Totally gratuitous and unnecessary

"We're fighting for cows who died"

Spotted by JuliaM in the Daily Mail, but the original version in the Peoria Journal Star is better:

In October, a grisly accident occurred outside the west-central Illinois town of Cambridge. A truck veered off Interstate 74 and flipped onto its side in the median. Four passengers died inside the vehicle, while two others wandered into the roadway, only to be fatally struck by a pair of cars. Police never revealed the final resting place for the victims. My guess is, a slaughterhouse or backyard barbecue.

See, the slain "passengers" were cows. No humans were seriously hurt. And if you think I'm making a big deal of nothing here, then you don't see eye to eye with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Leaning on a little-known law [aka Tina's Law], PETA wants the state to erect a memorial in honor of the six cows. Ditto for 16 cattle slain in a wreck in May outside Chicago.

"We're fighting for cows who died," says PETA's Tracy Patton...

Tina's Law says "only a qualified relative of a deceased victim" can request a sign. It doesn't exactly explain what "qualified" means, but IDOT spokesman Josh Kauffman says the law implies people - as in relatives. So PETA is asking the state to waive that requirement.

"There's no surviving relatives in the meat trade, which sends millions of cows kicking and screaming to the slaughterhouse," says PETA's Patton.

I didn't know cows scream. Still, I can't imagine there's a statutory loophole big enough to allow cow monuments, regardless of PETA's stunts.

Hannibal says: Eat more vegetarians

You too can sign up to this pledge to celebrate this year's Earth Hour right here.

Well, until the lily livered f***s delete it again.

UPDATE 21:00. They've now deleted Hannibal's pledge, but it took them three hours that time, they were a lot quicker off the mark this afternoon. Registering at Commit21 and setting up a group only takes two or three minutes, so feel free to pop on over...