While most of us are grilling veggie dogs in the park or sipping drinks by the pool today, working animals won't have it so easy:

Horses pulling horse-drawn carriages today will tromp on hard pavement all day long in the intense heat. They will breathe exhaust fumes and will not have adequate food or water. Tonight, they will be crammed into a tiny stall for a few hours until they are dragged out in the morning to start again.

Hens used by the egg industry are spending the day crammed five deep into wire "battery cages" about the size of a file drawer. Because they are packed so closely together, they will have to urinate and defecate on each other.

Today, Indian donkeys will struggle to pull heavy carts that are overloaded with bricks and sugarcane. They will toil under the blazing sun with little rest, food, or water. They may be beaten or whipped to force them to keep going.

iStockphoto.com/Rpsycho

Orcas who are enslaved at marine parks today will perform meaningless tricks in front of crowds of screaming people in order to get food. They will swim endless circles in a tank that is, for them, comparable to a bathtub. The reverberations from their sonar will bounce off the walls, adding to their frustration and anger.

Female dogs in puppy mills will likely spend Labor Day in either a crude, filthy cage or chained to a tree. They will suffer from painful medical conditions, such as ear infections, mange, and abscessed feet, for which they will receive no veterinary care. They will either be pregnant with or nursing yet another litter of puppies, who will be taken away from them and sold.

Pregnant cows on dairy farms will be hooked up to milking machines several times today. They may be suffering from a painful udder inflammation called "mastitis," likely brought on by the drugs that increase their milk production. They may also be lame from being intensely confined and being forced to stand amid their own waste.

This Labor Day, resolve to help the animals who rarely have a day off. To learn what the PETA-supported working animal relief organization Animal Rahat is doing to help animals in India, visit AnimalRahat.com. 

Labor Day meant a long weekend for many nine-to-fivers, but some laborers can't close up shop and forget about their jobs, even for a day. For animal shelter workers, the stream of battered and bruised animals in need of refuge never ends. Few people have a more emotionally challenging job than those who punch in every day knowing that they will likely have to euthanize the animals they've devoted themselves to helping.

We can all help ease shelter workers' burdens by doing our part to slow the stream of homeless animals. That means always having our cats and dogs spayed or neutered and adopting animals instead of buying them from breeders or pet stores.

As one who has spent years volunteering at my local animal shelter, I know that shelter staffers are some of the hardest-working people around. They scrub poop-strewn kennels, comb animals who are matted and crawling with fleas, and give belly rubs to dogs who have been chained up like old bicycles their entire lives. They heft dogs onto examination tables, unload vans of 50-pound bags of food, get bitten by petrified dogs who have known nothing but cruelty, and get scratched by cats who are frantic after having left the home they've always known to live in a cage surrounded by other crying felines. They cuddle cats, throw balls for dogs, slip treats through cage bars, speak kind words, and give many scratches behind the ears. They do their best to make the animals' stay at the shelter as full of love as possible.

But shelters don't have a magic wand that they can wave to create loving homes for all the animals who need them. Those who work in open-admission shelters must also perform the thankless, gut-wrenching task of holding the animals they've played with and loved in their arms while the euthanasia needle slides into a vein and the light in their eyes softly flickers out. These people are heroes for doing the right thing for animals even though it takes such a toll on them personally.

Breeders, pet stores, and people who haven't had their animals spayed or neutered put shelter workers in this tragic position. Every new puppy or kitten who is brought into the world takes the chance for a home away from one of the thousands of animals waiting in shelters. And every new puppy or kitten means another broken heart for a brave shelter worker.

Shelter workers' jobs will never be cushy, but if more people spay and neuter their animals before that first litter and if more people adopt the eager-to-please dogs and cats waiting in shelters instead of buying animals, we could dramatically reduce the number of animals euthanized for lack of a good home. We could save thousands of lives—and make shelter workers' lives a little bit easier too.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Who the hell sends their friends Labor Day cards? Well, we do, I guess. For some reason I feel duty-bound to post PETA's official "Labor Day E-Card" for your edification and viewing enjoyment. After all, we did go to all the trouble of making it back in the day. I'd just like to point out that this one was made before they put ol' Jack in charge of making e-cards for PETA. If it puts you in the mood for some Jacktastic e-card action, you may want to check out last year's Santa Got Run Over by His Reindeer e-card. It's a classic, and, well, Christmas is right around the corner …

Anyway, Happy Labor Day. For reals. Now get to work surprising and confusing your friends by sending them their very own PETA Labor Day e-card!