‘Please Let Them In!’ Chained Dog’s Death Prompts Plea From PETA

For Immediate Release:
March 18, 2022

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Amid the epidemic of neglected dogs kept chained or penned outdoors 24/7—including Minnie, a young dog PETA fieldworkers found chained and starved to death last month in Bertie County—PETA is hitting the state with sky-high pleas that urge everyone to let dogs live indoors with their human families and never keep them tethered or penned outside. One of the messages comes from Carolina Panthers wide receiver Robby Anderson, who has appeared in an anti-chaining video campaign for PETA. More photos are available here.

“A life of isolation outdoors is no life at all for dogs, who are highly social pack animals and often suffer and die when a chain tangles around them or when they can’t reach food or water,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on animal guardians to welcome their dogs inside with the rest of the family.”

Minnie’s case, which remains under criminal investigation, is not an isolated one. Every year, PETA’s rescue team finds dead or dying dogs, many of whom are trapped in pens and/or still have heavy chains around their necks. Dogs like Minnie often go without adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care, confined to the same few square feet of space day in and day out. Chained dogs have been found tangled in their tethers and suffering from heatstroke and dehydration in the summer and frostbite in the winter.

The billboards are located on I-95, approximately half a mile from the Highway 903 interchange in Halifax County; on I-95, 1 mile north of NC 33 Exit 145 in Rocky Mount; and on the south side of the Highway 70 bypass, 0.6 miles east of Sadisco Road near Clayton. They are in addition to four billboards PETA keeps up year-round in Halifax County to warn motorists about the cruelty of keeping dogs in isolation outside.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—urges anyone who witnesses an animal being neglected to contact local law enforcement immediately. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.