As the BP oil-spill civil case unfolds in New Orleans, we thought this would be a good time to update you on some of the companion animals PETA rescued as people fled the region in the wake of the catastrophe. 

Disasters such as the one in the Gulf flood animal shelters with dogs and cats whose families lose their jobs or see their businesses go bust. With support from the fabulous Pamela Anderson, PETA workers drove a Winnebago carrying more than 40 homeless dogs and nearly 30 special-needs cats from New Orleans–area shelters to Virginia, where they were placed in permanent homes, including three who live in PETA's Norfolk headquarters, the Sam Simon Center. 

It's a testament to their resilient spirits that these animals have rebounded from abandonment and are now thriving in their new homes. Here's where some of them are now:

• Daisy: At 4 months old, this Chihuahua mix found her forever home in Washington, D.C., and will celebrate her third birthday next month. She instantly bonded with Chloe—another dog PETA rescued—and loves to play fetch and snuggle under the blankets.

• Duke and Buttercup: These Chihuahuas act like shadows of their new guardian, Amber, following her everywhere she goes and meeting her at the door every evening after work. Both dogs delight in the companionship of Amber's two children and Nikita, a mutt rescued by PETA during another disaster, Hurricane Irene. 

• Bubbles, Brandi, and Marshall: These three have become the beloved feline residents of the Sam Simon Center. Bubbles' expertise is in intercepting tossed balls of paper, while Brandi proudly carries around a rubber lizard. And although Marshall is missing a leg, that doesn't stop him from playing "King of the Castle" with the other two on their multistory cat tree.

PETA's rescue work is made possible by the support of kind people like you. To help PETA save animals in danger, become a member today.

In August 2012, PETA was contacted by a whistleblower who had been volunteering for several months as an animal care assistant for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator operating out of her Florida home. Cruelty Investigations Department staffers urged the whistleblower to document her report that ill, injured, and orphaned wild animals taken into the home were living in utter squalor and that the rehabilitator left animals to languish without food or water.

Wretched 'Rehab'

The shocking conditions depicted in footage taken by the whistleblower over the course of three weeks included the following:

• A hairless baby raccoon was lying on top of a scale, inside a cluttered office without heat or bedding. Two days later, the same animal, then near death, was in the same place.
• Numerous baby squirrels, rabbits, and raccoons were stashed inside boxes or on top of the boxes with no obvious heat source. Later, the animals were in the same spots, badly dehydrated and dying—or dead.
• A live juvenile squirrel was wrapped inside a plastic bag and stashed behind several boxes.
• The rehabber's refrigerator contained, at times, 30 or more unwrapped bodies of juvenile rabbits, squirrels, and raccoons inside the door and in tubs.
• A barred owl was stranded in a bathtub, surrounded by her own waste.
• Turtles were kept for days inside boxes that didn't appear to have been opened, with no sign that the animals were provided with food or water.
• A river otter was housed in a small pen with only a little kid's pool as a source of water for drinking and swimming.
• About a dozen deer were penned inside a debris-strewn yard amid trash, animal crates, construction materials, and a boat.

Demanding Justice

PETA alerted state and federal wildlife officials, sparking an investigation whose findings corroborated the whistleblower's reports and led to the confiscation of numerous suffering turtles, tortoises, and birds.

With PETA pushing for action, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission filed 23 charges against the rehabber for animal neglect, improper animal housing, and unsanitary conditions. The state attorney's office also charged her with one count of maintaining wildlife in unsanitary conditions.

Following a plea bargain, the woman ceased the pretense of rehabilitating animals, and the survivors were removed from her care for release back into the wild or transfer to other facilities better equipped to meet their needs.

What You Can Do

Even well-meaning animal rescuers can become overwhelmed. Worse, many out-of-control hoarders use rescue as a pretext, causing massive suffering for the animals who fall into their hands. If you become aware of animals suffering in a supposed rescue or rehab facility, please document conditions with a camera or camera phone and report the perpetrators to local authorities. 

With so many out-of-control hoarders claiming to be animal rescuers, "rescue" has become a buzzword to beware of—especially when combined with irresponsible "no-kill" promises. The strength of their compulsion also makes it vital that, when convicted, hoarders be stopped from possessing any animals in the future in order to break the cycle of abuse.

The latest reminder comes from Alabama, where Sharlotte Marie Adams, the operator of Animal Aid and Rescue Resources Inc., and her husband were arrested after a complaint was filed alleging misuse of funds and other donations to the "organization." When police searched the Adamses' home, site of the purported rescue, they reportedly discovered atrocious conditions. Andalusia Animal Shelter Director Christin Ball, whose staff is rehabilitating and housing some of the seized animals, said this about their condition:

They were all sick. There's one that we're not sure if he's going to make it or not. They've had no care whatsoever. It's sad. She claimed she'd taken them to the vet, but no one had.

Law-enforcement officials suspect that Adams exploited people's "generosity by using cash donations – solicited under the guise of treating sick animals – to pay for personal items such as electric bills and groceries for the family."

The couple was reportedly booked on charges of theft, endangering the welfare of a child, and cruelty to animals. But while police may have been shocked by what they found inside the house, PETA's investigations often reveal nightmarish conditions at many so-called "rescue" facilities, such as Caboodle Ranch and Sacred Vision. And, as in those cases, it will be critical to seek a prohibition on animal ownership as part of the penalty if the Adamses are convicted.

What You Can Do

If you learn of any hoarding case—whether posing as a rescue or not—please contact the prosecuting agency and/or attorney's office to ensure that any sentence or plea bargain include a clause forbidding the hoarder from owning or possessing animals.

We've learned, haven't we, when you are told "You're a winner!" that there's some fine print and a catch. The same is true with the magic words that imply that dogs and cats are winners, too: "no kill"! Here, too, there is fine print, and it can be much more damaging than finding that you are being billed for a subscription you didn't want. The fact is that many limited-admission shelters, now often given the great-sounding, dressed-up title "no-kill shelter," actually hurt animals every single day. Not necessarily the ones they take in, who may or may not be well cared for, but rather, the ones they don't. The animals someone else has to decide what to do with or who just end up abandoned or worse when the "no-kill" shelter is full, as it inevitably is. 

These glorious-sounding shelters generally turn away many more animals than they accept, picking, choosing, and admitting only the youngest, healthiest, prettiest, and most adoptable, if any, because on most days, they will tell all comers, "We're full." The rest are sent away to suffer on the streets or to be left in the hands of people who don't want them. Some "no-kills" do accept animals when they shouldn't, by which I mean when their facilities are already crammed beyond capacity, subjecting all of the shelter's tenants to crowded, unsanitary conditions, illness, and often a painful death from parvovirus or from fighting. And if the animals they do take in are not adopted, many so-called "no-kill" shelters warehouse them in cages for years, unwanted and unloved, even after they are driven "cage crazy" from the stress of confinement. I've seen them sit with their back to visitors, withdrawn into a world of depression and lost hope.

"No-kill" advocates are quick to throw stones at open-admission shelters, which offer refuge to every animal who comes through their doors and euthanize animals when they are not adoptable, when they run out of appropriate living space for them, or when the animals brought in are injured, aggressive or gravely ill. So in return, PETA is quick to expose the cracks in the rosy picture that "no-kills" try to paint. Here are just a few of the recent additions to our long, ever-expanding list of "no-kill" failures that cause animals to suffer: 

September 13, 2012/Corpus Christi, Texas: Area animal shelters report that they are filled to capacity and that homeless, roaming animals in the area are at “epidemic” levels. The shelter director at no-kill "Pee Wee's Pet Adoption World and Sanctuary" stated, "I get 75 calls a day, and people get angry because I can't take 75 animals a day .… If you multiply 75 times 365 days a year, I would have to take in 27,000 plus animals a year." The Gulf Coast Humane Society director reports that his shelter "turn[s] people away right and left."

July 20, 2012/Northeast Mississippi: Area open-admission animal shelters are suffering from the effects of some private shelters' picking and choosing in order to limit admissions in a ploy to call themselves "no-kill" for fundraising appeals. A local news outlet reported that, while the [no-kill] policy keeps current shelter residents alive, it limits the number of pets those facilities can house and means new arrivals routinely are turned away. Some then are "dumped alongside roads, abandoned at a neighbor's house or shot and killed," according to representatives of no-kill shelters citing what jilted pet owners have told them. The writer spoke with a woman taking three unwanted dogs to an open-admission shelter and whose husband had made his family's options and intentions clear: "It was either that or shoot them."

July 17, 2012/Willis, Texas: "Considered one of the country's [premier] sanctuaries for pit bulls," was the no-kill Spindletop Dog Refuge was raided by authorities who seized approximately 300 pit bulls found in tiny plastic carriers with no water and unable to fully stand up. Some dogs were seen drinking their own urine and a police news report revealed that "[o]ne dog's feet were so scalded it was laying on its back in its own urine in feces, presumably to take the pain off of its feet."

As long as outspoken "no-kill" proponents continue to criticize open-admission shelters even in the face of the animal homelessness crisis, PETA will continue to save animals by exposing "no-kills" for what they really are: "slow-kills."

Anyone who has a hard time understanding why PETA hasn't hopped onto the "no-kill" bandwagon should have a look at this long list of failures of limited-admission (i.e., "no-kill") shelters and rescues. There have been so many raids, busts, and seizures that we can't even be sure that we have kept up with them all.

Rescued From a 'Rescue'?

One of the latest tragedies comes from Muncie, Indiana, where 63 dogs and puppies were seized from a single-story house operating as "Adopt a Lab Rescue and Adoption." Living conditions were so foul that one official characterized it as being "like a dungeon in the basement."  Some of the dogs had reportedly been bought from a "broker." This same facility had also been raided in 2010, when 30 dogs were removed because of poor conditions, including keeping animals in crates without food or water for up to 21 hours a day.

Limited Admission, Limited Compassion

No one wants to euthanize animals, least of all people who dedicate their lives to helping them. And we should all be deeply upset that in this day and age, shelters must still resort to euthanasia—but breeding and buying animals from pet shops is still legal (in most places)! The reality is that there are more animals in need of homes than there are people ready to adopt them. Even if we could build enough shelters to hold all of them, these animals need real homes and families to love them. They can't be warehoused forever just to make us feel better.

Euthanasia prevents suffering—it is, by definition, humane. But turning away animals in need of shelter is anything but humane. Forcing animals to exist in cages, joyless, for months or years or their entire lives, is inhumane, too, as is allowing animals to suffer in squalor, loneliness, deprivation, and illness.  

What You Can Do

There is an answer, and it lies in prevention! We can reduce euthanasia and the need for it by taking the smart, effective approach: animal birth control (ABC). Please start an ABC campaign in your community, and never be silent when animals are at risk.

Today marks PETA's 32nd birthday. Over the past three decades, PETA has saved countless animals from abusive situations. Here are just a few of the animals we will never forget and who can thank the millions of supporters who make the work of PETA and its affiliates possible:

Ruby

© PETA

Ruby was adopted into a loving home after a PETA undercover investigation at Professional Laboratory and Research Services, Inc., got the workers indicted on felony cruelty-to-animals charges, the 250 dogs and cats at the facility surrendered, and the place shut down!

Coming Home

© Kip Malone

Coming Home, a horse used for racing, was sold to a meat buyer when she stopped winning races and was hours from being sent to slaughter when PETA rescued her.

Ruby and Rusty

© Wendy Cassidy/Phoenix Herpetological Society

After a PETA investigation got international exotic-animal dealer U.S. Global Exotics shut down, a record-breaking 26,000 animals were seized, including Ruby and Rusty, two kinkajous, who were sent to the beautiful, spacious Phoenix Herpetological Society sanctuary.

Jerry

© Rachel Cobb

Crippled, nearly blind from an eye infection, and infested with lice, Jerry was rescued in the nick of time by a PETA investigator from a dairy factory farm and retired to a spacious sanctuary for lots of long-overdue TLC.

Parineeta

© Sean Noronha

PETA India staffers rescued Parineeta from the side of the road, where she had been abandoned with a broken leg after spending years hauling building materials for railroads. She now lives in the beautiful Nilgiri hills with other retired working animals.

Nudge  

© PETA

Nudge spent nearly 10 years confined to a tiny cage in a filthy "no-kill" warehouse. A PETA investigation got the hoarder shut down and the animals removed forever. Now Nudge has a wonderful home and all the snuggling that she can handle.

Miranda

© PETA

Miranda's owner was going to eat Miranda and her sisters until a PETA staffer came along and talked the man out of the idea. Now, instead of being on the dinner table, Miranda and her siblings happily run and play around it—and the rest of the house.

Alaska

© PETA

Alaska was forced to live in a cramped cage and perform for the Suarez Bros. Circus in temperatures that topped 100 degrees, until a PETA complaint resulted in her confiscation by the federal government. She was retired to a comfortable compound at the Baltimore Zoo, where she could play with a formerly lonely male polar bear.

Pancake

© PETA

Pancake lived in one filthy tank after another, and no one knew how to fulfill even the most basic of his turtle needs. A PETA staffer discovered Pancake's appalling living conditions and had him sent to a sanctuary.

Gracie

© PETA

Gracie's first owner bought her to feed to a snake, but Gracie was too big. A PETA staffer adopted her, and now sweet Gracie loves to go outside to play with her adopted rabbit sisters.

Sheena

© Alan T. Smith

After Sheena's reluctant guardian surrendered the mutt to a Utah animal shelter, Sheena was purchased by the University of Utah for use in experiments. Sheena's guardian alerted PETA, and we were able to get Sheena out of the laboratory and stop all seizures of dogs and cats from Utah pounds.

Puff

© PETA

Someone burned the beaver lodge in which beaver Puff lived and shot the beavers as they fled. That's how Puff found himself in the yard of a kind couple who located a wildlife rehabilitator for him. PETA's wildlife biologist drove Puff the eight hours to the rehabilitator, who nurtured him until he could be released.

Dovi

© PETA

Dovi was a sick and malnourished puppy, abandoned along a rural road in North Carolina when PETA's Community Animal Project workers found him. Now, he is a happy, healthy dog who loves harmonica music and bounding about in the dog park.

Muff

© Chip Vinai

Muff spent 15 years in a tiny cage at a roadside zoo with nothing to do but pace endlessly back and forth. But just two days after PETA rescuers took him to the Texas Snow Monkey Sanctuary, he had stopped pacing and made friends with a female baboon.

Herman

© Peter V. Chetirkin

Herman was abandoned on the beach near PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters. Knowing that the warm-weather animal would never survive the winter, a PETA staffer arranged for him to be transported to a Florida wildlife sanctuary.

Cem and Zoe

© PETA

Cem, Zoe, and four other geese were found languishing in muddy ponds on a run-down property. PETA took them in, and now the six friends float on two large and beautiful ponds on wooded property at a sanctuary for rescued waterfowl.

Tulip

© PETA

During an undercover investigation at a University of North Carolina laboratory, PETA found mice and rats suffering from gaping wounds, tumors, and other illnesses and injuries. One of them was sweet Tulip, a mouse whom the investigator took home with her to live safely forever.

To be a part of the next 32 years of animal rescues, become a PETA member today. 

Jennifer Aniston is proving that dogs may very well be the best dates. Much like her character in Marley and Me, Jen is a devoted guardian. Her four-legged love bugs, Norman and Dolly, are a constant presence on her movie sets and are often seen taking walks with her on the beach. Both rescues, Norman is a 15-year-old Welsh corgi-terrier mix, and Dolly is a creamy white 4-year-old German shepherd.

"Really, the most unconditional form of love that you can encounter is with a dog," the actor raves. "They're excited the minute you come home, and they show the same amount of excitement every day. They're loyal, and they're always, always faithful." We didn't interview Jennifer's dogs, but we're sure that the sweet sentiments are mutual.

Written by Michelle Sherrow