . More»

Animal rights organization lobbies SpaceX founder

(NEWSER) - If PETA has taught us nothing else, it is that we have completely messed up our own planet with our insistence on wearing fur, eating meat, and racing goldfish . But there's a light at the end of the tunnel: Mars. The animal rights organization is lobbying for the planet to go vegan, in an open letter to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, whose goal is to land a space shuttle on Mars by 2018. Musk also has designs on colonizing Mars, Mogulite notes. More»

Bar patrons squirt fish along canals

(NEWSER) - A Seattle bar has ended its weekly goldfish races after PETA unleashed its fury—but other hangouts “are saying screw you to the PETA folks,” says the bar owner halting the practice. What, you ask, is a goldfish race? It means plopping fish into plastic tubes of water, then propelling them to the finish line by blowing in a straw or firing a water pistol, reports Seattle Weekly . More»