When it comes to helping animals, patience and persistence are often key, as was the case with these emaciated horses in Wisconsin. PETA learned about the animals' plight from a concerned person who had already convinced the sheriff's department to monitor their condition, even though the officers said that they could not seize the horses.

PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department exhorted law enforcement to try to reason with the owners—and it worked. The owners agreed to surrender custody of the horses, admitting that they didn't have enough money to care for them. The recovering equines now have plenty to eat and are safe on a wonderful farm.

So please never give up on assisting animals in jeopardy, even if you're told that no laws are being broken. Maybe you just have to connect with the one officer who is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty—but what matters is that help arrives in time.

If you've ever wondered why we have a dog and cat overpopulation crisis, which is so bad that 6 to 8 million "pets" enter animal shelters every year—and that's not even counting the millions of strays who never make it to shelters—look no further than Halley. This mother dog was left to survive as best she could after her owners moved away and left her behind like an unwanted sofa on the curb.

Halley miraculously managed to survive by herself for several months until a passerby called PETA to report having seen her roaming the streets. She appeared to be nursing puppies, but neighbors who had heard the puppies crying weeks earlier hadn't heard a peep out of them in nearly a month. We feared the worst.

Our cruelty caseworker advised the passerby to set up a feeding station for Halley at a vacant home in order to discourage her from straying further away, and we got in touch with local members of Unchain Oklahoma, who set about trying to trap the skittish dog. When they arrived at the property to set up a humane box trap, they found the puppies hiding under the house.

The little ones were whisked off to a veterinarian. After several days, the volunteers managed to trap Halley, and she was spayed and reunited with her pups. The family—minus two puppies who have already been adopted—is being boarded while permanent homes can be found. (You can see more photos of them on Unchain Oklahoma's Facebook page.)

If you suspect that an animal has been abandoned or is being neglected or abused, please err on the side of compassion. Always call authorities. If you're mistaken, the worst that can happen is that you'll put a few more miles on an officer's odometer. And if the authorities don't respond, contact PETA.

Ever wondered what it's like to take part in one of PETA's undercover investigations? Tune in to the Discovery Channel tonight, January 28, at 8 p.m. Eastern time for an episode of Extreme Smuggling that shines a light on the trafficking of exotic and endangered wildlife and the investigative work that's crucial to fighting this cruel and illicit trade in living beings.

The program will feature PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch, who will discuss PETA's seven-month undercover investigation of a massive international wholesale dealer of exotic animals, U.S. Global Exotics, Inc. (USGE). PETA's investigation led to the immediate closure of USGE, the largest animal seizure in U.S. history, and the pursuit of USGE's owner Jasen Shaw on federal charges of smuggling, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. Shaw remains a wanted fugitive.

Hundreds of thousands of animals of all kinds were cruelly confined, severely crowded, and denied basic necessities such as food, water, space, heat, and veterinary care during their time in USGE's filthy warehouse. Most animals' ultimate destination was stores such as PetSmart and PETCO, massive commercial chains that sell wild animals stolen from their native homes, imported into the U.S. from breeding warehouses overseas, or bred and sold by massive mills such as Atlanta-based Sun Pet and Rainbow World Exotics, a Texas-based dealer that bought animals from USGE and supplied animals to PETCO and PetSmart stores.

PETA's investigation led to the rescue of more than 26,000 animals from the USGE hellhole.

What You Can Do

Animals sold by PetSmart, PETCO, and other pet stores are wild-caught or bred in horrific conditions, leaving countless animals to endure a miserable life in captivity, deprived of all that is natural and important to them. Please buy your animal-care supplies only from stores that do not sell any live animals.

The strain of months of neglect showed on the horses' emaciated frames and in their sunken eyes. Confined to muddy pens that had long since been grazed out, they could only stare at the grass out of reach beyond the fence. They continually checked their dry water troughs, hoping that the rainy Washington weather would leave them a sip of water. Two dogs on the property fared no better. They waited listlessly for the once-a-week drop-by from their owner, when they would finally get to eat.

People who lived near the property where the animals were kept had called law enforcement time and again to report that the seven horses and the dogs were being neglected.For months, officials had been trying to get the animals’ owner to improve their living conditions, but the situation was getting worse. Finally, a neighbor called PETA and, at our urging, law enforcement seized all the animals. Several community residents stepped up to foster the horses and help them recover and the local animal shelter took in the dogs. A veterinarian confirmed that one of them was a full 40 pounds underweight.

Now, the horses and dogs are eating well and regaining their strength. And PETA is working with the district attorney to get cruelty charges filed against the animals' neglectful owner and we will push for the court to ban her from owning any more animals.

Update: Brent Justice and Ashley Richards have been indicted by a federal grand jury for creating and distributing animal crush videos. They have been transferred into federal custody, where they will remain until they stand trial. Justice and Richards each face up to 45 years in federal prison and up to $1.75 million in fines. This is the first federal indictment of a crush video case in the United States.

Originally posted on August 21:

After PETA was alerted to violent fetish videos sold online showing puppies, kittens, rabbits, mice, and other animals who were tortured in ways that would make even a hardened person sick, our Cruelty Investigations Department staffers worked around the clock to find the perpetrators. Thanks to skillful sleuthing and with the help of the Animal Beta Project, PETA determined that the alleged producers of the videos lived in Houston, Texas, and rushed the evidence to local authorities. Two days later, the Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested Brent Justice and Ashley Richards, two suspects believed to be involved in an international video sales scheme, on felony warrants and charged them with animal torture.

Photo: Houston Police Department/Houston Chronicle

Photo: Houston Police Department/Houston Chronicle

The Real 'Torture Porn'

PETA applauds the HPD and the Harris County District Attorney's Office for their swift action. We will be pushing for federal charges as well, as making crush videos is a violation of federal law. Such videos feature animals, including mice, puppies, kittens, and rabbits, slowly tortured to death for the sexual gratification of fetishists.

Charges for both suspects result from a video that PETA gave to the HPD, in which a woman prosecutors say is Richards is shown cutting the leg and slashing the neck and throat of a puppy before beheading the struggling animal with a meat cleaver. Richards also faces charges related to the torture and killing of a cat in a 2010 video. As the Houston Chronicle reports, a "judge halted the reading of the court documents during a hearing last week because the details were too graphic." Richards has reportedly admitted to killing hundreds of animals over the years. The investigation is continuing.

What You Can Do

As this case shows, for animals in danger, one phone call or e-mail can the make the difference between life and (perhaps a horrible) death. Please, if you witness or hear about cruelty to animals, never be silent.

When officials in a New Jersey city drained most of a park pond to dredge the sides, workers drained too much water, and numerous fish were stranded on the banks and suffocated. The fish who survived were huddled in shallow pools that were nearly frozen and were trying to stay alive in the frigid weather.

PETA's phone lines lit up like a Christmas tree, and we sprang into action. We alerted city officials to the tragic situation, asking for more water to be added to the pond, and sent out an action alert to our supporters, who bombarded officials with pleas to save the fish. Within 24 hours, the pond was being refilled, and the surviving fish could breathe a little easier.

Time and time again, animals' lives have been saved because PETA members like you demanded action. Thank you. And if you haven't joined our e-mail list yet, please do so today.

The landlord didn't know how long they had been suffering there. He just knew that when he arrived at the central Utah house from which he had evicted the tenants, he discovered six dogs, 12 cats, and a group of horses who had been left behind. He called the sheriff's department for help, but when the city humane society informed police that they were not allowed to accept animals from outside city limits, officers didn't know what to do.  

The crated dogs finally got fresh air before being transported to a veterinary office.

For four days, the landlord waited for help while making sure the animals at least had food and water. The horses were able to graze and were OK. But the 12 feral cats inside the home had been left with no suitable place to relieve themselves. Two of the dogs were left sitting in crates amid their own waste and were too aggressive for the landlord to let them out or even give them food and water. The other four short-haired dogs were left outside in a barren pen without protection from the weather. On the fourth day, fearing that the dogs would freeze to death as the temperature dipped into single digits, the landlord called PETA.

Caseworkers arranged boarding for the dogs at a veterinarian's office, and the police agreed to transport the dogs and pay the bill. The landlord worked on trapping the feral cats and taking them to a shelter that could accept them. After everything the dogs had been through, they were either too aggressive to be placed for adoption or were very, very sick, so they were given a humane, peaceful release. The horses, however, were healthy and even-tempered and were placed in new homes. The sheriff's department is searching for the runaway owners and hopes to file cruelty charges.

The adage "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," is especially true when trying to protect animals. You may encounter roadblocks, but with perseverance, you can save animals from suffering

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We may never know how more than a dozen pigeons, crows, seagulls, and other wild birds ended up crammed into filthy cages in a hoarder's home, but when PETA heard about the birds—who were spotted piled on the sidewalk after the hoarder was evicted—our Cruelty Investigations Department took action.

After PETA contacted animal control and alerted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to potential violations of the state cruelty statute and federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, all the birds—some of whom appeared to be sick and suffering from heat exhaustion—were seized, and officers launched an investigation.

Not only is it illegal to possess most wild birds without a permit issued by the USFWS, these animals were also victims of hoarding, a mental illness in which the hoarder compulsively acquires more animals than he or she can properly care for. Animals are often "warehoused" in filthy cages and carriers and denied clean water, adequate food, and veterinary care. Accumulated waste and filth often lead to infections and the spread of parasites and contagious diseases.

If you ever suspect someone may be an animal hoarder, immediately contact law-enforcement officials—following up if necessary to make sure that action is taken. PETA's report on hoarding contains more information about how to protect animals.

Downed cows—those who are too sick or injured to stand up—are of little use to callous cattle auctioneers. So when a cow collapsed at a Texas livestock auction company, what did the employees do? They simply wrapped a chain around her leg, attached the chain to a truck, dragged the cow into a dirt lot next to the auction area, and left her for dead. With no food or water, she would have eventually died from dehydration or succumbed to her illness or injury.

Someone saw the cow being dragged to the lot and left there, but when he saw that she was still in the same spot three days later, he called PETA. After making several phone calls to the auction company owner, we were able to convince him to euthanize the dying cow and spare her from one moment more of suffering.

Unfortunately, neither "downers" nor this kind of treatment of them is unusual on factory farms, at auctions, or at slaughterhouses. By simply swapping meat-based dishes for their scrumptious, meatless counterparts, we can avoid supporting facilities that treat living beings like broken-down farm equipment.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

We don't know how long several horses on a property in rural Iowa spent mired in their own waste, but when a witness alerted PETA to their plight, the horses' barn floor was covered with manure up to 4 feet deep in some places.

PETA's Cruelty Investigations Department contacted local animal control officers immediately, and the agency forced the property owner to improve the horses' situation. It took several visits from law-enforcement officials, but the continued pressure was enough to convince the owner to build a spacious new barn. The horses now have a clean, new living space and plenty of pasture to graze.

If you notice an animal who is forced to live in filth or who is in trouble in any way, contact police and/or animal control, and follow up—repeatedly, if necessary—to make sure that the animal gets help. (You can look up the number now and save it to your cell phone or post it on your fridge to be prepared for emergencies.) If you do not get an appropriate response, let us know.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan