Meet Some of the Freezing-Cold Animals PETA’s Field Team Has Helped

For Immediate Release:
January 30, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

With the windchill factor frequently below freezing, PETA’s rescue team is working around the clock from the group’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, the Sam Simon Center, to help animals in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina survive the winter. This includes providing “outdoor dogs” who have no other way to escape the cold and bitter wind with sturdy doghouses and straw bedding. Neither is a substitute for a real home in which dogs can share the sofa, but both make a world of difference—sometimes of life or death—to them.

When temperatures fall, stakes rise. Below are just a few of the stories of animals the team has helped this winter (and Crystal and Ping Pong are available for visits, so please let us know if you’d like to meet them):

• PETA fieldworkers discovered Crystal in a North Carolina trailer park. She was suffering from a massive, infected wound caused by a too-small collar that had become embedded in her neck. They rushed her to an emergency veterinary clinic, where she was hospitalized overnight. The vet estimated that the collar had become embedded in 70 percent of her neck circumference—and she’d been living on borrowed time, as it would only have become tighter as she grew. Now, two surgeries later, she’s playing with toys at PETA’s shelter, sitting on laps, and learning to be a carefree puppy at last.
• Leonard was hit by a car days before his owner finally contacted PETA. We rushed him to the hospital, where he was found to have a badly broken leg that needed to be amputated. Thanks to several PETA donors who funded his surgery, he’s now recuperating in foster care, and his indomitable spirit and zest for life are apparent.
• A PETA fieldworker spotted little Ping Pong tied up outside amid garbage bins, piles of aluminum cans, and an old car in subfreezing temperatures—with no shelter whatsoever. Learning that the rural North Carolina property he was on had been abandoned, PETA enlisted the sheriff’s department to seize him. We were given custody of the pup after the hold period and are now caring for this playful young pug mix while we find him the loving home that he deserves.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in way”—cautions everyone to keep their animals safe and warm indoors and never chain them or let them roam unattended outside.

More details about PETA’s work in the field can be found here.