For Immediate Release:
July 15, 2008

Contact:
Melissa Karpel 757-622-7382

The 30-second spot features a couple who encourage their teenage daughter to become sexually active. When the horrified girl asks, "But what if I get pregnant?", her parents urge her to "pop out all the kids you can." The ad concludes, "Parents shouldn't act this way. Neither should people with dogs and cats. Always spay or neuter."

Hundreds of thousands of unwanted animals are euthanized in New York every year, so PETA believes that it is critical for New Yorkers to spay and neuter their dogs and cats. One unspayed female cat and her offspring, if left unsterilized, can create a whopping 420,000 cats in just seven years, and one unneutered male dog can father limitless litters. Unwanted dogs and cats who never make it to animal shelters are often abandoned to fend for themselves on the streets, where they are often subjected to cruelty and suffer from starvation, diseases, or injuries.

"Like teen pregnancy, companion animal overpopulation is an epidemic with tragic consequences," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "No one should be bringing more animals into the world when millions of animals are dying for lack of good homes."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.