This one's a beauty. Vanessa Carlton, whose latest album, Heroes and Thieves, has been making critics go all gooey for a few months now, is the star of a new PETA ad to help prevent animal overpopulation as part of our Animal Birth Control Campaign. Check it:

And just so you can have it playing in your head for the rest of the week, here's A Thousand Miles.

Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest is the star of a new PSA for PETA urging basketball fans to "have the balls to spay or neuter your dog." Artest has never been shy about speaking his mind, and, in addition to bringing him a fair share of headlines throughout his career, this trait has shown itself off the court through community involvement, charity work, and a willingness to speak up for those less fortunate than himself. This is what he had to say about his new ad for PETA.

The mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, which I was talking up this week on the blog, passed today at the Van Nuys City Council meeting with a 10-1 vote! There is still one more vote to take place next week which will finalize it, but the decision will be made based on simple majority. According to my colleagues in LA who were at the meeting, there were hundreds of people in attendance, including Bob Barker who spoke on the importance of spaying and neutering. Boo-ya!

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped push this historic bill into law.

The Los Angeles City Council has just announced that a meeting will be held on Friday morning to discuss a historic ordinance that would require virtually all dogs and cats in Los Angeles to be spayed or neutered. If you happen to live in L.A. and have an urge to whisper sweet words of encouragement into your council member’s ear, you can find his or her phone number at http://www.lacity.org/council.htm. Just let 'em know that you support the spay-neuter ordinance, and you’re hoping they will too. Council members love that sort of thing. You can also attend the meeting to show your support.

If you don’t live in L.A., there’s probably not all that much you can do about this particular bill, but at least you don’t have to deal with the lousy traffic conditions they have in that city. That’s gotta be worth something, right? There’s also tons of information about how you can help cats and dogs in your community right here. And to continue with a theme started earlier this week, here’s a criminally adorable pro spay/neuter spot, starring animated kittens.

With all the constant chatter about 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy announcement, this seemed like an ideal time to air our “Sex Talk” ad, which draws a connection between irresponsible animal guardians who refuse to spay and neuter their pets, and parents who are a bit too blasé about having that awkward chat with their kids about birds, bees, and other such reputedly promiscuous creatures.

The ad will be running in Ms. Spears’ home state of Louisiana this week to remind residents of the Bayou State that animal overpopulation in this country has extended well beyond crisis proportions, and that anyone who cares about their dog or cat should have them spayed or neutered immediately. Fortunately, the ad itself is a lot funnier and less preachy than what I just wrote, so you should check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. You can also read Fox News’ take on the story here. The “Sex Talk” ad, and its companion piece “Buy One, Get One Free” are below—stay tuned for the third installment, which is coming out in a couple of weeks (that’s what’s called a teaser!). Check ‘em out:

Yup, you guessed it: Deflocked!

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To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

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This week, one of my favorite sports events of the year is taking place: Wimbledon, the grand-daddy of professional tennis tournaments. I love it for several reasons: it takes place in England (I am British after all), they play on grass, which is the absolute height of civility if you ask me, and this year marks the first year that the prize money for women and men is equal, which is pretty cool. The main reason I’m so into Wimbledon this year, however, is that they are offering a live webcast, so I can keep up with the action (read: watch Amelie Mauresmo) while I slave away over this blog.

So now that you know that I love Wimbledon—and Amelie Mauresmo—more than is healthy for any man, I guess you know what I’ll be doing this weekend. And one of the high points for me is always the fact that John McEnroe is the commentator. The guy had an amazing career as a player and now brings perfect balance and a nice edge to his coverage of the genteel sport of tennis. It’s just plain fun to listen to the man.

IMGSpeakers/Creative Commons

And in case you haven’t seen it, McEnroe starred in this amazing spay/neuter PSA for us. I think he’s perfect in it.

So yeah, don’t call me on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be watching my girl Amelie kick ass and listening to McEnroe talk about it.

If you've seen Bill Maher's brilliant HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, you'll be familiar with his 'New Rules' segment, in which he lays down a few hilarious regulations for a better America that, if there were any justice in the world, would be codified into law on the spot. We're hoping that's exactly what happens with Maher's latest "New Rule," which is designed to help put a stop to the dumping of more than 800,000 unwanted animals in California animal shelters every year by encouraging the state's residents to support Assembly Bill 1634—the California Healthy Pets Act. As he says in the video,

 

“Unlike the catastrophes in this world we feel powerless to change—hurricanes, al Qaeda, Britney’s hair—you can do something about this. Have the balls to get your pet spayed or neutered.”

 

Check that bad boy out, then, if you live in California, click here for more information on how to contact your Assembly Member about turning this new rule into a state law.

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As you probably know, our country is in the midst of an extreme companion animal overpopulation crisis, and unfortunately, California (where some estimate that nearly a half million dogs and cats are euthanized for lack of good homes annually) is no exception.

Fortunately, a life-saving piece of legislation that would address this crisis—Assembly Bill 1634—has been introduced in the California Assembly, and if it becomes law, AB 1634 would prohibit any person from owning or possessing any unaltered cat or dog over the age of four months, unless that person purchases an intact-animal permit. Violators would be fined, and the money raised from the fines would be used to fund free and low-cost spay and neuter programs.

The cool thing about this legislation is that it would make California a safer place for people and save animal lives. According to one Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, male dogs who are not neutered are almost three times more likely to attack a human being than are those who are sterilized, so this really is a win-win proposition.

If you happen to live in California, please politely urge your assembly member (click on the links for “Find My District” and “Member Directory” on the left side of the page) to support AB 1634. And please forward this information to anyone you know who does live there.

Obviously, the overpopulation of cats and dogs is a serious issue, but for those of you who haven't seen this PSA yet, which was sent to us by a member, it's a blast. Enjoy! And, like, don't forget to spay and neuter your pets.

This video is pretty cute. It's an award-winning PSA that a PETA member gave us to help encourage people to get their pets spayed or neutered. I'm not entirely sure where the narrator's odd accent is from, but I feel like it adds to the overall effect.

On a vaguely related note, when I first got Princess Cuteyface (she just came in through my window one day), the vet told me that she was at least a few months pregnant. This freaked me out because it was already kind of a big step for me to be committing in the first place, and, I don't know, everything was just happening so fast. Fortunately for both of us, it was a false alarm—turns out she's just a very big girl. Plenty of Princess C to go round. Anyway, I have a new vet now.