Animal Cruelty

Operation Blood Sport: Meth and coke ring bust leads to discovery of cockfighting operation

If the Jefferson County DA's office is right, some of the sixteen people indicted in a drug ring bust weren't satisfied with dealing meth and cocaine. They were also allegedly involved with an illegal cockfighting operation featuring seventy roosters plus accoutrements that allowed the birds to slas ... More >>

PETA: Encourage nonviolence by putting James Holmes on vegetarian diet

In the wake of the Aurora theater shooting, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals canceled a Denver protest in deference to the victims. But now, PETA has made the tragedy the centerpiece of a new PR blitz. The organization has written a letter to the Arapahoe County Sheriff Office (see it bel ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting: PETA cancels "All Animals Have the Same Body Parts" protest

At last, some good news to come out of the horror in Aurora. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has cancelled a demonstration planned to coincide with a cattle-industry meeting tomorrow. Even PETA, which regularly uses stunts to push its agenda, realizes there are limits to bad taste for a ... More >>

Goldfish racing gets a head start at the Bar on South Broadway

Animal abuse registry bill fails over concern people listed would be hounded forever

During the same week that Debe Bell was convicted on 35 counts of animal cruelty (see the photo at right), a bill to establish a registry for animal abusers failed to get out of the agriculture committee. Why? Here's the take of Representative Jeanne Labuda, the measure's sponsor.

Nicholas Foti and two pals accused of killing a raccoon with a baseball bat and machete

Flickr​There's a reason raccoons wear masks. They're natural bandits. But there's a better way of dealing with such a rapscallion than beating him to death with a bat and then skewering him with a machete -- which is precisely what three students, including Nicholas Foti (whose Facebook page f ... More >>

PETA set to protest the circus every day it's in Denver (PHOTOS)

A small but sturdy herd of PETA activists is stomping its feet against the circus' stay in Denver. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals supporters took their grievances against Ringing Bros. & Barnum & Bailey's treatment of its elephants to the front of the coliseum this afternoon in hop ... More >>

Danielle Blankenship: Charge for killing cat by blowing heroin smoke in its face dropped

Blankenship.​Last month, Danielle Blankenship, 21, was accused of misdemeanor animal cruelty for allegedly killing her cat by blowing heroin smoke in its face -- and Boulder authorities talked about upping the charge to a felony if any heroin turned up in the cat's system. But none did, prompt ... More >>

PETA can't get its impotence billboard up in Denver

Is this PETA billboard too sexy for Denver?​People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has had a beef with Denver before, most recently when PETA's McCruelty statue planned for the 16th Street Mall was determined to violate Denver sign ordinances. This time, PETA's billboard of a sexy, saus ... More >>

Puppy stomped to death, thrown in dumpster

Christopher Blackstone's mug. Larger image below.​Two days before Christmas, Christopher Blackstone of Colorado Springs got into an argument with his girlfriend, Talitha Peterson-Hooks. She ignored his subsequent calls and texts, and, according to the police report, that's when Blackstone tur ... More >>

Girls gone vegan: "Naked activist" Ashley Bryne on her cold European tour

​Say what you will about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- better known and often reviled as PETA -- but there's no denying their methods are, ahem, eye-catching. Sex sells, as PETA well knows, and there's probably never been an activist organization quite as openly willing to use ... More >>

Celebrity Lanes is part of Denver's past and Centennial's future

Get plucked! Denver beats PETA in game of chicken over McCruelty

​After a six-month battle to place its McCruelty statue -- a giant maimed chicken -- near the McDonald's on the 16th Street Mall, a fight that involved plenty of legal squawking, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has given up on Denver. City officials should be lovin' it. The Cit ... More >>

PETA's anti-McDonald's McCruelty campaign flies the coop, and Denver should be lovin' it

​After a six-month battle to place its McCruelty statue -- a giant maimed chicken -- near the McDonald's on the 16th Street Mall, a fight that involved plenty of legal squawking and wing-flapping, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has given up on Denver. The city should be lovin' it.

PETA member a no-show for Westword protest

Wherefore art thou, PETA?​Upset by our video of the live octopus hot pot, PETA member Belinda Heinikey-Williamson threatened to protest at the Westword offices today at 11 a.m. That hour has come and gone, though, with not a single protester in sight. What happened? Was the circus back in to ... More >>

Comment of the day: Hate turns to threat of PETA protest of Westword!

​Despite some readers' allegations that we're milking the video of the live octopus hot pot (something, by the way, we never condemned nor condoned but merely documented) to a cruel and unusual extent, the glorious comments keep pouring in-- and we're going to keep showcasing the best ones. A ... More >>

Wild horses in Colorado: ASPCA, other groups file suit to block roundups of two herds

A Flickr photo​For years, the Bureau of Land Management has been aiming to remove substantial numbers of northwest Colorado's remaining wild horses -- despite a federal judge's ruling last year that the agency has failed to prove that the obscure herds are overpopulated. Now, a coalition of ac ... More >>

John Hickenlooper asked by PETA to take mercy on Barnum & Bailey's elephants: Fat chance

​Now, in the center ring, Denver mayor John Hickenlooper is about to get a chance to show mercy to elephants -- even if, as the Democratic candidate for governor, Hickenlooper has Republicans on the run in Colorado (with a major assist from the sideshow of Tom Tancredo's candidacy).

Coleadero Rodeo skips steer-tailing event that ripped tails off cattle, but what about next time?

From Channel 31 coverage.​The July 18 edition of the Coleadero Rodeo at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds was lethal: two cattle had to be put down and nine were injured -- including seven that were "de-gloved" (their tails were torn off) in an event known as steer-tailing. The rodeo happened ... More >>

Coleadero Rodeo: After animal deaths, PETA wants event canceled, & Jeffco commish agrees

From Channel 31 coverage.​Yesterday, we told you about the controversy over the Coleadero Rodeo, which is slated to take place at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on Sunday even though eleven animals were hurt, and two had to be killed, following an event at the same venue on July 18. Now, Peo ... More >>

PETA's shock-and-awe stunt compares carnivorism to cannibalism

Ben Gabbe/Getty Images​PETA may be blocked-- at least for now -- from erecting a chicken statue in the middle of the 16th Street Mall here in Denver, but the group managed to pull off a pretty gruesome stunt yesterday in New York City. Around noon, nearly naked protesters covered themselves w ... More >>

Walter Bond: Alleged sheepskin factory arsonist inspiration for song by straight-edge band

Walter Bond.​We recently told you about alleged arsonist Walter Bond, who authorities believe was responsible for burning down Glendale's Sheepskin Factory and two businesses in Salt Lake City, including a restaurant that served foie gras. Turns out Bond's a hero to the animal liberation move ... More >>

PETA flaps its legal wings and appeals Denver's ban of McCruelty

PETA, out to pluck Denver, files appeal on McCruelty

​"Not a peep," said spokeswoman Ann Williams when I asked last week if the Denver Department of Public Works had heard anything from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after the city declared that displaying PETA's "McCruelty," a 250-pound statue of a bloodied and bandaged chicke ... More >>

PETA to City of Denver: Pluck you

​PETA isn't chickening out on its push to put "McCruelty," a 250-pound, bloody and bandaged chicken sculpture, on the 16th Street Mall -- and today could be decision day for the City of Denver. PETA has filed all the required applications for the "temporary display of a sculpture...as part o ... More >>

PETA's ten-worst publicity stunts -- until the chicken

​The City of Denver will decide today whether PETA can install a 250-pound, bloody and butchered chicken sculpture -- dubbed "McCruelty," but really looking like a worse-for-the-wear Foghorn Leghorn -- on the 16th Street Mall. This isn't PETA's first stunt, of course. Last year, Jason Sheeh ... More >>

PETA: Denver is for (chicken) lovers

PETA"Screw you, Mayor McCheese."​ By now, you've no doubt heard that PETA wants to install a bloodied-and-bandaged 250-pound, five-and-a-half-foot chicken statue on the 16th Street Mall to protest the inhumane ways that McDonald's turns chicken-shaped chickens into Shrek-shaped Chicken McNugge ... More >>

Steven Clay Romero pleads guilty to dragging Buddy the dog to death

Steven Clay Romero: Should he be sentenced to serve time in a kennel?​Some of those designated Westword's Shmuck of the Week earn this honor for kinda silly reasons -- like, for instance, the condom website that implied Coloradans have small dicks. Not so Steven Clay Romero, named after he wa ... More >>

Pigs tied up, beaten at historic farm

A photo from the Venetucci Farm website.​Stories of animal abuse don't get much stranger or more disgusting that the one involving two pigs at Venetucci Farm, a 190-acre spread near Colorado Springs that was donated to the Pikes Peak Community Foundation in 2006. According to Lieutenant Lari ... More >>

Mysteries of Sheehan's Desk: Day 10

Another gift from PETA​ Yesterday I wrote about my favorite gift from PETA. This one's my second favorite. And yes, it is what it looks like: one of those little wind-up Easter chicks, only with its beak cut off, its eyes poked out and splashed in blood. Not real subtle, those PETA folks. ... More >>

PETA protesters give Canadian-syrup boycott their seal of approval

Be careful: Bloody syrup will stain white fur.​I'm guessing the Canadian consulate in Denver, at 1625 Broadway, isn't a frequent location for major protests -- but that changed yesterday, when PETA representatives chose it as the place to complain about Canadian seal harvests. Their approach? ... More >>

Another spot of genius from PETA

Q: What's the highest rated television show in the history of everything? A: American Idol. Q: And who is the most high-profile judge on American Idol? A: Simon Cowell. That's right.  And if there's one organization in the world that knows how to exploit celebrity (even if it happen ... More >>

PETA's ten worst -- actually, make that best -- publicity stunts

Kiernan MaletskyPETA -- the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- is a lot of things.  It is a political organization dedicated to saving all the cute critters on the planet.  It is a finely-tuned donation-gathering machine that preys on weepy liberals who'd rather empty thei ... More >>

To the shock of no one, PETA barbecues a naked woman

The National Cattlemen's Summer Convention is in town right now, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals responded in a way that only PETA could: by spray-painting a naked employee red and black and having her lie on a grill outside the downtown Sheraton, where the conference is being held ... More >>

PETA proclaims Coors Field the third most vegetarian-friendly ballpark

As if Clint Hurdle's recent dismissal by the Colorado Rockies wasn't enough to piss off rabid baseball fans, now comes word that PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has bestowed a decidedly unsettling honor on Coors Field -- you know, home of the foot-long Rockie hot dog -- naming ... More >>

Quiznos gets to the meat of the matter

It turns out that Quiznos - the carnivorous, Denver-based chain that gave us subs like the 5 Meat Stack and Prime Rib Cheesesteak, with a double-meat option - has been engaged in behind-the-scenes talks for a year with the most notorious veggie lovers of them all: PETA. (I use the term "veggie lover ... More >>

PETA in the news again: "Sea Kittens" campaign making me hungry

There is almost nothing I can say about this that wouldn't get me picketed.  Direct from the PETA website at www.peta.org: People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads--which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the smal ... More >>

The Sorrow and the PETA

Bike Naked

From a bike ride to a meat-industry protest, summer finds Denver in a state of undress.

Capitol Hill Billys

I PETA the Fool

Horse Play

An animal-abuse trial ends in a surprising verdict.

Fish Story

Raising a stink over aquarium eateries.

Off Limits

Iced out

Mouthing Off

Mouthing Off