Registration is now open for the PETA Pack, possibly the best way ever invented to get in shape and help animals at the same time!

The PETA Pack is a group of runners who will train together for the Oakland Marathon/Half Marathon/5K race on March 28, 2010. We’ll have a professional coach, and we’ll all raise money to help PETA with its lifesaving work for animals. I ran my first-ever half marathon with the PETA Pack in February, and it was some of the best fun I had all year.

I know what you’re thinking. “I’ll never be able to run that far! The last time I ran was to catch a flight in Chicago O’Hare airport, and it wasn’t pretty!” Lack of prior running experience is no problem for the PETA Pack—that’s why we have professional fitness coach Darren Middlesworth. When I started running with the team, I thought a 3-mile run was pretty tough. Others on the team weren’t runners at all. But in just three months, Coach Darren had us all ready to go on race day. I had an injury or two along the way, but Coach Darren always knew how to fix it and get me back into my running shoes.

If you’re not in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can still be part of the PETA Pack by training remotely where you live. In 2009, we had 77 runners from all over the U.S. and Canada. Some of them were able to join us for the race in February, and others found a race to run in their hometown, with all of us cheering for them remotely. Together, we raised an incredible $57,000 for animals, and we expect to double that figure in 2010.

If you’ve ever dreamed of competing in a race, the PETA Pack can make it happen. I made some great new friends in the weekly team training runs, and having such a supportive group to train with kept me going when I was feeling tired. I ended up in better shape than I’ve been in the last 20 years—I was even able to keep up with the 20-something runners during the workouts. And best of all, I was proud of how much we did to help animals. I can’t wait to do it again.

Training begins on January 3—a perfect way to start the new year! Register now to be part of the PETA Pack and help animals!

Your calls and e-mails truly make a difference. Case in point: Snails who were the designated “janitors” of Brookstone’s plastic boxes of filth, aka “Frog-O-Sheres,” have been retired. We’ve just received word from an insider at Brookstone that snails will no longer be included in any Frog-O-Sphere shipments. Because of your hard work, countless snails will be spared life in the tiny, toxic tanks.

(Let’s pause briefly for your pat on the back/cartwheel/victory lap around the office.)

OK. That’s good work, and this victory is a step in the right direction for Brookstone, but we still need your help to free the frogs from these miserable, inadequate tanks. The company recently appointed a new CEO, Ronald Boire, so your voice is more important than ever. Please send a short, polite letter to him and ask that the company stop selling all live animals. Even if you’ve written to Brookstone before, write again to the new top dog.

Won’t you help frogs live “hoppily ever after”? (My apologies, folks. I couldn’t resist that one.)

This post, written by Logan Scherer, originally appeared in The PETA Files.

It’s that time of year again. Supermarkets are offering the corpses of turkeys for free to customers who spend a certain amount at their stores in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. It’s become a fairly competitive promotion in our area.

One supermarket offers a free turkey for each $350 spent, with no limit on how many turkeys one can claim. The store will even donate one or more of your turkeys to a local charity! The irony is hard to escape: You are supposed to be contributing to a good cause while supporting one of the most cruel and inhumane industries out there. How charitable for everyone—except the turkeys.

Sorry, but offering a vegan like me a turkey for my faithful business of buying vegan food is more of an insult than a gift—and as offensive as offering a Jewish customer a free ham for Passover. I could just decline to take the turkey, but darn it, I deserve an appropriate reward for my shopping as well. Time for this Primer to take some action steps!

In a dual effort to both educate and benefit myself and others, each year, I ask to see the store’s manager to make my simple request: “My family follows a healthy vegan diet, and we patronize this store all year purchasing the many vegan foods that you have. Can you offer me a vegan alternative?” The manager is usually quick to suggest a vegetarian option like lasagna, but that’s not vegan, so I am just as quick to point out that items with cheese in them are not vegan (a great moment of enlightenment for the manager). I am proud to say that because of my simple action, we have now reached a fair compromise: I get a gift card equal to the value of the vegetarian lasagna.

This year, I’m going to be brave and ask the manager for a free Tofurky! Lets all do the same so that one day, all supermarkets will offer vegan options for Thanksgiving!  Let me know how it goes!

Underfed and tied to a shed 24/7, Rocky wasn’t really living—just existing. Rocky was only a puppy, yet his owner never let him inside the home and allegedly beat him in an effort to try to turn him into a better “guard dog”. After witnessing the abuse that Rocky was forced to endure, a concerned area resident set to work trying to find help for the adorable and resilient dog.

After placing phone call after phone call to various agencies and animal shelters in the area to no avail, the resident finally turned to PETA. We immediately coordinated with folks at the local SCPA, who persisted in Rocky’s behalf and eventually convinced his owner to surrender him into the shelter’s care.

Now, a few weeks later, we are delighted to see this picture of a blissful, thriving, recently adopted Rocky.

The story of the dog who is left outside to languish is one that our cruelty caseworkers hear all too often. Dogs are highly social and loyal companions. They crave lots of love, attention, and exercise, and they always want to be around their human family. Staking them out in lonely yards as cheap “alarm systems” is nothing short of a cruel betrayal of an animal’s unlimited love and devotion to his or her guardian—it is simply not the way things are meant to be.

If you know people who aren’t doing right by their dog, please talk to them and educate them about the animal’s many needs. Offer to walk their dog. Bring toys! Show them how to do things right. And please, never let mistreated animals endure abuse or neglect. Always speak up and file a report with local law enforcement officials. Without you, these animals would have no voice.

This post, written by Logan Scherer, originally appeared in The PETA Files.

That’s Wheezy, a 3-week-old orphaned bush baby who had the bad fortune of being dragged home by a house cat. He got lucky when the homeowners called SanWild to the rescue. Wheezy grew bigger and livelier and more inquisitive by the day. In his youthful exuberance, he was determined and anxious to explore the world, and he will be released into the wild as soon as he is able to fend for himself. He flourished in rehab, and so did I. A week-long course in wildlife rehabilitation, that is, at the sanctuary in South Africa.

This exceptional course is taught by Karen Trendler,  who has rescued African wildlife of all stripes and sizes, from penguins and pigeons to eagles, elephants, warthogs, rhinos, giraffes, and lions—the entire Ark, really. Whoever needs help! The point of this work is not to interfere as nature takes its course with animals in the bush. Ninety-nine percent of those in rehab are there because of human impact of some sort: electrocution by wires, collisions with fences, poachers, cars, or poison. Some are rescues from the ghastly breeding industry that supplies animals for trophy hunters from abroad. And not every call is a happy one; there are many who are so badly injured that there is no hope for a successful recovery. Some are DOA, and others must be euthanized on the spot. But for those who have a fighting chance to live free again, the rehab experts nurse them back into the wild. And Karen taught us the basics of how to do that.

My fellow students spanned an impressive range of expertise and experience; all were enthusiastically committed to saving animals. So there was plenty of camaraderie and just plain fun. There was time for savoring the experience and for storytelling sessions around the dinner table and campfire.

In addition to covering the fundamentals of animal rescue and rehabilitation, Karen led our lively class in far-ranging discussions on ethics, animal rights, noteworthy victories and failures, and what goes on behind the scenes in the African hunting industry and elephant-back safari training camps. Her personal experiences were often heart-wrenching—but also wonderfully redemptive. For example, she helped save 39,000 birds who were drenched in oil from a tanker spill off the southern tip of Africa, in a project that took 18 weeks to complete. Now that’s saving a lot of lives! But while wildlife conservation strives to save populations of animals, rehabilitation is about individuals. In all that rehab people do, the well-being of each individual under their care is what counts. Each animal at SanWild has a name, personal history, medical chart, and recovery plan for return to the wild.

Beyond the rehab center, SanWild encompasses a sanctuary of more than 17,000 acres, which are home to elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, rhinos, impalas, and many others. It makes a great eco-tourism destination, and the facilities are superb. Compared to African national parks and reserves, the difference is that most of the animals have a very sad story on how they came to live in the sanctuary. The hippos wallowing in their pond were rescued from circuses in France; one of the warthogs was found as a baby snuggling up against his mother’s intestines (all that the poachers left of her); Quakki the zebra was orphaned when her mother was trampled to death while being trucked from a breeding farm to a “hunting” kill site. The lions and African wild dogs were also rescued from breeders and were destined for canned hunts. But these stories all have happy endings! All are living free now.

Great people, entertaining conversations, world-class instruction, being surrounded by African wildlife in an idyllic setting—what could be more perfect? Part of me could have stayed in rehab forever. Spending that week with Wheezy was as therapeutic for me as it was for him. Good luck out there, my friend.

I’m still on a post-event high after helping out in the PETA Prime booth at the AARP’s “Vegas@50+” conference in Las Vegas. It was incredible talking to so many people who were interested in trying a vegetarian diet.

One woman told me, “I had a heart attack, and my doctor suggested that I go vegetarian.” Far from being discouraged about her heart disease, she was excited about the opportunity to improve her overall health by changing what she eats.

Many visitors to the PETA Prime booth mentioned that they have friends or relatives who adhere to vegetarian or vegan diets. Even though some of them weren’t ready to give up meat themselves, they wanted some information on how to make tasty plant-based meals they can serve to their dinner guests. And when I spoke to one woman about giving up meat gradually,  she replied, “Hey, that’s not so hard! I’ll try cutting out meat just one day a week!”

One of the more unusual stories I heard was from a woman who decided to go vegetarian after she saw the “Planet Earth” series on television. Once she saw the beautiful animals in the series, she realized that she didn’t want to eat the other residents of our planet anymore.

I was really impressed with how open-minded everyone was. I spoke with dozens of people my age and older who have eaten meat their whole lives, but were willing to try a vegetarian diet. Some of them wanted to do it for better health. Some were concerned about the animal abuse and environmental problems on factory farms. And some had been vegetarian before and wanted to try it again. Hundreds of people signed up for the 30-day Pledge to Be Veg:  “Just 30 days? I know I can do that!”

One of the highlights for me was when one of the PETA Prime booth staffers overheard a conference attendee say at a nearby restaurant, “I just found out about the benefits of a vegetarian diet. What can you make for me that’s meat-free?”

I couldn’t believe the positive energy at the conference. One man stopped by to chat about how much he enjoys being vegan. I was still smiling from that conversation when a woman asked me if she could take some extra copies of our “Vegetarian Starter Kit“  for her family and friends: “They’re just going to love these!” Right after that, another woman excitedly took some meatless jerky for her husband to try. People were thrilled about making a positive change by going vegetarian, and I was inspired by their enthusiasm—I don’t know when I last met so many happy, high-energy people!

I can’t wait for next year in Orlando!

I’m asked this question every week, usually by well-meaning guardians trying to make sound medical decisions in behalf of their older dog or cat. The good news is that our animal companions are living longer than ever before. Let’s discuss the reasons:

1) Preventive veterinary care: Veterinarians have far greater resources to discover and treat age-related disorders and ailments, such as kidney failure, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer. As with human health care, it is much less costly and more successful for us to discover problems in their early stages rather than when the problem has become advanced. Given that our animal companions have limited means of communicating their malaise to us, it’s important that you and your veterinarian develop a plan as your dog or cat ages. I generally advise a checkup every six to 12 months once your furry friend is deemed a senior citizen.

2) The human-animal bond: In a previous post, I discussed the varied reasons why dogs and cats are now seen as family members by an increasing proportion of our society. This renewed and profound commitment has driven the rapid growth of veterinary specialists and emergency care, lunchtime dog walkers, and day care. The change in the role that animals play in many of our lives has also contributed to their enhanced longevity.

3) More cats are indoors: With the growth of urban centers, our animal companions have followed us into apartments, dorms, and offices. As a result, injuries and fatalities from outdoor hazards have declined, but the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle (e.g., obesity) have increased, so it’s important to provide indoor cats with enough exercise. Here are some tips to keep your cat happy and healthy.

4) Smaller dogs live longer: For those wanting a canine companion, many have chosen a small breed better adapted to living in a smaller space. I’ve always said, “All dogs eat the same total amount of food in their lives.” That is, large dogs eat more food on a daily basis than little ones, but the larger the dog in general, the shorter the lifespan. Toy breed dogs may eat very small meals, but they can often live to be 12 to 16 years of age. So if you’re looking for a canine companion, and longevity is what you’re after, think small.

The flip side of this increased longevity of our animal friends is acknowledging our responsibility to help care for them through their golden years.

This means preparing both financially and emotionally to do our best to help them maintain the highest quality of life that we can provide. There are more options available to help older dogs and cats now than ever before.

As long as we prepare for their future and make thoughtful decisions in their behalf in conjunction with your veterinarian, the answer to the question “How long will he or she live?” may be ”who knows”!

Those of us who garden know that sometimes slugs can disrupt our efforts. There are many products that one can buy and methods that we could use, but most of those are cruel and involve killing the slugs.

That is why I wanted to share a few easy ways to prevent slugs from ever entering and destroying your garden without inflicting any suffering on the slugs themselves. Prevention is a pretty simple (and inexpensive) path to keeping your garden healthy and slug-free.

1. Be sure your plants are trimmed back so that they receive plenty of air circulation. Crowded plants or dropped leaves that are allowed to stay on the ground are a haven for slugs.  Slugs thrive in moisture and dark places, so the more air and sunlight a garden receives, the less likely it is that a slug problem will exist.

2. Planting marigolds in the garden is a great deterrent. Slugs  are repelled by the fragrance (or odor) of marigolds.

3. Placing a copper strip an inch below the soil line and an inch or more above will create an electrical charge that actually deters snails and slugs. Inspect it daily for any fallen leaves—slugs can use them as a bridge over the strip.  If you’re unable to locate copper strip, remove copper wire from an old appliance or lamp cord, wrap the wires around a pen or pencil to create a coil, making sure the threads overlap to form a barrier. Place the coil around the bottom of the main stem of the plant—leaving plenty of room for it to grow.

4. Install granite rock around the garden. The sharp jagged pieces make it difficult for slugs to cross because of their soft bodies. It will also add beauty to your garden.

5. Roof shingles can be placed around the garden—they are jagged and also act as a slug deterrent.

6. Sprinkle coffee grinds around the plants that are being affected. Caffeine deters slugs, so be sure to avoid using decaf.

7. Glue pennies on top of containers or place them around your garden. Just like the copper coils, when slugs get near them, it sends an electrical charge.

8. Slugs stay away from vinegar, so spray it in their paths (not on them). However, it is an herbicide, so be careful not to spray around plants!

That’s it, dear Primers. Let us know what works for you

Jealous, hungry, inspired. That’s what I felt the instant I started paging through PETA’s new Kids’ Guide to Helping Animals, the free magazine from PETA that will help kids channel their passion for animals into easy everyday actions.

Jealous—because as an animal-loving kid with no idea how to put that to good use, I spent a lot of time crying at Old Yeller and missed out on tons of opportunities to make a real difference (and yes, in case you have any doubts, kids can make a difference). Designed for the not-quite-tween, the Kids’ Guide has tips and tricks for all aspects and phases of a kid’s school and social life. From what to do if your school is planning a field trip to the zoo to cruelty-free shopping tips.

Hungry—because of the luscious photos of vegan snack goodness (and because it’s close to lunchtime).

Inspired—to provide my son with as many opportunities as possible to make choices that will help cultivate his innate sense of compassion. Sure, he can’t read yet, but it’s never too early to start talking about helping animals!

This post, written by Sarah king, originally appeared in PETA living.

A few blocks south of downtown Nashville is a stunning replica of the Parthenon. Really. Inside are historical exhibits and fine art—and a gilded, 42-foot statue of Athena. Learning how Alan LeQuire researched the long-destroyed Greek original, I wanted to meet him. Easy enough—LeQuire’s gallery was nearby.

The adjoining studio pulsed with works colossal in size and spirit. The sculptor describes the genesis of a work created when he was 17: Examining a giant cedar tree felled by lightening, “I saw a large human/bird form in it. It was very dramatic with lots of splintering.” Since then, he’s made all his wood sculptures from trees that fell naturally.

He also creates animal figures that are displayed all around town, including a bronze lab/spaniel “Butler” for the Nashville Humane Association. LeQuire’s latest project: art for a friend’s program about Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel prize winner who advocated compassion to all living beings.

Nashville lives up to its “Music City” nickname 24/7. Tour legendary Ryman Auditorium—where for $15, you can professionally record your own CD!

Spend a day at the Country Music Hall of Fame (where some PETA supporters are honored), honkytonk at Tootsie’s, catch an undercover superstar jamming at the Station Inn, or attend a symphony Nashville-style at the superb Schermerhorn.

A Next Big Nashville festival foray had me bookmarking a slew of indie rockers’ pages on YouTube. There, I found this music video by animal-loving local Kim Cady—”Save One at a Time.”

Speaking of animals … dogs are welcome at the remodeled Sheraton downtown, so bring them along.

Dining options include Grins Vegetarian Cafe near Vanderbilt; the Veggie Cafe on Riverside Drive, and just south of town, Woodlands, which has all-you-can-eat vegetarian Indian food with plenty of vegan choices. Trendy, upscale, organic devotees at Flyte and Tayst like cooking vegan.

There’s also a vegan-friendly green general store with vegan treats, cruelty-free cosmetics and soaps (including BabyBearShop!), and a “filling station” with eco-safe cleaners. The Green Wagon has locations in Sylvan Park and East Nashville. And if you happen to be traveling on waste vegetable oil, that’s what the shopkeeper uses in the namesake wagon.

Heading to Nashville? Get info on events, attractions, and lodging at http://www.visitmusiccity.com or by calling 800-657-6910.