Vegetarian Star

Bill Maher has written a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, asking him not to allow a 1.75 million dollar radiation experiment on live squirrel monkeys.

The experiments are designed to test the effects of interplanetary travel.

“Squirrel monkeys are tiny but intelligent primates who live in large colonies with strong social structures,” writes Maher. “If this experiment goes forward, these highly intelligent animals will be sent to Brookhaven National Laboratory, where they will be exposed to radiation that will produce physical and likely mental damage. They will then be turned over to cognitive experiments to a researcher in Boston who commonly uses monkeys in protocols that involve electric shocks and other inhumane practices.”

Maher insists that previous NASA experiments using radiation and squirrel monkeys did not produce any useful results applicable to humans.

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Miss Newfoundland Sarah Green. Anti-seal hunting group posted this doctored photo on Facebook.

An anti-seal hunting group posted a doctored photo of bloodied Miss Newfoundland, Sara Green on a Facebook page.

The photo was later removed, but Green is continuing to talk and voice her support for the hunt.

“It was gruesome. It was unnecessary … when I saw the photo, of course my jaw dropped,” Green said. “I couldn’t believe it, but it gave me a bigger motivation to stand up for the seal hunt.”

Green also stated she planned to join her grandfather and uncle during the upcoming seal hunt in the spring.

Camille Labchuk, a member of the Green Party of Canada’s federal council said, “No compassionate person can observe the seal kill and still support it. What it represents is an archaic industry that is going nowhere but downhill. Countries around the world are shutting their borders to seal products.”

Granted, the photo is gruesome looking. But so are pictures from the annual hunts.

Is this a case of activists going too far?

Or compassionate realists trying to expose the truth?

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Author Kathy Freston interviewed Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society of the United States to get his thoughts on the possible connection between recent outbreaks of the flu virus and factory farmed meat.

According to Dr. Greger, the first hybrid mutant strain of swine flu was found in a factory farm in North Carolina, where hundreds of pregnant sows were crammed together in crates.

Dr. Greger believes these conditions provide the environment necessary for viruses to emerge.

But does touching or eating meat actually increase your risk of contracting the virus?

“There are certainly lots of viruses people can pick up from handling fresh meat… There have been a number of cases of human influenza linked to the consumption of poultry products, but it’s not clear whether swine flu viruses get into the meat. Regardless, the primary risk is not in the meat, but how meat is produced. Once a new disease is spawned from factory farm conditions it may be able spread person to person, and at that point animals–live or dead–may be out of the picture.”

But in the end, it probably pays to go veg anyway.

“We’ve known for 20 years that the immune function of those eating vegetarian may be superior to those eating meat. First published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells compared to meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets–not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well. So a more plant-based diet may protect both now and in the future against animal-borne diseases like pandemic influenza.”

Read Dr. Greger’s online book about bird flu at birdflubird.com.

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Sasha Grey for PETA

When porn stars say too much sex is bad, it must be raining cats and dogs, right?

Adult film actress Sasha Grey hopes those pets falling from the sky are all fixed.

Appearing in the latest in a series of PETA ads advocating spaying and neutering the pet population, titled “Too Much Sex Can Be a Bad Thing,” Sasha says “I think spaying and neutering is incredibly important. It keeps the animals out of the shelters, and there’s too many unwanted animals out there already.”

Who better than a sex kitten to know what’s best for the sex lives of kittens?

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Just Jared has profiled 10 celebrities and their pets, including Natalie Portman and her Yorkshire Terrier named Whiz.

The actress told PETA, “I am a very strict vegetarian. I just really, really love animals, and I act on my values.”

Natalie recently turned vegan after reading Jonathan Safran Foer‘s book, Eating Animals and some celebrities, like Alicia Silverstone have taken veganism so seriously they’ve recruited their four legged family members into the diet club.

Portman and her pups might one day share the same meal together.

But hopefully, not the same bowl.

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Bob Barker has always been outspoken on animal welfare issues, but has he joined Captain Paul Watson and the rest of the Sea Shepherd crew to thwart the whalers in the Southern Ocean?

Not quite (but hey, there’s always next season).

The Bob Barker is the latest ship to partake in the Sea Shepherd mission off the Adelie Coast.

The ship was refurbished thanks to a $5 million dollar donation by none other than Mr. Price is Right himself.

Check out the photo of Bob Barker (the ship) at tmz.com!

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Kirstie Alley is one of those celebrities vegetarians loathe-she went veg, had a bad experienced and blabbed about it.

“I can’t tell you how much weight I gained being a vegetarian!” Kirstie said. “A vegetarian would probably be eating vegetables.”

You can probably guess from Kirstie’s statement she wasn’t eating vegetables.

But Kirstie recently expressed her desire to go veg again, this time partly for animal welfare reasons.

“I would love to become a vegetarian or at least eat very little meat,” Kirstie Tweeted. “The way animals are ofted is very brutal. I always struggle with this.”

Wow.

This isn’t just some Hollywood starlet trying tofu to take off the extra pounds!

Could Kirstie’s concern with animals raised for meat be the kicker she needs to learn the right way to eat vegetarian?

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Jane Velez-Mitchell has used her position as a well known journalist on HLN to spotlight animal issues on several occasions.

Recently Jane and Nancy Grace had the opportunity to interview Jack Hanna, host of Jack Hanna Into The Wild–along with some of his animal friends.

After recounting a story about a dog who helped solve a crime by urinating on a tire, Jane discussed the pigs she met at a farm animal rescue center.

Some highlights from the transcript:

GRACE: You`ve had encounters with pigs? Is there anything you need to share with us?

(LAUGHTER)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, actually, because I`m an animal activist and I go to rescue organizations…

GRACE: Oh, there she goes! I was wondering how long it would take! Go ahead, Miss PETA!

(LAUGHTER)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I go to a group, like Animal Acres here in Los Angeles, where they rescue farm animals that have been abused and they allow them to live the way animals should live. Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals, as intelligent as dogs. They have an incredible sense of smell. As you`ve just been seeing there, they are sentient creatures with feelings. They are being used by some in some test cases to sniff out drugs and as…

GRACE: Oh, drug pigs!

Are narcotic pigs the future of the police department in your hometown?

Learn what vegetarian animal Hanna introduced later on the show from the full transcript.

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