PETA Statement: City of Valley Officials Vote to Let K-9 Sonic Retire with His Family

For Immediate Release:
January 28, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Following letters from PETA and thousands of its members and supporters to City of Valley officials, the City Council voted tonight to let the K-9 Sonic—who languished for months in a kennel while caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare—retire with his original handler. During a previous meeting at which the council voted to draft the resolution, one council member noted that they had received 1,200emails from concerned individuals urging them to do right by Sonic—and declared that “the people have spoken.” Below, please find a statement from PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch:

After enduring the stress and confusion of being torn from everyone and everything he cared about, Sonic will finally be able to live as every dog deserves—in a safe and loving home. The City Council made the right decision in letting Sonic retire, and PETA thanks the many compassionate community members who joined us in calling for Sonic to be reunited with his adoring family.

Sonic and his handler, James Deemer, were together for nearly three years until Deemer retired in the spring of 2024. Deemer wanted to keep Sonic and even offered to cover the associated costs, but the city denied his request. PETA previously sent a letter to City of Valley Mayor Cindy Grove and city council members condemning Grove’s comparison of Sonic—a living, feeling being—to a “lawnmower” and calling on them to retire him and return him to Deemer and the family he spent most of his life with.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.