Last Chance for Animals and Cesar Millan are teaming up for a puppy mill expose tonight the National Geographic Channel tonight. Cesar goes undercover with Last Chance for Animals’ Special Investigation Unit to witness the horrors of puppy mills firsthand and works to rehabilitate these dogs who have never known the world outside their overcrowded cages. Cesar also works with the LCA team how to rehabilitate the traumatized dogs from the moment they are rescued out of their cages. I used to watch The Dog Whisperer religiously, but after a season or two, the stories got a bit repetitive. This is a nice change of pace and hopefully the high profile show will change the mind of a few potential new dog owners. The show airs tonight at 9pm ET/PT.

ABC News program Nightline is having a special in-depth report tonight where they go undercover inside a chimpanzee research facility with an investigator for The Humane Society of the United States. For nine months they investigated the wretched existence of chimpanzees and other primates who are warehoused or used for research in laboratories at a cost of millions to taxpayers. The subject is very timely with all the news talking about interstate commerce of primates dominating congress and the news. You can check out a preview of tonight’s episode here or tune in at 11:35 PM tonight to see the full story.

PETA’s new rejected Super Bowl ad is causing quite a stir on various blogs but I was surprised when I navigated to CNN.com this morning and saw that “Vegetable Ad Too Hot For TV” was one of the top items on their “Latest News” section. Despite what you think about PETA or their exploitation of women (or men), they are by far the best at getting big time media coverage for animal rights. The CNN link takes you to a short video clip of their anchor Christi Paul fielding reactions from the “general public.” It’s worth watching the video to see how shocked (shocked!) and insulted people are about the video, never mind that two years ago they had Paris Hilton washing down a Bentley for Hardees or the girl from GoDaddy.com busting out of her top that got rave reviews. Well, I’m insulted that the “general public” thinks “exploitate” is an actual word. Maybe if they were having better sex they wouldn’t be so easily irritated. You can see the CNN video here or the original PETA ad here.

I caught last night’s new episode of the American version of The Office and at the end Michael buys a fur coat from Burlington Coat factory and ends up with his coat covered in red paint. A funny nod to activists on a great show. You can watch the episode here. The fur part starts at 20:25.

I finally had a chance to watch the Kitchen Nightmares episode from last week which I had saved on Tivo. Gordon Ramsey visits local Los Angeles vegan-friendly dining establishment Sante La Brea and gives it a make-over. It seemed a little overly dramatic, but when isn’t when Gordon Ramsey is involved. The fact that the restaurant had an “A” rating before he got there is a pretty good indication that they were on the right track already. We’ve been to Sante La Brea since this was shot for Vegan Drinks and everyone who had dinner there said the food was fantastic. The Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie we had for dessert was excellent and this show was a reminder that we really need to go back there for a full meal. You can catch the whole episode streaming on Hulu.

Oprah will be having Lisa Ling on tomorrow to give her report on factory farms. Her report on puppy mills was very effective and any publicity on this topic (combined with a big push for Prop 2) is a good thing. You can view the trailer here. Nice to see mainstream media getting behind these causes. Set your Tivos:

Lisa Ling Reports: How We Treat the Animals We Eat
Have you ever wondered what “cage-free” or “range-free” really means? Lisa Ling gets a rare look inside some of America’s farms. Where does our food come from? (PG)

Tune in on 10/14 to watch this show

Thanks to vegan.com for the heads up.