PETA 'Unleashes' First-Ever Webcam at Riverside Dog Park

Group Hopes That Watching Dogs Swim and Play Will Discourage Chaining and Encourage Respect and Regular Exercise

For Immediate Release:
June 23, 2010

Contact:
Danielle Katz 757-622-7382

Norfolk, Va. -- PETA has launched a new webcam that is trained on the group's beautiful Bea Arthur* Dog Park--a 1-acre riverside dog playground featuring two ramps that allow dogs easy access to the Elizabeth River for swimming, a toy cache, a kiddie pool, trees, and flowering shrubs. And the rules at PETA's dog park are for humans--not dogs. No yelling is ever allowed, for example, and all dogs must be spayed or neutered. PETA also reserves the right "to choke, pinch, or shock any visitors who put choke, pinch, or shock collars on their dogs." The park has two play areas, allowing for maintenance and for separation of elderly dogs from more rambunctious ones, and there is a double-gated entrance at each play area for the dogs' safety.

The park--which can become quite a madhouse in the evenings and on weekends--is open to the public and is located at 501 Front St., just minutes from downtown Norfolk and historic Ghent. It is situated near the Brambleton Avenue Bridge and offers a water station and a shaded picnic area, so it's a perfect stop for guardians who walk their dogs along the Elizabeth River Trail.

"Every dog should have access to a place to run, play, swim, and just relax without being told what to do and how," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, author of Let's Have a Dog Party. "Most dogs are happiest when they are left in peace and allowed to be dogs and be with other dogs. Crating or chaining a dog alone for hours on end is one of the cruelest things that anyone can do to such a social, smart animal."

Studies show that chaining dogs makes them hyper-aggressive because it deprives them of the social interaction that they need in order to discriminate between friend and foe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that chained dogs are nearly three times as likely to attack as dogs who are not kept tethered.

To view the new webcam, please click here.

*The late Bea Arthur was a PETA honorary director for two decades