Birds of a feather flocked to PETA's L.A. office this weekend for what was quite possibly the world's cluckiest adoption fair. Seventy-eight hens made themselves a comfortable roost in the Bob Barker Building while adopters listened to the hens' story and snacked on vegan egg-salad sandwiches.

The hens had been used by egg producer A&L Poultry until the company went out of business last February and simply left 50,000 hens to die in battery cages without any food or water. Two weeks after A&L shut its doors, Animal Place sanctuary and other animal advocates got wind of how A&L ran afoul of the fowl and rushed in to rescue the hens. Many had already died or were too ill to save, but rescuers were able to save nearly 4,500 hens and nurse them to health.

At the adoption event that PETA hosted, the blissful birds got a Hollywood ending when they were whisked away by SoCal families who will let the birds be birds and finally live the life that they deserve.

Who says cats can't edit? PETA's office cats Marshall and Bubbles seem to think that our Ringling slogan needs a rewrite.

As far as we're concerned, this is as close as cats should ever get to Ringling.

Max the cat and his guardian had spent 20 happy years together. Of course, the time finally came when, because of Max's advanced age, his health deteriorated. This always-friendly cat was losing weight fast, crying out often, and suffering from dementia. He even began biting people out of confusion or pain or both. Max's guardian had waited too long to end his suffering, and he knew it. He called PETA.

Not wanting Max to suffer another minute more, we quickly arranged for euthanasia at a local vet's office. Although saying "Goodbye" to his constant companion of two decades was agonizing for him, Max's guardian knew that he owed it to this beloved cat to do the right thing, no matter how difficult it was. This was not a time to be thinking about himself. Max was all that mattered.

Most folks let their animal companions go on too long because they feel guilty about euthanasia or are afraid of letting go. But we must be strong and always make the best decisions for them. Isn't that the very least that they deserve?

I work in the Human Resources Department at the PETA Foundation, which I love. Knowing that I get to advocate for animals and also take care of my colleagues who advocate for them is rewarding and fulfilling. But I recently spent a day doing something that not many people will experience in their lifetime: riding along with a staffer with PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP), the people who crawl under houses, sludge through storm drains, and face neglectful owners to save animals from suffering.

My day with CAP was eye-opening, to say the least. I knew about the work that CAP does in the areas surrounding our Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, but seeing it for myself was an experience I will never forget.

In a rural area of North Carolina, we found a terrified dog who was forced to live under a trailer with no food or water. His "owners" ("guardians" are people who actually care for their animals) weren't home, so we did the only things that we could do: We gave him food and water and left a note for his owners. We plan to check on him again soon. In another area, we found two dogs who were covered with ticks and supplied their owner with flea- and tick-control medication and instructions. We talked to a person who had a puppy living outdoors—the pup's littermate had already been fatally hit by a car—and tried to educate him about how to do better for the surviving dog. Stories like these repeated themselves throughout the day as we visited more and more animals in need of help.

All of us can make a difference for animals in our own communities. We could offer to walk chained dogs and give their owners information about housetraining and bringing them indoors. Or we could offer to transport pregnant cats to a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic. Much like CAP's work, all our small acts together can add up to big improvements in the lives of a lot of animals.

Written by Kim Argobright

A 4-year-old pit bull named Sandy owes her life to a spay surgery that came not a moment too soon. Sandy's guardian had learned from her veterinarian that Sandy had a serious uterine infection, and while spay surgery would probably have cured it immediately, the vet's bill for the procedure would have been at least $900. Sandy's owner opted for far less costly antibiotic treatment, but two weeks later, Sandy's condition worsened. She stopped eating, and her distraught guardian called PETA for advice.

Sensing that Sandy was gravely ill, the head of our Mobile Clinics Division rearranged the clinics' schedules so that Sandy could be spayed the very next day (for free, a service that we offer for all pit bulls). During the operation, PETA's vet discovered that Sandy also had an enormous ovarian tumor. Suffering from two serious diseases, she almost certainly would have died, likely within days, without surgery.

Had Sandy been spayed as a puppy, she never would have developed the painful infection and ovarian tumor that put her life at risk. She is a living example of how spaying and neutering not only prevents unwanted animals from being born into a world bursting at the seams with them but also protects the health of those who are already here.

PETA's two mobile clinics spayed or neutered 770 animals in May, including Kharma, whose guardian was so grateful to have her spayed that despite his very limited income, he donated $75 to the program:

We also spayed Muffin, who had already had one litter of kittens for whom her guardian had difficulty finding homes:

Imagine stories like these occurring again and again each and every day, and you get some idea of the vital work performed by our mobile clinics every month.

This is what Olivia looked like when she was found:

The little piglet, who had sustained a fractured pelvis, cuts, and scrapes, was found on the side of the road after apparently falling off a transport truck. The Good Samaritan who found her called PETA for help, and PETA's Emergency Response Team called a wonderful activist to take Olivia to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa (ARL), where she is safe and sound! ARL is working with a doctor to treat the porcine princess, who will never find out what a gestation crate is.

Olivia is well on the road to recovery and even going through physical therapy using an underwater treadmill (you have to watch the video). As one news story about Olivia's stroke of luck put it, "How nice that some people see her as more than sausage and bacon."

Ready to give meat the heave-ho—for Olivia's sake? Order PETA's free vegan/vegetarian starter kit today.

When someone in New Jersey noticed that kids were pestering a goose who was sitting in the grass outside the woman's apartment—and that the goose didn't fly away or fight back—it became clear that the bird was injured. Her wing was drooping badly, and she was weak and lethargic. With a friend's assistance, the goose was moved to a laundry area to protect her from harassment and predators, but lacking a car, the rescuer couldn't transport her to a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (since Canada geese are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act), as advised by authorities.

What's Good for the Goose

Fortunately for the goose, her protector called PETA. Although there were no agencies in the area able to retrieve an injured wild animal and transport her to a licensed rehabilitation facility (this isn't uncommon since wildlife rehab centers are usually volunteer-run, without staff to rescue or transport animals), PETA's caseworker located a rehabilitator who was willing to accept the bird—but that had already closed for the day. With the rehabber's permission, the caller held the goose overnight. (Bless her kind heart!)

In the morning, PETA was able to find an animal advocate to transport the bird to the rehabilitator, which required driving for nearly three hours in all. (Bless his kind heart, too!)

The bird's injury was old, which explains why she was so easy to catch. A wing was broken, and the surrounding tissue was badly infected and necrotic. The bird was slowly dying from the infection and had gotten to the point at which she had no energy to fight. The goose had probably also lost her mate, which would cause depression in the long-term. It was determined that the kindest course of action was to end her suffering through properly administered euthanasia.

Are You Ready for an Animal Emergency?

This case shows how one person can make a difference for an animal in distress. If these compassionate people hadn't helped this goose, she might still be lingering in agony—or dead after a violent attack by predators (or simply cruel humans). Please never ignore animals who need help. Even if the best-case scenario entails euthanasia, that's far kinder than leaving an animal to endure prolonged suffering.

I was in Sardinia last week, and as I drove along the highway, I caught a glimpse of tan fur. I did a U-turn and discovered two dogs who were sitting in a pull-off area. They ran away the moment the car door opened. However, poking about in the bushes, I found a saucepan, a water bowl, and a makeshift doghouse. I left food and a note with my contact information. The woman who was feeding them e-mailed me, and I was able to persuade her to arrange for the dogs to be trapped and neutered with PETA's help.

Thirty minutes later, I was walking down a dirt path and heard a plaintive meow. Here we go again, I thought: a stray cat. But no, not one cat—instead there were six, eight, 10 …! In all, there were 22 cats. One was clearly nursing, all were as thin as pencils, at least two had injured eyes, and some were missing large patches of hair. The whole lot of them were living under a large bush. 

Although they were so desperate to eat that they came within a foot of me, they were wary and wouldn't let me touch them. I contacted PETA's U.K. affiliate, and it was able to track down some wonderful local activists. All 10 adult cats and 12 kittens were trapped and are now at the local animal shelter, being given veterinary care and sterilized. Longtime member Maria Blanton has made a generous donation toward the cost of caring for all 22 animals. You can help animals just like these rescued cats and kittens right now—just click here!

Located right in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Sardinia is teeming with stray and abandoned animals. Whenever you go abroad, please be sure to keep your eyes peeled for animals in need. If you see one, check with your hotel concierge about local animal protection groups, veterinarians, and animal shelters. Plan ahead by looking up local groups and veterinarians online before you embark on your trip, and keep their phone numbers handy. If you get stuck, contact PETA's closest affiliate.

PETA helps animals all over the world—including neglected dogs left chained up in rising floodwaters in Pakistan, bullocks and donkeys trying to eke out an existence at garbage dumps in India, and homeless cats living under trailers in some of the most impoverished counties right here in the U.S.—and we'd love to have your help. 

Help animals now by supporting PETA's rescue work!

While it's important for our dogs and cats to wear collars (although never choke or prong collars) and proper identification when they go outdoors, just putting a collar on and assuming that it'll be fine for the animal's entire life is a recipe for disaster. As animals grow or gain weight, a too-tight collar can result in severe neck wounds, as the following cases illustrate:

• Dan, a staffer from PETA Foundation's Literature Department, was trying to help a neighbor get his semi-feral cat spayed when he spotted this cat in the neighborhood. Dan sat with the trap for more than two hours (at 10 p.m. in a neighborhood with a high crime rate) until the cat was captured. The unneutered male cat had a deeply embedded flea collar wrapped around his neck, armpit, and torso.

 A PETA fieldworker spent the day on Saturday waiting for this feral dog—with a deeply embedded collar—to appear after being alerted to her condition by an out-of-town visitor to the area. It was the deepest collar-related wound that the fieldworker had ever seen.

 Remember: If you can't comfortably slip two fingers between the collar and the animal's neck, the collar is too tight. To learn more about how to care for companion animals properly, check this out.

When a resident at an apartment complex in Indianapolis spotted two baby birds trapped inside a dryer vent on the outside of one of the buildings, one fledgling was already dead but the other was alive and chirping.

The resident called PETA for help, and we immediately got in touch with the complex's after-hours emergency maintenance crew. Personnel rushed to the building to remove the vent's cover, and within 45 minutes of the resident's worried call, the little fledgling was free. The mother had stood nearby watching, and the reunited birds hopped away together.

No one can be sure how the birds became stuck in the dryer vent, but it's likely that the cover had fallen off and the mother bird had built a nest inside. When the maintenance team replaced the cover, it had unknowingly trapped the baby birds.

PETA's national-pager carriers often get these types of calls. Mother animals have their babies in unexpected places, and when people do home repairs, they can trap animals without meaning to. While completing your summer around-the-house list, watch out for wildlife, and if you do see any animals who may have become trapped, call animal control, wildlife rehabilitators, or PETA for help.