Photos: PETA Is Still Helping Animals Despite COVID-19

For Immediate Release:
March 24, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

If ever there was an essential service provider, PETA’s field team is it! Our fieldworkers aren’t letting COVID-19 stop them from helping animals—so they’re taking every precaution recommended by health authorities (including practicing social distancing, wearing gloves, frequently washing their hands, and disinfecting surfaces often) while giving animals the attention and care they desperately need.

“Animals aren’t exempt from times of crisis,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “As long as there are dogs and cats and other animals in our community who depend on us for basic necessities of life, such as food, water, shelter, and urgent veterinary care, PETA will do all it can to help them.”

Here are photos of a few of the animals PETA has helped in the last two weeks:

We transported Princessa to and from her free spay appointment on PETA’s mobile clinic.

PETA replaced Boss‘ dilapidated shelter with a sturdy wooden doghouse.

Missy was suffering from end-stage liver failure. She was emaciated, jaundiced, vomiting blood, severely dehydrated, barely able to lift her head, and struggling to breathe. Her elderly owner had reached out to several veterinarians and animal shelters but couldn’t find help because of COVID-19 shutdowns—until someone referred her to PETA, which was able to give Missy a peaceful release.

PETA found Mary Puppins tied to an overturned garbage can in rural North Carolina. Her owner agreed to let PETA take her, and she was transferred to its local placement partner, the Virginia Beach SPCA, where she awaits a loving home.

PETA offers the following tips for keeping animal companions safe during the COVID-19 outbreak:

• Never put face masks on animals, as they can cause breathing difficulties.
• Allow animals to move about your home normally—don’t cage or crate them.
• People who are sick or under medical attention for COVID-19 should avoid close contact with animals and have another member of their household care for animals so as not to get the virus on their fur. The coronavirus can be left on animals’ fur, just as it can remain on a doorknob, a handrail, another human hand, or any other surface that an infected person has touched.
• Don’t stockpile unnecessarily—as this could result in shortages for others—but do plan ahead and ensure that you have adequate food and medicine, if needed, for your animal companions (approximately two to three weeks’ worth).
• Assist neighbors who may not be able to shop for their animal companions and donate companion-animal food to food banks.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. More details about PETA’s work in the field can be found here.