For at least three long years, Nigel's "home" was a dark, waste-filled, and dank garage in Hampton, Virginia. Chained to a wall, the dog was never let out of the garage—ever—and was forced to live amid his own urine and feces.

The chain had become rusty and corroded after years of being dragged through his waste, and his feet were covered with sores and urine burns. His eyes oozed pus, probably from irritation caused by ammonia fumes from the urine-covered floor.

After the home was foreclosed on, Nigel's owner moved out—but Nigel was left behind. His owner stopped by occasionally to dump some kibble into a plastic tub. A compassionate neighbor alerted PETA's Community Animal Project to Nigel's plight, and our fieldworker, finding the elderly dog surrounded by pools of urine and piles of feces, unable to reach his food, and with only brackish water to drink, immediately got permission to free him from his prison and swore out cruelty charges. After taking Nigel outside to give him some food, she realized that his back legs were so atrophied from lack of exercise that he could barely stand.

Because of Nigel's advanced age, his many serious medical problems, and his having gone mad from years of solitary confinement in what was essentially a filthy, stinking cave, it was decided that this terrified old fellow had suffered enough, and he was euthanized to relieve his suffering.

This week, Nigel's owner went before a judge. After seeing the photographic evidence that PETA's fieldworker had provided of Nigel's horrific living conditions, the man pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced him to 90 days in prison but suspended the jail time as long as he stays out of trouble. He was also ordered to reimburse PETA for Nigel's medical care and, most importantly, was prohibited from ever owning animals again.

What You Can Do

If you ever suspect an animal is being abused or neglected, alert the authorities right away. Your call could free an animal like Nigel from solitary confinement and get his or her owner sentenced to jail instead.

For a dog, being forced to spend every night alone in the dark, locked inside a grimy auto-repair shop, would be bad enough. But Coco's situation was far worse. The tiny poodle was also almost constantly confined to a crate that was so full of dust, dirt, and feces that anyone looking at her would think that her fur was gray or brown—even though it had once been white.

When two patrons of the New Jersey garage spotted Coco on a frigid winter day, the shop was so cold that the water in her bowl had frozen solid. They asked for permission to give her a bath and fresh water and to take her for a walk. The owner agreed, and Coco relished every second of her freedom, sniffing everything in sight, playing with other dogs, and bounding about. The pair begged her owner to surrender her, but he refused, claiming that the crated, 15-pound dog "guarded" his shop. 

Undeterred, one of Coco's advocates contacted PETA. The owner wasn't willing to cooperate with us, either, so we tried a different tactic. We recruited several PETA supporters in the area to drop by the shop to check on Coco and suggest to her owner that she would be happier in a home. We also alerted the local police department, and officers helped by stopping by and talking to Coco's owner about her situation and whether it met legal standards.

Soon, tired of people "bothering" him, the owner turned Coco over to the police. Now she has a loving home, and her filthy crate is a distant memory.

Would you like to help dogs like Coco? Join PETA's Action Team to volunteer to assist animals in your area.

When a PETA staffer left her desk for a few minutes, she returned to find that the sweetest case of theft ever had occurred. The culprit was Franco, a 7-week-old puppy who is greatly increasing the office's cuteness quotient while he awaits his forever home.

When Franco was first surrendered to PETA, we feared that he might have parvovirus. Thankfully, it turned out that his lethargy and anemia were caused by a severe case of intestinal worms, and he is recovering nicely with treatment. And the better he feels, the more his rambunctious personality comes out to play. He stumbles around the office on his wobbly puppy legs, grabbing pant legs and skirt hems and making a toy out of everything.

Like most puppies, Franco has tons of energy. When he wants attention, he will readily let people know by following them around and "talking," and he rewards everyone's affection with a thousand kisses. He is searching for a family that will take him on long walks, give him plenty of playtime and attention, and housetrain him gently. If your home is the perfect place for Franco, please e-mail Adopt@peta.org.

Janice and her son, Jayke, didn't know where else to turn. Penelope, a dog they had adopted from an animal shelter, had gotten out of the yard, been hit by a car, and had injured her right front leg so severely that it dangled uselessly, all nerve sensation lost. Although she had been treated by a veterinarian after the accident, there was nothing more that could be done for her permanently nerve-damaged leg.

Unable to use the numb limb, Penelope simply dragged it around, and it quickly became covered with bleeding sores. The only solution was amputation, but Janice is a single mother on a limited budget who couldn't afford the surgery. Heartbroken, she and Jayke were faced with euthanizing their otherwise healthy, happy dog.

In a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, Jayke describes what happened next: "Finally, I called PETA to see if they could help. They agreed to do the amputation in their mobile clinic and worked with us to make the cost manageable—about a tenth of what I had been told by the vet it would cost me. They saved my Penelope's life and helped us when no one else would. I am forever grateful to PETA for all they have done."

Happy to oblige! We're just glad that Penelope is on the road to recovery and back to greeting Janice and Jayke at the door with her signature hugs, albeit minus an "arm."

What You Can Do

Please support PETA's no-cost to low-cost mobile spay/neuter clinics, which also provide low-cost vaccinations, flea treatment, and the occasional emergency surgery. Because the clinics offer services below cost, they operate at a loss and therefore rely on donations to keep the doors open and the wheels rolling. 

A driver in southern Georgia was shocked when she spotted a pitiful-looking dog hanging on for dear life to the top of a crate in the back of a pickup truck that was careening down the interstate. A heavy chain around the animal's neck that was hooked to the top of the crate looked as if it could have choked the dog, but it may well have been the only thing that kept the pup from flying onto the asphalt as the truck whizzed in and out of traffic. 

Thinking quickly, the woman immediately got behind the truck and snapped pictures of the dog and the vehicle's license plate. She was shocked to see that the dog was underweight, covered with wounds, and wearing a hunting vest. As soon as she got home, she contacted PETA and forwarded the pictures to us. 

PETA's Emergency Response Team traced the license plate to a county in Florida, a state that has a law against transporting animals inhumanely. Forcing a dog to try to hang on for fear of falling out of a speeding vehicle certainly qualifies, so PETA shared the evidence with law-enforcement officials without delay. 

In no time, officers were knocking on the teenage driver's door. He admitted that he had used the dog for hunting and then chained the animal in the back of the truck. The teen agreed to turn over the dog as well as five others and was sentenced to 150 hours of community service. The officers took the dogs to a local animal shelter, where they have been put up for adoption.

If you ever see an animal being cruelly transported in the back of a pickup truck, alert authorities. Even if it isn't specifically illegal in your area, you can still ask police to intervene, arguing that not only does it jeopardize the animal's safety, other drivers on the road could also be seriously injured or killed if the dog fell out and caused an accident. 

PETA gets requests from people for free doghouses for dogs of all shapes and sizes. But when our fieldworker laid eyes on 7-pound Chloe, she did a double take: This little dog was chained up outside! 

Unable to bear the thought that the tiny Chihuahua would spend the rest of her life outdoors simply because her guardians said that they couldn't housetrain her, our fieldworker decided something had to give. Small short-haired dogs like Chloe are especially susceptible to hot and cold weather, so she would be miserable outside. She might not even survive the upcoming hot summer months.

What a relief that Chloe's family agreed that she would be safer and happier indoors. When we ran an adoption ad, we heard from a sweet woman who had recently lost her Chihuahua because of complications from diabetes. Since our potential adopter described herself as a retired, "stay-at-home dog mom" able to housetrain her properly, we knew Chloe was in luck.

Sure enough, Chloe has mastered housetraining in her new home and is sticking to her new mom like glue, even claiming a satin pillow on the couch as her special spot. Sounds like the magnet on her new mom's refrigerator that reads, "I'm owned by a Chihuahua," isn't far off base.

In February, two PETA staffers volunteering with our Community Animal Project's straw-delivery program came upon a malnourished pit bull caged in a Portsmouth, Virginia, backyard, and living in filth. 

The pen in which Blackie was kept 24/7 was "wall-to-wall" trash, filth, and feces. There was no food, no drinkable water, and no adequate shelter from the elements. A bucket inside the pen contained disgusting, murky, partially frozen rainwater and algae. The only "shelter" available to Blackie on this cold and rainy day was half of a plastic doghouse turned upside-down. The man who identified himself as the person responsible for Blackie told our volunteers that he was looking to "get rid of the dog"—so we gladly obliged and whisked Blackie away. Blackie was elated to be out of his own waste and happily hopped right into our rescue van. He never looked back.

Dog Up (for Adoption), Abuser Down (by Law)

At PETA's shelter, Blackie enjoyed a heated room, a sofa to lounge on, fresh food and water (which he gobbled up!), and regular walks. He also got—no doubt for the first time ever—a bath. Our veterinarian found Blackie to be 20 percent underweight and suffering from a severe hookworm infestation. After a few days of treatment (and plenty of TLC) at PETA, Blackie—since renamed Jabber—was transferred to the Portsmouth Humane Society. He's gained 11 pounds since his rescue and now awaits adoption.

You'll be glad to know that Jabber's former owner isn't faring nearly so well: After PETA's witnesses testified in court, a judge found the man guilty of cruelty to animals, saying that he found the evidence "shocking" and that it was "no condition to keep a dog in." He was sentenced to pay a $250 fine and spend one month in jail and is also forbidden from owning "pets of any kind" for two years. If he does not maintain good behavior for two years, his sentence will increase to a $500 fine and six months in jail.

What You Can Do

Jabber is just one of the many dogs and cats who've had rough starts in life but are now ready for adoption at shelters. If you're looking to add an animal (or two) to your family, please give them the homes they so richly deserve—never buy animals from breeders or pet shops. And if you ever see an animal in distress, please, be ready to help. 

When people talk about PETA's euthanasia statistics, those aren't just abstract figures to me—my dog was one of those animals. Kodah, aka "Bug," was technically "taken into custody and euthanized within 24 hours." It was more like euthanized in minutes. That's because she was dying.

Kodah-Bug was diagnosed with cancer on a Friday and went downhill quickly. By 1 a.m. the next night, she was suffering, struggling to breathe. I called PETA, and without a moment's hesitation, someone met me at the building in the wee hours of the morning. The PETA staffers who are certified to perform euthanasia are the most caring, compassionate, gentle people I know. My sweet girl deserved the most peaceful and painless end possible. She found it at PETA.

Almost a year after Kodah's passing, a PETA worker found a dog running loose on the streets. She was a starving, terrified stray who had to be lured with food morsels over the course of several hours. I fostered Emma for several months, getting the word out by putting up fliers, posting her picture on social media, and blogging about her and her need for a good home. No takers. Luckily for her (and me), I was in a position to adopt her. What would have happened to Emma had PETA not rescued her?

PETA's euthanasia numbers are decried by "no-kill" fanatics and others in order to upset people. But behind those numbers, there are animals who need help, and they wouldn't get it elsewhere. No one seems to talk about the much higher numbers of animals helped by PETA's spay-and-neuter program—PETA has sterilized more than 90,000 animals for free or at a fraction of a standard vet's office fee since 2001, preventing millions of animals from being born into a world already overflowing with homeless ones. But those numbers aren't as "sexy." "PETA Saves Countless Dogs and Cats From Abandonment, Abuse, and Neglect" just doesn't have quite the same shock value.

Unfortunately, PETA's mobile spay-and-neuter clinics can't get to all the animals in need, and there just aren't enough good homes out there for the millions of animals who need them. The shelters are full, and people keep buying from breeders or giving up their animals when their lives change.

If you're angry about euthanasia, volunteer at an animal shelter or donate to PETA's spay-and-neuter efforts—go out and do something. No one should point fingers and complain because everyone is needed to do something good, to take action and make a difference.

Written by Kristen Stine

If you've ever wondered why we have a dog and cat overpopulation crisis, which is so bad that 6 to 8 million "pets" enter animal shelters every year—and that's not even counting the millions of strays who never make it to shelters—look no further than Halley. This mother dog was left to survive as best she could after her owners moved away and left her behind like an unwanted sofa on the curb.

Halley miraculously managed to survive by herself for several months until a passerby called PETA to report having seen her roaming the streets. She appeared to be nursing puppies, but neighbors who had heard the puppies crying weeks earlier hadn't heard a peep out of them in nearly a month. We feared the worst.

Our cruelty caseworker advised the passerby to set up a feeding station for Halley at a vacant home in order to discourage her from straying further away, and we got in touch with local members of Unchain Oklahoma, who set about trying to trap the skittish dog. When they arrived at the property to set up a humane box trap, they found the puppies hiding under the house.

The little ones were whisked off to a veterinarian. After several days, the volunteers managed to trap Halley, and she was spayed and reunited with her pups. The family—minus two puppies who have already been adopted—is being boarded while permanent homes can be found. (You can see more photos of them on Unchain Oklahoma's Facebook page.)

If you suspect that an animal has been abandoned or is being neglected or abused, please err on the side of compassion. Always call authorities. If you're mistaken, the worst that can happen is that you'll put a few more miles on an officer's odometer. And if the authorities don't respond, contact PETA.

The little dachshund was allowed to roam, and that's what he was doing when he probably got attacked by another dog, sustaining an eye injury that became painfully abscessed and swollen. Untreated, Slim's infected eye bulged grotesquely out of its socket.

When PETA learned about Slim, we pressured local animal control officials to compel the owner to get veterinary care for the suffering dog. The owner made a vet appointment, but the cost of the recommended surgery was beyond his means. When animal control told the owner that his only two options were to get Slim the surgery that he desperately needed or to surrender him to people who would, the owner relinquished him.

Within 72 hours, Slim had the surgery. Now, he is on the mend in a foster home, and as he awaits adoption, he is finally receiving the loving care and attention that every dog deserves.