‘No One Belongs in a Crate’: Compassion for Kids and Dogs Is the Rule

Good Guardians Don’t Lock Up Children or Dogs, Says PETA

For Immediate Release:
March 31, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

On the heels of the arrest of a Chelsea couple who were charged with locking a 4-year-old boy in a wire dog kennel for as long as 14 hours a day, PETA plans to erect a billboard in nearby Tulsa that shows a crated dog and reads, “No One Belongs in a Crate. Imagine How You’d Feel.” PETA’s point is that just as keeping children caged can cause distress and long-lasting psychological harm, keeping dogs boxed up in cages because it’s convenient (for humans) deprives dogs of the opportunity to satisfy their basic needs to move about, explore, and feel at home.

“Just as you should never cage your child, you shouldn’t cage your dog, as they both have feelings and need protection,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “Dogs—like children—are highly social beings who need love, attention, exercise, and social interaction in order to mature normally, and forcing dogs to spend long hours in a crate deprives them of these basic necessities.”

Long-term confinement is detrimental to an animal’s physical and psychological well-being. Animals caged for extended periods can develop eating disorders and anti-social—even aggressive—behavior. And since puppies don’t develop full bladder control until they’re approximately 6 months old, crate training doesn’t speed up the housetraining process because puppies are physically incapable of “holding it” and will eventually urinate in their crates. Puppies who repeatedly soil their crates often lose the urge to keep them clean, which actually prolongs the housetraining process.

PETA supports humane, interactive dog training that teaches guardians positive ways to communicate with their animal companions. Committed caretakers who complete training and continue to work with their dogs have no reason to cage their well-behaved companions while they’re out of the house. And for absences longer than a few hours, they can hire a dog walker, leave the dog with someone who is at home, take the pooch to doggie day care, or install a “doggie door.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.