PETA Billboard Tackles ‘Deadbeat’ Dog Dads

For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2021

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

In time for Father’s Day, PETA is posting a giant billboard on I-77 urging everyone to prevent fatherhood—that is, of dogs and cats. PETA chose North Carolina for the campaign because the state is experiencing a flood of stray animals, “pet” surrenders, and severely crowded shelters.

“Dogs can’t use condoms, so it’s up to us to find other ways to stop litter after litter of puppies from being born only to be homeless,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s ad points out that for every dog who is neutered, countless others won’t be born into a world already bursting at the seams with homeless ones.”

PETA notes that an estimated 70 million dogs and cats are homeless in the U.S. at any given time. Only an estimated 10% of those are taken in by animal shelters, where many must eventually be euthanized for reasons including injury, illness, old age, emotional and psychological damage, and a lack of good homes. The solution is prevention through spaying and neutering—as well as always adopting from animal shelters and never buying animals from breeders or pet stores, which exacerbate the homelessness crisis.

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.

The ad, which faces north, is near the Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course, Revolution Park, Charlotte Jiu-Jitsu Academy, and Irwin Creek Greenway.