Elgin Dog to Receive Award for Saving Family From House Fire

PETA Will Honor Chrome the Dog With Special Gift Basket

For Immediate Release:
May 8, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

A Heroic Dog Award is on its way from PETA to Chrome—the dog who saved his family by alerting them to a fire in their home. He will receive a framed certificate and a special gift basket containing an eco-friendly toy, a comfortable new harness, vegan treats, and a bandana.

Before the Smith family adopted Chrome, others had passed him by for being too “high energy.” But Laura Smith thought he would be the perfect addition to their family. And on March 4, he rescued the family that had rescued him. He woke up Smith in the middle of the night to alert her to a fire—and although the family lost the house and most of their possessions, she and her two sons escaped the blaze. When people asked what they could do to help them recover from the devastating fire, Smith said, “Don’t shop; adopt. There are tons of dogs that need a loving home that will return that love a million times over.”

“By alerting his family members to a potentially deadly fire, this loving dog demonstrated how intelligent and sensitive animals are,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA joins his family in encouraging anyone with the time and resources to care for an animal to adopt one from a shelter.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that adopting a dog saves a life: More than 6 million dogs and cats enter U.S. animal shelters every year, and half of them have to be euthanized because there simply aren’t enough homes for them.

The group has also made a donation to the GoFundMe that has been set up on the Smith family’s behalf.

For more information about PETA, please visit PETA.org.