Video: Rescued Senior Dog Celebrates Retirement at the Beach After Years in Chains
For Immediate Release:
December 4, 2024
Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382
For he’s a jolly good boy! A heartwarming new PETA video released today shows a very special retirement party for a rescued senior dog named Rusty—complete with decorations, pupcakes, and fond farewells—before he heads off on an epic road trip to his retirement home with an adoptive family in beautiful West Palm Beach.
As the video reveals, Rusty’s retirement was hard won: For almost ten years, PETA fieldworkers—including the video’s narrator, Chris Klug—visited Rusty, who was kept tethered 24/7 in a tiny dirt pen in North Carolina to bring him food, toys, and insulating straw during winter months; give him as much comfort and socialization as they could; and work to convince Rusty’s owner to allow PETA to find him an indoor home as a member of the family. Finally, their persistence paid off, and Rusty said goodbye to the tiny patch of dirt forever. After a brief period in foster care—and the joyful retirement party—Rusty’s old friend Chris personally drove him down to Florida to his adopter, Hannah Caldwell, who had fallen in love with Rusty after reading about him on PETA’s website and couldn’t wait to help him spend his golden years romping on the beach and snuggling on the couch.
“It took almost a decade for PETA’s fieldworkers to free Rusty from his constant confinement in a dirt prison cell, but they never gave up on him,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA urges everyone to keep their companion animals indoors with the rest of the family and to lobby elected officials to ban unattended tethering, to help ensure that dogs like Rusty aren’t kept chained outdoors like an old bicycle.”
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 the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
