Celebrities can have a big impact on culture and politics. Each year, The Humane Society of the United States presents the prestigious Wyler Award—named after late Broadway legend and HSUS vice president Gretchen Wyler—to a celebrity who has raised awareness of animal issues in the mainstream media.

California’s big factory farming interests are getting desperate. You can tell because their claims smell more like manure each day. The latest is their cynical assertion that cramming animals into cages where they can’t even turn around, lie down, and stretch their limbs is good for farm workers.

I wrote a couple weeks ago about Question 3, the ballot measure to phase out cruel dog racing in Massachusetts. But you don’t have to live in the Bay State in order to have your say. No matter where you live, you can vote now to help decide who will become the official spokesdog for the “Yes” on Question 3 campaign.

This week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected an attempt by racetrack owners to jettison a dog racing measure from the November ballot. That means Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to decide on Question 3, which would phase out dog racing in the Commonwealth.

Animal topics have been in the mainstream press in big doses in recent days. The Boston Globe Magazine on Sunday ran its first-ever pets issue, with a series of articles promoting shelter adoption and volunteerism, looking at expanding veterinary treatments, and exploring a range of other subjects.

I’m writing this blog on a cross-country flight to California, where I will spend the next few days working on the Proposition 2 campaign. Sitting in a middle seat often reminds me of what it’s like for farm animals crammed into gestation crates and battery cages where they can barely move for their entire lives. But the long flights also remind me of what members of Congress endure—especially those from the west coast who travel back and forth between the nation’s capital and their home districts every weekend.