City Hall Sidewalks Could Get Free Snow Clean-Up—if City Runs Ad to Help Cold Dogs

PETA Extends Offer to Buffalo, Where There Is No Ban on Chaining Dogs—Even During Record Snowfall

For Immediate Release:
November 21, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown with an offer that the group hopes he won’t refuse: PETA will help the city save money by clearing snow from the sidewalks around City Hall if the mayor grants the group permission to stencil its anti-chaining ad on the sidewalk. The ad shows a sad chained dog and reads, “Chained Dog? A Chilling Tail.”

Despite the city’s cold winters (and heavy snowfall), it has no ban on chaining dogs. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—hopes the ad will inspire city leaders to ban chaining, as authorities in many towns across the U.S. have already done.

“Chained dogs are subjected to everything from freezing temperatures to mind-numbing loneliness to attacks by other animals or cruel people,” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA implores residents to allow their dogs indoors—not just when it snows but year-round.”

Every year, PETA receives thousands of reports of dogs left outdoors in the cold. Like people, dogs can suffer from frostbite and exposure, and they can become dehydrated when water sources freeze. Cold weather spells extra hardship for “backyard dogs,” who often go without adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinary care.

Dogs are often tethered on short ropes or chains and are forced to urinate and defecate in the same area in which they eat and sleep. Deprived of everything that is natural and important to them, chained dogs often go insane from frustration and lack of exercise or socialization.

Chaining dogs is also dangerous to humans. A study co-authored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that chained dogs are nearly three times as likely to attack as dogs who are not tethered.

PETA’s letter to Brown is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.