Justina Valentine ‘Battles’ Dog Chaining in New PETA Campaign

Freestyle Rapper Urges Everyone Always to Adopt Dogs, Have Them Spayed or Neutered, and Treat Them Like Family

For Immediate Release:
February 14, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Wild ‘n Out freestyle rapper Justina Valentine appears alongside her true love—adopted dog Esco—in a new PETA campaign that reminds fans never to keep dogs chained up and isolated outdoors and always to bring them indoors and treat them as part of the family.

“I’ve seen dogs in different neighborhoods that I’ve lived in left outside in all different types of weather,” she says in an accompanying video spot. “That’s not right. That’s not the way animals should live. Dogs are pack animals. They want to be with their family. They want to be loved. … Think of what a life of torture that is!”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that animals who are left outdoors in the cold can suffer from frostbite and exposure, become dehydrated when water sources ice over, and die. Last winter, there were at least 32 cold weather–related companion animal deaths—and those are just the ones that were reported. Most aren’t. Year round, dogs become tangled in their chains and die when they’re unable to reach food, water, or shelter—and all dogs left alone on chains or in pens are denied the companionship that’s essential to these highly social pack animals.

As Valentine advises in the video, anyone who sees animals left outside without shelter from the elements should note their location and alert authorities immediately. “[Y]ou could change that dog’s life,” she says. “A little bit of compassion from a person goes a long way.”

Valentine is part of a growing list of celebrities—including Eve, Jhené Aiko, Kid Ink, P!nk, Mýa, TLC’s Chilli, Kesha, Sia, and many others—who have teamed up with PETA to promote kindness to animals.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.