Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest is the star of a new PSA for PETA urging basketball fans to "have the balls to spay or neuter your dog." Artest has never been shy about speaking his mind, and, in addition to bringing him a fair share of headlines throughout his career, this trait has shown itself off the court through community involvement, charity work, and a willingness to speak up for those less fortunate than himself. This is what he had to say about his new ad for PETA.

Yup, our pal Ron Jeremy has signed on to PETA’s KFC boycott, because he’s a firm believer in, um, doing chicks right. Before I get too carried away with the sexual innuendo here, let’s take a long, hard look at what Mr. Jeremy had to say about KFC. Good stuff, and thanks, Ron, for coming through.

With a bit of help from celebrity photographer Christopher Ameruoso, Girls Next Door star Holly Madison has created a downloadable video for the iPhone based on her amazing Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur ads. Proceeds from the video will go to benefit PETA’s anti-fur campaign. If you’re lucky enough to have an iPhone, and you want to make it even more beautiful by putting Holly Madison in it, you can download the PSA here. Thank you, Holly!

According to Reuters, the captain and first officer of the Farley Mowat, which belongs to the anti-seal hunt Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, were arrested by Canadian authorities, who representatives from Sea Shepherd say boarded the ship outside Canada’s territorial limit last week. As you might imagine, both sides are telling some conflicting stories about the event, and while I’m really trying to maintain a bit of journalistic distance in reporting this thing, it’s pretty tough to take Canada’s Fisheries Minister seriously while he’s also using every opportunity to try and claim that this is humane, and, like, totally above board from an ethical perspective. In the meantime, Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd is pissed. Here’s how he described the incident:

I’ll let you know once I can get some more details on this—in the meantime, there’s no question about the fact that Canada has declared war on seals. The Canadian government will be killing 275,000 of these animals this year in a barbaric hunt that has provoked international outrage. If you want to take a moment to let these people know how you feel about that, you can sign on to PETA’s campaign against the seal hunt here.

The mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, which I was talking up this week on the blog, passed today at the Van Nuys City Council meeting with a 10-1 vote! There is still one more vote to take place next week which will finalize it, but the decision will be made based on simple majority. According to my colleagues in LA who were at the meeting, there were hundreds of people in attendance, including Bob Barker who spoke on the importance of spaying and neutering. Boo-ya!

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped push this historic bill into law.

Deflocked, baby. Deflocked.

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The Los Angeles City Council has just announced that a meeting will be held on Friday morning to discuss a historic ordinance that would require virtually all dogs and cats in Los Angeles to be spayed or neutered. If you happen to live in L.A. and have an urge to whisper sweet words of encouragement into your council member’s ear, you can find his or her phone number at http://www.lacity.org/council.htm. Just let 'em know that you support the spay-neuter ordinance, and you’re hoping they will too. Council members love that sort of thing. You can also attend the meeting to show your support.

If you don’t live in L.A., there’s probably not all that much you can do about this particular bill, but at least you don’t have to deal with the lousy traffic conditions they have in that city. That’s gotta be worth something, right? There’s also tons of information about how you can help cats and dogs in your community right here. And to continue with a theme started earlier this week, here’s a criminally adorable pro spay/neuter spot, starring animated kittens.

With all the constant chatter about 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy announcement, this seemed like an ideal time to air our “Sex Talk” ad, which draws a connection between irresponsible animal guardians who refuse to spay and neuter their pets, and parents who are a bit too blasé about having that awkward chat with their kids about birds, bees, and other such reputedly promiscuous creatures.

The ad will be running in Ms. Spears’ home state of Louisiana this week to remind residents of the Bayou State that animal overpopulation in this country has extended well beyond crisis proportions, and that anyone who cares about their dog or cat should have them spayed or neutered immediately. Fortunately, the ad itself is a lot funnier and less preachy than what I just wrote, so you should check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. You can also read Fox News’ take on the story here. The “Sex Talk” ad, and its companion piece “Buy One, Get One Free” are below—stay tuned for the third installme which is coming out in a couple of weeks (that’s what’s called a teaser!). Check ‘em out:

Two members of PETA Asia Pacific hijacked a fur seminar at Hong Kong Fashion Week today to ensure that attendees got the animals’ side of the story as well. Here’s what PETA Asia Pacific’s Rebecca Chui had to say about it:

Asked for comment on this statement, the Hong Kong Fur Federation called it “extremely regrettable”—by which I can only assume they meant “bad for business.” Which, well, fair enough. I can’t imagine that they would have chosen these images themselves to represent their nasty little promotional event in the international media:

To celebrate the occasion, PETA India held a giant birthday bash in Mumbai, hosted by Ingrid Newkirk and some of India’s biggest stars. Happy Birthday, guys! Here are some of the pics that have been circulating the web (just in case you’re not keeping tabs on the Indian celebrity blogosphere already).