It's National Veggie Dog Day! This means that vegetarians across our great nation are pulling out the charcoal and gathering their friends for a summer feast that they won't soon forget. In honor of this year's "holiday," we assembled several of our nation's finest ladies, including Playboy Playmate of the Year—and stunning vegetarian—Jayde Nicole, on Capitol Hill.

Wearing only a lettuce bikini and her 1,000-watt smile, Jayde helped us get our healthy, humane, and tasty veggie dogs to our nation's finest congressmembers. While serving up the "dogs" to politicians and passersby, Jayde reminded each person that "the best way to safeguard your health, reduce your carbon footprint, save animals' lives, and look your very best is to go vegetarian."

For those of you who can't get enough of Jayde, there are more photos of her after the jump.

Posted by Christine Doré

PETA's bikinied beauties are on a mission to help residents of the fattest cities in America shed some weight. First stop: San Jose.

What better way to encourage locals to adopt a vegetarian diet than to give them a sampling of delicious, nutritious vegetarian cuisine? Though our beauties may be decked out in nothing but lettuce leaves, vegetarian means more than just salad. So, behold! The veggie hot dog:

Phew, talk about putting the "hot" in hot dog.

One veggie-dog virgin was so impressed with the taste that he double-checked with our Lettuce Ladies to make sure that his meal was meat-free.

Whether they were served up plain or with all the fixin's, our veggie hot dogs proved irresistible to passersby. San Jose locals scarfed down more than 400 of them!

Meat consumption has been directly linked to obesity, but adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters. If that isn't enough to make even the most die-hard carnivore go vegetarian, maybe knowing that ditching meat will also help fight heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and certain types of cancer will.

Posted by Liz Graffeo

You know what I like best about the summer—besides grilling veggie dogs until they turn black?

Summer concerts!

I'm especially excited this year because The Pretenders are going on tour and PETA has first dibs on their upcoming tour dates.

To find out where you'll have a chance to see PETA pal Chrissie Hynde live and in-person this summer, keep reading—but first:

Check out the awesome, one-of-a-kind PETA T-shirt that Chrissie designed for her summer tour wardrobe.

Here's that sneak peek at a few of The Pretenders' summer dates. Enjoy! And, hey, maybe I'll see you in Central Park this August.

8/10, New York, New York
8/14, Washington, D.C.
8/18, Chicago, Illinois
8/22, Denver, Colorado
8/26, Vancouver, British Columbia
9/3, Los Angeles, California

Posted by Amanda Schinke

Like you, dear reader, PETA is concerned about the sad state of affairs in Washington. Never content to just sit around, though, we're doing our part to get the pork out of politics. And although congressional staffers are used to hearing from folks who have a beef, we arrived without any at all! OK, I'll stop with the puns ...

As those of you who frequent The PETA Files surely remember, every year, PETA heads to Capitol Hill to celebrate National Veggie Dog Day by giving away those meatless treats—along with copies of our "Vegetarian Starter Kit." And if that's not enough to get the attention of those who stalk the corridors of power, there was Playboy Playmate—and PETA member—Lauren Anderson in a lettuce-leaf bikini.

As one might expect, this attracted some attention. Not only did the line stretch around the block, the media showed up in full force as well. (In case anyone wonders why we use tactics like lettuce-leaf bikinis, that's why.)

It wasn't all just food and frivolity, though. We used the occasion to make these Beltway insiders aware of the connection between meat-eating and global warming. As Ms. Anderson put it, "If people thought about the environmental destruction, cruelty to animals, and unsavory-sounding body parts that go into meat hot dogs, they'd be switching to veggie hot dogs faster than you can say 'inconvenient truth.'" Amen! And pass the mustard.

And, yes, we have pictures:

Photo Credit: Stephanie Borrell

Photo Credit: Stephanie Borrell

Posted by Jeff Mackey