Dylan McDermott and His Adopted Mutt Otis Have a Howling Good Time in New PETA Campaign

For Immediate Release:
March 17, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

He is a Golden Globe winner, Emmy nominee, and star of the hit drama series FBI: Most Wanted who’s known for his serious roles on television—but in a new PETA campaign, Dylan McDermott is showing his soft (and silly!) side as he joins his rescued canine pal, Otis, in urging people to always adopt animals from shelters and never buy them from pet shops or breeders. In an accompanying video spot—which is guaranteed to be the feel-good footage you didn’t know you needed—the actor howls along with his beloved companion and shares the story of going to a shelter to adopt Otis, who was badly injured after being hit by a car, on what McDermott calls “the greatest day of my life.”

McDermott’s plea comes as the nation’s homeless animal crisis has worsened due to people abandoning animals they hastily acquired during the COVID-19 lockdown and, more recently, by the devastating wildfires that tore through Los Angeles.

Credit: PETA

“When I saw him, I was floored. I sat in my car actually in the parking lot and I was just like, ‘I can’t, I can’t leave this guy,’” McDermott says in the video. “There’s just too many dogs out there, too many animals in general who need a home, and you don’t have to go buy one. Please just go out and get, you know, like Otis, a street dog, and they’ll love you forever.”

With around 70 million homeless dogs and cats in the U.S. at any given time, animal shelters across the country have been overrun for years. Some shelters with misguided “no-kill” policies are warehousing dogs for months or even years and turning away animals, leaving the most vulnerable ones with nowhere to go—and those who reproduce make the companion animal overpopulation crisis worse. That’s why PETA urges shelters to accept all animals in need, advises guardians to have their animal companions spayed or neutered, and asks everyone to adopt animals instead of buying them from breeders or pet stores.

McDermott joins a long list of celebrities—including Kathy Griffin, John 5, Lisa Ann Walter, Ron Perlman, Tom Hardy, John Stamos, Ryan Eggold, Theo Rossi, and Cristin Milioti—who have teamed up with PETA to promote adoption.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.