When one of Ricky Gervais' young fans tweeted the star with the message "my parents agreed if you retweet this they will buy my sister a dog & let you name it," Ricky agreed but with one important stipulation. "A rescue dog tho," he mandated. We would expect nothing less from the man who is a constant voice for homeless animals, urging people to adopt, never buy, and bashing greedy breeders and puppy mills. And like many compassionate celebrities, Ricky consistently uses his Twitter account to reach millions of people with animal-friendly messages.

We can always count on Ricky to get an animal rights point across while he's making people laugh. And Jon Stewart did, too, with The Daily Show's humorous coverage of Iran's launching a monkey into space: "Iran, you think the CIA is tough? You just got PETA on your ass, and those guys don't f**k around." We'd love to hear Jon's take on Funny or Die's spot-on spoof of Dodge Ram's pandering "God Made a Farmer" Super Bowl ad, "God Made a Factory Farmer." 

And Waka Flocka Flame's hilarious Instagram photo had us laughing at how ridiculous people look in fur:

Happily, Beyoncé went fur-free at the Super Bowl, but she draped herself in python skin, iguana skin, and leather instead. PETA is urging the singer to take a cue from other beautiful, talented performers such as Carrie Underwood, who puts on a dynamic show in cruelty-free fashions. 

And it was the epitome of a dynamic cruelty-free show when Vaute Couture designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart presented the first completely vegan runway show at New York Fashion Week. Celebrities are flocking to the line, which is named after "haute couture" but spelled with a "v" for vegan.

New York isn't the only city celebrating cruelty-free fashion. Across the pond, our affiliate PETA U.K. presented the first-ever Vegan Fashion Awards, with celeb judges Sadie Frost and Meg Mathews honoring animal-friendly fashion from top designers and retailers such as Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, and Topshop. 

To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter. 

In Michigan, birth control may be controversial when it comes to humans, but when it comes to dogs and cats, it's a no-brainer. As a bill that would restrict birth control heads to the governor's desk, PETA is proposing to erect this billboard in the state capital:

It is estimated that 6 to 8 million unwanted animals enter our nation's animal shelters every year, and only about half leave them alive because of a lack of good homes. Countless others never make it to shelters and die on the streets or at the end of a chain.

The key to ending this suffering is spaying and neutering animals to prevent them from producing litter after litter of unwanted animals.

You can help by supporting PETA's fleet of mobile spay-and-neuter clinics, which have spayed and neutered more than 80,000 animals at low to no cost in the 11 years since the first clinic rolled out of our parking lot, preventing the suffering of hundreds of thousands of unwanted puppies and kittens.  

And if you have the time, money, and resources to care for an animal companion, please adopt from a shelter—never buy an animal from a pet store or breeder. 

 When a Houston woman found a skinny kitten covered with fleas, she began calling "no-kill" shelters looking for somewhere to take the animal, not knowing that these types of shelters are usually full and offer no help. Frustrated and worried, she called PETA.

We encouraged the caller to bring the kitten indoors right away and set up a temporary home for the animal in the bathroom, where the tabby would be safe and could be given much-needed food and water. The woman agreed. We found a reputable open-admission shelter in the area that would be able to accept the kitten when it opened the next day. The next morning, after just one phone call, the kitten had a welcoming, comfortable place to stay and a chance for a home. Once again, "no-kill" shelters had done nothing to help, while an open-admission shelter had. Open-admission shelters can't place every animal, but they don't turn their backs and leave kittens like this to suffer on the streets or end up giving birth and compounding the homelessness crisis.

So-called "no-kill" shelters sound heroic, but they are often anything but. In reality, they are limited-admission shelters, which turn away the most vulnerable animals and often allow only the youngest, cutest animals admission. And many such places force animals to live for years in a cage, even when the animals are sick or losing their minds from such confinement.

No one wants to have to perform euthanasia, but some of the most caring people in the world have to be brave enough to provide animals with a painless exit from an uncaring world—because no matter what the "no-kill" hucksters and hoarders say, there are too many dogs and cats and too few homes, and leaving them on the streets, selling them to laboratories, or just shunting them along to other states, is not a solution to the animal-homelessness crisis. 

Blame needs to be placed where it belongs—at the hands of breeders, and people who refuse to spay and neuter their animals. In the meantime, open-admission shelters will continue to take in all of society's castoffs, not just the young, healthy, and cute ones—and not just when it's convenient.

If you know anyone who is thinking of buying instead of adopting or who still needs to make that sterilization appointment for a dog or cat, please help us reduce euthanasia by giving them the facts, not by supporting some "no-kill" fantasy facility. 

Once upon a time, there was a sweet little girl named Coco. Like Cinderella and Snow White before her, Coco faced true hardship. When Prince Charming PETA's fieldworkers found her, she was chained to a trampoline—which served as her only "shelter"—and her coat was badly matted, as you can see:

The fieldworkers, though, instantly recognized the princess beneath the tangled fur and, with some persistence, persuaded the owner to surrender the little poodle. She was whisked away to be bathed, groomed, spayed, and vaccinated before finding her happy ending: being placed into a wonderful home. She now has more than an acre of kingdom fenced-in area to explore and enjoys watching TV, staring at herself in the mirror, and—most of all—snuggling with her human family. Here she is today, in royal repose:

Here's the moral of Coco's story: You don't have to be a godmother with a magic wand. For abused, neglected, and abandoned animals, a helping hand can turn a potential tragedy into a fairy tale—and adoption provides the "happily ever after."

What You Can Do

PETA is always looking for people who can give animals loving homes. If you are an East Coast resident and are interested in adopting a companion animal from PETA, contact Adopt@peta.org. No matter where you live, please never buy an animal from a pet store or breeder—for a real fairy-tale ending, always adopt from an animal shelter or rescue.