With recent revelations about Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s reconsideration of Arkansas’ re-homing laws—which currently do not prohibit adopting children and then giving them to other Arkansas residents—PETA has pulled its pending requests with outdoor advertisers to run a billboard in Little Rock that shows a woman hugging a dog next to the words “Adoption Is Forever. Open Your Home Today.”
“Millions of wonderful dogs and cats end up in animal shelters every year, waiting for the right person to come along and take them home,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “We will pull the ad for now, but PETA still vigorously encourages anyone with the time and resources to care for an animal to save a life by adopting a dog or cat from an animal shelter.”
Six to 8 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters every year in the U.S., and roughly half of them must be euthanized simply because there aren’t enough good homes. Unwanted dogs and cats who never make it to an animal shelter are often abandoned and must fend for themselves on the streets, where they are often subjected to cruelty and suffer from starvation, disease, or injuries. The solution is simple: spaying and neutering and never buying from a breeder or pet store, which only exacerbates the homeless animal overpopulation crisis.
