Make a Splash for Shelter Pups! PETA Asks for Pro-Adoption Message to be Added to Mount Vernon Dog Fountain

For Immediate Release:
November 22, 2024

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

With animal shelters in Ohio bursting at the seams with homeless dogs, today, ahead of National Mutt Day (Dec 2), PETA sent a letter to Mount Vernon Nazarene University President Dr. Carson D. Castleman with a fetching idea: adding an inscription to the university’s beloved Dog Fountain downtown encouraging visitors to adopt—not shop—for their next canine companion. If school officials agree, PETA has offered to contribute to the cost of adding the lifesaving message—which would read, “Save a dog’s life. Please ADOPT a dog, never buy one.”

“Animal shelters in Ohio and across the country are in crisis, overflowing with wonderful dogs desperate for a chance to be part of a loving family,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is encouraging Mount Vernon Nazarene University to help give every dog their day by inspiring visitors to open their hearts and homes to a canine companion from a local animal shelter.”

PETA notes that with around 70 million homeless dogs and cats in the U.S. at any given time, animal shelters nationwide have been overwhelmed for years—and every time someone buys a puppy from a breeder or a pet store, a dog in a shelter loses a chance at finding a good home. The solution to this crisis is to implement and enforce strict, mandatory spay/neuter laws, ban the sale of animals at pet shops, and always adopt animals, not shop for them.

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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to President Castleman follows.

November 22, 2024

Carson D. Castleman, Ph.D.

President

Mount Vernon Nazarene University

Dear President Castleman:

Greetings from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, including many thousands in Ohio—with a suggestion ahead of National Mutt Day (December 2): Would you please add an inscription or plaque to the South Main Plaza Dog Fountain encouraging visitors to adopt their dogs? This would be a pawsitively terrific way to help address the national (and local) homeless-animal crisis—which costs countless dogs their lives—while also showing support for local animal shelters. Please allow me to elaborate.

As you may know, shelters in Ohio and across the country are overflowing with wonderful dogs (and cats) who have ended up homeless through no fault of their own, many cast out of what they thought would be their permanent homes. Puppy mills, pet stores, and breeders exacerbate this crisis by bringing more animals into a world that’s already bursting at the seams with unwanted ones. Every time someone buys a puppy, another dog loses his or her shot at a family—and the cycle continues with more sales and more sad endings. A positive, educational message at the Dog Fountain could help save dogs’ lives.

The puppy mills that supply most pet stores warehouse mother dogs inside tiny wire cages and decrepit outdoor hutches and breed them repeatedly, until their spent bodies can no longer produce litters. Even if people buy animals from a “reputable breeder,” no breeding these days can be considered responsible given the glaring overpopulation crisis. Those whose hearts are set on a certain breed can still adopt since shelters are full of animals, including “purebreds” of every type, and breed-specific adoption groups abound.

People who breed and sell animals will keep doing so as long as someone is willing to pay for them—but the “price” paid by animals without homes, many of whom struggle on the streets, in alleyways, or on empty lots, is far higher. They pay with their very lives. An adoption message near or inscribed on your lovely fountain would offer the ultimutt opportunity to encourage visitors to provide a loving home to a companion animal in a shelter who deserves a chance at a new life. PETA would happily contribute to the cost of adding this lifesaving message. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk

President