The demand for eco friendly and organic products is ever growing, and it can be easier than you think to incorporate green living into your everyday life. As a nation of animal lovers, we can make sure that both the essentials, and little luxuries for our beloved pets are a step in the right direction to becoming conscientious owners. Let your pet go green!

No lame stereotypes of lentils and sandals here. No sir-ee. Yesterday saw sexy Vegetarians in Chilli Pepper Bikinis spice up Capitol Hill in the US.

Model Vida Guerra joined PETA's sexy senoritas in a vegetarian Chilli dog giveaway - and I bet there were a few takers.

Wearing nothing but a Chilli-pepper bikini, the men's magazine model and vegetarian Vida Guerra handed out veggie treats in front of the Capitol building.

The event marked National Veggie Dog Day, PETA's answer to the meat industry's National Hot Dog Month.

PHOTO:WENN.com

You may know her best as Corrie's killer Tracy Barlow but actress Kate Ford shows, her, er softer side in this ad for PETA with the slogan 'Bare Skin, not Bear Skin' which has been designed to highlight the way that bears in Canada suffer to make the Queen's Guards bearskin caps.

Kate Ford, who makes her return to Weatherfield tonight at grandmother Blanche's funeral, says: "I would never have dreamed of posing nude, but when PETA showed me the footage of the bears being shot and skinned just for the sake of these ornamental Guards' caps, I decided to be brave and show some of my skin in the hope that the MoD will let the bears keep theirs.

"The cowardly hunters even bait the bears with food before ambushing them. When mother bears are killed, their cubs are left to slowly starve to death. This breaks my heart. I think it is despicable of the MoD to use taxpayers' money to fund this cruelty overseas when there are synthetic faux furs available."

The ad is part of PETA's campaign to persuade the Ministry of Defence to stop killing bears for the Buckingham Palace Guards' ceremonial headwear. The ad was shot by ace photographer Karl Grant, and follows a recent campaign for PETA featuring former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.

For more information visit PETA website.

I really don't know how I feel about Pamela Anderson being a spokesperson for PETA. On the one hand I guess it's great publicity for a great cause, on the other it's someone who is most famous for running up and down a beach half naked, appearing in leaked sex tapes and soon to be making her panto debut in Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Oh yes she is.

Last week Pamela Anderson became the latest star to appear in a "Save the Seals" T-shirt outside the Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto. The annual massacre of baby seals in Canada is the largest mass killing of marine mammals in the world. During the annual massacre, sealers shoot these gentle animals or bash their heads in, and the baby seals are often skinned alive while their wailing mothers helplessly watch. Nice.

The European Union and the US have banned seal products, and world leaders - including Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama - have spoken out against the massacre.

Much as they may protest at the accolate, the Pet Shop Boys have become a British institution. But PETA recently got in touch with the duo to ask them to do away with over 20 years of pop history, and change their name to something more animal-friendly.

What snappy new band name did PETA suggest? Read on after the jump to find out...

Easter is on its way, and like any holiday, it brings with it a host of ethical dilemmas. If you're planning on tucking into a chocolate egg there are all the usual waste issues to consider, and are you're going to spend your hard-earned cash on fairtrade and/or organic eggs for you and your family this year? But even if you're going to stick to good old chuckie eggs, you're not off the hook, even if you always insist on buying free range.

Apparently, our greed for extra large eggs is causing untold misery and suffering to our national brood (and Lord knows hens seem to suffer enough already). The fairly obvious reason being that - as Tom Vesey, of the British Free Range Producers' Association put it,'it can be painful for a hen to lay a larger egg'.

Related: Free-range outsell battery eggs for the first time | Chicken Out: Would you buy battery again?

PETA members really love getting their kits off, and what better time to bare all than right before the most romantic day of the year?

PETA's task for the today is to put shoppers off buying cruelly-produced Foie Gras in Selfridges' posh deli. In nothing but their undies, they converged outside the store carrying heart shaped signs bearing the slogan "Have a Heart - Drop Foie Gras". They'll be spending the rest of today giving out vegan chocolates and roses and calling on Selfridges to follow the example of Waitrose, House of Fraser, Sainsbury's and most other British grocery chains, which have pulled foie gras from their shelves.

Related: Albert Roux says 'non' to foie gras

In their natural state, chickens are covered with brightly coloured feathers to keep them warm in winter, but when they've been cramped in cages and fed an unnatural diet, birds can start to look decidedly peaky. That's why animal-loving UK knitters have been whipping up smart chicken costumes for our not-so feathered friends, ensuring that rescued birds keep warm (and stylish) in their new lease of life.

Both the Women's Institute and Battery Hen Welfare Trust have got involved in the unusual design challenge, which was kick-started by Laughing Hens. The bodywarmers go to birds that have been rescued from battery farms up and down the country. [Via Crafty Crafty]

Related: Chicken Out: Would you buy battery again? | UK chefs declare war on cruel chicken farming methods

One of the interesting things about the credit crunch is not the ways it changes people's behaviour, but the ways it doesn't. Let's look back to a year ago, when we were all rolling in money. If you can remember that far back, you'll recall that it was considered far more 'normal' to buy expensive coffee on the way in to work than it is now - and that's no real surprise. Expensive coffee is something we can all live without.

But there are some things that haven't changed: expenses that we still justify, whether we can really 'afford' them or not. And according to a source of mine at a major UK supermarket chain, the one are that customers are still prepared to shell out is 'welfare food'; free range meat, poultry and dairy products in particular.

Related: Enjoy an alternative Christmas dinner | Would you buy battery again?

Albert Roux, one of the world's most influential French chefs has spoken out against the methods used to produce foie gras, not only condemning them as inhumane, but putting forward the idea that packets should carry labels similar to cigarette health warnings, alerting would-be consumers to the plight of birds reared to make the paté.

Instead of using traditional force-feeding methods, Roux has said that geese will 'gorge themselves' naturally under the right conditions, and that this is how the product should be made. His comments have been welcomed by Compassion in World Farming, who issued their pleasure at hearing the objections to the French delicacy coming from the mouth of a French chef; a rare occurrence in the fight against animal cruelty.

Aussie songbird Natalie Imbruglia has joined the campaign to stop using fur, by posing for a new advert for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She is the latest celeb to front the campaign, following in the footsteps of Eva Mendes, Shirley Manson, and Pamela Anderson. For the ad, Imbruglia is photographed nude holding a rabbit in front of her called Topsy. Speaking out on the issue, she says: "There is no kind way to rip the skin off animals' backs. Anyone who wears any fur shares the blame for the torture and gruesome deaths of millions of animals each year."

I'm already a big fan of Urban Decay, thanks to their outstanding commitment to animal welfare, and of course their strong, dazzling colours. And now they've brought out a minerals range as well as greening up their packaging, they're hitting my eco-friendly radar as well.

Surreal Skin is the name they've picked for their new mineral foundation; a light covering base with a subtle shimmer. Kiss and Makeup's Zara gave it a go, and liked the fact that when you rub it in you can layer on the makeup for a deeper look, and it has a very nice finish, with smallish shiny particles that are light reflective.

Follow the jump for Zara's review

Related: Urban decay get greener with new eco packaging | Hippyshopper ethical beauty roundup

From our fashion blog, Catwalk Queen...

Last week Catwalk Queen reported how Kate Winslet rejected claims that her Vanity Fair shoot was airbrushed. Now, the actress has been forced to deny that she knowingly wore fur in the photo-shoot, insisting that she thought the garment was fake. Posing provocatively in Agent Provocateur stockings, YSL heels and an £11,500 silver fox fur throw, Winslet has admitted that she was misled into wearing the fur.

Committed vegan and not-afraid-to-get-her-hands-bloody type Chrisse Hynde (left, click image to enlarge) has recently done a Q&A with the delightfully-monikered Fish & Chimps, PETA Europe's very own blog.

The conversation doesn't contain a great many surprises for those familar with The Pretenders frontwoman's career as an activist, although it is interesting to hear her restate that her music career is of secondary importance in her life:

"I consider myself an animal activist first and my music as more of a hobby that gives me a platform to fight for animals."

Hynde goes on to select the highlights of her life as an animal activist and share her views on PETA's "provactive" tactics, while over on PETA's main site are a couple of new Pretenders tracks - from new album Break Up The Concrete - available for streaming.

Read the PETA blog Q&A here

Check out The Pretenders' new tracks here

To many of us, the idea that shaving and preening an animal then forcing it to trot around an obstacle course in front of hundreds of odd people is cruel seems like a bit of a no-brainer. But it was not until this week that two of the UK's leading animal charities publically withdrew their support for Crufts amid growing concern over the ethics of breeding pedigree dogs. The Dogs Trust joined the RSPCA yesterday in condemning techniques that it says do not put dogs' interests first...

[picture source: Getty]