The Food and Drug Administration just lowered the age at which girls can get the Plan B oral contraceptive without a prescription to 15. Critics argue that that's too young, but PETA insists that birth control should start as early as 8 weeks—for puppies and kittens. It's called "prepubescent sterilization," and to illustrate our point, we're planning to place this billboard in Oklahoma, which has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country: 

iStockphoto.com/Kati Neudert

Animals can't unwrap a condom, open a package of birth control pills, or walk into a pharmacy and request Plan B. So responsible animal guardians should start their young charges off on the right paw—by spaying and neutering them as soon as possible. This prevents "oops" litters before guardians realize that the animals are sexually mature. Cats, for example, can become pregnant as young as 4 months old.

Sterilization ensures that your animal companions won't contribute to the animal-overpopulation crisis. Just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce 370,000 kittens.

Early spaying and neutering has health benefits, too: It reduces animals' risk of some forms of cancer and other diseases. A study by the University of Georgia found that spayed and neutered dogs live an average of about a year and a half longer than unaltered animals.

Don't let your animal companions qualify for the next Teen Mom cast: Spay and neuter them. 

Why are the staffers at the Sam Simon Center—PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters—having a hard time getting their work done right now? Because two little pups are making for one big distraction.

Daisy and Cupcake are as beautiful and sweet as their names suggest. They were given up by someone whose dachshund and Chihuahua didn't get "fixed," which resulted in several "oops" litters. 

And now at the PETA office, they are making for several "Oops, I've gotta get back to work" moments. What starts out as a brief trip to the kitchen or copier more often than not involves a detour to take Daisy and Cupcake for a walk or give them a tummy rub—both of which the pups love. The staffers who are seated near the "Daisy and Cupcake room" have resorted to earplugs to block out the near-constant squeals of delight from employees and pups.

So now, we are searching for the ideal home for the two—preferably together! Cupcake is about 3 months old, and even though she's still a tad shy, she's showing glimpses of that typical puppy personality: playful and always ready to make new friends. Daisy is about a year and a half old and is a bit more reserved. She would appreciate having a patient family who can coax her out of her shell.

These charming girls are crazy about each other, and we'd like them to go to a home together.  And as always, PETA will provide spay surgeries, vaccinations, and microchips. If your family can give Daisy and Cupcake the forever home that they deserve—and meet our rigorous adoption standards—please e-mail Adopt@peta.org.

Little Olivia was found in a warehouse district and brought to PETA by a distraught worker. She needed round-the-clock veterinary care to treat an infection that almost left her blind, anemia so severe that she was a candidate for a blood transfusion, and advanced malnutrition. Soon, Olivia slowly started to regain her strength. She had clearly been someone's companion since she was spayed and declawed, but she wound up wandering about by herself and no one knew why. PETA ran ads, but no one responded to them or to the "found animal" reports that we filed or to our fliers. Her background remains a mystery. 

Despite everything that she had endured, Olivia still loved humans, especially the devoted PETA fieldworker who spent the night on the floor with her the first few nights of her sojourn with us. We wanted to make sure that her gentle spirit and seemingly endless desire for affection would never be taken for granted again. Even though we placed Olivia's picture and an appeal to adopt her on the front page of PETA's website, alerted our members and supporters through Facebook, and put fliers around town, we didn't find a suitable adopter. Luckily, a PETA staffer who had taken her in to foster decided that the precious cat should stay. She loves her feline brother, Clyde, who is also a PETA rescue. 

Although some people can pay top dollar for a Yorkshire terrier, that doesn't always mean that the little dog will have a great home. And poor Benny certainly didn't. PETA found him dodging traffic on a dangerous street and took him to our headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. He had a collar but no tags or microchip, and again, although we filed reports and posted fliers and ads, no one bothered to claim him.

Even though Yorkies are popular, Benny had been through enough, and not just anyone who wanted a cute tiny dog would make a suitable adopter. It took a lot of looking for a home, but thanks to a local vet clinic, PETA found a retired couple who had just had to euthanize one of their two Yorkies because of old age and failing health. When we visited with the family at their home, they fit Benny to a T, and Benny is now helping the other dog stop grieving.

It isn't easy to find decent, lasting homes for animals—not just homes where they will be sheltered, fed, walked, and sometimes petted but homes where animals are respected members of the family. Every animal deserves companionship, excellent vet care, playtime, fun outings to the park or beach (for dogs), and a peaceful, painless release when their lives have come to an end. PETA won't compromise our standards and send an animal into a substandard home just to make our adoption rates look good.

So, can you help? We are now searching for the perfect home for Bea. She was found wandering the streets, and although she is in good health and thus likely hasn't been on her own for long, no one seems to want to claim her. 

Bea is a calm, sweet beagle-Chihuahua mix who weighs about 25 pounds. She is young and housetrained. She gets along well with children and other dogs and would be happiest with someone who is often home. She is irresistible. 

If you think that your family is the perfect adoptive family for Bea and you would like to help with our next success story, please e-mail us at Adopt@peta.org.

Back in February, PETA sent out a news release about the number of sick, injured, elderly, and otherwise unadoptable animals we had to euthanize during the previous year. PETA openly publishes these figures every single year and simultaneously calls on the government and citizens to help promote anti-chaining ordinances (many of the dogs our caseworkers encounter are aggressive or horrifically neglected after having been chained outside for their entire lives), to help reduce the cost of euthanasia of old and ill animals who belong to people with a low income (these account for many of the animals PETA helps), and to implement sterilization programs and laws to reduce the homeless-animal crisis.

In other words, old news is now being regurgitated with a vindictive spin by—among others—a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters that kill millions of animals every year—and which do so not out of compassion but out of greed. Before falling prey to the hysteria, please have a look at BermanExposed.org and ConsumerDeception.com.

PETA's statistics are also often used, as they are being used now, in a truly perverted way by some "no-kill" evangelists to try to turn people away from the "evil" of what is actually a dignified, merciful release from suffering. They never give a complete picture, and they always use inflammatory language and labels like "puppies" and "kittens," even if the animal was a 17-year-old dog who was unable to breathe properly because of a heart condition. Such people are sure that if you shuffle enough animals around from shelters to hoarders' basements or just throw stones at shelter workers and call them "psycho" and so on, people will join their number. But they offer no realistic solution to the multiple tragic problems associated with easily acquired and easily discarded "pets."

Anyone who reads our website or receives our newsletters, in which we discuss this issue regularly, knows that PETA has a division that does hands-on work with animals. We run a shelter but in the most merciful way. We help—because no one else will—the animals who are society's rejects in the area near our Virginia headquarters. These animals are aggressive, feral, on death's door (often with large tumors hanging from their bodies), or otherwise unadoptable. We have published many blog posts about our caseworkers' heartbreaking work over the years, and more information can be found at PETASaves.com. 

It's important to note that the figures used by anti-PETA campaigners are deliberately chosen because they are just the euthanasia figures. They do not include perspective—i.e., the more than 10,000 dogs and cats PETA provided with no-cost to low-cost spay and neuter surgeries and other veterinary services in the last 12 months alone, the hundreds of animals delivered to large high-traffic shelter facilities for adoption, the counseling and aid services that PETA provides in order to enable people to keep and properly care for their animals, and the animals we have put up for adoption, like the cat currently featured on our website, whom we nursed back to (almost) good health and who is still seeking a permanent home.

The "no-kill" shelters in the area surrounding PETA's headquarters, like many such places that sing the "no-kill" refrain for fundraising purposes, actually not only refuse admission to animals (because they are constantly "too full") and reject dogs and cats who are injured, sick, or dying but also refer these "undesirable" animals to PETA, which bears the veterinary or euthanasia costs. For more information on this topic, visit PETASaves.com.

People who are shocked to learn how many healthy or adoptable animals have to be euthanized annually or are questioning PETA's euthanasia record should ask themselves if they are spaying and neutering their own animal companions, helping people with a low income "fix" theirs, adopting from shelters instead of buying from breeders and pet stores, funding education campaigns about proper animal care and adoption (among other things), and demanding higher animal-protection standards in their own communities. They should also look carefully at the photographs of the animals who come out of the impoverished areas that PETA serves. Of course, they should definitely not be eating or wearing animals or their skins, using products tested on animals (who are usually killed at the end of the tests), or engaging in any activity that results in killing animals not out of mercy but for selfish reasons.

PETA is proud to continue to stand tall and roll up its sleeves to help animals. 

Update: After a dog died in a Detroit house fire on Wednesday, PETA is extending our offer of free emergency stickers to 1,000 Detroit-area residents. 

The following was originally posted on February 12, 2013:

Following the deaths of two dogs in a recent fire in Cleveland, PETA is offering free "Please Save Our Animals" stickers to the first 1,000 Cleveland-area residents who request them via e-mail during February.

The heartbreaking loss of cherished animal companions should serve as a reminder of the importance of emergency planning that includes all your family members. Firefighters and disaster-relief workers frequently perform heroic rescues of animals, but it's vital to let them know to look for your dogs, cats, or other animals who might be missed amid smoke or wreckage.

If you share your home with animals, placing PETA's bright-yellow emergency window stickers near your front and back doors and on side windows can mean the difference between life and death for them in case a weather emergency or fire strikes when you aren't home. For those outside the Cleveland area, stickers may be ordered from the PETA Catalog—or you can easily create your own sign on your computer and get it laminated at a copy or shipping store.

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.

It breaks our hearts to report the passing of Roxie "Rock Star" Patterson, a little wiggly slip of a dog with an exuberant personality as big as a 20,000-seat stadium. Roxie was rescued 11 years ago by PETA cruelty caseworkers after one of the other dogs in her home killed the family's cat and started eyeing her next. The caseworkers discovered that poor little Roxie was also being bullied by the family patriarch because she wasn't "macho" enough. Roxie won the heart of former PETA Foundation Director Jannette Patterson and thereafter went with her everywhere. She seemed to enjoy flying and napping under Jannette's airplane seat, always ready to give her a smooch upon arrival.

We knew Roxie by another name, too—"Noodlehead," for her silly natural '80s hairband hairdo. She became internationally famous after she was featured on the cover of Animal Times and the PETA calendar, on PETA holiday cards, and in a spay-and-neuter public service announcement with John McEnroe. She was even chosen by the New York Daily News as New York City's Ugliest Dog (go figure).

To commemorate the 11 years that she shared with Roxie, Jannette is dedicating the next 11 days to helping other animals who are abused, as Roxie once was. For every dollar that Jannette spends on non-essential items (such as shoes, clothing, books, and coffee-shop lattes) during the next 11 days, she is going to donate an equal amount to PETA's "Roxie Rules" Matching Fund—and she's asking her friends, family, and fellow PETA members to do the same.

We know that Roxie's passing leaves a big hole in Jannette's heart and in the universe. We are grateful that Jannette, in typically kind Jannette fashion, has chosen to channel her grief into helping us rescue the next canine rock star out there waiting for a chance to show everyone what she's got. Rock on, Roxie.

It's fitting that a man who sold dogs to laboratories may end up behind bars himself. A federal court sentenced Floyd Martin to a year in prison after he and his wife, Susan, illegally purchased hundreds of dogs and sold them to laboratories. Susan Martin was convicted of conspiracy and received probation. The couple was fined $300,000. They had pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from selling dogs to be tormented and, in all likelihood, killed.

And the dogs weren't tormented only when they got to the laboratories. A U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation of the Martins' dingy facility, Chestnut Grove Kennel, resulted in citations for violations of animal welfare laws, such as housing incompatible dogs together, leaving dogs with injuries seemingly untreated, having dangerous enclosures, and more. PETA obtained these never-before-released pictures from inside the facility:

It's not illegal for animal dealers like the Martins to buy animals from "bunchers," people who pick animals up off the streets, steal them from backyards, or obtain them from animal shelters or "free to a good home" ads. But federal law limits the Martins and other "random source" dealers—like notorious R&R Research, which PETA exposed not long ago—to purchasing only 24 animals a year from each buncher in order to try to keep illegal acts to a minimum. The Martins purchased hundreds of dogs from just two individuals, then lied on documents to cover it up.

Because of such rampant illegal activity and abuse of animals, PETA and others have long campaigned for lawmakers to shut down random source dealers. And our efforts are paying off: The National Institutes of Health, which funds most experiments on animals in the U.S., won't allow the use of animals from Class B dealers after 2015. And last session, Congress introduced the Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2011, which would prohibit Class B dealers from selling animals to laboratories. 

The 2013 Iditarod dogsled race is approaching, and it has been preceded by a string of canine deaths in other races, illustrating yet again why PETA works to stop this miserable "sport," which can be grueling and even deadly for the animals forced to pull heavy loads over long distances at high speeds, often in extreme weather conditions.

But what you might not know is that the dogs used for pulling sleds live miserable lives off the trail, too. When they aren't pulling heavy sleds, they're often tethered by short chains to plastic doghouses or ramshackle sheds, living on small patches of dirt amid their own urine and feces. Chained dogs are at the mercy of the elements and susceptible to attacks by dangerous wildlife. Recently, for instance, a pack of chained dogs used for pulling sleds in Alaska was attacked by a musk ox.

Many dog-sledding operators shamelessly admit that, to them, dogs are little more than disposable "equipment" and are often denied adequate food, shelter, veterinary care, and even humane euthanasia. The following are just a few examples:

• In April 2010, 100 dogs had their throats slit or were shot when a sled operator no longer needed them.
• In 2009, 100 dogs were found emaciated, chained, and near death in Québec, Canada, and three dead dogs who had been used for sledding were found chained to stakes and frozen to the ground in Canada's Northwest Territory.
• In April 2008, a Montana dog-sledding operator pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals after abandoning 33 chained dogs and allowing them to starve.
• In May 2006, authorities in British Columbia seized 51 emaciated, dehydrated, and sick dogs from a kennel that provided dogs for sledding.
  • In 2005, Krabloonik Kennels in Colorado—the largest dog-sledding operation in the continental U.S.—generated a considerable public outcry when its manager admitted that dogs who didn't "work out" were killed by a gunshot to the head and dumped into a waste pit. Krabloonik's manager shrugged off the killings, saying, "[Culling dates] back hundreds of years. This is nothing new. … This is part of the circle of life for the dog-sled dog."

What You Can Do

Like our adored animal companions, dogs used for pulling sleds are highly social pack animals who need to be part of a family, not treated like snowmobiles with fur. Please help them by sharing the above photo on Facebook and Twitter—especially with any friends or family members who might be inclined to support the cruel and deadly Iditarod.

Today is World Spay Day, which people celebrate by leafleting, assisting at low-cost spay-and-neuter clinics, and doing their part to combat the animal-homelessness crisis. Of course, for PETA's Mobile Clinics Division, every day is Spay Day. The clinics travel to underserved areas surrounding PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters seven days a week to provide low-cost spay and neuter surgeries and vaccinations—and we even supply transportation to and from appointments when necessary.

Here are just a handful of the animals the clinics have helped recently:

1. 

Tyga lives indoors, but she had somehow managed to become pregnant before her PETA clinic appointment. Still, we were able to spay her in time, before she could bring more puppies into a world already overwhelmed with animals who need good homes.

2. 

We aren't sure who's more adorable, Mese or her human. But one thing's certain: They are both definitely happier since we drove Mese to our clinic and spayed her for free.

3. 

Puddin' is just as sweet as his name would suggest, and making sure that he got neutered was pretty sweet, too.

4. 

We spayed Lexie's sister in December, and that dog's guardians recommended our services so highly that we ended up sterilizing the entire litter!

So far this year, the clinics have spayed or neutered 1,672 animals! Considering that one unaltered female dog and her offspring and their offspring and their offspring, etc., can produce 67,000 puppies in just six years and that in seven years, one unaltered female cat and her offspring, etc., can produce 370,000 kittens, we were able to prevent hundreds of thousands of unwanted animals from being born.

Spay Day is the perfect opportunity to sponsor a surgery at one of PETA's clinics or learn how you can volunteer to help get animals in your own area spayed and neutered—and help make every day Spay Day.