‘Happy Families Are All Alike’ to Olympian Alex Morgan: They Love Their Dogs!

Soccer Star and Her ‘Adopted and Adored’ Pup Score One for Canines in Sweet New PETA Campaign

For Immediate Release:
March 27, 2018

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

“Happy Families Are All Alike”: That’s the message of Olympic gold medalist and FIFA World Cup champion Alex Morgan‘s new PETA ad campaign, which encourages fans to adopt animals from shelters and give them lots of love, care, and respect—just as the soccer star does for her beloved rescued pup, Blue.

“Blue is part of our family,” begins Morgan in an accompanying video spot. “We’re not owners—if anything, he owns us. He owns our heart.” She goes on to describe why she wanted to adopt a dog, not buy one from a breeder or pet shop: “There’s so many animals on the streets and so many animals that aren’t able to live the life that they should be able to live,” she says. “Animals should always be a part of the family, be taken care of, just as any child would be.”

Morgan knows that not every dog is as lucky as Blue: Every year, more than 6 million dogs and cats end up in U.S. animal shelters, and half of them have to be euthanized because there aren’t enough good homes for them all. Countless more end up on the street, where they may starve, freeze, be hit by cars, or endure abuse.

That’s why Morgan and PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—encourage caring people to adopt from local animal shelters and never buy from breeders or pet stores, which only exacerbate the homeless-animal overpopulation crisis.

Morgan is part of a long list of athletes—including her U.S. Women’s National Soccer teammate Christen Press, Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Tim Howard, Amanda Beard, Meagan Duhamel, and Candace Parker—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.