PETA Awards Teen Who Raised Thousands of Dollars for Animal Shelters

For Immediate Release:
February 24, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

For providing animal shelters with serious support through the nonprofit group he founded, Leave It for the Pooch, 14-year-old Houston resident Jayson Kimberly has earned a Hero to Animals Award from PETA. Currently, the teen powerhouse is collecting T-shirts from animal rescue organizations to create quilts that will be auctioned off to raise funds for homeless animals.

“Jayson is helping animal shelters stay afloat during tough times with his extraordinary initiative, kindness, and commitment,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “PETA is delighted to recognize him for showing that young people can have the biggest hearts for animals.”

Around 70 million dogs and cats are homeless in the U.S. at any given time. An estimated 10% of them end up in animal shelters, where many must eventually be euthanized for reasons including injury, illness, old age, emotional and psychological damage, and a lack of good homes. That’s why PETA joins Jayson in advocating for adoption and urges guardians to have their animal companions spayed or neutered.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.