Chris Harris Jr. Braves Freezing Temps, Challenges Dog Owners to Experience the Cold

Broncos’ Cornerback Stars in PETA Campaign, Says Take Dogs Indoors

For Immediate Release:
January 13, 2016

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr., wearing only a few thin layers of clothing, subjected himself to freezing outdoor temperatures to make a point for PETA: If you can’t handle the frigid weather, neither can your dogs—take them indoors! In a new video, available here, a shivering Harris battles the cold to experience for a few hours what “backyard dogs” go through chained up outside with no companionship, nothing to do, and nothing to look forward to but the long night ahead. Although Harris was ultimately free to rejoin his family in the house, dogs who are relegated to the yard ache and even die from the cold. That’s why Harris is calling on people across the U.S. to keep their animals indoors and report any instances of cruelty and neglect to law enforcement.

In the video, as Harris returns to his heated home, he’s enthusiastically greeted by his own two dogs. “I would never do this to you,” he says. “There’s nothing to do out here except just be cold and miserable.”

The video also highlights many reported cases of dogs freezing to death after being left outside in 2015 alone, including a dog found frozen solid after being chained to a house in Indiana, a mother dog and 11 puppies who froze in the cold in New York after being denied food for up to 48 hours, and a small dog found abandoned in a Pennsylvania parking lot, frozen to death in a crate.

Denver is just one of the many parts of the country hit with below-freezing temperatures in winter. Every year, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—receives thousands of complaints about people who leave dogs and cats outside in the cold, where they can suffer from frostbite and exposure and become dehydrated when water sources freeze.

Harris joins a long list of athletes—including Tony Gonzalez, Stevie Johnson, Tyrann Mathieu, Metta World Peace, Brandon Flowers, Terrell Suggs, Chris Andersen, Ty Lawson, Lance Briggs, and many others—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.

Broadcast-quality footage is available for download here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.