Are you the kind of guy who does everything with his dog? Are you a team player? If you're considering getting your cat or dog "snipped" and have thought about getting "fixed" yourself, PETA wants to reward you for helping to end human and animal overpopulation by picking up the tab for your vasectomy. We give out thousands of spay and neuter surgeries every year, but never before like this! Visit our "Win a Vasectomy From PETA" page to see how to get your free "snip" in a snap.
 

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow

Star light, star bright, adopting animals left and right.

Denise Richards is in love again—with her new rescued buddy, Chocolate Chip. When the homeless terrier mix appeared on a dog-themed episode of The View that Richards was co-hosting, she curled up in the actor's lap—and never left. That did it for Richards, and soon Chocolate Chip was on a sweet trip to L.A. to meet her new fur siblings.

Emmy Rossum, star of the new Showtime drama Shameless, isn't ashamed to admit that she's a sucker for a cute stray-cat strut. While in Chicago shooting street scenes for the show, Rossum encountered a bedraggled stray cat, scooped her up, got her some much-needed veterinary care, and carted her off to L.A. to live happily ever after.

patti haskins/cc by 2.0

Speaking of saving lives, today is Spay Day! You can help end the animal overpopulation crisis by texting "PETA" to 27722 in order to donate $10. Message and data rates apply.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

After reading the last few posts about animal homelessness, euthanasia, and hoarding, some people might be wondering what they can do to help. Perhaps a few of you have even considered starting your own animal rescue group. If so, thank you for caring so deeply, but please—help us focus attention on stemming the flow.

Think of it this way: The animal overpopulation crisis is like water flooding into a sinking ship. We don't need more people bailing; we need to fix the gaping hole in the bottom of the boat! When it comes to ending animal homelessness, the most humane and sustainable solution is to pour our time, money, and effort into having animals spayed and neutered. Preventing more animals from being born stops the problem at its source. Here are some creative ways that we can work toward a no-birth nation: 

• Consider starting a program like the one run by Michigan's Heaven Can Wait Animal Haven, which transports animals to and from local low-cost spay-and-neuter clinics.
• Start a group to raise money for free spay-and-neuter surgeries for animals in your community.
• Hold fundraisers for local spay-and-neuter clinics so that they can waive the costs for low-income individuals and at-risk animals.
• Raise funds for PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please" (SNIP) mobile clinic. 
• Take a hands-on approach in your community by volunteering for PETA's Animal Birth Control (ABC) program.   

Another crucial component of ending animal homelessness is educating the public about why it's so important to adopt animals instead of buying them from pet shops or breeders. If you are considering adding a cat or dog to your family, your decision will literally mean life or death for an animal waiting in an animal shelter. If you choose to buy from a breeder or a pet store, an animal at the local shelter must be euthanized. Please, always choose to save a life by adopting your animal companions from animal shelters or reputable adoption groups.

PETA has teamed up with dozens of celebrities—including Justin Bieber, Yvonne Strahovski, Lance Bass, Kellan Lutz, Joanna Krupa, Audrina Patridge, Patricia Arquette, and others—for pro-adoption public service announcements (PSAs). You can help encourage people to adopt animals, never buy, by sponsoring or obtaining free placement for one of these PSAs in a newspaper or magazine.

Thank you for caring. Animals like these are counting on compassionate people like you:

Like so many other rabbits, Bobbi was acquired on a whim and surrendered after her owners discovered how much time and effort are required to care for a rabbit. PETA found Bobbi a loving home, and she now enjoys playing with three other rabbits and sleeping in a bed with her new family.

One freezing day, PETA's straw-delivery volunteers found Sunday living in filth and mud, tethered by a chain that was only a few feet long. Sunday perked up immediately after PETA's volunteers gave him a doghouse and replaced the short chain with a new, lightweight tie-out.

Julie was once trapped at the end of a chain—one of the worst punishments possible for a dog, especially a collie—but PETA's fieldworkers convinced her owners to surrender her and helped place her in a wonderful home with a family who adores her.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and nowhere is this truer than when it comes to spaying and neutering dogs and cats. That's why I'm so excited to announce that 2010 was a banner year for PETA's mobile clinics, which spayed and neutered a record 10,683 animals. That includes 919 feral cats and 478 pit bulls (135 of whom were sterilized at no charge to their guardians). In addition, 1,372 surgeries were performed on the animals of indigent families. Our clinics have sterilized more than 69,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits in the last decade!

All those spay/neuter surgeries will prevent the births of hundreds of thousands of kittens and puppies who would have otherwise likely struggled for survival on the mean streets or been euthanized simply because there aren't enough good homes.

PETA's fieldworkers meet many people, particularly older residents who live in rural areas and who have never even heard the term "spaying." This was the case with Ring Eye's family. PETA's fieldworkers transported Ring Eye to and from her spay appointment, and her appreciative family even invited them to stay for dinner!

Spot also got a lift to his neuter appointment, courtesy of PETA. The boy holding Spot hopes to become a veterinarian one day. PETA's fieldworkers stop by this address often, and the kids are always very interested in their visit. They are hoping to show the kids how to be compassionate toward animals.

TeeTee lives indoors, and her guardian treats her as a beloved family member, but she simply did not have the $200 that most veterinarians in the area charge to spay a dog. The woman heard about PETA's program and was extremely grateful for this service.

PETA's clinics also provide spay/neuter services to local animal shelters and rescue groups to ensure that none of the animals who are adopted contributes to the overpopulation crisis by having puppies and kittens!

2010 was a booming year for PETA's clinics, but I know already that 2011 is going to be even better, because PETA has secured funding for a third mobile clinic! The yet-to-be-named state-of-the-art clinic will join PETA's SNIP and ABC clinics, which work around the clock to fight the overpopulation crisis in PETA's own backyard.

Want to help? Check out PETA's ABC pages to learn how to promote animal birth control in your own community and reduce the number of homeless animals who need to be rescued in the first place. Please also join PETA in calling on elected officials to pass mandatory spay/neuter laws in your state, county, and town. Together, we can become a no-birth nation—which is the only way to become a "no-kill" nation.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Today, PETA released its statistics on the number of animals it took in, found wonderful homes for, and had to euthanize in 2010. The number of animals who are discarded by people each year is staggering, and that won't change until our laws do, so PETA is once again calling on governors across the U.S. to end animal homelessness by pushing for laws that would require dogs and cats to be sterilized unless their owners purchased an annual breeding permit, the cost of which would fund low-cost spay-and-neuter services. Would you join us by asking your governor to join this effort?

Numbers can't begin to tell all these animals' stories. Have a look at just a few of the animals we've helped, and then read about all that PETA does to end the suffering of animals in its own backyard in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

PETA's fieldworkers are on duty around the clock, often getting up in the middle of the night and driving for miles to respond to emergency calls about suffering, abandoned, neglected, and abused dogs and cats. On weekends, PETA's volunteer winter "straw teams" comb neighborhoods looking for dogs who are kept chained or penned outdoors in bone-numbing cold. They urge the dogs' guardians to take their forgotten companions indoors. If they refuse and are not in violation of current cruelty-to-animals laws, PETA's fieldworkers begin a long-term commitment to improving these neglected animals' lives. They provide the dogs with doghouses; straw bedding; food; clean water; lightweight tie-outs to replace heavy, tangled chains; deworming medicine; flea, tick, and fly repellent; free veterinary care; spaying and neutering surgeries; and priceless moments of love and companionship.

PETA spayed Boe last year, and fieldworkers regularly stop by to give her flea and tick repellent, straw bedding, and toys like the one that she and her guardian are playing with here.

Butch's impoverished guardians couldn't afford to take him to a groomer, so PETA spruced him up, free of charge. Butch's guardians were extremely grateful and gave PETA a $5 donation and some black-eyed peas to say thank you.

PETA also coordinates the rescue of dogs like Rambo, who was left without food or water and was horribly emaciated and starving inside his filthy pen, and Sheba, who was found suffering from severe wounds caused by a metal chain that had become deeply embedded in her neck. In these cases and many others, PETA saw to it that cruelty charges were filed against the animals' owners. 

Rambo had previosly been a big, strong dog but was skin and bones when PETA's fieldworkers found him.

Who knows how much longer poor Sheba would have suffered had it not been for PETA's intervention?

Many of the animals who are signed over to PETA, such as this poor dog and cat, are at the end of their lives or have suffered long-term neglect: 

Dehydrated, disoriented, and too weak even to stand, all Buddy could do was lie under his owner's house, screaming in pain, while flies swarmed around him and his buttocks teemed with maggots. A PETA fieldworker crawled underneath the house to rescue him.

This feral kitten's eye had become dislocated—possibly as a result of head trauma—and was severely infected.

Turning away cats and dogs like these just to avoid having to euthanize them doesn't help unwanted, suffering, and dying animals. If PETA, like a disturbing number of shelters today, valued its statistics more than the well-being of individual animals who need help, animals like Tupac would be left to endure slow, agonizing deaths instead of being gently released from suffering in the arms of those who were probably the first and only people to ever truly care about them.

When PETA received Tupac, he was about 20 pounds underweight, and his ribs and spine were protruding. His head was swollen to twice its normal size from a massive growth that reeked of infection and was oozing with sores and maggots. A vet recommended euthanasia, which was, without a doubt, the most merciful thing that anyone could have done for him.

While a disturbing number of animal shelters are turning their backs on animals so that they can call themselves "no kill" shelters, PETA will always do what's best for animals who need help—even when doing so is difficult and unpopular.

Check back tomorrow to learn about the amazing strides that PETA is making to reduce animal homelessness. I can't wait to share it—PETA's mobile clinics sterilized more than 10,000 animals in 2010 alone!

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

jlantzy/cc by 2.0

Bob Barker would probably be proud to call the Ludlow apartment building in New York City home. That's because the Ludlow requires residents to spay or neuter their companion animals before they are allowed to move in.

Says Archie Gottesman, the chief executive of Edison Properties, which owns the Ludlow, "We just wanted to emphasize the pet overpopulation problem. It may not save the entire population. But it may have more of an effect."

Spaying and neutering is a cause that is close to Gottesman's heart. She spends her spare time trying to find forever families for homeless dogs and cats and sees the victims of animal overpopulation every day.

Most of us have lived in apartments where the landlord requires a pet deposit, but how much better would it be if all landlords required people to spay and neuter?

Written by Michelle Sherrow

On Tuesday, the New York City Council passed two vital bills—one that bans the chaining of dogs for longer than three hours and another that nearly triples the licensing fees for unaltered animals. Both these measures will undoubtedly spare countless dogs and cats an enormous amount of suffering.

Project Runway's Tim Gunn and comedian Joan Rivers had both championed the bills on PETA's behalf. In a strongly worded letter to the City Council, Rivers wrote, "I hope this Tethering Bill passes not just for the sake of the poor dogs tied up outside in the cold, but for the sake of the sons of b*****s who do this—because what I'd do to the creeps would be far worse than what any police officer would do!"

Councilmember Christine C. Quinn expressed her support in less colorful terms. "Tethering an animal for an extended period of time is cruel and unusual," she said. "This bill will not only prevent this type of unnecessary cruelty, but also increase public safety for pedestrians throughout the City."

The law makes New York City one of more than 100 localities throughout the U.S. that have restricted or banned chaining. You can help by working to get a chaining ban passed in your town.

Amid laughter and high-fives, two PETA members dressed as giant condoms reminded people in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that cats and dogs can't control pet overpopulation on their own.

More than 350 people stopped to talk to the eye-catching pair and received leaflets on the importance of spaying and neutering. Many passersby asked for information about low-cost spay/neuter services—and one man said that he was going to make a veterinary appointment that very day. If you haven't already done so, have your own animal companions spayed or neutered (or help a friend get his or her animals "snipped"): Spaying just one female dog can prevent 67,000 births in six years, and spaying one female cat can prevent 420,000 births in seven years!  

Written by Michelle Sherrow

PETA pal Joan Rivers is using her unmistakable voice to support two important dog-related bills that are under consideration by the New York City Council. Today, Joan fired off a letter to City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, expressing her support for bills that would encourage New Yorkers to get lifesaving spay and neuter surgeries for their dogs and would protect dogs from being chained up like old bicycles for longer than three hours in any 12-hour period.

Check out what Joan has to say about people who force their dogs to live outdoors in the cold!

Fur-free fashion guru Tim Gunn also sent a personal note to Speaker Quinn in favor of these bills, so support is building. If you live in the Big Apple, be sure to encourage your City Council member to vote in favor of these vital bills!

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Picking the top 10 PETA Files blog posts of the past year was harder than figuring out the plot of Inception, but we've narrowed it down to these posts, which cover everything from Lady Gaga's meat dress to our "Pope Condom" campaign:

1. PETA's investigation of international animal dealer U.S. Global Exotics leads to the record-setting rescue of more than 26,000 animals.
2. A PETA investigation at a Pennsylvania dairy farm reveals the filthy, miserable origins of Land O'Lakes butter.
3. Worldwide outrage erupts after a girl is caught on video hurling puppies to their deaths. 
4. Leaked photos from a company that supplies animal-restraint devices to laboratories show horrifically mutilated monkeys. 
5. Lady Gaga's meat dress induces a collective gag. 
6. A laboratory investigated by PETA closes, and more than 200 animals are rescued. 
7. An orca at SeaWorld dies at roughly half most orcas' expected life span. 
8. Thousands of chickens are spared from being ground up alive. 
9. PETA's use of the pope's image on a spay/neuter leaflet touches off controversy.
10. NASA calls off its ghastly primate radiation experiments after hearing from more than 100,000 PETA members.

Which blog post got you the most fired up this year?

Written by Jennifer O'Connor