Vegetarian Star

This year’s Super Bowl featured a variety of commercials that focused on using animation and other technologies to replace the use of live animals that may otherwise be overworked and thrown into an unnatural environment.

PETA may have had their fornicate with vegetables Super Bowl ad banned, but they aren’t bitter about it, and give credit to some great animal friendly commercials, including this Whales of a Tale: Bridgestone video.

“Three friends. One animatronic whale. Millions of happy viewers. Bridgestone also gets extra kudos from us for recently banning the use of endangered animals in all of its commercials!”

Plus, there’s nothing more entertaining than a beaver than plays the fiddle in the Monster.com commerical, right?

Visit PETA to view the entire list of favorite animal friendly Superbowl commericals.

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The Oscar nominations are in, and two films on the green and animal friendly side have received the honor.

The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, depicts the secret slaughter of dolphins in Japan. The meat is  later sold for  human consumption and contains high levels of mercury.

Food Inc. shoots down the practice of factory farming and examines the effects of the industrial production of food on the environment.

Food Inc. was promoted by Stonyfield Farms, a company that produces dairy products using sustainable methods, organic ingredients and small family farms.

“It’s not just that these filmmakers expose vicious, inhumane and ecologically dangerous practices, apparently sanctioned and covered up by the Japanese government and its media,” film critic Marshall Fine said. “But the filmmakers have done it while risking their freedom — even their lives — for the cause.”

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Sarah Palin has a new pen pal, but it’s not one she might not write back to.

According to The Record, Andrew Hunt, a history professor at the University of Waterloo, has written the former Republican vice presidential candidate a letter, urging her to consider the benefits of veganism–both for people and animals. He even plans to throw in a few recipes.

But he’s not stopping at one note.

Hunt plans to write a letter every week, for the next year. Or at least until the restraining order is issued.

“I intend to send them to her very religiously,” Hunt said. “I intend to persuade her that this is a much better. I tend to write them as if I’m sitting at the dinner table with her.”

Of course, no vegan would ever voluntarily sit at the dinner table with Palin, given her attitudes about animals as food, as evident in her book, Going Rogue, when she wrote, “I always remind people from outside our state that there’s plenty of room for all Alaska’s animals — right next to the mashed potatoes.”

Still Hunt insists he will play the nice guy.

“I understand why (Palin) loves meat. I ate it most of my life,” he said. “I’m trying to set a very respectful tone toward meat eaters.”

“All my life I have loved animals, but I was living in ignorance and not really aware of the suffering caused by my choices,” Hunt  added. “I’m not saying people should stop drinking milk or eating meat. All I’m asking is they think about the consequences of those decisions.”

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Lisa Ling has been reporting on animal welfare issues for years.

In 2008, she worked as a correspondent for Oprah to uncover the story of mistreatment in a Pennsylvania puppy mill.

Although she’s not a vegetarian (yet), her investigative work conducted while visiting factory farms and free range farms has made her think more about the food that does arrive on her plate.

A few highlights from her interview with TailsInc.:

You also exposed the reality of factory farming on Oprah. Has it affected you and the way you eat meat in your own life?

“It absolutely has. These animals we consume never even get to mate. They never for their entire lives come out of these factory-like conditions, and it’s horrifying. I can’t even imagine what is going into them and then what’s going into us. Has it made me stop [eating meat]? No, but I’m just more conscious about it.”

Did the animals seem happier on the free-range farm?

“Absolutely. They’re still animals we would consume, but at least for their short lives they are able to actually just live. The man who had the grass-fed chickens said, “I believe that people should feel OK about consuming animals, but we just don’t want to torture them.” I just found that really interesting because he was really religious. And there are certainly people who say we shouldn’t kill anything. During Jesus’ time they were consuming animals, but they weren’t torturing the animals. They weren’t injecting the animals and pumping the animals with who knows what foreign substances.”

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Claire Danes is starring in the HBO movie Temple Grandin, the story of a woman with autism who went on to become a professor in science and develop a more humane system of transporting cattle to slaughter.

Danes got the chance to work with cattle in the film, an experience she found rewarding.

“The scariest scene was lying prostrate on the ground with all of them circling me,” Danes said, but added the cows were “very passive.”

“It was fascinating to learn about them and learn about the cattle industry at large.”

Although Danes isn’t vegetarian, she praises methods that put less stress on an animal that will eventually be slaughtered.

“It’s not a paradox to eat meat. You just have to treat the animals in a humane way and with respect while they’re alive.”

Grandin has won an award from animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and was quoted as saying, “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”

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Ellen DeGeneres was interviewed by Katie Couric and she told Katie about her motivation for going vegan.

It all started with a little film narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.

“I watched a documentary, Earthlings,” Ellen said. “It’s inside footage of factory farms; 50 billion animals a year are killed. They’re in pain, treated badly, diseased, pumped full of antibiotics. I saw the reality and just couldn’t ignore it. And I’m healthier and happier.”

You’ve heard Ellen’s reason’s for giving up meat, dairy, fish, cheese and poultry.

What’s yours?

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Nip/Tuck actress Kelly Carlson and Just Shoot Me‘s Wendie Malick, along with Wayne Pacelle and other representatives from the Humane Society, took time to educate Congress on the horse welfare.

They were there to lobby for bill H.R. 503/S. 727, which, according to US News, prevents transport of American horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada and stops roundups of wild horses by the U.S. government.

Equine slaughterhouses don’t exist in the US, but horses are often rounded up there and sent to these countries where they are slaughtered and the meat is bought by Belgian owned companies and consumed in Europe.

Sounds like the group kept their concern for animals when it was time for lunch, as they conducted a press conference at K Street’s Teatro Goldoni over what sounded like a vegetarian dish–fresh beet salad and angel hair pasta.

Carlson also participates in horse rescue and rehabilitation with an organization in Canada.

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New York city councilman Tony Avella had plans to discuss removing horse drawn carriages from city streets at a public hearing today, according to the New York Post.

“In the last 18 months, there have been at least seven accidents involving horses in the city, with three horses killed and five people injured,” said Avella.

“And that’s only the ones we know about,” he said.

Several celebrities have shown their support to end the long tradition, including Alec Baldwin and Chrissie Hynde.

Baldwin once compared the industry to “drug dealers” and “public intoxication” and Glee star Lea Michele lent her face to a PETA advertisement, Buck Cruelty.

Cited by The Gothamist, New York state director for the Humane Society Patrick Swan said, “Carriage horses often work in oppressive and inhumane weather conditions, including in the sweltering heat and extreme cold. The horses were forced to work – despite the bitter cold, despite the icy, dangerous and slippery conditions, and despite current laws that say they should not have been out on the streets working and competing in the traffic with emergency vehicles.”

Avella hopes to take 220 horses off the streets of the NYC.

Will some of them retire through the Carriage Horse Adoption Program?

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