The latest and the greatest, here's this week's round-up.

- Animal testing does not work.

- Don't swat! Mosquitoes sing love songs.

- Veganism and the end of global warming.

- Tyson CEO steps down due in part to poor sales.

- Pressure builds to end Japan's whaling.

- PETA seeks Top Chef to make "faux gras."

- The term "owner" replaced with the term "guardian" in animal related ordinances.

- ACTION ALERT! Fort Dix burns, stabs, shoots, and breaks the limbs of live pigs and goats.

As always, something to keep you smiling...real live dragons!


Have a great week!

A daring young harbor seal waddled over two-miles of dry land to break into a fish hatchery and gorge herself on fish all night. It is believed that the seal had to cross a highway and a mini-golf course to reach the hatchery. She was later netted and taken back to the sea unharmed. Hatchery workers said:

"It's a good sign that she was healthy, a lot of the seals we see are on the beach are not in such good shape.''

KFC employees have been caught on camera pulling chicken out of the garbage and putting it on a tray to serve to customers. The footage was taken by an employee that claims that this is a common practice at KFC. Apparently, employees stop cooking and throw everything away before the restaurant closes so if anyone orders before the doors close they just reach in the garbage and get it back out.

Here's the infamous video.

Imprisoned activist Rod Coronado has been released from prison to a half-way house. You might know Rod as the spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) during Operation Bite Back, a series of fur farm raids in 1991-1992, which caused more than one million dollars in property damage.

Thank you Rod for everything you've done for the animals, you are a true hero.

I know this is probably old news for all you Internet news buffs out there but starting January 1, 2009 eBay has banned the sale of ivory!

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) recently discovered that two-thirds of the online trade of the protected wildlife takes place of eBay and poachers take the lives of over 20,000 elephants a year to meet the world's demands. They launched a huge campaign against eBay which culminated in the unprecedented victory against the trade.

The ivory trade is horrific so it is wonderful to hear that eBay will no longer aid this cruel and deadly practice thank to the hard work of animal rights activists.

This Newsweek article talks about how hunters screw up natural selection by killing the biggest and most attractive members of a species. This allows the weakest animals to continue propagating, effectively creating a weak species.

Scientists like Charles Darwin suggested that the fittest of a species survive to reproduce and pass along their traits to succeeding generations, while the traits of the unfit gradually disappear. New evidence shows that hunters screw up the entire process. Hunters kill individuals with the best horns or antlers or the largest piece of hide rather than the one that is deformed or diseased. Studies are showing that species such as the bighorn sheep, red kangaroo, and even salmon are growing smaller because hunters are killing so many of the larger animals.

The authors give some great evidence as to why this type of 'unnatural selection' is so dangerous:

"Tusks used to make elephants fitter, as a weapon or a tool in foraging—until ivory became a precious commodity and having tusks got you killed. Then tuskless elephants, products of a genetic fluke, became the more consistent breeders and grew from around 2 percent among African elephants to more than 38 percent in one Zambian population, and 98 percent in a South African one." Tusked elephants, like the old dominant males on Ram Mountain, were "genetically 'better' individuals," says Festa-Bianchet. 'When you take them systematically out of the population for several years, you end up leaving essentially a bunch of losers doing the breeding.'"

In 2009 I urge everyone to do something for animals on top of what you already do. I know you all are very creative but here are a couple things I think be a good place to start.

-If you're a vegetarian, GO VEGAN.

-If you eat any meat, STOP.

- Go to a cool animal rights conference such as the Portland's Let Live conference in June.

- Donate time or money to a committed organization that
protects animals.

- Cook a vegan meal for friends or family.

- Adopt a shelter animal.

These are just some of the things you can do in 2009 to help animals (and yourself) live a happier and healthier life. Thanks for reading The Informed Vegan blog this year, I'm committed to making this site even better in 2009.

How are you going to help animals in 2009?

Hope you've all had a good holiday. Here are some stories for you to check out this lazy Sunday.

- Man tries to lose weight on an all-jerky diet.

- ALF and SHAC 7 get international (negative) attention.

- New bill could reduce animal cruelty.

- Student poses as bidder and disrupts corrupt auction.

- Germany open soup kitchen to help hungry pets.

- Asia devours endangered U.S. animals.

- Aussies dump glue traps.

- Threatened species returns to England.

- ACTION ALERT: Pledge to go Veg in 2009!

As always, something to keep you smiling.


Have a good week.

Mexico suspended purchases from 30 U.S. meat plants due to sanitary issues. The suspension may be permanent and has sent U.S. cattle and hog prices into a sharp decline. is move may in fact be retaliation against a U.S. labeling law that would require meat sold in the U.S. to be labeled with the country of origin (commonly called Country-of-Origin Labeling or COOL).

Canada and Mexico oppose the law because they believe it would prompt American shoppers to buy only American meat believing it was safer. Canada and Mexico have nothing to fear, we all know that meat from any country is equally unsanitary.

Banned plants include some of the worst animal right offenders including Cargill Inc, Tyson Foods Inc, JBS, Seaboard and Smithfield Food.

Consumer rights groups say that people have the right to know the origin of their products while the industry would rather see you eat its "mystery meat. " In a time when consumers are attempting to become more aware, the meat industry is eating itself.

Six producers and sellers of milk products that killed six babies and contaminated over 300,000 are set for trial in China. The milk products sold lacked proper nutrition so producers added the toxic substance melamine to help it pass inspection.

It's frightening to me that a toxic substance like melamine can be added to HELP pass milk inspection. Just one more reason not to consume milk (here's some others).

This dog is an inspiration to us all.

Sleeping sound knowing that you won't eat him. Have a good holiday.

With the economic downturn many companion animals are being kicked onto the street and into the cold. Fortunately in the UK, baby hedgehogs have a place to go. The charity, Wildlife Aid, has received 50 hedgehogs already and are expecting more.

The babies will enjoy a nice warm bed and big Christmas dinner this year. In spring, the healthy hedgehogs can be released back into the wild.

The Telegraph has a great slideshow of the best animal pictures of 2008. They are terrifying, hilarious, cute, and mindblowing all at once so be sure to check it out.

This a great list that PETA has put on their blog about the 10 most karmic moments in animal abuse of 2008. I don't usually laugh at the misfortune of others, but when it comes to animal abusers they should have seen this coming. So here they are, 10 classic moments in animal abuse:

10. While striking his dog with a gun to make him release a bone, a man managed to shoot himself. Granted, I don't think there's any safe place to point a gun, but letting the "business end" face you as you swing it like a club? Wow. Maybe he'll think twice about hitting his dog next time—if he, ya know, survived.

9. What happens when you anger a 10-foot python who's been stuck in a cage for a long time? An intern at a Venezuelan zoo found out when he decided to play with the snake during his night shift. Turns out that snakes are fond of strangling and swallowing their prey (someone really should put that on Wikipedia).

8. Some people shoo wasps away with their hands. Others think it's fair play to go after them with lighted torches. One monk learned that when you play with fire, you (and your entire temple) might get burned (to the ground).

7. While tracking a deer whom he had shot and was in the process of killing, a hunter apparently misjudged a cliff's edge and fell off.

6. A New Jersey man tried to kill insects in his apartment with bug spray, but the propellant chemicals in the spray seemed to have some unforeseen consequences. He succeeded in killing many bugs, but probably not so much because of the poison as because of the explosion, which destroyed 80 percent of his apartment.

5. Though the purpose of "sea kitten hunting" is to dig a hook painfully into another being's skin, one guy seems to have misread the how-to manual and managed to drive the hook into his own hand.

4. Have you ever seen bears who were forced to perform in captivity and felt sorry for how helpless they look? Well, it turns out gigantic land mammals with sharp, sharp teeth aren't always that helpless—as demonstrated by the fatal attack that a bear at Predators in Action wild animal training center made against a trainer.

3. Why don't we allow children to drive? Because it's dangerous. Why do we allow children to kill animals with loaded firearms? Good question. Though some folks argue that children can be trusted with firearms if trained properly, I don't think that helps the two men who were allegedly shot by one eight-year-old boy who had reportedly been taught how to use a deadly weapon to hunt animals.

2. After being jailed on burglary charges, a man was attacked by another inmate who chewed off a part of his ear (ewww!). What are the odds that something so disgusting and awful would happen to someone? To top it off, what are the odds that it would happen to a man who had previously been charged with cutting off a dog's ears?!

1. Proving that using a .44 Magnum to kill mice is not a good idea, a trailer park resident managed to shoot herself and a bystander while trying to fire at a rodent who was simply trying to share her space. Is anyone else stunned that two accidental injuries occurred? PETA's humane mousetrap, on the other hand, has never hurt a living soul.

People are abandoning their pets all over the western world for seemingly ridiculous reasons. A group in the UK has put together a list of the Top 10 excuses people have ACTUALLY given for bringing their dogs to the shelter.

Here is the top 10 list of most irresponsible reasons for abandoning a dog:

:: "My dog doesn't match the sofa."

:: "The dog looks evil and has different coloured eyes, just like David Bowie."

:: "My black dog doesn't match new white carpet, can we swap him for a white dog?"

:: "My current dog is too old, can we swap for a puppy or younger model?"

:: "My dog ate the Christmas turkey cooling on the worktop."

:: "My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

:: "The dog opened all the presents on Christmas Eve."

:: An owner who accidentally knelt in dog mess while cleaning it up brought the dog in the very next day.

:: A puppy bought as a present for elderly couple with dementia.

:: The negative image of Staffordshire Bull Terriers because of their perceived resemblance to Pit Bull-style dogs.

For those of you out there that walk into a Burger King and think, "I wish i could smell this scent all the time", Burger King can hook you up. Perhaps it's just a ploy for attention or perhaps there are people who really do want to smell like cooked meat so for them, Burger King is now selling body spray. Their website has this hilarious description of the product:

The video does a great job of addressing the major arguments FOR eating meat. Take a look at it and send this post to a friend or family member when your done. Who knows, it may change what you have for x-mas dinner this year.