Update: Amy's has generously agreed to donate another 1,000 cans of lentil soup, which PETA is sending to the soup kitchens of St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and Samaritan House in Denver, Colorado, along with information on how Christians can honor Christ's message of love by choosing cruelty-free food.

The following was originally published on February 19, 2013:

PETA is celebrating the Lenten season with appropriately named legumes: lentils!

We've selected two faith-based soup kitchens to which we will give 500 cans of lentil soup apiece, generously donated by Amy's: Boston's Haley House and Newark's Saint John's Soup Kitchen. We're hoping to encourage the congregations that operate the soup kitchens to use this season of spiritual renewal to think about Scriptures that instruct us to show compassion to all of God's creation, including animals—verses such as "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36), "They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain" (Isaiah 11:9), and "A new command I give you: Love one another" (John 13:34).

The prolonged and painful deaths that animals face in slaughterhouses couldn't be further from what God would deem loving or merciful. For Lent, those of us who are fortunate enough to choose our meals three times a day should pick healthy vegan foods and prevent God's creation from suffering.

To learn more, visit JesusVeg.com. And perhaps you would like to reach out to Christians at Lent with an offering of soup?

allmoviephoto / CC

In what might very well be a canine first, an all-dog soup kitchen that caters exclusively to dogs of the homeless and unemployed has opened its doors in Berlin, Germany. Yep, that's right, if you don't walk on all fours, you aren't getting a measly morsel from the kind folks at Animal Board.

The soup kitchen receives much of its food through company sponsorships and has already proven vital to the Berlin community. Much like soup kitchens that are geared toward humans, Animal Board is reducing the number of hungry dogs one meal at time.

It's no surprise that when bills are high and the economy isn't exactly booming, money woes extend to all members of the family, including animal companions. The free services of the soup kitchen might just reduce the number of animals who are deserted, turned out, or given up by guardians for financial reasons. We'll have to wait and see. But for now, we're excited to see more compassionate individuals looking out for dogs. We give the kind folks at Animal Board two furry paws up.

Written by Jennifer Cierlitsky