PETA Billboard Targets ‘Bonehead’ Gov. Abbott for Vetoing Dog Protection Bill
For Immediate Release:
June 24, 2021
Contact:
Tapi Mbundure 202-483-7382
After Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a long-awaited bill that would have prevented dogs from being left chained out in the scorching heat unattended, among providing other assistance—causing #AbbottHatesDogs to trend on Twitter— PETA plans to call him out with a billboard placed in major Texas cities and along the state’s border, where everyone heading into the Lone Star State will get an eyeful.
The bipartisan Safe Outdoor Dogs Act would have offered vital minimum protections for “backyard dogs,” including requiring that they have water and access to shade—but Abbott dismissed these life-and-death issues as “micro-managing.”
“Every summer, PETA gets calls about dogs who have essentially broiled to death on chains because they couldn’t escape the heat and didn’t have a drop of water or an inch of shade” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard will rally kind Texans to push the governor to stop digging a hole for himself and start protecting pups.”
As temperatures rise, “backyard dogs” can experience multisystem organ failure, brain damage, and death within minutes. Just this month, PETA fieldworkers discovered the body of a dog who had died after being left chained up in the hot sun, and similar reports nationwide are rolling in. Last year, more than 31 dogs were reported dead from heat-related causes. (Figures are far likely higher, as most heat-related deaths go unreported.)
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and informs the public about those issues. The group does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.
