hollywoodoutbreak / CC

In a recent interview with Maxim magazine, longtime vegan animal defender Woody Harrelson talks about the chance encounter that made him go vegan. He says that “[t]he first thing was dairy. I was about 24 years old and I had tons of acne and mucus. I met some random girl on a bus who told me to quit dairy and all those symptoms would go away three days later. By God she was right.”

I’m curious about how the actual conversation went down. “Hey, stranger! Your skin is gross. Go vegan!” seems a bit harsh, but if it worked …

The star of Zombieland then realized that eating hamburgers and steak made him feel—and act—like the living dead, so meat was nixed from his menu too.

So tell us: How did you get the push you needed to go vegan?

Posted by Shawna Flavell

earthfirst / CC

Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning actor—and animal defender extraordinaire—Woody Harrelson might have played the laid-back Carson Wells in No Country for Old Men, but he was almost as mad as his controversial character Mickey Knox when he learned about deadly medical training exercises involving cats at Texas Tech.

Homeless cats at the Odessa animal shelter—just a stone’s throw away from the star’s birthplace in Midland—are purchased by the university’s Health Sciences Center and then abused and killed in medical training exercises. Faculty members and trainees force plastic tubes down the cats’ throats and stab needles into their chests for procedures that invariably result in pain and death for the animals. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association exclusively endorse the use of modern, human-like manikins—not live animals—for this kind of training in their courses.

Here’s part of Woody’s letter to Texas Tech President John Baldwin:

Harming and killing shelter animals for these exercises is unjustifiable, especially as realistic manikins that more accurately represent human anatomy and better prepare medical professionals to treat injured and sick children are readily available. . . . I and countless others around the state are deeply discouraged to learn that Texas Tech is taking advantage of the tragic abundance of abandoned animals.

Cheers to Woody for speaking out against these cruel exercises. Wood you (ouch) join him in protesting these cruel, outdated procedures?

Posted by Karin Bennett