‘This Sucks!’ Chad Daniels Is Treated Like an ‘Outdoor Cat’ in New PETA Video With Kelsey Cook

For Immediate Release:
July 23, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Fresh off the release of his Netflix special Empty Nester, comedian Chad Daniels stars in a new PETA video with partner and fellow comedian Kelsey Cook that humorously imagines a world in which humans are treated like “outdoor cats”—and reminds viewers that the life-threatening dangers that felines face outside are no laughing matter. In the video, Daniels is shooed outside by Cook and left to fend for himself in the not-so-great outdoors—and he has some harsh words for his irresponsible guardian.

“Do you have any idea how many diseases I can get out here? Hookworms, ringworm, rabies, ticks, toxoplasmosis, pasteurellosis, Campylalalal. I’m gonna catch something I can’t even pronounce!” Daniels says in the video. “Ear mites, Giardia, feline herpesvirus—if I get herpes because of you, I’m gonna be so friggin’ pissed.”

PETA notes that in addition to terrorizing, maiming, and killing billions of birds and other small animals every year in the U.S., cats allowed to roam outdoors are at risk of ingesting poison, contracting fatal diseases, enduring violence and abuse at the hands of cruel people, being attacked by predators, being hit by cars, or falling victim to many other dangers.

“If I live inside, my life expectancy is 12 to 20 years,” Daniels says in the video. “But you leave me out here, I’m not gonna make it to my fifth birthday.”

Toys, climbing structures, scratching posts, and other enrichment items allow cats to enjoy full and stimulating lives indoors. PETA offers a catio-building guide as well as a “cat guardian’s bible” written by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk and available for purchase here.

Daniels and Cook join a long list of comedians—including Marc Maron, Kathy Griffin, Nikki Glaser, Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Amanda Seales, and Bill Maher—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.