Just what exactly is PETA doing to help combat the animal overpopulation crisis and provide vulnerable animals with assistance? This infographic breaks it down:

What You Can Do

Help animals in your neighborhood as well as low-income areas get spayed and neutered, promote adoption from animal shelters instead of buying from breeders or pet stores, and demand appropriate animal-care standards in your community.

Visit PETASaves.com for more information.

The pomp and pageantry of the Westminster dog show is over. Many of the dogs have been shipped back to their breeders after living in their handlers' crates for years. Now, the females will be forced to bear litter after litter of puppies, only to have them all taken away to be sold. Every year following Westminster, there is a rush to buy dogs of the winning breed and other "designer dogs" who appeared on the screen. And breeders and pet stores are happy to oblige, taking as many orders as they can get and raking in money hand over fist.

In an industry in which dogs are viewed as commodities, their health and well-being matter less than the bottom line. To minimize expenses, breeders and puppy mills commonly warehouse breeder dogs in tiny, filthy cages; deny them veterinary care; and repeatedly get them pregnant, until the dogs can no longer produce puppies—at which point, they are often auctioned off, discarded at shelters, or killed.

Just this month, in yet another horror story, authorities raided a breeder and dog-show judge's home and found 38 dogs living in small crates that were caked with feces and fur. The cages were piled on top of one another in the dark basement, and a radio blared to drown out the sound of barking. Many of the dogs were malnourished and suffering from eye diseases and severe periodontal disease. They were so sick that 13 of them had to be euthanized immediately.

People who buy dogs from breeders or pet stores keep these puppy pimps in business. They also kill a shelter dog's chance at a home. Please, urge anyone you know who is considering buying a dog to adopt instead.

Update:

Great news! The Los Angeles City Council has passed the ban on selling dogs, cats, and rabbits from breeders and puppy mills in pet stores. Those stores will now be required to adopt out homeless animals from shelters instead.

This is a heaven-sent victory for homeless animals in the City of Angels—let's hope it inspires more compassionate decisions across the country!

Originally posted August 13:

Los Angeles may soon take a huge stride toward reducing the number of homeless animals—the City Council is expected to vote soon on a measure that would ban pet stores from selling dogs, cats, and rabbits obtained from any source other than an animal shelter or rescue group. The proposed regulation has already been endorsed by the Los Angeles Times editorial board.

The Sun Is Setting on Breeding

PETA, at the forefront of efforts to curb animal homelessness and overpopulation—by offering low-cost to no-cost spaying and neutering, promoting adoption, and discouraging people from buying animals from breeders and pet stores—is understandably psyched about the possibility of the country's second-largest city taking such a major step toward ending animal homelessness.

If the proposal passes, Los Angeles will join a growing number of cities that are showing that they're serious about stopping the animal homelessness crisis—and the cruel puppy mills that fuel it—by putting laws in place to block animal sales in pet stores.

It's standard practice for puppy mills to keep animals in cramped, crude, and filthy conditions without proper veterinary care or socialization.

What You Can Do

If you live in L.A., please politely ask your councilmembers to vote in favor of the proposed ordinance. And if you live elsewhere, urge your city council to pass a law to protect animals from the cruelty caused by their breeding.

When PETA India Science Policy Adviser Dr. Chaitanya Koduri and his wife, Vidya, found Laila, she was a terrified puppy alone on the streets of Mumbai. But after the couple welcomed her into their home, giving her the care and affection that every dog deserves, Laila blossomed into, as Dr. Koduri describes, "this beautiful, naughty girl who will never get tired of playing. She needs to put her nose into anything and everything."

As you can see, Laila—showing her paws decorated with golden turmeric—gladly joined in the family festivities on Ganesha Chaturthi, which celebrates the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the Hindu deity with the head of an elephant. 

What You Can Do

As Laila's story shows, people who offer homes to animals in need not only save those animals' lives but also fill their own homes and hearts with boundless love. Please never buy from breeders or pet shops—always adopt. 

Fun fact: October is National Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog Month. And PETA—always an advocate for adoption—knows just how you can celebrate: Adopt a dog from a shelter already!

Buying a dog from a pet store or breeder means one fewer home for a dog in a shelter—adding to the millions of dogs and cats who must be euthanized each year for lack of good homes. So PETA never misses a chance to tell everyone within earshot how adopting dogs from shelters lowers euthanasia rates while also saving animals from fighting to survive on the streets. That's a win-win situation, right there. Plus, shelter dogs are just so darn lovable, so win-win-win!

But don't take our word for it—we've called in the experts to make the case. Since every month should honor shelter dogs, here are 14 indisputable reasons why you should always adopt, never buy:

1.

Mollie

2.

Madie

3.

Tyson

4.

Domino

5.

Callie

6.

Tina

7.

Lily

8.

Pia

9. & 10.

Emma and Charlee

11.

Toki

12.

Scampy

13. & 14.

Turk and Moe Moe

"I just think about these animals that are there for months …. And the way they kill them—it's just not needed, it's not a necessity," said actor Mayte Garcia, speaking out against fur farms on the set of the new ad she shot for PETA. "Doing this shoot and getting into the cage and putting on the fur coat—it was overwhelming," she added. But while being caged and drenched in blood isn't anyone's idea of a good time, Mayte is hopeful that her graphic ad will make people think twice about buying the skins of animals who, as the ad makes clear, were "electrocuted, stomped on, beaten, and skinned alive." 

Photo: Kawai Matthews/AirPhilosphy.com Hair/makeup: Molly Greenwald/www.mollygreenwald.com

"[I]f I can educate one person to how these animals are treated, then I'll do it again," Mayte said on her reality show, VH1's Hollywood Exes, which filmed her PETA shoot. (Mayte is the famous "Hollywood ex" of Prince.) In this behind-the-scenes video, Mayte revealed the childhood experiences that made her want to speak up for animals and why she believes that everyone should adopt homeless animals instead of buying from breeders and pet stores, spay and neuter their animals, go vegetarian, and, of course, refuse to wear real fur. 

Follow Mayte's lead in standing up to the fur industry by joining the thousands of people who have already signed our Pledge to Be Fur-Free, and always speak out about the cruelty of fur.

It took months and several news stories about her plight, but Gracie, the spunky three-legged, earless dog who was rescued by an American soldier in Afghanistan and fostered by PETA staffers, has finally found a home.

After Gracie was featured in The Virginian-Pilot, her story touched the heart of Virginia Beach teacher Beth Hall, whose 13-year-old dog had died a couple of months earlier. Beth sent us an eloquent e-mail listing the many pros her home had to offer ("lots of love and attention," a "3/4-acre fenced backyard," and a "cat companion"). Under "cons," she wrote, "N/A."

Gracie moved into the Hall home on Friday and has already wriggled her way into the hearts of Beth; Beth's 17-year-old son, Andrew; Beth's brother, who acts as Gracie's stay-at-home "uncle"; Beth's mom, who pops in for daily visits; and, of course, Marmalade, Beth's cat, who was adopted from a local animal shelter.

Gracie is safe, but tens of thousands of homeless dogs in animal shelters and at rescue groups are still waiting to be adopted. They don't have the great P.R. that Gracie had—they are simply relying on people to do the right thing by adopting from animal shelters instead of buying from breeders or pet stores. If you have the time and resources, consider adopting an animal!

In what could prove to be a groundbreaking case for the legal rights of animals, New Yorker Elena Zakharova is suing a pet store because of the chronic pain that her dog, Umka, suffers from as a result of hip and knee problems, which she attributes to the dog's puppy mill origins.

While New York has a puppy "lemon law" that allows buyers to return dogs with medical problems, Zakharova refuses to send Umka back to the store as if she were a defective stereo. If the court rules in Zakharova's favor, it could set a precedent under which pet stores would have to pony up, as well they should, to guardians of puppy mill dogs who incur bills associated with medical problems caused by negligence or a deliberate lack of appropriate early care. This could, in turn, squelch puppy mills, which confine dogs to small, filthy wire cages as mere "breeding machines" and allow them to suffer from untreated illnesses and injuries.

We will watch and hope for the best in this important case for "pet shop pups."

The new year is already looking a bit brighter for animals: A PETCO store in Dickson City, Pennsylvania, has announced that it will close permanently on January 1—which is great news for the hamsters, gerbils, mice, fish, and other small animals who suffer and die every day in PETCO's stores and suppliers' facilities.

"Life" for the animals PETCO sells often consists of struggling to survive wild capture or captive breeding in horrific conditions, suffering from untreated injuries and illnesses, and fighting for food in feces-strewn, severely crowded cages. At the massive breeding mills that supply live animals to the pet trade, PETA investigations have revealed sick and dying animals placed in freezers to die, live hamsters placed in a plastic bag and bashed against a table in an attempt to kill them, animals deprived of veterinary care and left to cannibalize their cagemates' corpses, and other horrors.

For the sake of small animals, please say "No" to PETCO and other stores that sell animals.

According to a whistleblower, two bearded dragons languished in the back room of a Chicago-area PetSmart store for six months, apparently suffering from improperly treated eye infections that spread to their jaws and caused their faces to rot away.  

After pressure from PETA, the store's manager finally took the bearded dragons to a veterinarian who put them out of their misery, but untold numbers of other animals are likely languishing in PetSmart stores and its suppliers' warehouses across the country. PETA's undercover investigations have shown time after time that this kind of cruelty is business as usual for PetSmart and its suppliers.

PETA revealed horrors at Rainbow World Exotics, one of PetSmart's main animal suppliers, including throwing live animals into the trash, crude neuter surgeries performed in a dark and filthy room by a layperson, depriving animals of desperately needed veterinary care, and leaving them to cannibalize each other, suffer, and die alone in their cages.

At Sun Pet, another PetSmart supplier, an employee—who has since been fired—placed hamsters in a bag and bashed it against a table in an attempt to kill them. Other animals who couldn't be sold were gassed in a crude, filth-encrusted tank.   

Animals at the now-defunct U.S. Global Exotics, Inc., which supplied exotic animals to PetSmart, were crammed into severely crowded and filthy containers, including soda bottles and milk jugs, litter pans, cattle-feeding troughs, and barren wire cages. Hundreds of animals were denied basic necessities, such as food, water, and veterinary care.

And PETA's undercover investigation of a PetSmart store in Manchester, Connecticut, documented that more than 100 animals—including hamsters, rats, lizards, chinchillas, and birds—were deprived of adequate veterinary care and just left to die slowly, hidden from customers' sight. PetSmart boasted that this store had an "outstanding pet care team" and an "exceptional pet care record." Pathetic.

Please show PetSmart that you haven't forgotten about the animals who suffer unseen. Boycott PetSmart, and tell company officials that you won't set foot in their stores until live animals are no longer part of the inventory.