Video: Jerome Flynn Urges ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans to Stop Buying Huskies
Ahead of Show’s Final Season, ‘Bronn’ Warns That Direwolf Look-Alikes Are Bought on a Whim and Dumped When Novelty Wears Off
For Immediate Release:
April 11, 2019
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Just days before the series finale of Game of Thrones premieres, actor Jerome Flynn—who plays Bronn in the hit TV show—appears in a new PETA campaign urging fans not to buy huskies or any other animals on impulse. In recent years, there’s been a spike in the number of huskies abandoned or handed over to shelters, which experts attribute to increased demand for the breed because of physical similarities to the show’s direwolves.
“While people may have good intentions, acquiring dogs on a whim has dire consequences,” says Flynn. “Animal shelters around the world are reporting a surge in the number of abandoned huskies because the casual acquirer, drawn to the dog’s appearance, failed to take into consideration the amount of time, patience, and money required to care for these animals properly.”
For those who do have the resources to take care of an animal for life, Flynn has one more request: “If you have carefully considered bringing a four-legged companion into your family, you can save a life by adopting a dog—or preferably two so they can keep each other company—from your local animal shelter.”
Every year, more than 6 million dogs and cats end up in animal shelters, and half of them are euthanized simply because there aren’t enough good homes for them. That’s why PETA, like Flynn, encourages would-be guardians to adopt animals rather than buying them from breeders or pet stores, which contribute to the overpopulation crisis.
Since Game of Thrones premiered in 2011, animal rescue centers in the U.K., where much of the show is filmed, have reportedly seen a 420 percent increase in the number of huskies needing new homes. In the U.S., two breed-specific rescue groups in California have seen the number of animals they take in double over the last two years, while officials in Los Angeles reported that the number of huskies or husky mixes at county shelters has more than tripled since 2013.
Flynn, a longtime vegan who previously starred in a PETA U.K. campaign exposing the horrors of the meat industry, is part of a growing list of celebrities—including his Game of Thrones costars Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey as well as Andy Serkis, Jude Law, and Gillian Anderson—who’ve teamed up with PETA and its affiliates to promote kindness to animals.
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.
