Video: The Wish of a Lonely ‘Backyard Dog’ for a Home Comes True for Christmas

For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2020

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

As reported by People, a sweet dog named Bean spent the first three years of his life locked inside a small outdoor pen filled with trash, with a rotting doghouse as his only shelter until PETA replaced it. The only affection he received came from PETA’s fieldworkers, who visited him as much as they could, giving him water, food, companionship, and his first toy. But as a PETA video newly released today shows, everything changed when Bean’s owner finally agreed to let PETA find him a new home—and this year, for the first time, he’s celebrating Christmas indoors with a family who loves him.

A recent University of Leeds study shows that watching “cute” videos of animals can lower stress and anxiety!

“Bean’s first joyful Christmas is a reminder that the holidays aren’t about gifts under the tree but rather the difference that we can make for the most vulnerable among us,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA hopes that this happy story will warm people’s hearts and inspire them to look out for neglected ‘backyard dogs’ during this tough winter and beyond.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that companion animals should always live indoors. “Backyard dogs” and “outdoor cats”—like those featured in Breaking the Chain, the new documentary produced by Oscar winner Anjelica Huston—often go without adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care, and they’re no better equipped to survive freezing temperatures than humans are.

More information about PETA’s work to help dogs and cats is available here, and more photos of Bean are available on PETA’s blog.