Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi Get Animal Award

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are being honored for their efforts on behalf of animals.

The couple will receive The Wyler Award, one of The Humane Society of the United States' most prestigious honors. The honor is bestowed to a celebrity or public figure who has made news on behalf of animals, and is named after the late Genesis Awards founder Gretchen Wyler, the Broadway headliner and animal activist.

"Ellen and Portia stand up for their beliefs, and they have had a major impact in spreading the message about animal protection," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States. "They had a particularly significant role in helping to pass Proposition 2, and they helped make the case to the people of California and to the rest of the nation that all animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food."

The Genesis Awards take place on March 28.

Past honorees of this award have included Sir Paul McCartney and Hayden Panettiere.