Written by PETA
What could be better than a "Hello Kitty" wrap around an itty-bitty Smart fortwo car? How about something just as cute and enormously meaningful?
PETA has asked Smart USA to offer our "Hello Doggy" wrap alongside its own Hello Kitty wrap. That way, caring fortwo owners can help save lives by driving home the point that spaying and neutering dogs and cats helps curb the companion animal overpopulation crisis. Additionally, we've suggested that Smart USA donate all the proceeds from the Hello Doggy wraps—which would be offered in full and half sizes—to spay-and-neuter programs such as PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please" (SNIP) mobile clinics, which perform hundreds of free and low-cost sterilizations every week in Southeastern Virginia.
As it stands, up to 8 million unwanted animals enter our nation's animal shelters every year, and approximately half of them are euthanized simply because there aren't enough good homes. Add to that the countless animals who are abandoned in the streets to starve and suffer from untreated illnesses or injuries from encounters with cars or cruel humans. Still more staggering statistics: Just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 kittens.
The answer to saving so many lives can be quick, simple, and inexpensive (or even free)—and is as obvious as clicking a seatbelt. Please continue to spread the word that spaying and neutering can help save lives. We'll let you know if Smart USA compassionately—and smartly—joins our efforts.
Written by Karin Bennett
Unfortunately, there is no punch line; I am not kidding. The reporter thought this was a fine example of Romney’s “emotion-free crisis management” style, but who knows. Here's what PETA’s president, Ingrid Newkirk said to an enquiring press:
“First, as a charity we can’t and don’t endorse or oppose any candidate for public office, but I can say (and not just as a person who grew up with an Irish Setter!) that any individual who does something like that may have what scientists term the absence of the mirror neuron, i.e., a pin-pointable absence in the brain of the characteristic which allows the individual to feel basic compassion. The implications are frightening. Anyone who suspects that they are not able to feel empathy for others needs to be aware of the existence of this condition. What is also worrying is that Mr. Romney seems to hold the very old fashioned idea that he needs to actively show he is heartless, hence the hunting claims he has made. Not subsistence hunting, but pride in killing defenseless animals for sport, for fun, for show. In the case of the dog on the roof of the car, if this is true, quite remarkably it obviously wasn't for show as only his own children were watching, a lesson in cruelty that was also wrong for them to witness. There was also the obviousness of the situation. Thinking of the wind, the weather, the speed, the vulnerability, the isolation on the roof, it is commonsense that any dog who’s under extreme stress might show that stress by losing control of his bowels: that alone should have been sufficient indication that the dog was, basically, being tortured. If you wouldn’t strap your child to the roof of your car, you have no business doing that to the family dog! I don't know who would find that acceptable. Mr. Romney needs to tell the world he realizes this was not humane. People do stupid things and one day realize it, so better late than never."
Thanks to Ana Marie Cox, founder of Wonkette, now Time.com’s Washington Editor, for noticing the story on Boston.com and jumping on it.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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