A lot to a seal, I'm willing to bet.

Or rather eight seals — which is the number of seal pups that are killed to produce just one fur coat. And come 1st July this year, that's what is destined to happen to 91,000 seal pups on the coast of Namibia.

Just a warning, don't read on if you're easily upset. Just click here to help end this cruelty.

I only recently discovered just how brutal the annual Namibian seal cull is. People call it the 'cruellest in the world', and there's a good reason why. Most of the seals killed during this brutal slaughter are so young that they are still being nursed by their mothers. The defenceless pups are rounded up and separated from their mothers — and many vomit their mother's milk in fear — before being clubbed to death. Some seals who aren't completely knocked out are then stabbed and "bled out" while they are still fully conscious. Their mothers are left to watch on helplessly. It's one of the most disturbing sights you're likely to ever see (I don't recommend it, but you can find videos here of what has happened during previous 'hunts' if you think you can handle it).

You might be thinking — thank goodness we'd never support something so awful here in Australia! Well, it turns out that it's an Australian company that is directly linked to the annual Namibian slaughter. Last year, Sydney-based fur and skins company, Hatem Yavuz, purchased all of the dead seal pup skins from the cull. All of them!!

That's why we're publicly naming and shaming and demanding that Hatem Yavuz commits to never buying Namibian cape fur seal skins again. Never, ever again. If you think that a seal's fur coat is worth more to the seal than to Hatem Yavuz, then please take 1 minute to send this important message today. The seals need you!

Images courtesy of Seal Alert South Africa

Kudos to Gold Coast Mayor, Ron Clarke, for speaking out against the cruelty of rodoes. In an interview last week, Mayor Clarke, expressed his disgust at the 'sport': "They (rodeos) are definitely human entertainment at the animals' expense." For his outspoken act of compassion Animals Australia has awarded Ron Clarke the inaugural Compassionate Citizen Award.

As an Aussie sports legend, Ron Clarke knows what being a true sportsman is all about. Ron can boast a running career including an Olympic medal and the breaking of 17 world records. So after seeing a rodeo first hand, it's no wonder he's appalled by the brutality of the 'sport'.

To make horses and bulls buck, a tight strap (called a 'bucking strap' or 'flank strap') is used to squish their senesitive hind area, causing pain and discomfort. To make things worse the animals are physically taunted, and may even be zapped by electric prods (despite this being illegal in most Aussie states). Check out this footage, taken at the 2003 National Rodeo Finals at Tamworth, to see for yourself:

While the riders may volunteer to participate (beats me why!), the animals are helpless victims. Earlier this year at an SA rodeo, Animals Australia's investigator, Wendy Parsons, witnessed first hand as a bull broke his leg and was shot, and a steer limped off on 3 legs. And at another rodeo this year, on the Gold Coast, a horse died after crashing into a fence.

It's great to see Mayor Clarke speaking out for these animals. If you have a moment, you may even like to write to congratulate him.

Today the Onion brings us the touching story of Shawn, a champion gymnast who tragically fell while practicing on the uneven bars and had to be euthanised after breaking her knee.

Fortunately, in reality we don't actually shoot gymnasts in the back of the head if they happen to take a wrong step (you can imagine how many budding athletes would volunteer for the sport if we did..?). But not all professional athletes are so lucky.

Today at Moonee Valley, Whatsourgo became the sixth horse to be killed in jumps racing in Victoria this year after he fell and broke his leg on the last hurdle. Now, the jumps racing industry would like us to believe that 'owners love their horses' *cough* *bull$#!t* *cough*. Whether or not you believe them I think we need to hold them to their word and demand that they to do the only humane thing possible: put an end to jumps racing. Stat.

Who wants to move to Belgium? I have to admit the thought crossed my mind when I heard that last month the Belgian city of Ghent declared Thursday a vegetarian day for the entire city!

In an effort to combat the impact of the livestock industry on global warming, the city has invited its 230,000 inhabitants to help the planet by eating green every Thursday. The city will be providing free veggie lunch snacks, vegetarian cooking classes and general info on healthy eating. And best of all they will be distributing 90,000 free veggie street maps to guide people to Ghent's vegetarian restaurants. Woo!

According to the UN the livestock industry is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That's more than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world combined! To me, that sounds like reason enough to join Ghent in making Thursday (and every other day) a vegetarian day.

If you think Ghent are on a winning idea you might want to write to your local council and suggest they follow Ghent's lead.

Earlier this month I mentioned Jackie O's 'fat bet'. Australia's leading lady of the airwaves had been challenged on air: lose 4 kilos and Kyle Sandilands would donate $5K to her favourite charity, Animals Australia (or, don't – and the money goes to a factory farm!).

An absurd bet, you might think (particularly when we all knew Jackie was perfectly proportioned already! Sheesh!!) But absurdities aside, Jackie knuckled down for the animals' sake, worked hard, and held Kyle to his word… And the result? Well it was a verrrry close call, but I'm glad to report that despite being 200g short of her target weight, Kyle saw the light and wrote out one big phat cheque to Animals Australia – that will be used to expose the cruelty of factory farming!

How did Jackie lose the weight? It's no secret that it's easy to shed excess weight on a healthy vegetarian diet – and that's exactly what she did!

Whilst Australia wrestles with the dubious title of "world's fattest nation", we salute Kyle for inspiring us all to fight our collective waste-line. But next time Kyle, perhaps you might like to challenge yourself to lose 4 kilos (or maybe 10?). We could run a new ad campaign about the link between obesity and the consumption of animal products with the proceeds ;-)

Earlier in the week we appealed to the chocolate admirers out there with the promise of free Constant Craving Truffles. So began the hunt for Unleashed's most worthy chocoholic. But sheesh – you didn't make it easy on us – the competition was fierce! After reading the responses from so many worthy candidates, we were so overwhelmed by the heartfelt pleas for chocolate that we realised we couldn't choose just one winner...

So it's time to congratulate our two most worthy chocoholics, Matt.Y, who promises to give the chockies to his Mum (we want photographic evidence, Matt), and chaha33, the super-keen-vegan-cocoa-bean-eating-poetry-machine! Congratulations Matt.Y and chacha33 – your bundle of 10 Constant Craving Truffles are zooming from the Unleashed office to your doorstep right now! But that's not all. We've also thrown in some free stickers for good measure :-)

In truth we believe everybody deserves chocolate, and really there's no reason to miss out. If all this chocolate-talk has you salivating at your keyboard, then follow me to the Unleashed shop where you can pick up your own bag of truffles for just $10 (or $20 if you're really serious). All the money raised through the shop goes towards helping animals and fighting animal cruelty.

And just for you lovely folks, postage is free :-)

If you've picked up a newspaper lately you may have noticed pigs have been getting a bit of attention (and I don't mean swine flu). Recent investigations in Australia and NZ have revealed just how bad factory farming can get (and as someone who's seen a lot, even I was shocked).

Mike King may be a new name to many Aussies but in NZ he's a familiar face. The NZ comedian and TV celebrity was until recently also the face of NZ Pork. That is, until he found out where NZ Pork came from – factory farms. With the help of undercover investigators King saw a factory farm first hand. The footage from this investigation was aired on the NZ current affairs program Sunday, to much public outrage.

And it's no wonder people were outraged. The NZ 'codes' for pig welfare (and the Australian 'codes' for that matter) effectively make it legal for farmers to be cruel to pigs. For example, they permit sows (mother pigs) to be locked in cages called 'sow stalls' which are little bigger than their own bodies.

Meanwhile back home, an investigation into one of Woolworths' major Tasmanian pork suppliers has exposed one of Australia's worst ever cases of commercial animal cruelty. Investigators found starving sows with legs so swollen they couldn't stand to reach food or water; one mother pig had been left to die in her own waste with a shoulder wound rotting and filled with maggots. It was some of the worst footage I've seen. And this supplier, Gary Oliver, supplies roughly 20% Woolworths' Tasmanian pork!

So the big question is how did Woolworths' react? Well, it seems they've given Mr Oliver a slap on the wrist; told him to clean up his act; and now it's back to business as usual. Bit if you ask me, anyone who can leave an animal to be eaten alive by maggots should not be paid to 'look after' animals.

But the story doesn't end there. Last week one of Woolworths' major Tasmanian egg producers was also convicted of animal cruelty. On at least 2 separate visits to Sun Valley Poultry a government inspector found hens crammed into tiny cages on top of the rotting corpses of their dead cage-mates, to the extent that they could not even stand properly. The inspector found another 27 dead birds left to rot in their cages; not to mention birds covered in manure; and one dead bird being cannibalised by a distressed cage-mate.

So it seems that the 'fresh food people' need a shake up. Rotting birds in tiny wire cages and dying, maggot-infested pigs is not what I'd call a 'high standard' of animal welfare! If this sort of cruelty and neglect on factory farms makes you sick, then let Woolworths know. And if you've already written once and weren't happy with their response (I certainly wasn't!) then here's a few tips for how you might respond to their letter.

I can hardly contain my excitement as I write this... There has been so much chatter about dairy-free chocolate on the forum recently that we thought we would share the love even further and give away some vegan chocolate.

That's right – FREE CHOCOLATE!

In fact, we've all gone a little chocolate-mad with two new chocolate gift packs for sale in the Unleashed shop. And believe me, there's a good reason they call them 'Constant Craving' truffles. If you want to impress someone, I promise you, the only thing you'll ever need to do is get them some of these...

Each pack includes five dreamy varieties including Jaffa Delight, Coffee, Scorched Almond, Coconut, and Apricot Dream.

Ok ok ok, back to the free chocolate :-) If you want to get your hands on free pack of these melt-in-your-mouth truffles simply leave a comment below and tell us why you deserve them. We'll send the most worthy candidate a chock-filled gift to satiate those constant cravings...

Update: most worthy chocoholics announced! Click here to find out who won.

If you're a 2DayFM listener you're probably aware by now of Kyle's "fat challenge". But if you're not, the self-admittedly rotund co-host of the Kyle and Jackie O show has accused the ever-gorgeous Jackie of being fat! (Yes, it's a topsy turvy world we live in).

It seems that Kyle is so concerned about Jackie's health and belt size that he's issued his vegetarian co-host a challenge: lose 4 Kg and he'll donate $5,000 to her favourite charity: Animals Australia! And if she fails...? Kyle says he'll give the $5,000 to a pig factory farm -- Jackie's worst nightmare!

Now, I don't know where this mic-slinging diva will even find 4 Kg to lose... but if anyone can do it for the pigs, I'm willing to bet that Jackie O can.

The outspoken radio personality and former Big Brother host has already shown her commitment to helping animals by not eating them. She also posted information on her website to inform listeners about the miserable lives of animals trapped in factory farms in Australia. Go Jackie!

Who do you think will win the fat challenge? You can have your say and pass on your encouragement to Jackie on the 2day fm website. :-)