April 21-29 is World Week for Animals in Laboratories. Here are four things that you can do to help animals in laboratories:

• Support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, (H.R. 1513/S. 810), which would phase out the use of chimpanzees in laboratories. Learn more about the bill here, then contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives.You can look up your U.S. Representative on the House of Representatives website, while your senators can be found on the official Senate website. A personal communication is always best, but if you're short on time, you can use this webform from the New England Anti-Vivisection Society.
  
• Boycott products tested on animals, and go cruelty-free. Learn more about cruelty-free products here.
  
• When donating to health charities, be sure to support only cruelty-free charities that do not fund animal research. Learn more about cruelty-free charities here.
  
• Write a letter to the editor of your local paper to reach others. You can find sample letters here.

Photo by China Photos / Getty Images.

To follow up Nugent's 2005 cookbook "Kill It & Grill It," his next cookbook should be, "Poach It & Poach It."

Ted Nugent has once again pled guilty to illegal hunting. This time, he illegally killed a black bear in southern Alaska. And like his previous poaching incident, he filmed and broadcast the events for his television show, "Spirit of the Wild."

Nugent claims that his arrow only grazed the first black bear, who got away. The guitarist, who is probably better known for his controversial political statements than his 80s hits, then killed a different bear and exceeded his limit. Nugent's attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, explained, "They've got apparently some crazy law in Southeast that says if you even touch an animal with an arrow, it becomes your animal." Nugent claims he was ignorant of the law.

As a result of the plea agreement, Nugent will pay a $10,000 fine, make public service announcements about responsible hunting during his television show, and be on probation for two years. He'll also be banned from hunting or fishing in Alaska or on any U.S. Forest Service land nationwide for one year.

In his previous poaching incident, Nugent pled guilty in 2010 to illegally baiting deer and failing to have a deer tag countersigned in California. In exchange for his guilty plea, the charges for illegally killing an immature buck were dropped.

From an animal rights perspective, it doesn't matter whether the animal was killed legally or illegally; the killing violates the animal's right to live free of human abuse and exploitation. But even hunters condemn poaching, which can endanger fellow hunters, innocent bystanders, and wildlife.

Nugent was most recently in the news for making vaguely threatening remarks against President Obama, but was cleared after a Secret Service investigation.

Environmental advocate Mike Hudak and I will speak at an Earth Day event in central New Jersey, on Wednesday, April 18:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012
7:00pm
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County (Directions)
1475 West Front Street
Lincroft, NJ 07738

Mike Hudak of the Sierra Club's National Grazing Team will speak on "Liberating Western Wildlife from Scourge of Ranching," and I will give a short presentation on"How Animal Agriculture Destroys the Environment."

This event is FREE and open to the public! Light vegan refreshments will be served. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary: info@aplnj.org or 732-446-6808.

According to the United Nations, animal agriculture is "the major driver of deforestation, as well as one of the leading drivers of land degradation, pollution, climate change, overfishing, sedimentation of coastal areas and facilitation of invasions by alien species." Millions of acres of public lands, including endangered species habitat, have been destroyed by livestock grazing. To add insult to injury, American taxpayers subsidize this environmental debacle with about $450 million annually.

Mike is also the author of "Western Turf Wars", a book that exposes the politics behind the mismanagement of ranching on public lands.

The event is co-sponsored by the Animal Protection League of NJ, the NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club and Transition Red Bank.

I hope to see you on the 18th!

Rabbits rescued by Friends of Rabbits

If you're thinking of giving a live bunny for Easter, consider the rabbit's needs and ask yourself whether you're willing to clean litterboxes, and provide veterinary care, grooming, food, water, hay and fresh vegetables for the next ten years. If so, please rescue a rabbit. Most people don't think of shelters taking in rabbits, but some do, and there are quite a few rescue groups for rabbits. A good place to start is your local shelter, the House Rabbit Society or Petfinder.com.

If, like most people, you're not ready to care for a rabbit for the next decade or so, please choose a chocolate bunny or a toy bunny. The House Rabbit Society, with chapters throughout the United States and several chapters around the world, urges the public to "Make Mine Chocolate."

I've mentioned my love/hate relationship with Martha Stewart here before. On Monday, I attended a taping of her television show that is going to air today, April 5, 2012. On that episode, one of the guests is a veterinarian who stressed that rabbits are a major commitment, not an Easter toy. Although the segment focused on the needs and traits of different breeds of rabbits, they briefly mentioned that a chocolate bunny is a better choice if you're not ready to commit to taking care of a live rabbit. The segment would have been perfect if they had also discussed rescuing a rabbit instead of buying a rabbit. It would have been more perfect if they had talked about vegan chocolate bunnies!

Vegan chocolate bunnies are not that hard to find, but there's another troubling issue when it comes to chocolate - human slavery. Not just human slavery, but child slavery:

A child's workday begins at sunrise and ends in the evening. The children climb the cocoa trees and cut the bean pods using a machete. These large, heavy, dangerous knives are the standard tools for children on the cocoa farms. Once the bean pods have been cut from the trees, the children pack the pods into large sacks and carry or drag them through the forest. "Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn't hurry, you were beaten." - Aly Diabate, former cocoa slave.

What you can do: The Food Empowerment Project maintains a list of companies that are recommended (or not) based on whether they make vegan chocolates and how they responded to a survey regarding whether their cocoa beans come from the Ivory Coast or Ghana, the two countries where slavery on cocoa farms is well-documented and wide-spread.

Or you can avoid the whole chocolate controversy by buying a toy bunny. Especially if 20% of the sale price of that toy bunny goes to charity, which is what the makers of Flat Bonnie are doing this month.

Learn more about the House Rabbit Society's "Make Mine Chocolate" campaign here.

Photo © Doris Lin 2011, licensed to About.com, Inc.