Chris Harris Jr.’s ‘Cold Dog Challenge’ Hits Denver Airwaves

Broncos Cornerback’s PETA Video Says to Keep Dogs Indoors

For Immediate Release:
January 23, 2017

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

With Denver temperatures expected to drop into the teens this week, Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. has teamed up with PETA for a TV spot, which will air during CBS4’s nightly news broadcasts. In the commercial, available here, a shivering Harris battles the cold to experience for a few hours what lonely “backyard dogs” endure in the winter cold—and demonstrate why all dogs belong indoors with the rest of the family.

The PETA spot will appear on KCNC-TV Monday through Friday between 6 and 7 p.m. and on Sunday evening during AutoNation All Access.

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

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 is part of 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.