‘Too Hot for Spot and Tot’: PETA Launches Local Ad Blitz

For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2021

Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382

Austin, Tex. –

Austin ranks seventh among the country’s top 50 hottest cities, so PETA has just launched an ad campaign at local gas stations, warning drivers that leaving dogs and children in hot cars can quickly turn lethal.

“In the time it takes to run a quick errand, a parked car can reach an internal temperature in the triple digits,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is reminding everyone that the safest place for our most vulnerable family members is indoors, where it’s cool.”

Already this summer, seven dogs and five children have died inside hot cars. In the last year, at least 49 animals have died from heat-related causes and another 102 animals were rescued just in time—and since these numbers include only incidents reported in the media, the actual figures are surely far higher.

Anyone who sees a dog or a child in a parked car should take immediate action: Write down the vehicle’s color, make, model, and license plate number and rush to have the store page the owner. If they can’t be found, call 911—and if authorities are unresponsive, do what it takes to save a life. PETA offers an emergency window-breaking hammer for intervening in life or-death situations.

The ads will run until July 11 at the following locations:

Chevron, 9401 US-183
Texaco, 3505 Wells Branch Pkwy.
Valero, 4415 Manchaca Rd.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.