"peta" news and stories

Whatever you think of PETA, there's no denying that the group knows how to create buzz. Last year, they stirred up controversy by trying to buy ad time during the Super Bowl for a commercial that had a woman trying to get hot and heavy with...vegetables. Even for $3M, the network wasn't willing to air the "Veggie Love" spot, but (as planned, no doubt) the ad went viral and PETA got the press it was after.

This year, they're trying to milk some additional mileage out of the "Veggie Love" ad by offering up outtakes from the commercial's casting.

Oh James!

It turns out one of Her Majesty's secret agents lived the high life only in the movies. The James Bond of the 1970s, Roger Moore, won't eat foie gras, and he won't speak to friends who do either.

"Before I knew how it was produced I would often pick at it at parties just because it was on offer -- though I never ate too much of it because of its huge calorific content," he writes Tuesday in an op-ed in the Daily Mail. "Since I have understood the cruelty attached to its production I have never touched it again. I now boycott restaurants where it is served."

The McCruelty Unhappy Meal. Photo: PETA

Kids hoping to grab a Happy Meal from McDonald's might end up with PETA's Unhappy Meal instead.

The animal rights organization lifted its moratorium on the McCruelty Campaign this year and since June has distributed Chicken McCruelty Unhappy Meals to McDonald's customers outside about a dozen restaurants around the country.

"McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with toys," Lindsay Rajt, a spokeswoman for PETA, tells Slashfood. "But most kids really love animals, and if they knew that McDonald's suppliers were breaking the wings and legs of gentle animals like chickens, I think that you'd have to drag kids into McDonald's kicking and screaming."

The campaign, though, has parents "hatin' it."

Bruschetta. Photo: YumSugar

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

A photographic journey through San Francisco's new Thursday farmers' market with a focus on artisanal street food.

Definition: Offal (not "awful"!) is the entrails and organs of a butchered animal.

Che Guevara becomes trendy once again as his granddaughter bares it all for PETA.

Could Right Gin be the right way to learn gin appreciation?

Finally! Heirloom tomatoes are coming into season, and YumSugar offers a bunch of dishes featuring them.

Calling all tv trays: Do you eat dinner in front of the television?

Any news about PETA usually makes me roll my eyes, but for once, I think they're on to something. Rather than lathering in terrible logic and alienating those they want to convert, they've grabbed the wonderful Cloris Leachman and gone fancy.

That picture to the right, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, presents Ms. Leachman in a ball gown of lettuce with the catch-phrase "Let Vegetarianism Grow on You."

It's not really the sort of image that will inspire masses to put down the bacon and grab a head of lettuce, but it is a fabulous picture.

I think it's time to put the babies aside and dress more women in greenery ... as long as PETA is prepared for me to admire the pics whilst eating a medium-rare burger.