The following post was originally posted on PETA Prime by Paula Moore.

I recently read a heartbreaking story about a cat named Hadley who had been deliberately set on fire. Hadley suffered painful third-degree burns on his face, ears, neck, back and legs. A photo in a Michigan newspaper shows Hadley’s blackened ears, which vets say will probably fall off because they are so badly burned. The orange-and-white tabby is also missing half his whiskers, and much of his fur will likely never grow back. After the attack, Hadley’s distraught guardians found him crouched in fear outside their home.

Bad things happen to cats who are left to wander outside on their own. While many people mistakenly believe that their cats “need” to go outside to be happy, if you want your feline friend to live a long, healthy life, the best thing you can do is keep her safely inside with you.

What happened to Hadley is far from an isolated incident. Random acts of cruelty are common, and the more than 300 new cruelty cases that PETA hears about every week mostly involve animals who were victimized after they were left outside unattended. In June, cat guardians in two suburban Florida neighborhoods were shocked when their beloved companions began turning up dead and mutilated. Many of the cats had been gutted and skinned. Some were missing limbs. At least 19 cats were killed before police charged a local teen with the crimes.

Outside cats have been beaten, kicked, hanged and shot with arrows. Some are stolen and sold for use in hideous animal experiments. Others are used as bait in dogfighting.
Even if your kitty never encounters a person with cruel intentions, there are plenty of other outdoor dangers. Cats left outside may be hit by cars, poisoned by antifreeze or pesticides from neighbors’ lawns or attacked by a dog or wild animal. Last year, I adopted a 5-year-old former stray from a local Siamese cat rescue group. When Mochi was first picked up by local animal control officers, he had a nasty wound on one of his back legs that had most likely come from a dog attack. To this day, Mochi’s leg gives him trouble, and he sometimes stumbles when he tries to run or jump.

Cats allowed to roam outdoors are also much more likely to contract devastating diseases such as feline leukemia, feline AIDS (FIV) and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Or they become infected with tapeworms, Giardia and other parasites. Mochi had roundworms when I adopted him - which I discovered when he unceremoniously deposited one on my bedroom rug. Trust me, you don’t want to see your cat hacking up a still-wiggling, 3-inch-long worm.

I do understand why some cat guardians are tempted to let their cats go outside. Mochi has lived with me for more than a year now, and he still occasionally sits in front of the door and howls - in that special way that only Siamese cats can - hoping to be let out. But I simply remind him that there is no dinner bowl outside (when animal control found him, he was little more than skin and bones) and distract him with the Cat Charmer or a toy mouse. He soon forgets all about going out. By setting aside daily “kitty quality time” to play with your cat and providing lots of diversions - including access to windows, perches, catnip gardens, scratching posts and tons of toys - you can keep your cat purrfectly content in your home.

So, please, if you care about your kitty, help him or her live to a ripe old age in the safety and security of the great indoors. And if you ever are tempted to let your cat go outside unsupervised, just think of poor Hadley and his burned ears. Today’s concrete jungles are simply no place for our feline friends.

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Ever since I wrote about the American Dietetic Association’s updated position paper in support of vegetarianism, I’ve heard from people who really want to go vegetarian or vegan but just aren’t sure how. Others need a little more help convincing their loved ones that veganism is safe and easy.

It’s exciting that so many people are ready to give peas a chance, so to speak! It’s easy being vegan, and the following tips should help get you started—or help you persuade your worrywart friends and relatives that vegan foods are nutritious, delicious, and widely available.

1. Just Veg Out: For optimal health, eat an array of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and all the nutritious foods that can be made from them. Inexpensive, versatile vegan staples, like beans, lentils, leafy greens, rice, pasta, peanut butter, and tofu, can be used in a variety of recipes.

2. Easy Does It: Don’t worry if you’re not a celebrity chef—you don’t have to make elaborate dishes. You can whip up tasty meals with little effort. Try a vegan wrap with hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, green onions, sprouts, and shredded carrots. For innovative lunch ideas, see veganlunchbox.blogspot.com.

3. Mocks Rock: Choose veggie burgers rather than hamburgers, soy sausage over pork sausage, and tasty faux chicken instead of chicken flesh. Check out this list of popular mock meats, egg replacers, and dairy-free milks, cheeses, and desserts.

4. Simple Substitutes: Many of the things you likely already eat can easily be “veganized” just by swapping one or two ingredients. For example, you can make manwiches or “meat sauce” with Veggie Burger Crumbles.

5. Accidentally Vegan: Some of the packaged foods you already buy are likely vegan too, even though they aren’t marketed that way. Check out this list of “accidentally vegan” foods.

6. Eat at Moe’s: Many popular chain restaurants, including Johnny Rockets, P.F. Chang’s, and Moe’s Mexican restaurant have vegetarian and vegan options.

7. Ethnic Options: Most Indian, Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and Middle Eastern restaurants offer a variety of vegan options. Don’t be afraid to try new cuisines!

8. Vacation With Your Values: It’s easy to take your vegetarian diet with you when you go away. Visit www.vegdining.com and www.happycow.net for a list of vegetarian-friendly restaurants at your destination. Many travel books, like the Lonely Planet guides, offer suggestions for vegetarian travelers too.

9. A Good Influence: Whether you’re young and need help convincing your parents that you can get all the nutrients you need from a vegetarian diet or you’re a parent trying to persuade your children to eat healthier, PCRM’s tips and meal ideas can help you out.

10. Vegetarian-Friendly: If your friends and family members don’t share your interest in vegetarianism, join a local vegetarian society, attend vegetarian potlucks or conferences, or simply chat online with other like-minded folks at www.vegsource.com.

Not enough advice? Don’t worry: We have even more tips for making the transition to a vegan diet.

One of my esteemed colleagues sent me this video today. It was so cute that I had to share.

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I am not really sure if Sprout is the Green Giant’s son or just a smaller, cuter version, but regardless, he is cute and potentially even a good Halloween costume idea. If you have a cute little sprout of your own, be sure to enter him or her in our third annual World’s Cutest Vegetarian Kid Contest!

Vegetarian foods—which are rich in complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals—are the best foods for children to eat. They form the foundation of dietary habits that support a lifetime of good health. Healthy vegetarian diets are also easy to plan and maintain—especially since products that are fortified with calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin B12 are now available in most grocery stores. Just check out our easy vegetarian school lunch ideas for inspiration!

The deadline to enter the contest is September 30. The winners will be announced to their hometown media, which will make them instant celebrities, and they’ll also win an awesome prize pack containing an iPig docking station, an “I Am Not a Nugget” T-shirt, and PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk’s book 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals! And as if that weren’t enough … the winners will also be featured in PETA’s Animal Times magazine!

Enter now!

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My husband found a crab scuttling around our garage. A very, VERY dusty crab (hey, whose garage is perfect?), whom he carefully carried outside. We’ve had dust bunnies before, but a dust crab? That’s coastal living for you.

It reminded me of two other critter-meets-garage incidents that took a little more effort to resolve. We discovered that a possum had taken up residence after opening the door from the kitchen to reveal two shining eyes. We had unwisely stacked a pile of cordwood in the far end of the garage (dumb, we know), and it seemed to be where he was headquartered. He had made it through a hole leading from the crawl space that was normally blocked by a brick but had become dislodged. We borrowed a live trap from work (one benefit of working at PETA) and caught the cutie in one evening. The breeding season for many north american mammals is from January to July. Should you discover a family of raccoons, possums, squirrels or other animals nesting in or around your home, in order to avoid separating the young from their parents, the animals should not be removed until the breeding season has ended. We let this guy out right outside the garage and watched him disappear into the night shadows.

A few years later, a rat surprised me by emerging suddenly from a cardboard box on an upper shelf while I was getting a jar of pasta sauce. We have nothing against rats—they’re smart, clean, and resourceful—but I didn’t want to find one in the laundry basket either. We ordered a squirrel-size live trap and baited it with peanut butter and other snacks. You can get live traps from the Tomahawk company. Sure enough, within a few evenings of supervised trapping (checking frequently so as not to starve or dehydrate the poor guy), we caught him. We released him in a park, stopped putting out so much birdseed for the waterfowl (a story for another day), and sealed up any holes we could find. But not all the holes apparently—as a certain crab could tell you.

The following post was originally posted by PETA Files writer, Shawna Flavell.

Delia’s clothing company used to be one of several retailers that sold Ringling Bros. T-shirts.

I say “used to be” because today, the company’s CEO contacted us to say that Delia’s will be pulling the shirts from its Web site, its stores, and its October catalog by this Friday, September 11.

Thanks to the countless concerned people who took the time to write and call the company to ask it to stop promoting Ringling’s cruel treatment of animals.

We hope that you’ll take a second to write to Delia’s and thank it for making the compassionate decision.

Be an angel for animals.

Nearly every week, I write letters to the editors of newspapers across the country warning readers about the cruelty and dangers of keeping dogs chained. Often, my letters are in response to tragedies—after chained dogs maul or kill a child or when a dog dies at the end of a chain after being left without food or water with no escape from sweltering summer heat or subzero winter nights.

So I was beyond thrilled to read in USA Today—the country’s number one newspaper—a column by dog trainer Victoria Stilwell all about why no one should ever chain their “best friend.” Thousands of people will read Stilwell’s column and hopefully pass the information in it on to their friends, coworkers, and neighbors—which could cause some dog guardians to have a change of heart and let their dogs stay indoors instead of chaining them outside.

Stilwell, who is the host of Animal Planet’s It’s Me or the Dog, explains why dogs who are kept chained are more likely to bite: “A dog is a social animal, so lack of social interaction can seriously damage its psychological well-being, causing a buildup of frustration and anger that can explode at the slightest trigger.” Well said! She also points out that chained dogs are in danger of being teased or abused by passersby, attacked by other animals, and injured when they become tangled up in their chain.

Read the whole article here and leave a positive comment thanking Stilwell and letting USA Today know that you want to see more pro-animal columns like this one!

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Recently, my husband found a line of tiny ants marching purposefully from the windowsill to a sticky spot at the base of our sink. He discovered that the window, a greenhouse type, has holes for drainage at the bottom, and the ants had found their way in. We don’t use the window for watering plants, so he stopped up the holes and the problem was abated.

Prevention is the key when dealing with unwanted foragers like ants: Sealing up holes, making sure food is kept in sealed containers, and keeping a clean kitchen (with, ahem, no sticky spots) are top on the to-do list for keeping your house ant-free. HelpingAnimals.com gives you the goods on ants’ diverse abilities and relationships, along with tips on humane ant control.

In some parts of the Caribbean and Central America, ant invasions are welcomed. Army ants, who travel en masse in a migratory fashion, sweep into houses and devour or chase away all the bugs they encounter—including cockroaches, centipedes, and earwigs—and then move on, leaving the house critter-free. Makes me wish army ants were the ones expanding their habitat into North America and not fire ants …