After more than 7,000 e-mails of complaint from our wonderful members and supporters, Verizon has pulled an ad depicting two chained pit bulls who were straining at their chains in a junkyard. They may now realize that the sight of miserable, lonely, aggressive dogs just doesn't help them hawk cell phones.

Pit bulls are by far the most abused of breeds, and this ad certainly didn't help boost their image. Since they're seen as the "tough guy's" breed, they all too often end up neglected and chained outside, left to lie amid their own waste through all weather extremes and without adequate shelter, food, or water. If that wasn't enough, even less fortunate ones end up in the hands of dogfighters.

Many thanks to all who participated in our action alert—your pressure helped get this ridiculous ad pulled. Further proof that it's worth it to ruffle a few feathers!

Posted by Sean Conner

One thing that many of you probably don't know is that many of our dedicated, awesome staffers take time out of their weekends to help "backyard" dogs. During the cold weather season, this committed team delivers straw to cold, needy dogs every weekend—no exceptions. We do this because straw never freezes and is the best way to keep a cold dog warm outside.

While we at PETA obviously would prefer if people never chained their dogs and always let their dogs inside, we acknowledge that this is not a reality in many situations.

It's this amazing commitment and selfless passion from our staff that makes me so proud to work for PETA. For example, check out this story from my good friend Sarah about her recent straw delivery trip:

"A few weeks ago, we were delivering straw in North Carolina and came across this one house that had two male pit bulls chained up outside. Their names were Tyson and Ali, (go figure, right?). Ali was very healthy and pretty buff, and then there was Tyson—I could see from 20 feet away that he was underweight. Tyson was maybe 30 pounds, and he is 3 years old. He was the sweetest dog in the world. The moment we touched him, he knew we weren't there to hurt him and he hugged us. He looked up at us with the saddest eyes, as if they were asking us to save him.

"As I was standing there giving him probably the first loving touch he'd ever had, I noticed that there was blood on my hands. As I looked down, I saw it was all over his neck under his chain collar, which had dug into his neck and was cutting up his skin (probably starting to grow around the collar). We were able to switch the collar. We wanted to give him a longer tie-out, but we couldn't because if he got within Ali's reach, Ali would attack and more than likely kill him.

"We filled both doghouses with straw to keep the dogs warm for the rest of the winter, and as we were leaving, we saw Tyson snuggle in his wonderfully warm doghouse. This is why I spend my free time delivering straw to outside dogs. It makes a world of a difference to them."

To see how you can help chained dogs in your area, please click here.

Love,

Christine <3