Celebrities Highlight the Plight of Local Dogs in New PETA Video

Tom Hardy, Casey Affleck, and Others Lend Their Voices to Real-Life Footage of Neglected, Lonely Animals

For Immediate Release:
February 8, 2017

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Actors Tom Hardy, Casey Affleck, Priyanka Chopra, and Edie Falco are among the stars giving voice to local dogs in a new PETA video that encourages people to keep their animal companions indoors. The project features real-life footage captured near the Sam Simon Center, PETA’s headquarters in southeastern Virginia, where the group’s fieldworkers serve as a 24/7 resource for animals in need by providing them with free shelter, straw bedding, food, water, veterinary care, and other necessities.

The video—which also features the voices of TV host Bill Maher, rapper D.R.A.M., Latina superstar Kate del Castillo, and reality star Courtney Stodden—begins with a shot of a chained dog sitting alone in the snow in Hampton Roads, as Hardy asks, “When you first got me, did you know that you were going to chain me up and leave me outside? Even in the cold and snow?”

It goes on to show footage of other shivering, hungry, and sad area dogs. As one of them stands helpless to escape from a large puddle, Manchester by the Sea star Affleck adds, “Did you know that you would leave me to fend for myself, even when it was pouring down rain and I had no way of keeping dry?” At the video’s end, Hardy asks, “If you did, then why did you get me at all?” before this message appears: “Treat dogs like family. Keep them inside.”

Every year, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—receives thousands of complaints about people who leave dogs outside in the cold. Dogs and other animals can suffer from frostbite and exposure, and they can become dehydrated when water sources freeze. PETA encourages families to keep their dogs indoors during the winter and all year long.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.