It's Halloween time! Which means lots of talk of witches, ghosts, werewolves, zombies, bats, rats and black cats ... spoooooky!

But rather than fearing the animals traditionally associated with Halloween, I want us all to remember how awesome these creepy creatures really are and why we should love 'em! (Let's face it, this ain't gonna be a tough task!)

While in the US, black cats have the lowest adoption rates from shelters than any other colour, in Scotland it's believed owners of black cats will have lots of good luck and, shall we say, suitors. So single Scottish gals are reaping the benefits of having black moggies around the house!

Far from being scary symbols of vampires, bats are considered good luck in Poland and in China they are signs of happiness and prosperity. And let's not forget what would have become of Gotham City without Batman around to save the day!

Here in the Western world there's tales of werewolves coming out when the moon appears (and the Twilight stories aren't helping dispel this myth!), in Japan, wolves are considered to be Gods, where grain farmers even pray to wolves at shrines, asking them to protect their crops.

In China, the rat is the first sign of the zodiac, and if you're born under this sign you are said to be intelligent, creative, generous and honest. Funny then, that in Western cultures, dishonest people are called 'dirty rats'! In India, it's considered a blessing to eat food that has been touched by rats ... now I love all animals, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna take a long time for that idea to catch on here, if ever!

Thankfully owls have managed to overcome their reputation of being 'bringers in death' as they're known in Africa. Today owls are symbols of wisdom. And of course, Harry Potter's beautiful Hedwig has shown us they're pretty good at delivering messages too!

All this talk of superstitions and cultural beliefs has got me feeling all inspired. When the kids come trick or treating at my door tonight, I'm gonna be all ready with my cruelty free white chocolate bites and witches' fingers (no, even witches don't get harmed in the making of these!).

That is as soon as I adopt a black cat to keep me company and attract lots of ... um ... protectors to my house for Halloween! ;)

With so many inspiring animal activists in the Unleashed Community, it's high time we announced another Activist Challenge winner and there have been many worthy nominations!

So without further ado, congratulations to our most recent Activist Challenge winner, HannahJane for informing and inspiring others in her community to make a difference for animals.

A passionate vegetarian, Hannah has been busy spreading the word about how to combat cruelty. She's convinced her bestie to go veg, did a powerful powerpoint presentation to her school on factory farming (with plans to do the same at other schools), has gotten Animals Australia's petitions into local busniesses and collected hundreds of signatures, and more...

We take our hats off to Hannah for making a big difference for the animals. For her superb efforts, Hannah has scored herself an Unleashed prize pack.

I can't wait to see more of the excellent entries to the challenge! Tell us your story now to be next in line to score kudos and goodies ;)

Check out these fabulous photos of our Rise Against Comp winner Timothy with his feathered friends! Wouldn't it be wonderful if all chooks could enjoy this kind of life. Have you ever seen happier hens?
Cheers for the pics, Tim!

The other lucky winners were Jen, Darth Vegan, and Arieluxable. Congratulations guys! Guard the autographed Unleashed T shirts with your life (and no, we wouldn't advise wearing it to the Big Day Out!) ;)

Big thanks go to the Rise Against guys for being so generous and happy to speak up for animals. In case you missed the band's exclusive interview, here it is for you to enjoy:

Don't fret if you didn't win this awesome comp, 'cause we love to give away goodies and signed stuff from awesome artists. Make sure you enter to win a copy of the new book 'Meat is for Pussies', from Cro-Mags front man and author John Joseph. Don't forget to enter the free stickers giveaway this month too!

So keep checking back to Unleashed to win cool stuff, and remember we LOVE seeing your photos posted to the community too!

It seems even Jamie Oliver thought World Veg Week was worth celebrating! The Naked Chef has announced plans to publish "one big massive, mammoth" vegetarian cookbook! I can hear my pots and pans rattling as we speak!

This will be his 17th cookbook and the reason it's going to be so huge is because it incorporates a lot of recipes from his previous 16 books which he says are around 60-65% vegetarian anyway. Who knew? I had a quick squiz at his website, and sure enough the list of vegetarian recipes was miles longer than the others. Nice one Jamie!

You may know that in the past this culinary connoisseur has raised awareness on the horrific conditions animals endure inside factory farms in his TV specials 'Jamie's Fowl Dinners' and 'Jamie Saves Our Bacon', and this book may be just the thing to convince some fence-sitting meat-eaters how simple it is to go veg for life!

According to Jamie, "Vegetarian as a general concept is a brilliant thing. We've got to stop eating so much meat. We are eating too much meat."

We most certainly are. Worse still, is that while innocent animals are paying the ultimate price for our appetites, we are harming the planet and compromising our own health at the same time. So the more veg cookbooks, the better!

I hope this new cookbook flies off the shelves Harry Potter style, outselling all Jamie's other books. That might prove that he could ditch the meat for good and keep everyone (including the animals) happy!

Hand me the wooden spoon!