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“Get
Neutered—It Didn’t Hurt Clay Aiken,” snips
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in a new PETA ad aimed at the widespread problem of dog and cat overpopulation. The foulmouthed-but lovable-dog puppet is best known as a regular guest on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. In his PETA ad, Triumph wears a “post-surgery” Elizabethan
collar and chomps on his trademark cigar as he takes aim at
the high-ranging American Idol contestant.
Triumph—whose new CD/DVD Come Poop With Me
has just been released—might crack a lot of jokes about
parting with his private parts, but there’s nothing
funny about the consequences of not having cats and dogs spayed
or neutered. Animal shelters are bursting at the seams with
homeless dogs and cats, many of whom must be put to death
because suitable homes cannot be found. Spaying and neutering
saves lives and is the most important thing that companion-animal
guardians can do to help dogs and cats. By preventing animals
from being born and subsequently abandoned or given away to
irresponsible people, spaying and neutering prevents needless
suffering and death.
Furthermore, sterilized dogs and cats are healthier. Neutered
males often make for more compatible companions and cannot
develop testicular cancer, and spayed females have a significantly
lower risk of mammary cancer and no possibility of developing
ovarian cancer.
“Triumph’s big mouth may rub some people the wrong
way, but his message in our new spay/neuter ad is right on
the money,” says PETA Director Daphna Nachminovitch.
“It’s a case where a ‘stitch in time saves
nine’—or 90—unwanted animals from a life
of misery.”
PETA chose to target Clay Aiken because he recently told Rolling Stone, "I think cats are Satan. There's nothing worse to me than a house cat. When I was about 16, I had a kitten and ran over it." PETA deals with dozens of cases of cruelty to cats every week and knows firsthand how damaging statements like this can be-impressionable kids often mimic what their "idols" do. Aiken never responded when PETA wrote to him.
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