Since 2001, PETA's mobile "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please" (SNIP) clinic has been providing free and low-cost spay-and-neuter surgeries (nearly 45,000!) in Virginia's Hampton Roads area, where PETA is located. Earlier this week, we doubled the size of our lifesaving fleet, rolling out a second animal birth control mobile clinic.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, who was on hand to cut the ribbon during the official unveiling of the clinic, praised PETA's approach to the companion animal overpopulation crisis as intelligent and humane. That's right—we've got smarts!

Check out these pictures of the new lifesaving clinic!

Simon says…we're sorry we couldn't resist the clichéd reference to a certain kids' game.

Ingrid is especially happy because the unveiling was on her birthday. What a wonderful present!

Check out the size of those scissors! They're HUGE! Was Mayor Fraim expecting the clinic to be wrapped in steel? Really, it's a bit much—my toenail clippers could have finished off this ribbon!

Kimora will be stunning people with her beauty wherever the clinic travels.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that a boatload of cats and dogs (4 million) are killed every year in the U.S. because there just aren't homes for these animals. And you also know that when people don't sterilize their animals, that contributes to the problem.

We've all seen the population pyramids: one fertile cat can produce 12 to 18 kittens every year, and one fertile dog can produce 12 to 20 puppies every year (not doing it together, of course). When you do the math, that can translate to more than 11,000 cats and more than 12,000 dogs in five years. The flipside of these overwhelming numbers is that we can stop a lot of suffering just by spaying or neutering one animal. And when we spay or neuter more animals, the savings multiply.

—Grace

Posted by Grace Friedan

I know I was just talking about how cool Simon Cowell is, but he is at it again.

This time he’s got some choice advice for American Idol hopefuls: Be kind to animals. Everyone knows Simon is notoriously harsh when Idol contestants deserve it, but he’s got a big soft spot for animal advocates. Simon opened up on the set of his new PETA ad, which is due out early this summer, saying:

“The people I work with … are all animal lovers. That’s part of the criteria for judging the show, you’ve got to like animals.”

And he applies the same standard to wannabe contestants as well:

“I once had an incident with a guy who auditioned who actually admitted that he likes killing animals. Didn’t go through.”

Considering that Cowell raked in a reported $36 million last year and has been ranked the second-highest-paid person on TV by OK! magazine, it might be wise to heed his suggestion . . .

Unless you live under a rock and watch Antique Road Show on PBS every night, I’m sure you’ve been hearing an awful lot about Simon Cowell lately. American Idol's ratings are higher than ever, and we couldn’t be happier for Simon. So what if he is honest with the out-of-tune wannabe trying to sing "Beat It"? Stick to singing in the shower and open mic nights at your local strip mall coffeehouse, dude . . . I guess you can see where I fall on the whole “Is Simon too mean?” debate.

Anyway, all the hype about Idol and Simon reminded me of the great work he’s done with PETA, so I dug out a couple of the ads he’s shot for us in the past.

Keep telling it like it is Simon!